A Mine Is A Terrible Thing To Waste Traditional Cache

Sterling Hill Mine is listed on the NJ Register of Historic Places and is a nonprofit organization. This is the only place on earth that you can see high quality fluorescent minerals still in the ground. It is one of the oldest underground mines (opened in 1739) in the U.S. and the last underground mine to close in New Jersey.

A Brief History of the Sterling Hill Mining Museum

The industrial heritage of the northeastern United States has, in many areas, purposely been obliterated-buildings have been torn down, mine sites regraded, and former industrial areas turned into residential subdivisions.  The Sterling Hill zinc mine, which closed in 1986, might well have suffered the same fate, had the site not been purchased in 1989 by the Hauck families.  Long interested in the mining industry, the Hauck families set out to preserve the legacy of Sterling Hill, an irreplaceable piece of New Jersey history, by making the site accessible to the public as a mining museum.  The Sterling Hill Mining Museum opened for tours on August 4, 1990 and is now visited by more than 40,000 people annually.