Courtesy of the Chester County Historical Society.          

Daily Republican
8th May 1954

Chester County may become the scene of a “mica-rush” as the result of the discovery of flake mica in commercial quantities, but the Lancaster firm that made the discoveries thinks that the event is not probable.

“We have the mineral rights to all of the deposits pretty well sewed up,” a company representative said.

H. G. Hess, president, of Keystone Mining Co., said he’ll begin taking the bright-crumbly mineral out of the ground this fall.  A $27,000 flake-mica processing plant will be built near the Pennsylvania Railroad’s tracks, just off Route 1, in East Nottingham Township, three miles south of Oxford.

48 Tons Daily

Hess added that he expects to produce 48 tons of mica a day, seven days a week, on a 24-hour shift.

That will yield 14 tons of refined mica a day, he estimates.  Flake mica – used in electronic equipment, wallpaper and spark plugs – is worth from $30 to $170 a ton, depending on the quality and state of the market.

Hess noted that the Chester County mica is of high quality.  Pressed it can be substituted for more expensive sheet mica, used in irons, toasters, and places where resistance to heat and electricity is required.

Hess, who has been in the mining game for 20 years, started prospecting in Chester County in 1946.  Using old mining surveys, maps and historical books, Hess located loads in East Nottingham, Elk, London Grove, Penn and New London townships.  The search cost $19,000, he said.

Company Formed

About a year ago he formed a company to exploit the deposits and began acquiring leases and mineral rights on 487 acres.

Hess said mica can be seen in the sunlight around the West Grove – Oxford area.

“there are places where solid beds of mica turn up about eight inches below the ground.  You can get down to the commercial mica with a garden trowel.

He admitted there’s the possibility that he might have overlooked some deposits, but as far as he knows, “we’ve nailed all of them that have commercial possibilities.”

The company which will employ 25, will begin making test drillings to a depth of 20 feet next week in an attempt to estimate the quantity under ground.

Oxford News
27th January 1955

Keystone Mining Corp. New Plant Nearly Ready to Begin Production of Mica

The Keystone Mining Corporation’s new processing plant is located one-half mile southwest of Oxford on Route 1.  It will extract mica, magnetite, and other minerals from ore mined in this area.  The plant site consists of four acres, with railroad facilities on the property.

The company is operated by local men of Lancaster and York Counties.  The Keystone Mining Corporation is the first company in these parts to install separating equipment for producing mica and its associated minerals.  Recent tests have shown a very high content of vitally needed mica in flake and sheet forms as well as kaolin, magnetite and pigments.

The modern equipment of our plant will be installed under the supervision of a large engineering form from Fort Wayne, Indiana – and the equipment will be capable of separating, concentrating, washing, drying, and readying for market the various minerals known to be in the ore fond on our property.  To support this modern processing plant, the Keystone Mining Corporation has acquired the mineral rights to over 1,000 acres of ore-rich land in Lancaster, Lebanon, and Chester Counties.  The first operation will be a strip mining operation near our plant in Chester County ... but it is planned to develop the deposits of strategic sheet mica in upper Lancaster and Lebanon Counties in the near future.

Mica is used in manufacturing of insulation of all types, both electrical and household, in paints, plastics, and many other home and industrial needs.  Kaolin has many uses in medicine, soaps, whitewares, porcelains, paper, and rubber.  A complete list of the uses for mica is available by writing to this company.

[Samples and chemical analysis are available to industrial companies using muscovite mica.]

Keystone Mining Corporation, 167 E. King St., Lancaster.

Oxford News
20th October 1955

[Photograph not included]

The new cement block building housing equipment for the production of mica operated by the Keystone Mining Corp, Lancaster is shown above.  Tests have been satisfactory, officials report, and the expectation is that the original machinery will be increased for enlarged production.

Tests which have been run at the Keystone Mining Corporation’s new plant one-half mile southwest of Oxford on Route 1 have been even more satisfactory than at first anticipated, Mr. Hess, company manager reported.

Machinery installed is ready to begin production, extracting mica, magnetite, and other minerals from ore mined in this area.  The plant site consists of four acres, with railroad facilities on the property.

