The Lenox Lead Mine: A Lost “Dana Locality”
© 2012 Peter Cristofono, 16 Howard St., Salem MA 01970
Adapted from BMC News, vol 76, issue 6, June 2012

Introduction

The location of an historic nineteenth–century “Dana locality” for pyromorphite, the Lenox lead mine, is a mineralogical mystery. Not only is the lead mine itself lost, but the location of “Lenox” is unknown. The entries for pyromorphite in 19th century editions of Dana’s System of Mineralogy, and even in early 20th century editions of Dana’s Textbook of Mineralogy, mention a handful of notable American localities including one for Lenox, Maine. There is no town by that name in Maine. However, 19th century editions of Dana’s Manual of Mineralogy place Lenox in New York, instead. Beck’s Mineralogy of New York locates the Lenox mine in yet another state - Massachusetts.

Early Northeast U.S. Pyromorphite Localities

The following seven pyromorphite localities in the northeastern United States are mentioned in books and journals published between 1810 and 1959: Perkiomen and Phoenixville mines in Pennsylvania; Southampton, Massachusetts; Sing Sing (Ossining), New York; Bristol, Connecticut; Lubec, Maine, and Lenox (Maine, New York or Massachusetts). In Table 1, below, these localities are abbreviated as Lenox, Lubec, South, Perk, Phoenix, Sing and Bristol. The author and date of publication are listed in the first column; in each locality column the state where each author places the locality is entered.

Where’s Lenox?

The first place to look for a clue to the solution of the Lenox mystery would be King and Foord’s monumental work, Mineralogy of Maine, Volume 1 (1994). Here on page 285, we find the following entry:

“As early as 1844, Dana listed pyromorphite from Lenox, Maine, and the listing was perpetuated through subsequent editions of his ‘System.’ There never has been a Lenox, Maine. Beck (1842) attributed pyromorphite to Lenox [sic; = Easthampton/Southampton] Massachusetts in his Mineralogy of New York, along with New York pyromorphite, and could have been the source from which Dana (1844) generated his erroneous pyromorphite listing if the handwritten state abbreviation ‘Ma’ was confused with ‘Me.’ in extracting information for a locality list.”

Did Lenox = Southampton, Massachusetts?

At first glance, King and Foord’s (1994) theory looks promising — but upon closer examination, two problems become apparent. First, it is clear that James Dwight Dana could not have used Lewis Beck’s (1842) book as the source for his Lenox listing in the second edition of the System of Mineralogy (1844) because he had already listed Lenox, Maine, as a pyromorphite locality in the first edition (1837). Second, it was Shepard (1832), not Dana, who first mentioned “Lenox, Maine” as a locality for pyromorphite. (See Table 1)

Could Shepard (rather than Dana) have misread a handwritten abbreviation for Massachusetts, perhaps in a letter or on a specimen label? The abbreviation for Massachusetts was “Mass.” not “Ma.” in the 19th century, though the abbreviation for Maine was “Me.” In any case, Shepard would not have been likely to confuse Lenox, Massachusetts, with Southampton. Charles Upham Shepard (1804–1886), was a lecturer on natural history at Yale during the period 1830–1847. Before that, he had been a student at Amherst College 1821-1824, about 14 miles away from the Southampton mine (Manhan mine; Loudville mine). He was well-aware of this old lead mine, which had existed since about 1678. In fact, Shepard recorded eight different minerals from the mine in the first edition of his Treatise on Mineralogy (1832) — “corneous lead” (phosgenite), “fluor” (fluorite), yellow copper pyrites (chalcopyrite), galena, “heavy spar” (barite), “white lead ore” (cerussite), calcareous spar (calcite), and anglesite. In the same edition of the Treatise he lists “the lead mine in Lenox, (Maine)” as a locality for pyromorphite, while listing “Lenox, (Mass.)” as a locality for limonite. It is noteworthy that Shepard does not list pyromorphite from Southampton, even though Cleaveland (1816, 1822), Hitchcock (1822) and Comstock (1827) had done so. Pyromorphite does indeed occur at the Southampton (Manhan) mine where it is easily found even today, so why didn’t Shepard note it?

Did Lenox = Lenox, Massachusetts?

Like Shepard, Beck (1842) was quite familiar with the Southampton lead mine and wouldn’t have located that mine in Lenox, Massachusetts, about 29 miles (47 km) away. In fact, he lists the Southampton mine as a locality for “yellow lead ore” (wulfenite). But like Shepard, Beck does not list pyromorphite from Southampton. So the question is: Why did Beck report Lenox, Massachusetts, as a pyromorphite locality? There is no known lead mine in the Lenox, Massachusetts area, though iron mines were worked in the vicinity.

Did Lenox = Lenox, New York?

Beginning in 1848 and through at least 1887, Dana’s Manual of Mineralogy places the Lenox pyromorphite locality in the state of New York. There is a township called Lenox in Madison County, in the central part of the state. But there are no known lead mines in the town, and certainly Beck (1842) would have known if there had been.

