Manhan Mines (Loudville Mine; Southampton Lead Mine; Northampton Lead Mine), Easthampton, Hampshire Co., Massachusetts, USA

Lead-silver mines. Workings included the South shaft at over 100 feet deep. Hydrothermal fault deposit.

Lead was discovered here by Robert Lyman of Hartford, Connecticut in 1678 or 1679. A mining company was formed in Northampton at a town meeting, on October 23, 1679, and work commenced in 1680 and lasted probably into the 1690s. (Trumbull, 1898). The first geological survey of the mines was conducted in the spring of 1765 by Colonel James, Royal Engineer, and Solomon Simpson, Esq. (Stearns, 1853). The mines were in operation again until 1775, when work stopped due to the American Revolution.

On October 6, 1765, "Charles Scott, Ethan Allen, Benjamin Stiles, Abram Bronson, Israel Bronson, John Frederick Stendall, Thomas Row, and three slaves, Tom, Cato, and Cesar, left Roxbury, Connecticut, for Northampton, took possession of the mines, and began to work them." (Stearns, 1852) [Slavery was not outlawed in Massachusetts until 1783.] Ethan Allen (1738-1789), who would be a hero of the American Revolution ten years later, had been mining in search of silver at Mine Hill in Roxbury, Connecticut. (Hall, 1895)

The mines were opened again in 1809. Last worked in 1865. (Trumbull, 1898). Among the prominent early researchers who visited the mines were Professors Dana, Hitchcock, Mead, Shephard and Clark. (Stearns, 1853).

Loudville, which this locality is often called - is actually the name of the village straddling the Easthampton-Westhampton town line near the mines. References to these mines in the older literature as the Southampton or Northampton lead mines, in part reflect shifting town boundaries, but there were also other smaller lead mines of the district in these towns, as well as in Westhampton. [Southampton was part of Northampton until 1775;, Westhampton was part of Northampton until 1778; and Easthampton was part of Northampton until 1809.] Most collecting at present is done at dumps of the main mine located in the town of Easthampton. The name Manhan is derived from the name of the river adjacent to the mines.

References:
Ure, Andrew (1808): A Dictionary of Art, Manufactures, and Mines (NY: Appleton & Co.), p. 214.

Silliman, Benjamin (1810): Description of the Lead Mines near Northampton, Mass. (American Mineralogical Journal vol. 1, p. 63).

Cleaveland, Parker (1816): An Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy and Geology, (Boston: Cummings and Hilliard), p. 514.

Eaton, Amos (1818): Account of the Strata and Minerals at the Southampton Lead Mine (American Journal of Science and Arts vol. 1, p.136.)

Hitchcock, Edward M. (1823): A Sketch of the Geology, Mineralogy, and Scenery of the Regions contiguous to the River Connecticut (American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. VI.)

Robinson, Samuel (1825): A Catalogue of American Minerals, with Their Localities, pp. 70-71.

Nash, Alanson (1827): Notices of the Lead Mines and Veins of Hampshire County, Mass. and of the Geology and Mineralogy of that Region (American Journal of Science and Arts vol. 7, pp. 238-270.)

Hitchcock, Edward (1835): Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology of Massachusetts, pp.68-69.

Stearns, Charles (1852): The First Mining Operations in North America. Merchant's Magazine, 27:747-749.

Stearns, Charles (1853): The First Mining Operations in North America (Number II), Merchant's Magazine 28:117-119.

Whitney, Josiah D. (1854): The Metallic Wealth of the United States (Lippincott, Grambo & Co.).

Richardson, Charles (1854): Northampton District. The Loudville Mine (Mining Magazine Vol. 2, pp. 13-20).

Jackson, Charles T. (1863): Manhan Silver Lead Mining Co., Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Geological Surveys and Reports, March 1863. (Boston, Alfred Mudge & Son)

Shepard, C. U. (1866). Cotunnite at Southampton lead mine (American Journal of Science 58:247-48).

Pulsifer, William H. (1888): Notes for a History of Lead (NY, Van Rostrand), pp. 74, 77-78.

Hall, Henry (1895). Ethan Allen: the Robin Hood of Vermont (NY: Appleton and Co.)

Emerson, B. K. (1898), Geology of old Hampshire County. Massachusetts.

Trumbull, James R. (1898): History of Northampton Massachusetts from its Settlement in 1654, pp 358-368. (Northampton MA: Gazette Printing Co.)

Emerson. B. K. (1917), Geology of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Foster, E. C. (1948): The Lead Mines of Hampshire County, Mass. (Rocks & Minerals 23: 594-597).

Palache, C., Berman, H., & Frondel, C. (1951), The System of Mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana, Yale University 1837-1892, Volume II: 893, 1085, 1088.

Yedlin, N. (1957) The micromounter (Rocks & Minerals 32:261).

Lincks, G. Fred. (1967): Revitalizing Loudville, Mass., Lead Silver Mines (Rocks & Minerals 42:578).

Hiller (1974): Massachusetts Mines and Minerals.

Dunn, P.J. and Marshall, J.H. (1975). The Loudville lead mine (Mineralogical Record 6(6):293-298).

Dunn, P. J., R. C. Rouse and J. A. Nelen (1975): Wroewolfeite, a new copper sulfate hydroxide hydrate, Mineralogical Magazine 40:1-5.

Marshall, John and Dunn, Pete (1976): The Lead Mines of Loudville (Rocks & Minerals 51:250-255).

Zirlin, Sande H. (1981): A Day Trip to Loudville, Lapidary Journal 34:2470-2474.

Greene, Eric and Marshall, John Jr. (2001): Loudville Pyromorphite: The Story of an Extraordinary Boulder Unearthed at Manhan River Mine, Easthampton, Massachusetts (Rocks & Minerals 76:92).