​Friedensville Mines Heritage 

Preserving the Rich Industrial History of  Friedensville, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
This site is dedicated to preserving the history of zinc mining in the Center/Saucon Valley area of Upper Saucon Township. The village in the center of this zinc mining heritage is Friedensville. Here in the 1840s the discovery of zinc rich mineral deposits lead to, along with concurrent developments in New Jersey,  the first industrial scale zinc extraction and processing enterprises in the United States. Ground breaking and transformative technologies were employed to accomplish this task. The mining activities in the Friedensville area continued, on and off, until 1984. Today, various remnants of this industry survive, and a movement is underway to preserve the central 19th century mining location as an interpretative open area museum and park.

What is Zinc?

Zinc (Zn)is the 4th most common metal with 13 million tons per year produced (after iron, aluminum and copper). The core sample below is from the 20th century Friedensville underground mines.
Picture
How  was Zinc used in the 19th century?

Medical/Cosmetics
Brass Alloy
Paint Additive
​Anti-Corrosion Plating
​
What are the newer uses of Zinc?

Aerospace
Lithium Batteries
Alkaline Batteries
Cathodic Protection
​And Many More
EXPLORE THE GROUNDS

The President Pumping Engine
The Friedensville Mines have been described as the wettest mines in North America. How to deal with the huge quantities of water flooding the mine workings was the greatest technical challenge facing the mines since their early operations. Meeting this challenge lead to the creation of the largest and most powerful single cylinder steam engine ever constructed anywhere in the world. The engine house which supported this engine survives in a ruined state on the  mine property.
Photo above is one of a set of drawings done by a Lafayette College student in 1874 for his senior thesis. Courtesy of Lafayette College Special Collections.  The mine plan section below is from the Stabler Land Company records in Lehigh University Special Collections. 

Tell Me More?

The 
1480 Saucon Meadow Court
​Bethlehem, PA 18015
Mark Connar
​610-248-6653
[email protected]