Compare these two notices of pyromorphite localities by Dana:

- Dana (System, 1844): “… in Maine at the Lubec lead mines and the mine in Lenox; in New York, a mile south of Sing Sing.”
- Dana (Manual, 1848): “…the Lubec lead mine, Maine; Lenox, N.Y.; formerly a mile south of Sing Sing, N.Y; …”

If Dana had wanted to correct an earlier error and place Lenox in New York, he would have presumably corrected subsequent editions of the System. But the System of Mineralogy through 1892, continued to place Lenox in Maine.

Did Lenox = Lenox, Maine?

What if Shepard had been correct? What if there was a lead mine in a place called Lenox, Maine? Houghton (1861) and Perkins (1922), both Maine-based authors, listed Lenox as a pyromorphite locality, though they no doubt derived their information from earlier publications. Still, neither questioned the existence of such a place in Maine. Let’s look at two pieces of evidence in favor of a Lenox in Maine:

1.) One half of a township in Washington County in far eastern Maine was granted to Lenox Academy (of Lenox, Massachusetts) in 1807. The land was granted by the government of Massachusetts which then administered the District of Maine. At the time of the grant, the academy was called Berkshire Academy, but the name was soon changed to Lenox Academy. The land granted consisted of the west half of Township 6 Range 1 NBPP. There is no record of a mine or settlement there, however, and the land was sold in 1821 to Col. Joseph Whiting of Calais, Maine, for $2,500. The “… region is beyond Bar Harbor and has not yet been reached by the high tides of fashionable society” according to a Lenox Academy publication (1905). The same could be said of the unincorporated township today.

2.) In John Hayward’s The New England Gazetteer, 4th edition (1839), there is a listing for Lenox, Maine:
“Lenox, Me. See ‘Down East.’”
The entry for “Down East” says:
“We crave the favor of a letter from our friends ‘Down East.’ See Barnard, Me.”
The entry for Barnard says:
“Now the good people of Barnard are hereby respectfully requested to give the editor their latitude and longitude and other necessary information for future editions. Citizens of other towns, similarly situated, and of all towns, who may wish more full descriptions of their resources, &c. than we are able, at present, to give are also requested to forward their communications.”

Here are the towns Hayward was seeking information about:

– “Hampton” – probably Hampden in Penobscot County
– “Haynesville (Washington Co.)” – There is a town by this name in Aroostook Co. but not Washington County.
– “Milford (Penobscot Co.)” – This town exists.
– “Stow” – This town exists in Oxford County.
– “Barnard” – There is a Barnard Plantation in Piscataquis County.
– “Lenox” – Lost!

Did Lenox = Lubec, Maine?

Lubec, the easternmost town in the United States, was first settled about 1775. Originally part of the town of Eastport, it was incorporated on June 21, 1811. Set among rocky forested hills along a misty coastline, the town was once a center for fishing, shipbuilding and other industries, but the population declined dramatically in the latter half of the 20th century to a little over 1,500. At various times in the nineteenth century, mines were operated in the town for lead ore.

According to the Maine Historical Society, Betsey Ramsdell – a member of a prominent Lubec family – was said to be the first to find lead ore in the town, but no date is given for her discovery. Charles Jackson investigated the mines in 1835 and in his report (1837) says that lead ore was discovered in 1832, and that three of the veins were being worked summers on the estate of John Ramsdell. However, the earliest published reference to the deposit appears to be Buckingham et al. (1831) who mention “…the valuable lead mine recently discovered at Lubec.” Emmons (1910) places the find even earlier, saying that lead was reportedly discovered in 1828.

Jackson (1837) was the first to report specific minerals found at Lubec. He mentions the following species: galena, “sulphuret of zinc” (sphalerite), “copper pyrites” (chalcopyrite), “an ore of bismuth”, “calcareous spar” (calcite), quartz, feldspar, “carbonate of copper” (probably malachite), and “arsenical iron” (arsenopyrite). He reports “phosphate of lead” (pyromorphite) from the “second drift.”

Jackson, who traveled extensively throughout the state documenting its geology, never mentioned a place called Lenox, yet he reported pyromorphite from Lubec. By contrast, Shepard never mentioned Lubec, where lead ores were discovered 1828–1831. Was Jackson really the first to find pyromorphite at Lubec in 1835? Or is it possible that it was found in 1832 or even earlier and that a sample was sent to Shepard or perhaps to professor Parker Cleaveland at Bowdoin, who then corresponded with Shepard? Might Shepard have confused the names Lenox and Lubec? Or could one of these mines have been called at one time the “Lenox Mine?”According to the Maine Historical Society, at least 11 mines were begun in Lubec.

Conclusion

Unfortunately for historians of American mineralogy, Shepard’s extensive mineral collection was largely destroyed in a fire at Amherst College in 1880. If a surviving Lenox pyromorphite specimen exists in a collection somewhere, the author is unaware of it. If such a specimen could be found, the mystery of the lost Lenox lead mine might finally be solved. My own feeling is that Lubec is the likeliest location for “Lenox” but this is far from proven. I would be interested in hearing from readers who have further information or would like to offer their own theories about this intriguing mystery. ■



References

- Beck, Lewis Caleb (1842). Mineralogy of New York
- Buckingham et al., ed. (1831). The New England Magazine, vol.1 (December, 1831), p 527
- Cleaveland, Parker (1816). An Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology, (Boston: Cummings and Hilliard)
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