Ruggles Mine

It is no exaggeration to say that Ruggles Mine of Grafton New Hampshire was once a world class operation. It began in 1805 when entrepreneur Sam Ruggles began scooping up various lots of property that he'd discovered were rich with mica, and by 1810 he was extracting mica from the site at full force.

Fearing competition, Ruggles kept its location secret by employing only family to work in the mine, and by selling the mica out of a warehouse in Boston. In 1834 the mine was passed down to his son George, then over the years changed hands several times before in 1932 it was purchased by the Bon Ami Company. They mined feldspar from the pit, a multi-use mineral that at the time was used for enamel surfaces, glass cleaner, and false teeth.

Bon Ami owned it through 1959, but there ended the glory years for Ruggles Mine. American miners could no longer compete with cheap labor overseas, and most companies had turned to importing their minerals from countries like Brazil and India. Four years later Ruggles was turned into a tourist attraction, where for a small fee the public could chip away at the walls of the mine and bring home any of the cool rocks they found.

Our first trip to Ruggles was in the early 1990's. At the time I wouldn't have known a chunk of mica from a chunk of gravel, but I'd seen pictures of the place in brochures, and I dragged my wife there simply so I could wander through all its giant caverns.

That was a great trip, but although we were free to explore the open pit and chambers, the tunnels and upper levels were strictly off limits.

It wouldn't be until 25 years later that I would finally have the chance to see all the secret places Ruggles kept hidden from the public.

There were enough twists and turns in this labyrinth to actually get myself turned around a couple of times. At one point I found myself thinking I'd reached the exit, but instead was looking out a hole halfway up the cavern wall.

I spent some time fussing with my camera's timer trying to recreate a picture from 25 years ago, but it didn't work out. The sun was in no mood to cooperate and I couldn't get rid of the glare. Plus, I realized that night that I had been sitting in the wrong spot the entire time. Also, I no longer have any hair.

In 2016 Geraldine Searles, whose husband purchased the property many decades ago for $20,000, closed Ruggles Mine and put it up for sale at a $2 million pricetag. Although there has been interest, it hasn't sold yet and there's no guarantee it will open back up to the public if it does. But there is hope. A petition has been circulating online to turn this area into a state park, and New Hampshire is in the early stages of seriously considering doing this. My fingers are crossed, for until that time this historical place, and one of our states's most magnificent areas, will remain hidden from the public's view.

Links:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170420055210/http://www.rugglesmine.com:80/
http://www.nhpr.org/post/nh-exploring-idea-making-ruggles-mine-state-park#stream/0

Remnants Of The Elbow Pond Community

If you were to visit Elbow Pond in Woodstock NH prior to the 1970's, you'd have found dozens of cottages surrounding this small body of water. Visit this same area today and you won't find a single one of those cottages remaining, but you will find plenty of evidence that there once was a small community who lived here.

There are pictures online - much better than any that I'm about to show you - which document these scattered remains, and I'd gone up the previous summer in search of them. I biked from a parking area on Elbow Pond Road until reaching the water, and although I enjoyed a couple of hours roaming through the woods, as for finding any remnants? I returned home that afternoon with my tail between my legs.

So I did what I do best when one of these searches gets me stumped, I asked for help. Joined by our hiking partner John, who by his own account had been to Elbow Pond oh around six or seven times, a group of us broke out the snowshoes in the winter of 2018. Going in the snow was not an error in judgement, it turns out that many of the remnants are on the far side of the pond, and rather than trying to reach them through marsh and swamp during warmer weather, we'd instead be enjoying a leisurely stroll across the ice.

If there was one single thing I wanted to find on this trip, it was this truck. Half buried in the ground and with some crazy homemade winch mounted to the front, its picture is what had originally put Elbow Pond on my map of places to explore.

We also found the second vehicle on my hit list, this smiling relic.

Although located in somewhat of a remote location, we did come across a few other people that afternoon: some ice fishermen, a few cross country skiers, and by a stroke of luck that made me want to play the lottery that night, an elderly gentleman who once actually lived here and was happy to stop and chat. He recalled cottages existing as far back as his memory took him, which was the 1930's, and he himself owned one up until the 60's. He was quick to point out that he only owned the cottage, not the land, as was the case with all of them. The land was owned by a logging company who, in an indication of how the world used to be a very different place, freely let people build their cottages and live along the pond.

Does Elbow Pond still have a resident?

This arrangement worked fine for everyone until the 1970's, at which point the land became more valuable to the White Mountain National Forest than it was to the logging company. The government purchased the property, and if there's one thing they were not about to tolerate it was a bunch of squatters living freely on their land. Cottage owners were given just 30 days to leave Elbow Pond, and according to the story this gentleman told us, many did not go peacefully. The more irate among them burned their cottages to the ground, and anything deemed to much trouble to carry was simply left. Many of those belongings remain today, with stoves being the most plentiful of all. I think we stopped counting them when we got into the double digits.

We marveled at the thought of so many cottages being set ablaze, and spoken like a man who had the good fortune of selling his own cottage just prior to it becoming worthless, the gentleman finished his story by saying that yeah, people were mad as heck at the time, but in the end it was a great thing because look at what a beautiful place we all have to enjoy now.

Tina getting shorter

Though I imagine there are former residents with a very different view of things, I personally couldn't have agreed with him more.

Links:
https://www.scenicnh.com/blog/2015/09/abandoned-elbow-pond-community/

Place Names of the White Mountains - By Robert Hixson Julyan, Mary Julyan