HASENCLEVER MINE
Harriman State Park, Rockland County, NY

Directions:

From Tiorati Circle heading east on Tiorati Brook Road, the parking area is on the left 1.6 miles east of the circle. (You can reach Tiorati Circle off the Lake Welch exit of the Palisades Interstate Parkway. Follow the sign for the road to Lake Tiorati.)

Habitats:
Woods, stream, dry field; the area is heavily invaded by Japanese barberry.

History:

Hasenclever Mine and Cedar Pond Furnace

1765 -- Peter Hasenclever uncovered a deposit of iron ore here. He dammed the local waters causing a merge of Cedar Pond into Lake Tiorati.

1776 -- During the American Revolution, Samuel Brewster worked the mine under a lease arrangement.

1799 -- Jonas Brewster purchased the 1,000 acre mine tract from William Denning, Jr. and Thomas Hay of Haverstraw. He soon acquired half interest in his brother Samuel's adjoining 664 acre tract (including the rest of the Cedar Ponds and the brook).

1808 -- Jonas Brewster dies.

1821 -- Samuel Brewster dies. Mine run by various persons, unprofitably.

1853 -- David H. Mulford granted lease to the mine by William Knight.

1853 -- mine leased to William A. Furnald of New York.

1854 -- property leased to the Haverstraw Mining and Iron Company.

1856 -- Haverstraw Mining and Iron Co. fails and releases property back to William Knight.

1857 -- the mine became the property of Richard H. Bayard & Son of Philadelphia.

1864 -- Bayard sold the mine to Charles W. Galloupe.

1864 -- Galloupe sells to J. Wiley Edmands.

1875 -- Edmands sells to A. Lawrence Edmands, an associate of Thomas Edison, who was also interested in the iron industry.

Habitats:

Woods, stream, dry field; the area is heavily invaded by Japanese barberry.

Trails and History:

From the parking area walk back up hill west 50 feet to the red cross trail that heads south to the Hasenclever Mine. After a short walk, the trail heading south takes you uphill to an open area with an old town marker for Hasenclever Road by the trailside, a number of old mine holes, a tailings heap on the right, and finally to a large mine opening filled with water. The latter is 100 feet deep. There are also straight parallel ditches and beds here. These carried a narrow-gauge railroad that was never completed. (The track runs for several hundred feet before terminating.)

The mine was built in 1760 and was placed on the maps that George Washington had his mapmaker, Robert Erskine, make for the Revolutionary War.

On the way back, on the right, is the slag pile from James Brewster's iron-smelting furnace, called the Orange Furnace. Brewster took over following Hasenclever.

There is another slag heap north of Tirorati Brook Road by the foot of the falls at Tiorati Brook amidst the Japanese barberry plants. There was once a furnace (Cedar Pond Furnace) here that is now gone.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney

* = blooming on date of field trip, 4/19/2002

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven)
Amelanchier arborea (shadbush)
Betula alleghaniensis (yellow birch)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)
Larix sp. (larch)
Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Prunus avium (sweet cherry)? *
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Pyrus sp. (apple)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus prinus (chestnut oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)

Shrubs:
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry) *
Chimaphila maculata (spotted wintergreen)
Comptonia peregrina (sweetfern)
Gaultheria procumbens (checkerberry)
Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel)
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
Lindera benzoin (spicebush) *
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Myrica pensylvanica (bayberry)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry) *
Vaccinium pallidum (hillside blueberry)
Viburnum prunifolium (blackhaw viburnum)

Vines:
Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis sp. (grape)

Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) *
Allium vineale (field garlic)
Anemone quinquefolia (wood anemone) *
Antennaria plantaginifolia (plantain-leaved pussytoes) *
Aquilegia canadensis (columbine) *
Arabis laevigata (smooth rockcress) *
Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed)
Dicentra cucullaria (Dutchman's breeches)
Erythronium americanum (trout lily)
Galium sp. (bedstraw)
Iris sp. (blue or yellow flag)
Maianthemum canadense (Canada mayflower)
Panax trifolius (dwarf ginseng) *
Potentilla (dwarf cinquefoil) *
Ranunculus abortivus (kidney-leaved crowfoot) *
Senecio aureus (golden ragwort)
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion) *
Thalictrum pubescens (tall meadowrue)
Trifolium pratense (red clover)
Veratrum viride (swamp hellebore)
Verbascum thapsus (common mullein)
Veronica officinalis (common speedwell)
Viola sororia (common blue violet) *
(vetch)

Sedges:
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)
Carex stricta (tussock sedge) *

Grasses:
Anthoxanthum odoratum (sweet vernal grass) *
Panicum virgatum (switch grass)
Poa annua (annual bluegrass) *
Schizachyrium scoparium (little blue stem grass)
Tridens flavus (purple top grass)

Ferns:
Dryopteris sp. (woodfern)
Polypodium sp. (rock cap fern)