The company is operated by local men of Lancaster and York Counties, and has secured leased [sic] of mineral rights in the area for the production of mica.  They also plan to install machinery for processing other minerals.

Recent tests have shown a very high content of vitally needed mica in flake and sheet forms as well as kaolin, magnetite, and pigments.  The Keystone Mining Corporation is the first company to install separating equipment for producing mica.

The equipment of the plant was installed under supervision of a Fort Wayne, Indiana firm.

The company at present owns mineral rights to over 1,000 acres of ore-rich land, and will also be interested in receiving material form independent land owners, Mr. Hess stated.

Daily Local News
18th May 1957

Loads of sailors from Bainbridge Naval Training Station battled one of the worst fires in some 20 years in the 500 acres of Nottingham barrens in West Nottingham township for about 14 hours yesterday and early this morning before bringing it under control.

The area burned was confined within U. S. Route 1, Nottingham Fremont rd., Ridge rd., and the Fremont red Pump rd.  Cause of the fire was unknown.

About 40 houses in the area were threatened, mostly in a settlement along Ridge rd., but firemen concentrated on that area and no one had to be evacuated nor was there any damage reported to the homes.

Starts at 11;20

The blaze was reported to the Union Fire Co., Oxford at about 11:20 a.m. yesterday.  The firemen stayed there until a heavy shower of rain came down about 3 a.m. today.

No injuries were reported, although some firemen and sailors nearly got trapped in a ravine but managed to fight their way out.

The firemen were under the supervision of chief Joseph Clark Jr. of Oxford until yesterday afternoon when a State Fire Marshall from Norristown arrived and took charge.

Two engines were supplied by fire companies from Quarryville, Avondale, West Grove, and Rising Sun, Md.  The call also went to the Bainbridge Naval training Station, which dispatched an engine along with the two busloads of sailors.

At first the firemen were hampered by a lack of water.  They used tank trucks and portable tanks until E. E. Twyford, Oxford plowed a nine foot furrow with his bulldozer from Ridge rd. to the Nottingham Fremont rd.

Two Furrows

Twyford then plowed another furrow parallel to this, enabling the firemen to contain the fire between the two furrows.

Many deer and rabbits fled from the burning area and game wardens were called in to see that there were no violations of game laws.

The area which burned is said to have been the scene of numerous fires in past years.  However, a reporter, who has witnessed many of them, described yesterday’s blaze as the largest in the last 15 to 20 years.

Oxford News
23rd May 1957

[poor quality photo not included]

Scene from last Friday’s woods fire in the barrens in West Nottingham Twp.  Described as the worst in 20 years, the fire burned for more than 14 hours and called into action 350 volunteer firemen from Oxford, Quarryville, Avondale, West Grove and Rising Sun, Md., and two bus loads of sailors form the Bainbridge Naval training Center.  Firemen were under the direction of Union Fire Co. chief Joseph Clark Jr. and a state fire marshal. 

Daily Local News
7th May 1962

A 30-hour fire burned an estimated 600 acres of woodland in West Nottingham Township Saturday afternoon and yesterday.

More than 300 volunteers from 14 fire companies were called into the battle to save the area, known as the Barrens, one of the most rustic areas remaining in the county.

Recently, the county purchased 468 acres in the area for a county park.  At least part of the prospective area was burnt.

The extensive blaze, fanned by brisk winds, started at 3:01 p.m. Saturday.  The Union Fire Co. of Oxford was first to be called.

Within minutes the 42 volunteers of that company were joined by volunteers from West Grove, Avondale, Cochranville fire companies; Rising Sun, Port Deposit, Darlington, and North East fire companies, all in Maryland; Quarryville Fire Co., Lancaster County, and a group of sailors from the Bainbridge Naval training Center, Bainbridge, Md.

Breaks Out

Firemen fought the blaze without let up until 5:30 a.m. yesterday, when volunteers though the battle had ended.

At 11:29 a.m., however, fire broke out again.  The same fire companies, plus volunteers from Perryville, Elkton, and Chesapeake City companies, of Maryland; Kennett Square Fire Co., and Wakefield Fire Co. of Lancaster County, joined in.

