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. The mine was in operation again from 1768 to 1775, when work stopped due to the American Revolution. Reopened in 1809. Last worked in 1865. (Trumbull, 1898).
Note: "Loudville" - which this locality is often called - is actually the name of the village straddling the Easthampton-Westhampton town line near the mines. Older references refer to the mines as the "Southampton" or "Northampton" lead mines, where the vein was also worked. Most collecting at present is done at dumps located in the town of Easthampton. The name Manhan is derived from the name of the river adjacent to the mines.
References:
Silliman, Benjamin (1810): Description of the Lead Mines near Northampton, Mass. (American Mineralogical Journal vol. 1, p. 63).
Eaton, Amos (1819): Account of the Strata and Minerals at the Southampton Lead Mine (American Journal of Science and Arts vol. 1, p.136.)
Robinson, Samuel (1825): A Catalogue of American Minerals, with Their Localities, pp. 70-71.
Hitchcock, Edward (1835): Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology of Massachusetts, pp.68-69.
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).
Shepard, C. U. (1866) Cotunnite at Southampton lead mine(American Journal of Science 58:247-48).
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).
American Journal of Science (1967): 159:578.
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. (1975) Wroewolfeite, a new copper sulfate hydroxide hydrate(Mineralogical Magazine 40:36-38).
Marshall, John and Dunn, Pete (1976): The Lead Mines of Loudville (Rocks & Minerals 51:250-255).
Lapidary Journal (1981): 35: 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).
