Bristol Copper Mine, Bristol, Hartford County, Connecticut, USAi

Regional Level Types
Bristol Copper Mine	Mine (Abandoned)
Bristol	City
Hartford County	County
Connecticut	State
USA	Country

In 1798 a local farmer named Theophilus Botsford investigated a spring of greenish water issuing from a spot beside an old Indian trail at the base of Zack’s Mountain, a small hill near Bristol. The water was killing nearby vegetation, and Botsford correctly assumed there was copper in the spring water. With a yoke of oxen he plowed away some of the ground near the spring, and discovered a vein of copper ore. He did not, however, follow up on the discovery (Hurlbert, 1897).

In 1800, Asa Hooker, operator of a Bristol brass foundry, obtained a lease on the property from Sarah Yale, the widow of Abel Yale, descendent of Elihu Yale, founder of Yale University (Beals, 1954). Hooker turned the lease over to Luke Gridley, a local blacksmith and fence inspector, who promised Sarah Yale a one-thirtieth share of the ore or any other valuable “treasure” that might be found. Gridley worked the outcrop for eight years with hand tools, extracting small amounts of ore which he smelted in his nearby forge. This product was probably turned over to Hooker for use in his foundry business (Harte, 1944). But Gridley died in 1810, and the property lay dormant for the next 26 years.

In 1836 the Bristol brass industry was growing fast, and George Bartholomew, associate of E. N. Welch, owner of the Welch Foundry, obtained a 15-year lease on the Bristol property from Abel Yale, Jr., son of Sarah Yale, the new managers promising Abel one-twelfth share of the proceeds from mining...
When Bartholomew obtained the property he immediately trenched it to determine its values, opening an area measuring 10 by 20 feet and 17 feet deep.

The mine lies at an elevation of 350 feet near the northern line of the town of Bristol, Connecticut, and about four miles from its center. It is on the contact between the red Triassic sandstone of the Farmington River Valley and the crystalline rocks of the western upland. The former gives rise to a flattish topography and the latter is bordered by a line of rolling hills, here and there marked by steep faces, which in the vicinity of the mine rise to an elevation of 650 feet.

In the earlier part of the nineteenth century the State of Connecticut boasted of a number of mines, and the Bristol mine ranked first among the copper properties. It is reported to have been discovered in 1836 and was first described by Shepard in 1837. Mention was also made of it by Percival in 1842.

Prior to 1847 it was worked in a desultory way and there was shipped to England about 125 tons of high-grade ore. From 1847 to 1853 it was more vigorously worked. During this period some half million dollars was spent upon the property; workings were extended to a depth of 240 feet and to a maximum distance of 500 feet along the vein and 120 feet across.

During this same period, nearly $200,000 was obtained from about 2,200 tons of picked ore with an average copper content of 33 per cent. Some time after this the mine was closed. It was again opened in 1888 and a new shaft was sunk in the sandstone to a depth of 378 feet. Levels were run to depths of 30, 40, 50, and 60 fathoms, respectively, each one of which traversed the sandstones lying between the shaft and the contact, and penetrated into the schists...The mill was rebuilt and considerable mining activity took place until 1895 since which time the property has been idle. There are data available as to the amount of copper that was produced during this period, but several thousand tons of tailings on the dumps indicate a considerable extraction of ore.

The principal opening of the mine is a large pit some 100 feet or so in diameter, which represents a portion of the mine that has caved in. It is now filled by water. Two working shafts are visible. One is 125 feet from the schist-sandstone contact in the sandstone, and is said to be 240 feet deep. The other shaft lies 225 feet further eastward in the sandstone area, and is 378 feet deep...None of the workings are accessible at the present time. Another shaft, said to be 100 feet deep lies some 500 feet to the south. In addition to the main open cut, old prospect holes, shafts, and tunnels may be seen to the northeast, along what is presumably the contact. Everything is now covered with vegetation so that little can be seen.

The world wars had brought on copper shortages and high copper prices, and Allen Hearst of Forestville, Connecticut, convinced himself, both that there were still significant ore reserves in the Bristol mine, and that 20th-century technology could profitably extract copper even from low-grade ores at Bristol.