Volunteers battled more than four hours in a second attempt to stop the blaze, centered in an area known as Nottingham Forest, below Oxford.

Union Fire Co. volunteers returned to the scene again for about three hours at 5:30 p.m., yesterday and again at 10 a.m., this morning to wet down, certain areas that passing motorists has reported were still smoldering.

An unidentified trailer, reported occupied by a family with 3 children was destroyed.

Fire threatened a used car lot and service station, but firemen kept the blaze from reaching them.

Daily Local News
8th May 1962

Fire damage to the 468-acre tract in West Nottingham Township purchased by the Chester County Commissioners for park and recreational use was not as extensive as initially feared, the County Park and Recreation Board said today.

A part of the huge rustic territory near Oxford known as “the barrens,” Nottingham Park, was first reported as the major part of approximately 600 acres severely damaged by a weekend-long fire.

The marathon fire saw more than 300 volunteers from 14 different fire companies in southern Chester County, Maryland and Lancaster County battle under-brush and brisk winds to control the blaze.

A spokesman of the Park and Recreation Board stated the fire swept the least valuable portion of Nottingham Park, and that most desirable trees were spared.

Everest Henderson, chairman, and other members of the board are now conducting an aerial survey of the park to pin point the extent and location of fire damage, the spokesman said.

Daily Local News
23rd September 1963

[photograph not included]

FIRST PARK DEDICATED.  Chester County’s first public park – Nottingham – was dedicated in ceremonies Saturday at the new recreational area located in West Nottingham Township, just south of Oxford.  Featured speaker for the occasion was Dr. Maurice K. Goddard, state secretary of Forests and Waters, who told the audience Chester County now ranks fifth in acquisition of land for park use.  Pictures at the plaque unveiling are, from left, County Park Board Chairman Everett G. Henderson, County Commission Chairman C. Gilbert Hazlett, Dr. Goddard and State Senator John H. Ware III.  Also under preliminary development is a new 700 acre park in West Caln – West Brandywine Townships which will be known as Hibernia Park.

Daily Local News
25th May 1965

A significant milestone in the history of Chester County was marked in September, 1963 by the dedication of the county’s first public recreation area, Nottingham Park.

Chester Countians are now enjoying the facilities available in this 528 acre park nestled in the rolling, pine covered hills know to local resident as “The Barrens”, in West Nottingham Township, four miles south of Oxford.

The Nottingham Park area has an interesting history of chrome mining that affected the United States and Europe before the turn of the century.  Chrome mine sin the serpentine district of the Maryland – Pennsylvania Piedmont provided a large part of it until about 1880.

Ore Was Exported

They not only satisfied the limited local demand of the 19th century but ore was also exported to Europe in large quantities.  Most of the ore was used to manufacture chemical compounds, pigments and dyes before metallurgical and refractory uses for chromite were developed.

The discovery of large chromite deposits in Turkish Asia Minor and in California brought about a decline in chrome mining in Maryland and Pennsylvania but reports disagree as to why.  Exhaustion of ore, depth of mining, inadequate pumping facilities, decline in price and in some cases litigation over mining rights have been cited; all these reportedly combined with mismanagement were probably contributing factors.

The Wood mine in the State Line District was the last to be held open as a reserve against possible failure of shipments from California but after 1882 it, too, was closed.  Intermittent production of placer chromite continued in the White Barrens, Chester County until about 1900, however, much of the production was never recorded. 

Serpentine Stone

Black Run flows through Nottingham Park into Octoraro Creek in the area of the former Scott – Engine – Kirk mines, where disseminated chrome was abundant in the serpentine stone along the stream’s course.  There are many mine holes and underground shafts within the park area, some containing fathomless depths of water.

One such abandoned quarry is well-known to area residents as the “mystery hole”.  These quarries have been adequately fenced off to insure the safety of the visiting public.

With approximately 100 acres of the total area now developed, the basic needs have been provided for the recreational enjoyment of Chester County residents.

There is adventure for the sure-footed hiker who might wish to wander among the many trails that dip and climb through the park.  Wildlife and many species of wild flowers provide an interesting ecological experience.  Unique rock formations afford a bonanza opportunity for those interested in geological study.

