Beekman, New York

New York

When an iron mine near Sylvan Lake was flooded, the crews left their tools and machinery on the bottom, and it is all still down there.

historicalengineering

Under the water of a small lake in Beekman sits a set of abandoned mining tools. Construction equipment too. When the mine filled with water, none of it was hauled out, and it is all still there today. The lake is called Hidden Lake, and it is where a man named Daniel Delany found iron ore in the late nineteenth century and made his fortune. He did well enough to buy the neighboring property, which amounted to the entire shoreline of Sylvan Lake. Then he paid to rebuild St. Denis church for the town. More ore came out of the ground along the shores of Sylvan Lake in the early nineteen thirties. Some of the retaining wall pilings from that work are still standing. From a boat on the water, you can see them plainly. Sylvan Lake itself was formed during the ice age. The original Indian name for it was Poughquag, meaning round body of water.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
When the mine was filled with water, construction equipment and mining tools were left on the bottom, and are present today.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Nearby, on the same roads

  • Bykenhulle 3.7 mi To get into the old chicken coop, you tip a carved wooden liquor bottle into a shot glass and a peephole opens.
  • Kent, New York 10 mi The largest indoor Buddha statue in the Western Hemisphere sits in a town of about thirteen thousand people in New York's Hudson Valley.
  • Van Wyck Homestead Museum 11.1 mi Under the highway ramps and a shopping mall parking lot lies the largest identified burial ground of American Revolutionary War soldiers in the country.
  • West Branch Reservoir 12.8 mi The aqueduct feeding this reservoir leaks thirty-five million gallons a day, and fixing it means a two billion dollar tunnel under the Hudson.
  • Fishkill Creek 16.8 mi The kill in Fishkill has nothing to do with killing fish. It is just Dutch for creek.
  • Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site 17.4 mi The medal that became the Purple Heart was handed out to its first three recipients on this front lawn.