Hearst formed the Connecticut Mining and Milling Company with the express purpose of extracting silver and copper from the tailings on the site. He also undertook some limited dewatering and building. But the fall of world copper prices from their wartime highs finally saw to it that the venture was not successful; the mine was abandoned again in 1953. The property, zoned for industrial use, is now leased by a fuel oil company with a portion of the property used for a rubble dump and equipment storage site. The shafts have been filled and sealed, and access to the underground workings of the deposit will probably never again be possible.

Bristol offers much of historical interest as well. The mine property was originally owned by the Yale family, after whom Yale University is named. During the period of major development in the mid-19th century, several prominent Yale people were involved in the ownership and operation of the mine. These included Benjamin Silliman Sr. and Jr., James Dana Whitney, and John M. Woolsey. The English-born Charles M. Wheatley of New York, later to manage and give his name to the famous Wheatley lead mines at Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, came on as manager of the Bristol mine just as the great chalcocite and bornite specimens were about to be discovered. Wheatley, Whitney and Benjamin Silliman Jr. all protested vehemently against the mine owners’ wishes to process fine crystal specimens as ore, and are no doubt responsible for the preservation of most of the best specimens that have survived....

These miners reportedly found the Bristol orebody to be reminiscent of those at Truro, Redruth and Penzance, Cornwall. In the late 1840’s the “Cousin Jacks” would be on hand for the discovery of vugs lined with crystallized chalcocite, and may have troubled to preserve many specimens. Dr. Steven Chamberlain of Syracuse, New York, has reported that when he visited numerous private collections in Cornwall, England, over a hundred years later, “he observed, unexpectedly, a number of fine Bristol chalcocites which had been assigned a Cornwall pedigree,” apparently brought or sent home by Cornish miners (Heitner and Lininger, 1997)...

In 1847...Major stockholders included Yale people such as John M. Woolsey, Josiah D. Whitney, and Professor Benjamin Silliman, Jr. - son of Benjamin Silliman, Sr., the great mineralogist who “almost single-handedly took Yale into pre-eminence in early American education in chemistry, geology and mineralogy” (Moore, 1999). This connection with the Sillimans of Yale would prove fortuitous for Bristol and its great mineral specimens.

The position of mine manager went to 24-year-old Charles Moore Wheatley. Although already a successful businessman, Wheatley had only an amateur naturalist’s interest in geology and mineralogy, and no experience in mine management. However, his quick intelligence, enthusiasm, hard work, and dedication to mineralogy soon won him the support and respect of Benjamin Silliman, Jr. The warm relationship would pay continuing dividends for the Peabody Collection at Yale when Wheatley later took charge of the lead mines at Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, which now bear his name, and sent many fine specimens from there to Silliman in New Haven. Unfortunately, his tenure at Bristol lasted only until 1849, when he left to work at the Perkiomen and Ecton mines in Pennsylvania (Evans, 1984).

Under the leadership of its new cadre, the Bristol mine flourished, and soon was rated the most important copper mine in the northeastern United States (Smith and Smith, 1907)...

Many of the historically important specimens now in the Yale-Peabody collection certainly came to light at this time. A large number of fine chalcocite specimens also went to Union College, which is not surprising considering that Eliphalet Nott was president of that institution while also heading the Bristol Mining Company in the late 1840’s. Many more fine chalcocites also went to Union College in 1858, when Charley Wheatley sold his collection to the school, Josiah Whitney having arranged the sale...

The 1850’s saw a major disagreement among the owners and managers of the mine about what to do with the fine crystal specimens being found. Most of the owners wanted the specimens simply sent to the stamp mill to increase the yield, but Silliman (?) objected strongly. Hurlbert (1897), describing the management of the mine during 1855-1857, writes “It was during this administration that specimens of chalcocite of peculiar form could have been easily sold as cabinet specimens for hundreds of dollars, [but] were crushed for ore in spite of the protest of the mineralogist.” Heitner and Lininger (1997) speculate that this “mineralogist” was Benjamin Silliman, Jr., or possibly Josiah Whitney or Ludwig Stadtmüller. It was perhaps in part to protest the fate of these specimens that Silliman and Whitney sold out their holdings at the same time as did Nott - in 1857. Their reason also may have been the financial extravagance of Henry R. Sheldon, hired in 1851 as mine manager and bringing with him a Cornishman, Captain Williams, to oversee the property and production.