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The Lehigh Slate District of Northampton and Lehigh Counties Has Long Been the Leading Slate-Producing Region of the United States

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The Lehigh Slate District of Northampton and Lehigh Counties Has Long Been the Leading Slate-Producing Region of the United States SLATE * By BENJAMIN L. MILLER and CHARLES H. BEEIRE, JR. The Lehigh slate district of Northampton and Lehigh counties has long been the leading slate-producing region of the United States. The slate industry for over 100 ye,ars has been the most important industry of nearly all the communities in the northern part of the two counties. A traveler passing through Wind Gap, Pen Argyl, Ban- gor, Danielsville, Slatington, Sl,atedale or almost a score of other vil- lages cannot fail to be impressed with the evidence of extensive slate operations as he views the numerous excavations and the “mountain~s” of waste rock that dominate the landscape. From Pennsylvania quarries and mills all varieties of slate products except slate pen&s are obtained. The list includes roofing slate, mill stock, marbleized slate, slate granules, and pulverized slate. “Mill stock” is a comprehensive term covering rough or finished slate that is used for structural purposes or in interior furnishings of buildings. It includes slate for structural and sanitary purposes (e. g., sinks, mantels, dripboards, shower stalls, toilet stalls, stair risers, insulating wall board, and the like), grave vaults and covers, billiard t,able tops, electrical insulation and switchboard material (together classed as “electrical slate”), blackboards and bulletin boards, school slates, and marbleized slate. #late granules are used for surfacing prepared roof- ing, and slate flour as a filler. Among the districts where slate is now being quarried the “soft” slate of the Lehigh-Northampton dis- trict yields all of these products; the “hard” belt in the Lehigh- Northampton district furnishes today onlly crushed slate, roofing slate, and slate for such structural and sanitary uses as will require no finishing. The great proportion of the slate production of the State is in the sorm of roofing slate. Pennsylvania leads all other States in slate production. In 1939 the value of slate produced amounted to $3,056,853 or 45 percent of the value of all slate produced in the United States. Lehigh County made about 10 percent of the output of the State. Pennsylvania is the only State commonly producing blackboard slate, although very small1 amounts have come from other localities in certain years. The yield is entirely from the Lehigh-Northampton district. All of the production comes frjom the neighborhood of Bangor, of Pen Argyl and Wind Gap, or Slatington, Berlinsville, and Slatedale. History.-Fritts (1877) ‘says that & company for quarrving slate in Northampton County was incorporated in 1805. Finch”in 1824 re- ported that slate quarries had been opened “near the banks of the Delaware” but the product was regarded as inferior. “ . The first operation recorded was in the hard belt by a company from Baltimore which in 1828 began quarryin g west of Laurys Station in White- hall township, probably at the Rock-dale quarry, Lehigh County. * NOTE: In 1933 this Survey published “Slate in Pennsylvania” (400 pp.), by Charles H. Behre, Jr. Most of the volume concerns the slate deposits and industry of Lehigh and Northampton Counties. Inasmuch as this report is still in print and readily obtainable, it would manifestly be inadvisable to republish any considerable pOrtIOn of that volume here or to attempt to duplicate this work. For that reason thp discussion here is brief and limited to only a few considerations. The account is written by Miller with quotations from Behre’s report. 401 402 LEHIGH COUNTY “In 1831 slate was discovered on Benninger’s farm, east of Slatington, and probably near the site of the present Genuine Washington quarries, but ext.ensive quarrying on a commercial scale is not known to have been done here before 1844. In that year, according to tradition, the land men- tioned was leased by William Roberts and Nelson Labar, who became interested in quarrying from seeing slate outcrops while on a walking trip from Easton to Mauch Chunk.” In 1845 Roberts and Llabar searched for slate on the west side of the Lehi.gh River but failed to find any desirable material. Later Owen Jones discovered some slat’e on the present site of Slatington and with Roberts opened a quarry about 1845. “By 1855 the slate quarry industry, stimulated by Welshmen who were instrumental in persuading