Scotia...open mining?

[Mity2]

So my wife found the article saying something about that area around the current Scotia range was once a thriving open pit mining town around 1880's up until 1911.
Scotia range road was acutally a train track!

And that the there are still mining shaft and also some abanden town near by.

Does anyone knows anything about this? I did some searching, and came up with very little.

My wife wants to visit this old town ruins...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia,_Pennsylvania

[psucivil]

That is very interesting, I would have never thought that about Scotia. I have hunted alot of the areas in Scotia and have never came across anything that hints towards a mine being there a century ago. I also have never found the old town ruins in the photo, but would love to find it. Can I ask where your wife read the article? Also do you know where about in the Scotia the ruins are at?

[Mity2]

That is very interesting, I would have never thought that about Scotia. I have hunted alot of the areas in Scotia and have never came across anything that hints towards a mine being there a century ago. I also have never found the old town ruins in the photo, but would love to find it. Can I ask where your wife read the article? Also do you know where about in the Scotia the ruins are at?

My wife heard it from her boss. And I did some search, which yield very limited results.

below is only thing I was able to find....


If you look at the google earth, there are indeed large lake in pace where it says scotia Ore Pits in old map, but no luck on old town.
https://maps.google.com/?ll=40.80132,-77.94546&z=15&t=h
If you follow the map fearther down towrds the range, you'll see that there are few clearing few hundread yard beyound the bushes. looks like right where Scotia was on the old map. Possibly one of these? Likely have to walk around to see...


http://www.personal.psu.edu/jun3/blo...n-final-draft/
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/pa/scotiavillage.html

[psucivil]

The first link that you posted is penn state student blog, that im assuming is for a class. The fact that the person took all the photos leads me to believe that the ruins are someplace along the main Scotia road and as the author stated is just a few yards into the woods. Once small game season opens back up, I will try and do some hunting for those ruins if they are someplace along the road I am bound to find them.

[Mity2]

Yea my wife was like ready to go hit the woods last night!
I had to tell her to slow her roll, as its in middle of hunting season.

by the looks of it, old pits are not too far from the road, and its at least several acres large.
I never knew that it is there.
By the looks of it, it was fair sized mine, with something like 400 people in town. And almost all of the trace appears to be gone, and entire area is now encompassed by Pennsylvania State Game Lands No. 176.
So this may be something fun to exprorere once its warmed up in spring....

A few more photps I found...




More here...
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...1BA8D6&first=1

[amingo111]

I found these in the woods. Not sure are they related or not.
photo 1.JPG

photo 3.JPG

photo 5.JPG

[mdhunter55]

If you come onto the range road from the State College side, there is a pullout with a gate on the right side, just across from some small water holes. Walk down that road and you will find ore pits as well as some structure.

[Mity2]

I found these in the woods. Not sure are they related or not.
photo 1.JPG

photo 3.JPG

photo 5.JPG

Thats the remains of the Ditches of the Washer built during the early 1940's when the attempt was made to initiate a viable mining operation at the site by a small company, the Scotia Mining Company that failed.

See page 7
http://departments.juniata.edu/geolo...0Community.pdf

[Mtbkski]

I use to Mt. Bike out there. You can see remains of old buildings, water holes, rock dump. I never gave it much thought actually, but I can see it having been a mined area.

[Bridger]

There is a new Purple Lizard map of the Scotia area that has a lot of history.
http://www.purplelizard.com/products...nd-history-map

This should be available at any of the outdoors or bike shops in town.