The co-ordinates for this Earthcache will take you to a rock cut on an old section of Highway 7. The "road" is only about 100 metres long. You can easily pull in about 20 metres and park, then get out and spend as much time as you like at the rock cut without the bother of any traffic or onlookers. Please note that this "road" will not be plowed in winter. Therefore, it is suggested that you attempt this Earthcache in weather conditions that allow you to pull in easily and safely from the busy corner of Highway 7 and Saint Lawrence Street West.
Photos are encouraged but not required. If posting photos, please be careful not to include spoilers (signs with the names of the buildings). All other photos are welcomed !
When you think of SLATE, what comes to mind first might be a school chalkboard, where you learned your spelling lessons or math equations. Perhaps you think first of the slate in the pool table where you played a quick game of billiards during lunch break.
This "Lesson on Slate" is one of geology, history, and mystery.
Background Information:
The following definition of slate is adopted from the Committee on Slate of the American Society for Testing Materials.
SLATE is a rock, not a mineral. Slate is an aggregation of mineral grains comprised of calcite, mica, quartz, volcanic ash, muscovite, hematite, graphite, and other minerals. Slate is often grey, black or bluish-grey. The various colours and shades of slate depend on the presence and amounts of graphite and metallic oxides such as iron and titanium.
Slate was once deposited as clay on the bottom of a lake or sea. As a result of its having been put under horizontal compression by geologic forces, this material now has its particles elongated and flattened so as to yield a very good rock cleavage along the flat surfaces of the minerals.
In the chemical metamorphosis of slate from shale or clay, new and essentially plane-shaped minerals belonging to the mica groups were developed. Other minerals were formed but micas generally pre- dominated. Because of the way the crystals are oriented, fractures can be developed easily along their surfaces, much as cards can be separated by inserting a knife blade between them. Slate differs in varying degrees from most other common rocks (such as limestone, sandstone, granite, and "trap") in chemical and mineral composition. Its most characteristic feature, however, is its tendency to fracture along a series of very nearly parallel and very closely spaced smooth planes, called cleavage planes. This property of cleaving, above all else, gives slate its industrial value.
Because slate is both waterproof and fireproof, it was used in buildings, in 20th century switchboards, in relay controls for electric motors, and in electrical insulators. Sinks, patios, tabletops, floors, chalkboards, billiard tables, and whetstones have all been made from slate. In a pulverized state, slate has been used in industrial fillers, paint, linoleum, rubber and soap. The focus of this Earthcache, however is on the most common industrial use of slate: roofing shingles.
The Parliament Buildings
The roof of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, was originally a timber frame structure covered with slate tiles. The initial overall combination of colours of slate tiles—grey Gloucester limestone and grey Nepean, red Potsdam and buff Ohio sandstones, as well as purple and green slate banding—conformed to the style known as structural polychromy. Within only 12 years, the entire roof was stripped of its slate shingles in a tornado that hit Parliament Hill in 1888, since then the roof has been clad in copper supported by steel framing.
Madoc Shingles
Madoc has several Second Empire homes (1860's - 1880's) or Queen Anne Style homes (1880's - 1920) with original slate roofs. Where did that slate come from? Where were the shingles cut? Who sold the shingles? Historical records are not very detailed.
The 1902 "Report of the Bureau of Mines" documents pages and pages of detailed information about mines all over Ontario, but when it comes to slate, the document has only one sentence on page 204 of 309. The one sentence reads, "A slate quarry was opened some years ago not far distant from Madoc village."
Information from the Ontario Department of Mines is just as brief. "Slate has not been produced commercially in Ontario since 1939 when there was some slate quarried near Madoc."
The Ministry of Northern Development and Mines gives us a little more detail stating that there are dark grey slate outcrops in the roadcut south of the Stoklosar mill. One hundred yards east of the highway, just south of the crossroad is an abandoned slate quarry.
Aha ! Now we are getting somewhere. The Stoklosar Mill is the location of the Upper Canada Minerals Company at N 44° 31.563 W 077° 29.211 - perhaps there is an old abandoned slate quarry there?
If so, why was it abandonned?
Hours of riffling through old books and documents gives us a little insight. One old report states that, although there is a band of slate exposed over a large area of the Madoc township, and the cleavage planes are relatively smooth, they are "obtained with some difficulty. Hearthstones, planed slabs, and shelving can be readily obtained, but operations at this quarry were suspended due to want of proper machinery."
Another report from 1890 states that, "the Madoc quarry was opened in the latter part of August, 1887. ... there is a slate, which in some places is tipped up 30 or 40 degrees; in other places it is nearly horizontal. It would be good for roofing, but that it splits a little too thick." (The Report of the Royal Commission on the Mineral Resources of Ontario and Measures for Their Development, 1890).
A report from the Geological Survey of Madoc Township and the North Part of Huntingdon Township from 1940, describes the total amount of money that the slate quarry produced: a grand sum of $8,056 from 938 tons during the years 1934-1939. They describe a band of slate several hundred feet wide forming a synclinal fold exposing a 15 foot face of dark grey slate interbedded with slaty conglomerate beds up to 3 feet thick.
The mining companies in Madoc were Ontario Slate Mines Ltd. and its successor, Canadian Slate Products Ltd. and there is very little historical data for either company. One report stated that the company did produce shingles and must have been a thriving business because there is a record for an order of 1,000 tons of slate to be shipped to the Canadian Gypsum Company of Toronto.
Apparently there was a second slate quarry in Madoc... somewhere... called Crespey Slate Products which survived one year, 1936-1937. We know nothing about this slate company, where it was, or how much slate was quarried.
The History / The Mystery
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Did these slate companies cut the slate for the roofs we see in this area?
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Did they quarry the slate and then ship it by train to Belleville or Toronto to be cut into shingles?
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Did the houses in Madoc obtain slate shingles from another location altogether?
Perhaps if Russ Noble was still alive, he could tell us something about the slate production in Madoc. On November 3, 2004, the Seattle Times Obituary column reported the passing of Leonard Russell Noble, at the age of 89. He was born in 1915, into a family of eight children, in Picton, Ontario. Sometime between 1930-1935, he spent one winter working in a slate quarry in Madoc, Ontario, "swinging an 8-pound sledge hammer all day for $12.50 a week."
Other optional waypoints:
Second Empire House on Hwy 62 N 44° 30.131 W 077° 28.357
Sander's House, circa 1883 @ 150 St. Lawrence Street East N 44° 30.380 W 077° 28.169 (the CO met the owners and had tea inside while doing research for this Earthcache)
Blair House, circa 1860, @ 951 Cooper Road (north of Madoc)
Dale Mansion, circa 1900, address unknown, but it is in Madoc village
RESOURCES
http://www.uppercanadastone.com/index.html
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/GB03/GB03.pdf91
http://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/MCHPL/MCHPL0017082180037pf.pdf
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/IMR014/IMR014.pdf
https://archive.org/stream/annualreport190200onta#page/n1/mode/2up
http://www.trentu.ca/geography/documents/PTKChapter11.pdf
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/GB03/GB03.pdf
There is a fully operational large slate quarry located Saint-Marc-du-Lac-Long in the province of Quebec, Canada, that is producing slate of very high quality. Glendyne Inc. http://www.glendyne.com/en/accueil.htm
Congratulations to MMMCacher for the FTF very early on International Earthcache Day, 2014, also Thanksgiving Sunday !!
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