experienced slaters from Wales to emigrate to this country, was already thriving and growing by leaps and bounds. Indeed in 1850 or thereabouts, Rogers, then State Geologist of Pennsylvania, and his associates found five quarries in operation at Slatington and two more near the Delaware Water Gap, one of the latter apparently being the Old Jersey quarry, east of Delaware River. Rogers even writes of one quarry as having been opened in 1812, but this statement is probably incorrect. “By 188.01, when Sanders studied the district for the Pennsylvania Geo- logical .Survey, slate quarrying was in full swing at all the present centers of production. Indeed in many cases Sanders reports large quarries that had been worked out and abandoned.” In 1884 (Mathews an,d Hungerf,ord) 41 slate quarries had been or were being .operated in th.e Sl,atington regi,on. “In its subsequent growth the district has suffered the depressi.ons and revivals exuerience.d bv the slate industrv of the countrv as a whole. The introduction of channelling represented a marked advance and served as a stimulus; in 1863 it was first practiced in Vermont and probably reached Pennsvlvania a decade later. The aanearance. however. of asbestos. uaner and tar roofing materials shortly Before the peak prodcuction in &19bl3, heralded a general decline in demand for roofing slate. At the same time, school slate- consumpt’ion suffered greatly through displacement by cheap paper and at the hands of the sanitary experts of our public schools. This was accompanied by an intense price competition among the slate men themselves. “There ensued, t,hen, a period of marked distress in the industry. Labor costs had risen. Some of the old markets for slate products were on the wane with no possibility of any recuperation in the future; others were being invaded by substitute materials. Freight rates were prohibitive for distance shipments. Added to this, cost accounting was not recognized as furnishing a basis for proper sales prices; expenses were incurred in quarry operabions, while prices were being cut in a manner wholly unjustified by the small return on the investment. Then came the greatest of all catastro- phies to the industry, the World War. With the entry of the United States, slate quarrying was almost totally abandoned, being classed as unessential; labor was beyond reach. Immediately after our entry into the war the organization of the slate industry, so long projected and so long prevented by internal strife, t’ook place to a considerable degree, and two large com- panies were formed, one to deal with structural products, the other with roofing slate.” 1 : , ir;i Daring the p,ast few years the slate industry ha,s suffered greatly, owing to the general inactivity in the b&ding .trade and the competi- ti,on with manufactured roofing produ#cts. Inve~stigations to fin’d uses for the discarded rock have met with little success. SLATE 403 Production of roofing slate, 1915-1939 Squares (100 scluare feet) Values in dollars ODerators - -___- -__-_ Year in Jehish CO. u. s. Penn. Lh2h u. 9. Penn. =kTh ~~____- --- 31 1,113,944 675,396 143,145 $4,41X,062 $2,605,882 $513,027 28 1,019,553 614,863 125,148 4,160,832 2,463,944 461,029 26 967,880 574,223 113,911 3,746,X74 2,142,173 401,345 24 835,873 531,342 98,471 3,408,934 2,056,324 367,806 22 703,667 457,393 60,044 3,411,740 2,110,044 280,088 13 379,817 211,196 21,548 2,219,131 1,161,545 118,826 13 454,337 269,580 22,2a7a 3,085,957 1,679,519 135,769a 10 396,230 220,366 18,546 3,524,658 1,746,026 144,996 11 348,085 202,605 21,711 3,197,745 1,565,1c@ 157,826 11 479,243 283,365 26,834 4,069,761 2,076,585 188,422 13 507,587 300,272 22,243 4,582,535 2,373,125 171,610 12 469,393 249,450 26,834 4,6%,614 2,020,986 218,988 9 494,530 287,120 20,3'00 5,084,945 2,316,856 178,504 9 465,900 263,668 15,930 5,Oi9,087 2,127,782 127,817 9 468,560 247,120 20,920 4,949,940 1,953,Oi6 149,892 9 483,280 256,540 22,910 5,411,332 2,033,588 158,121 9 462,120 251,880 18,890 4,920,766 1,967,428 135.000 8 340,140 194,7OQ 15,360 3359,939 1,470,669 99,933 10 277,700 183,600 22,930 2,364,861 1,254,WO 127,629 9 144,410 86,550 11,640 1,072,255 439,892 65,952 10 153,170 95,050 13,690 967,834 537,178 66,840 13 137,010 84,690 10,500 1,033,164 585,973 69,887 12 221,630 144,296 16,730 1,456,041 879,209 99,572 9 366,130 235,7z?O 21,490 2,607,402 1,603,734 142,597 9 365,800 219,780 17,350 2,728,1C@ 1,561,731 126,880 10 322,040 195,560 11,850 2,247,910 1,293,426 80.363 10 399,320 236,710 14,730 2,868,%X 1,607,929 99,438 a Includes some production from Peach Bottom district.
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