Did you know this community once thrived as a local mining area? Garnets were the “gems” of the Concord/Bethel area and a heavily used mine once existed near the entrance of The Clayton Park picnic area off of Garnet Mine Road. You may enjoy the following article, which was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1992 and reflects direct quotes from our President Emeritus Ginny DeNenno. The article not only provides a wonderful historical perspective, but reinforces the importance for CTHS to continue to preserve those “nuggets” for future generations. Note in 1964 the Junior/Senior High School was formalized as a school district and given the name “Garnet Valley” after consulting with the Clayton Family as their successful farm “Garnet Valley Farm” had first held the name for many years.
You might also find it interesting to read a letter to Edith Clayton Lloyd, dated January 20, 1971, from her sister Emeline. This letter tells about the mine and an interesting event that occurred in 1926 when lightening struck and killed many cows due to the garnet veins running through the area.
Old Garnet Mines Are A Dig Through County’s History
By Joseph S. Kennedy, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
POSTED: Philadelphia Inquirer – May 07, 1992
The garnet mines of western Delaware County, like the storied diamond mines of King Solomon, have been lost to time and legend.
Both the mines and the miners are long gone. Only Garnet Mine Road and Garnet Valley School District serve as reminders of what more than 100 years ago was a unique mining operation. The garnet sand dug from the local mines was used for the mundane purpose of manufacturing sandpaper.
According to Henry Ashmead’s 1884 History of Delaware County, it was John H. Smedley, a mineralogist from Middletown Township, who promoted the development of the garnet deposits on the Foulk Road estate of Charles Williams in Bethel.
Smedley noted that the deposit, made up mostly of garnet sand with nuggets mixed in, made ideal abrasive material for use in grinding and shaping. After several years spent trying to get businesses interested in the deposits, Smedley succeeded in 1879 in arranging for the sale of the Williams estate to a New York state abrasives firm, Herman Behr & Co. The 47-acre site sold for $4,700, and mining operations began in the fall of that year. The mining operation was an open pit 200 feet wide by 85 feet deep. The sand was dug with hand tools, then bagged and hauled by horse and wagon to Boothwyn station. There, it was shipped by rail to the Behr Co.’s factory in Troy, N.Y.
The garnet sand sold from $30 to $100 a ton depending on its quality. Miners also dug up a few garnet stones that were suitable for making jewelry.
The Concord Historical Society has a few of the nuggets, polished and cut into gemstones. Ginny DeNenno, president of the historical society, said those stones had the dark red color consistent with quality garnet gems.
“There simply were not enough nuggets found to make the operation pay,” DeNenno said.
So it was the sand, the prime ingredient for sandpaper, that was the lifeblood of the mining operation.
In November 1900, freezing temperatures burst the lines of the steam pump that kept water out of the pit. Water built up rapidly, thousands of dollars worth of machinery was lost, and Behr Co. decided to close its mine.
But that did not spell the end to garnet mining in the area.
In the 1890s, while Behr’s mine was still in operation, a new mine was started by American Glue Co. of East Wampole, Mass., which also manufactured sandpaper. The “new mine” was on the Fulton farm, just across the road from the “old mine.”
Concord Historical Society files indicate that the last surviving miners of the “new mine” gave a program to the Garnet Valley Home and School Association in 1960. The four surviving miners, by then all in their 80s, described the “new mine’s” operation.
Like the old mine, it was an open pit, about 40 feet deep. At the bottom of the pit, tunnels or drifts were dug outward, according to the four main points of the compass. The tunnels were usually about 50 feet long.
The garnet sand was dug out by pick and shovel, loaded onto hand-operated railcars and pushed to the center of the pit. From there, the sand was lifted to the surface by large wooden buckets and taken to the processing building. There, the sand was beaten, crushed and washed. Next, it was dried. When dry, the sand was poured into bags of 165 pounds each and carted off to either the Chester Heights or Boothwyn station for shipment by rail to the company’s factory in Massachusetts.
To do the work, the mine employed 15 men full time as laborers, carpenters, machine operators and teamsters. The new operation closed in 1906 because, according to the miners, the company found a desirable supply of garnet sand closer to its manufacturing site.
Over the years, both mines filled with water, and the new mine was used as the Bethel Township dump. According to DeNenno, the mines were filled in with the construction of the Conchester Highway in the late 1940’s.
Revised January 2022
