Quadricentennial Challenge
Catskills Live! Trails & Wilderness Association
issues a challenge to all — venture forth and seek all 15
Quadricentennial Challenge geocaches. Go to many great places
throughout Ulster County — visit the shores of the Hudson,
feel the cool air in an historic cement mine, enjoy our small
parks, ride on our rail trails, summit two Catskill peaks, and
savor the breath-taking view from Gertrude's Nose in Minnewaska
State Park Preserve. Bask in our county's treasures with family and
friends, exercise your body, and build lasting memories. Over 100
specially minted commemorative Quadricentennial geocoins were
released from 15 Challenge geocaches set up in 2009 in celebration
of the 400th anniversary of the exploration of New York State by
Henry Hudson. Congratulations to Joe The Mailman, the first person
to complete all 15 caches! Funding for the Challenge was provided
by Ulster County and the Hudson River Valley
Greenway.
Historic Cement Mines and Mining
With Henry Hudson's opening of what is now New York State to
commercial ventures, one of the major industries that developed was
that of cement manufacture. Early entrepreneurs hired laborers to
mine Upper Silurian Rondout Formation dolostones and fossiliferous
limestones from the earth. This rock unit is largely comprised of
the shells of calcareous organisms that lived in a shallow,
warm-water, ocean some 400 million years ago. This Rosendale
bedrock came to be recognized as the highest quality natural cement
in North America. It was known as an hydraulic cement because it
hardened well under water.
The cement industry was founded in 1819 in central New York, but
soon shifted to the Rosendale-Kingston region in 1827, where it
flourished for over 150 years. During much of that time, the region
was known as the "Cement Capitol" of the world. Natural cement
production peaked in 1899 with an estimated annual production of
almost ten million barrels of cement. Records of the Century House
Historical Society document that the Century Cement Plant in
Rosendale was the last cement works to manufacture natural cement
in North America.
The
Rosendale region maintained its competitive edge because of its
ready market transportation access via the Delaware and Hudson
Canal, the Rondout Creek, and the Hudson River. The natural cement
was used in many well-known landmarks, including the U.S. Capitol
building, the Brooklyn Bridge, the pedestal of the Statue of
Liberty, the Washington Monument, and the Delaware and Hudson
Canal. Production of the natural cement required a labor-intensive
refining process involving firing in kilns, cracking, and grinding
prior to packaging in cement powder-filled 300-pound wooden
barrels.
Miners excavated two narrow (10 to 26 foot thick) members of
the Rondout Formation, faithfully following them along complexly
folded and faulted bedrock layers — often deeply below the
water table. Today we see the results of their efforts in mines
that are nearly level, at shallow and steep angles, vertical, and
even stacked one on top of another.
As
they removed the bedrock using sledgehammers, star drills, black
powder, and much later pneumatic drills, they would essentially
create large rooms. For safety, they left large pillars to support
the overlying bedrock ceiling or adjacent wall rock. Thus, these
mines are referred to as room-and-pillar mines.
The
accompanying map depicts a local room-and-pillar mine with its
numerous support columns.
Once
groundwater was encountered, pumps were run around the clock to
allow mining to continue. Interestingly, trained expert cave divers
have penetrated to depths greater than 300 feet in a
vertically-bedded Kingston cement mine — a depth far below
the level of the Hudson River. Divers observed old company offices
and artifacts deep underwater, standing in quiet testimony of
bygone glory days.
Since then, mines have been used for mushroom and trout
farms, bomb shelters, records storage, water supply, and at the
Widow Jane Mine - for special events. Today, water-filled portions
of many of these mines represent vast untapped reservoirs.
The Widow Jane Mine
The
Widow Jane Mine on the Snyder Estate in Rosendale, New York is a
shining and safe example of the many room-and-pillar mines present
throughout the Rosendale-Kingston region. It was mined along gently
sloping geologic beds. The underground lake in it is fed by a
combination of a nearby surface stream that sinks into its bed,
groundwater, and water infiltrating through fractures in the
ceiling. It is the only historic cement mine in Ulster County open
to the public.
If
the ghosts of mines past could tell tales, they would whisper of
hardworking men toiling day after day to feed their families. They
would long for the steady hammering of strong men breaking rock.
They would relax now that the unending whine of pumps striving to
keep groundwater from flooding the mines is no more. They would
tell of the challenges of breaking resistant rock by hand and of
the turf battles between different mining companies — of
intentionally broken pumps, of lawsuits, and physical encounters.
On a more subtle note, the ghosts might even reveal their features,
rising out of the underground lake — like the ghost of Widow
Jane caught in this by photograph by Will Faller.
The Century House Historical Society Museum and
Archives
The museum and collections of the Century House Historical
Society at this cache site are dedicated to the industrial history
of the Rosendale natural cement region. They provide a resource
visited and used by scholars worldwide. The Snyder Estate Museum is
open to the public from May to October on Wednesday, Saturday and
Sunday from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm or by appointment (for more
information, see http://www.centuryhouse.org/). During your visit,
be sure to view the special Hudson-Fulton Exhibit and the 1909
Tricentennial commemorative coin in the museum.
The Cache, Site Access and the Widow Jane
Mine
Access to the cache is through the lovely, groomed, Snyder
Estate off Route 213 in Rosendale, New York. Proceed past the
Museum House, alongside a pond, and up to the Widow Jane Mine. The
cache is a 2-liter cylindrical poly bottle hidden outside the mine
where access does not require damaging vegetation. The cache is
filled with kid-friendly items and, initially, three NYS
Quadricentennial Challenge geocoins designed to travel throughout
the world. This geocache was approved by The Century House
Historical Society.
This geocache is available throughout the week from dawn to
dusk.
After finding the geocache, be sure to take a look inside the Widow
Jane Mine. While the entry area is safe and is easily seen with
natural lighting, be sure to bring a flashlight if you wish to look
more closely at the mine, its pillars, and the underground lake.
Please respect this private property, thus keeping it open for
others. Thank you.
Should you see Gayle Grunwald of the Century House Historical
Society, be sure to say thank you for making the Snyder Estate
property, the Widow Jane Mine, and the nature trail available for
visitation.
Parking
An unpaved parking area is located near the Century House
Historical Society Museum at the coordinates listed below. Please
do not drive any further than this parking lot. From the parking
area, proceed along established mown pathways toward the cache
coordinates listed. No bushwhacking is required.
Please Cache In and Trash Out!