Family groups in ever increasing numbers are taking advantage of the picnicking and camping facilities now available at Nottingham Park.  The noise and bustle of a one-thriving mining business has been replaced by the laughter of children at play.

Daily Local News. 
10th January 1968

Mystery Hole hides Secrets of the Past

By George Brice
(of the Local News Staff)

Had a Wilmington produce merchant never disappeared and had a pair of car tracks leading to the water’s edge never been discovered by a searching party in 1926, an old feldspar mine may not have been tagged as the Mystery Hole.

As it is, Nottingham Park’s often talked about but rarely explored Mystery Hole is still a mystery hole. And that’s the way Dr. Thomas E. Gillingham of Oxford, a member of the Chester County Park and Recreation Board; Mrs. Orpha P. McLaughlin, the board’s executive secretary, and Chester County Commissioners prefer it.

It’s Dangerous

“We never played it up too much, simply because it not only is dangerous, but it has been known to be used as a depository for anything stolen,” Mrs. McLaughlin said.

Mrs. McLaughlin described the Mystery Hole as a “big pit with water, measuring around 600 feet around its perimeter.  A cliff-like precipice drops 20 feet to the water’s surface.”

Barbed wire fencing was placed around the Mystery Hole primarily to protect the county’s public who might be tempted to swim, fish or go boating while visiting the 651-acre Nottingham Park, the first Chester County-owned recreational park, which was dedicated in September of 1963.

Nottingham Park is nestled in the rolling, pine-covered hills known to local residents as “The Barrens.” In West Nottingham Township, four miles south of Oxford.

Abandoned Quarry

A huge, man-made pit gouged out of the rocky earth, this “off limits” Mystery Hole is an abandoned, water-filled quarry that was once part of a thriving feldspar quarrying industry.  There are several other mine holes within the park area  These too have been fenced off to insure safety of the visiting public, along with the Mystery Hole, the deepest of them all.

There are conflicting reports about the Mystery Hole’s depth.  Dr. Gillingham, a consulting mining engineer as well as a park board member, taped it to 40 feet along the edge.  According to Mrs. McLaughlin, “scuba divers reportedly taped it down to 90 feet so far, but they quit for it got too cold.

No Diving Allowed

“We allow no scuba diving except under state police supervision, and at state police request,” she added.

Horace F. McPherson, park superintendent recalled, that back in July or August 1966, a 1962 car, which turned out to be stolen, had been hauled out of about 35 feet of water, under the auspices of the state police.

“The car had gone right through the barbed wire fence,” McPherson said.

Never More So

The Mystery Hole was never as mysterious, however, as it was way back on Oct. 13, 1926.

“I recall it very vividly,” Dr. Gillingham said.  “They excused us Scouts from school with the explanation that state police were looking for a body and that we were to help in the search.  The police lined us up saying, ‘we have reason to believe this man’s body is somewhere in the area between Oxford and the Mason-Dixon line.’

“I remember the story about this man, whose name I can’t recall, who was supposedly murdered and his body hidden in the area.  We searched, but never found his body.  We did discover auto tracks leading to the edge of the quarry, and police speculated the man might have been placed in the car, and the car dumped into the water-filled hole.  It was the practice then to dump cars into old quarries in order to collect insurance.  They did pump out the hole later, but all the police found were some junked cars, all empty, plus the partly decayed carcass of a horse, and skeletons of smaller animals.

Got Its Name

“The incident gave rise to the name, Mystery Hole,” Dr. Gillingham explained.

It turned out the “missing man” – identified first as W. W. Bennett, in one newspaper, as W. C., then Wilmer C. and later Winter C. Bennett In others, has come to Coatesville on about Oct. 6 to allegedly “collect a bill of $67 from Thomas Oates” who has previously lived in Lower Oxford Township, but never returned to his family in Wilmington.

Oct. 13 was described as “dreary, with the woods and underbrush soaked with heavy mist.”  On that day 300 scouts from Oxford, West Grove, Avondale, Kennett Square, Parkesburg, Coatesville, South Coatesville, Unionville, Cochranville, and West Chester, scoured the woodlands from Coatesville south to the Mason-Dixon line.

