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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
Gun-gray cuts in rock ledges at 42.7 miles (L) introduce the eastern outskirts of FRANKLIN (600 alt., 4,176 pop.), center of New Jersey's zinc-mining industry. Zinc dominates the land here; in the rocks, underground,
and in row after row of gray shingled company houses. The highway itself
is built over a maze of underground tunnels where 75 miles of electric
railway connect mining operations (visitors not admitted). Owned by the
New Jersey Zinc Co., the region contains one of the largest supplies of
zincite, franklinite, and oxide of zinc in the world; about 500,000 tons of
zinc ores are extracted annually. Franklin was a mining town before the
discovery of zinc. A hundred years ago it was a pig-iron center with two
forges and a blast furnace. The town has only one old building, a brown,
fieldstone CHURCH built in 1837, Originally a Baptist edifice, it has been
used by Methodists and Presbyterians and is now a Jewish synagogue.
HARDISTONVILLE, 43.9 miles (600 alt.), is a suburb of Franklin. The
company town's rim extends from Franklin into Hardistonville in the solid
line of drab zinc-topped bungalows; the occasional white cottages with
green shutters and painted roofs are the homes of company officials.
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