Mining book about Sussex County is one sale
SUSSEX COUNTY-The Franklin and Sterling Hill mines in Sussex County are the birthplace of the U.S. zinc industry, and are recognized worldwide for their diverse and magnificent mineral deposits. A new book by Carrie Papa, A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch: The Franklin and Sterling Hill Mines, documents the history of the celebrated Franklin and Sterling Hill mines through the eyes of 34 narrators, almost all of whom worked in or around the mines, and explores the positive and negative aspects of life in the mines and the company towns as well as the legacy and continuing educational impact of the mines. Papa lives, studies and writes in Bridgewater. She has a degree in history from Rutgers University. Her interest in people and history was cultivated during her thirty years of living in foreign countries with her husband, who was on assignment with the US Diplomat Corps. When the Papas retired to New Jersey, she became involved with the efforts of a local historical society to preserve a two-centuries-old one-room schoolhouse and establish a museum. While serving as founding director for the Old Monroe School Museum, Papa received awards from the New Jersey Historical Society and the National Association for State and Local History for the museum's interpretive programs. In addition to A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch, Carrie has been involved with several other oral history projects. Included among these are The Carousel Keepers: An Oral History of American Carousels (published by McDonald & Woodward 1988); Bicentennial Voices; Stones and Stories: An Oral History of the Old Monroe School (which resulted in a book of the same name); and Farm Women of Sussex County. She is currently working on a book about antique carousels. The Midwest Book Review wrote: "Carrie Papa's father, Paul Moore, was a deep shaft miner in the Franklin Mine in northern New Jersey. A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch: An Oral History of the Franklin and Sterling Hill Mines is a unique regional history drawing upon the memories and experiences of thirty-four mine workers, their families, and others whose lives were intertwined in the New Jersey mining industry in general, and the New Jersey Zinc Company in particular, between the years 1897 and 1986. A superbly presented and original work of seminal history, A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch is especially recommended to the attention of students as well as non-specialist general readers with an interest in America's mining industry and the contributions deep shaft ore mining has made to the development and expansion of the American nation." Research for this book was partially funded by the New Jersey Historical Commission. A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch contains primary source material, photographs, and other documents that have never been published before.