Dr. Gillingham was among a contingent of 60 scouts from Oxford, led by Scoutmasters Ross Miller and F. L. Maule, who searched the Oxford area.

“The supposition is that Bennett is dead and may have met with foul play,” one news account claimed.

But Bennett was not found.

“Boys found bloody clothing, freshly made mounds that look like graves, piles of earth that gave rise to the belief a burial made been made and other things,” said a newspaper.

Found Dog

Two women from East Coatesville, who joined the search, “dug up a freshly made grave only to find the remains of a dog buried on the eastern edge of the city by Constable Harry Parmer,” said another.

The McManus Quarry hole in West Caln and the “deep pond” at Nottingham, where two cars were found submerged the year before, were dragged.

Still no Bennett.

As far as is known, Bennett was never found, despite the optimism of a Phoenixville detective named George Campbell, retained by the Wilmington produce merchant’s family to continue the search.

Quarrying Center

There are other facets concerning the Nottingham Park which did not fade into an unsolved mystery.  The Mystery Hole was once the center of Chester County’s thriving feldspar quarrying industry, Dr. Gillingham said.

Feldspar, in the variety called albite, is a white substance (sodium aluminum silicate), which when ground, is used in manufacturing fine pottery.

Feldspar was quarried in the area from before the Civil War until about 1930.  Most of the feldspar in America today is mined in the mountains of North Carolina.

Historical documents and geological maps note the quarries were part of the serpentine belt, marked by greenish-gray rock and scrub pines, which extends northeastward from Cecil and Harford Counties, MD., across southeastern Lancaster County and through West and East Nottingham and Elk Townships in southern Chester County.  It crops out also near Unionville and south of West Chester.

This serpentine belt provided, in addition to feldspar, a large portion of the chromite demand of the world before 1865 and a substantial part of it until about 1880.  Chromite ore production not only satisfied the limited domestic demand of the 19th century, but was exported to Europe in large quantities.

Chromite ore used in the manufacture of chemical compounds, pigments and dyes before the metallurgical and refractory uses were developed.  The same ore was also used in alloying steel after the Civil War.

Looking for Salts

In the 8120s Isaac Tyson on Baltimore sent men to the serpentine district in the Chester County “Barrens” to look for Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate), but they ran into chrome or chromite, which was then in demand for pigments.

One of the most productive chrome lodes was the Wood Mine, just over the West Nottingham Township line in Lancaster County.  It reached a depth of 800 feet.  Others were the Scott-Engine-Kirk mines, in the present park property.  Placed chromite was abundant in the bed of Black Run in West Nottingham.

Discovery of large chromite deposits in southern Africa and Rhodesia brought an abrupt end to  underground chrome mining in Maryland and Pennsylvania along with reported exhaustion of domestic ore, particularly in California.

The Wood Mine was the last open held open as a reserve against possible failure of shipments from California, but it closed too after 1882.  Intermittent production of placer chromite continued in the Barrens until about 1900.  An attempt to renew placer mining during World War I never materialized, Dr. Gillingham said.

“Chester County has a notable mining heritage,” Dr. Gillingham said.  In addition to chromite and feldspar mines, there were the Wheatley lead-zinc mines near Phoenixville; the iron mines along the French Creek and in Warwick Township in northern Chester County, which provided iron ore for guns and cannons during the American Revolution; corundum mines near Unionville; Brinton’s Quarry were serpentine rock was mined, and Kaolin clay mines at Kaolin [?].

Many Varieties

“Over 150 varieties of minerals have been found in Chester County,” said the mining engineer who spent many hours as a boy collecting rocks in the Nottingham Park area.

A casual observer would never know that Nottingham Park, with its hiking trails, abundance of wildlife and wild flowers and unusual rock formations, was once a center of a booming mining industry that has been replaced by the laughter of children at play on swings and see-saws, in sand pits and on the baseball diamond and badminton court.

And who ever would suspect they once had to drag the black depths and then pump out the Mystery Hole hoping to find the body of a missing man named Bennett?

