Pahaquarry Copper Mine: Cultural Landscape Report, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, National Park Service

Chavez, Steve; Berle Clemensen, A.

The Pahaquarry Copper Mine site is currently managed by the NPS as a limited day use site. Visitors, who are familiar with the story of the copper mines, hike the trails around the site and visit the mine ruins and tunnels. Other visitors access the Appalachian trail from here. Ranger guided walks through the mine tunnels were provided until 1989. At that time, it was determined that the mine tunnels were unsafe and they were barricaded. No developed facilities exist on the site and the park has no active program for the preservation of the mine ruins. The CLR will provide the direction for preservation treatment and facility development of this historic resource. It also will evaluate and document the significance, integrity, character-defining features, and existing condition of the resource. The document is divided into five basic parts. Part one, of which this section is a part, is the management summary which outlines the study and the nature of the resource. Parts two, three, four and five provide the historical documentation and significance evaluation, existing condition documentation, character-defining feature analysis, and treatment alternatives. Part 2, the historical documentation section, provides both the historic context of the site and the physical history of the property. The historic context establishes the relationship of the Pahaquarry site within the context of copper mining during the colonial era, mid-nineteenth, and early twentieth century and within the relevant geographical area of influence or trends within the historic development of mining. The physical history documentation establishes, to the extent possible, the evolution through time of the mine site and the landscape patterns and features associated with each period of development. Part 3 documents the existing condition of the site by looking at cultural patterns and features of the landscape and identifying the period from which they date and current condition, or evidence of these landscape patterns and features. Documentation was done during field investigations and using current topographic mapping, aerial photography, and photography. Field documentation and the focus of the documentation effort was conducted for a small area of the original mining properties. This area covers about one tenth of the original property on both sides of Mine Brook Where copper exploration was known to have occurred and extant remains exist. It is possible that sites and remains of the mining activity which occurred on the property exist outside the area of field documentation and concentration for this documentation. Historical research, however, suggests that copper exploration during the mining periods occurred in the smaller area of focus which our efforts were concentrated. Part 4 of the CLR provides an analysis of the character-defining features of the landscape based on an understanding of the history of the site and existing conditions documented in the previous sections. National Register criteria are used to evaluate the integrity of the site, and to establish character-defining features of the landscape for the mining periods. Part 5 of the CLR synthesizes the understanding of the historic landscape from the previous sections to develop treatment alternatives for the proposed site development, interpretation, and preservation of the historic landscape. The alternatives consider the range of treatments possible within the parameters of the four types of treatments identified in NPS 28 for treatment of cultural landscapes. Within the treatment type selected for the landscape, alternatives are developed which address the proposed development program for the site, management issues, interpretation, and preservation.

Pahaquarry Copper Mine: Cultural Landscape Report, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, National Park Service

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