Hubbard Tungsten Mine at Long Hill The first mention of minerals at Saganawamps, or Old Mine Park, is found in the February 21, 1757 deed giving Howkins Nichols of Stratford a lease for 200 years of "at a place commonly called Saganawam for obtaining ye ore or mineral substances." Some time around 1818, Ephraim Lane took some samples of rocks he found at Saganawamps to Yale University Professor
Benjamin Silliman for identification. Silliman reported, in his new
American Journal of Science, that he had identified
tungsten,
tellurium,
topaz and
fluorite. Shortly after the articles were published, Ephraim Lane was making specimens available to collectors at a price and apparently to protect his supply of minerals, Lane acquired a lease to in Trumbull later to be known as "Shagamywamps the mine lot" in 1828 from Elijah Hawley. Lane then leased the land to Thomas R. Hubbard. In 1837 the first (and at the time only) prismatic barite ore of
tungsten in the United States was discovered at the mine. It was scientifically studied in 1887 by Adolph Gurlt of the
University of Bonn. The area has previously been mined for
copper,
silver,
lead and
gold as well as
limestone.
The Hubbard Mine for tungsten was operated by the
Rare Minerals Company from 1898 and later by the
American Tungsten Mining and Milling Company, ceasing operations after a fire in 1916. Besides tungsten, the mine was also a source of
beryl,
opal,
topaz,
tourmaline and 60 other crystals and minerals in varying quantities. Later on the site was demolished and a Home Depot was built nearby, many of the same crystals and minerals were found on this site. This site is closed for crystal and mineral mining ==Park==