Some 20 years and 100 million dollars later the Environmental Protection Agency is wrapping up its Elizabeth Mine Superfund Project to improve the water quality in the West Branch of the Ompompanoosuc and some of its tributaries in Strafford and Thetford. Now that their work is successfully completed, they are handing off the maintenance work to the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (VDEC) who will now be responsible for the environmental integrity of the site in perpetuity.

This massive project, which involved diverting water, consolidating, buttressing, and capping the mine waste into one forty-acre area, also included some innovative aspects like constructed wetlands to serve as a finishing step to filter iron out the small amount of water now coming from seeps in the base of the pile. In addition, one of Vermont's largest solar arrays a more than 5-megawatt project was built on top of the capped tailing pile. Finally, due to the massive disruption of many aspects of one of our nation's oldest and longest-run mining areas, a good deal of historic mitigation work has been done.

At one of the early meetings around 2000 regarding the Superfund clean-up, concerns over how the project would affect the historic remains at the 300-acre site were raised. George Desch from the VDEC replied "what history?" Strafford Historian Gwenda Smith rose to the challenge and quickly produced a paper on "The Historic Significance of the Elizabeth Mine". In it she noted among many items how President Monroe played a visit to the copperas works in 1817 to encourage domestic industry, how in the 1830s in forced air blast furnaces along the banks of the West Branch, Isacc Tyson developed advanced state of the art techniques for smelting copper, and how this mine, particularly in wartime: Civil War, WWI, WWII, and Korean War played an important part in providing a vital commodity. WWII was particularly an active time at the mine and Barbara Murray who grew up in a house on Mine Road remembers a large number of cars and trucks going by during the three-shift changes as the mine was worked round the clock.

EPA project manager Hathaway was impressed with what was presented regarding the historical significance and with the participation of State Archeologist Giovanna Peebles worked out a plan to save what could be saved (particularly of the old copperas area), and provide documentation of all that occurred at this site as well as related areas, like the hydroelectric dam built on the White River below the village of Sharon in the early 1900s to provide electric power to the mine site. A top-notch industrial historian Matt Kierstead of Milestone Heritage Consulting was hired by the EPA to research and oversee preservation efforts on the site. Matt not only thoroughly researched the 200-year history of the Elizabeth Mine, but then created the interpretative panels, carefully selecting the photographs and illustrations, designing the layouts for the panels and even providing the specifications for the support structures. View the Milestone Heritage Elizabeth Mine Interpretive Panels at Matt's website.

He also wrote an excellent historical summary booklet called "From Copperas to Clean-up: The History of Vermont's Elizabeth Copper Mine". Videographer Phyl Harmon, who worked extensively with the Strafford Historical Society, also provide help to do a documentary "Riches and Remains: The Legacy of Vermont Copper Mining".

Finally, again working with the Strafford Historical Society, three sets of historic panels explaining the history of the mine were installed at the site late last year. The easiest access is at a pull-off on Mine Road at the Strafford/Thetford border. There are also State Historic Markers on Mine Road and on Rte. 132 at the corner of Furnace Flat Road that helps interpret aspects of this mine site which closed down after nearly 150 years of mining campaigns in 1958.

Much of the mine land has recently been acquired or is in the process of being acquired by Scott Reilly, an engineer with a deep interest in mining history, who has created the Elizabeth Mine Historic Preservation Trust. While town highways cut through the properties, how and in what manner Reilly plans to allow access to the land itself is still to be determined.

Elizabeth Mine Photos from final historical evaluation - February 2022

(69 pages 58 photos, 6.8 mb PDF ) 

58 photos with detailed descriptions. Includes aerial views and photos of open cuts, the former pit lake area, reclaimed mine areas, solar electric panel arrays, passive treatment systems, haulageways, borrow areas, interpretive panel installations, tailings piles, Upper and Lowers Copperas Factory sites and World War II Flotation Mill