Sunday Local News
11th October 1987

The barren ridges of W. Nottingham: held a fortune for some lucky people

By Douglas Harper (of the Local News Staff)

The barren serpentine ridges of West Nottingham may have disappointed farmer, but they made a fortune for a few lucky men.

Settlers on the Nottingham Lots found a vast, rock-strewn strip along the Maryland line south of Oxford.  Tall pines, scrub oak, and thick briars grew there; the farmers called the place the Barrens because nothing else survived the sandy soil.

The Barrens was place to be avoided – a trackless waste a mile wide and maybe 10 miles long, a setting for ghost stories.

In fact the Barrens are outcroppings of serpentine rock, which is an unusual stone found only in this region.  Serpentine barrens are a poor land for farming, but they are geologically and botanically unique.

PLANTS FOUND on the Barrens grow nowhere else.  Recognizing this, in 1963 the Chester County commissioners bought land on the Barrens and created Nottingham Park, the first public park in Chester County.  Other parcels have since been added and the park has grown to more than 650 acres.

But a century before that, the Barrens were the site of Chester County’s boom industry: chrome mining.

In 1827 a man called Isaac Tyson Jr. stood in a Baltimore market, watching a farmer’s two-wheeled cart rumble by.  In the back of the cart was a barrel of cider, propped up by some large rocks.

Tyson was an amateur mineralogist with an interest in chrome.  He may have been the only man in America at the time who could have recognized the rare chromium ore laced through those rocks.

CHROME WAS in demand.  England, with its huge woolen industry, used chrome to make a red dye.  Chrome would soon become the key ingredient in the manufacture of stainless steel as well.  But it was notoriously hard to find.

Tyson discretely followed the bony nag and two-wheeled cart back to a farm near the Barrens in Lancaster county.  Tyson soon bought the farm, and got rights to dig on several others nearby.  He struck the mother-lode of the chrome vein on the Lancaster side of Octoraro Creek, in the deep elbow near Fremont, West Nottingham.

Tyson imported Irish laborers, and within a few years this placid spot was the site of the Wood Chrome Mine, the largest such operation in the world.  For the next 20 years Tyson was the principle – practically the only – supplier of chrome on the planet.

AT FIRST the local farmers sold Tyson rights to dig their land for low prices.  But they soon got wise to the value of the rocks he was pulling out: chrome ore sold for $25 a ton in 1874.

West Nottingham farms that sol for $6 an acre in normal time shot up to $100 an acre after Tyson’s appearance.  Area farmers hoped to find the telltale heavy black pellets in their fields or while fixing their roads.  A chance discovery like that could make someone rich.

Tyson worked a string of mines along the Barrens from southern Lancaster County, through West Nottingham and into Maryland.  Other mining concerns also moved into the area, but Isaac Tyson Jr. was the undisputed “Chrome King.”

HIS MINES probed to fantastic depths.  One plunged 300 feet underground.  Shafts catacombed though the Barrens, crossing from Pennsylvania to Maryland deep under the earth.  The only way down was through a mouth the size of a well down a slippery ladder.  There were frequent injuries, and in 1880 a boulder crushed two men to death deep in a West Nottingham mine.

The mines were narrow, muddy, and wet.  Tyson had to constantly pump out the water that seeped in.  In 1874 the miners went on strike, and in 10 days the shafts filled up.

Seventy men worked in Tyson’s mines in 1861.  Others hauled the material to Port Deposit, on the Chesapeake.  From there it was sent to Baltimore, then shipped to Liverpool.

CHROME WAS discovered in Turkey in 1848, and later in California and southern Africa.  The chrome mining business fell off sharply after the Civil War. But the Barrens were still among the world’s principle suppliers of chrome in 1880.

Tyson’s mines were abandoned in 1884, though Bethlehem Steel reopened them briefly in the First World War.  Feldspar, used to make fine pottery, continued to be mined in the Barrens until the 1930s.

Little remains of this once-thriving industry except a crossroads hamlet named Chrome in East Nottingham township and the mine shaft holes.

Most of these old pits are filled with water.  The most famous is the “Mystery Hole” on the Nottingham Park grounds, which descends to unknown depths and has been a dumping ground for stolen cars and – rumor has it – murder victims.