Old Mine Park
Old Mine Road, Trumbull, Fairfield County, CT

Directions:

Merritt Parkway north for around 31 miles to Exit 49 for Route 25 north; at the end of the expressway part of the route, turn right onto Route 111 (Monroe Turnpike); in a short distance turn right onto Old Mine Road that takes the visitor to Old Mine Park. 

Note from Tom Ebersold, AMC Hike Leader: 

If you park here, the town will give you a $25 ticket.  Park instead on Tungsten Circle, which is a local road within the park. I don't know if there are "No Parking" signs posted. If there are, then you could chance parking at Oxford Health Plans next door. I can't imagine they would hassle anyone parking there. 

History:

before 1803  --  evidence of the existence of kiln to process mined limestone.

1803 (January 25)  -- the Shermans of Trumbull leased land known as "Shaganawamps" to transport lime 9marble) to a kiln for processing. 

before 1810  --  Benjamin Silliman of Yale College identified numerous minerals.

c. 1818  --  Ephraim Lane had Benjamin Silliman identify some mineral samples.  The Lane family then bought 50 acres of Old Mine property.

1855  --  discovery that mixing tungsten and steel would make an extremely strong alloy.

Dr. Adolph Guilt of Berlin, Germany recommend more mining (and more sophisticated mining).

Edward Machette and William Hinsdale leased 54 acres from present owner, Adelaide Hubbard. 

Machette and Hinsdale transferred their land rights to the Rare Mineral Company of New Jersey.  The Company then transferred the rights to DeForest Snyder.  He in turn transferred the rights to the American Tungsten Mining and Milling Company of West Virginia. 

1899  --  the American Tungsten Mining and Milling Company build an extensive mining and milling plant (but did not take the advice of Dr. Adolph Guilt). 

1906  --  the Am. Tungsten Mining and Milling Company went bankrupt.  It was too expensive to separate tungsten from pyrite.  They leased to Long Hill Quarries Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

1916  --  Long Hill Quarries Company subleased the land to Burdette Lyons and Melville Gray of New York.  They engaged in various negotiations with the American Electric Equipment Company of New Jersey and the Tungsten Company of America in Delaware.  Negotiations did not go smoothly and civil suits were next issued. 

1916  -- a suspicious fire destroyed the mining complex.

1918  --  Frederick C. Beach converted his Trumbull property to a trust.  In lieu of unpaid back taxes, the trust agreed to relinquish rights to the land.

1937  --  the town got the rights to the mining properties and set land aside for a park. 

Facilities:

Picnicking & Trails

Trails:

9/23/2005.  We walked from Parlor Rock Park on the Pequonnock River Greenway Trail up to Old Mine Park.  To make the walk the other way, just follow the trail, go along the wire fence by Route 25; go under Route 25; head uphill and then down to the railroad bed; walk straight to Whitney Avenue. 

We did not see much of Old Mine Park, but the little we saw was very pretty, a very nice pastoral scene; there is a nice long pond with two bridges, larges expanses of green lawn set amidst scattered trees and picnic tables.  We will come again.  Dr. Patrick L. Cooney.   

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