As I said earlier, I've spent more than half my life in the North Country. A few years ago I was in the process of moving south of the Mason-Dixon line and ended up staying in Saratoga County. Only made it 100 miles from where I was. The north country gets hold of a person and won't let go.
Don't these guys look happy? They should be. They're
still working after 150 years in service. They are part of one of the (if not
"the") oldest operating carousels in the country. It was built
in 1849 and is operated once a year when the little town of Redford, NY
has it's Community picnic.
Up on the hill above the town of Lyon Mountain,
NY sits the ruins of the Republic Steel Iron Mine. It looms over the town
as a stark reminder of what once was, but now is gone. In the company's
heyday, some of the richest iron ore in the world was extracted from beneath
this mountain. Republic shut down sometime around the early to mid 1950's
when it got to expensive to ship their product to the outside. This is the
front of the Main Mill, built in 1817.
Several of the buildings at the old mine are still
standing and a few reminders of what went on here are intact. Some pieces evidently
didn't prove interesting enough for the scavengers of such places to make
off with. Others, like this huge iron hook, are just to big to lug away.
The size of this bubba is about half again the size of an average man.
On the other hand, whatever may have been left
behind in what used to be offices at Republic is long gone. The last time
I visited the mine before I moved from the area, this building was collapsed
from age, disuse and the weight of the heavy snow from the winter
before.
Finding this old boot inside the Main Mill was
an amazing discovery for me. I could just picture this boot discarded in
a corner for almost a half century after it's owner left it behind. For
me, this find lit a spark of life into a place long dead.