Great to see green on top of that mountain. In the mid-1960s, me and some friends in Scouts did a hike on the AT from the Delaware Water Gap to the Lehigh Gap over several days. It was a great hike! When we were on the ridge above the Lehigh River, we all noticed the absence of vegetation along the ridge. It was just bare rock and soil. Nothing grew on that part of the trail. Later, in the early 1990s, I was working for a Superfund contractor and me and a coworker were assigned to visit the site and obtain soil samples from one of the plant areas. Can’t remember if it was the east or west side of the river. Our sampling equipment was limited to 4-inch bucket augers. It was a hot day and we were in level B PPE, meaning coated Tyvek suits, boots, two layers of gloves and respirators. Within minutes after suiting up, we were drenched in sweat, which is why I remember this job. All we encountered in the study area were dry cinders spread on the ground from the smelting refuse. Our augers could only penetrate 4-inches before the holes collapsed. So we collected surface samples. It was a long hot day and a very long ride back to the shop.
My husband was born and raised in Palmerton. His father and uncle both worked at the Palmerton New Jersey Zinc and then in mid-60's my husband was also employed at the West plant with his dad. His uncle worked in the Lab at the East plant. Thank you for sharing this. Brought back so many good memories seeing it again. Also nice to see all the growth on the mountain side.
Stumbled across this video. I worked in the Engineering Dept. for NJZ from 66 to 70 as a Drafter for maintaining and improving material handling for both the East and West plants. I, along with the plant Chief Engineer conducted a study and survey of the East Plant refuse piles you showed. I prepared drawings and sketches of those piles and attempted to quantify the a point of material contained within those piles. I was young at the time (~20) and wasn’t privy to the purpose of our study, but years later think it was the beginning of the realization that the pollution coming from this plant would soon put them out of business. Worked a lot in the West plant where the vertical retort furnaces produced their main product, Zinc ingots. I was given a military draft deferment and stayed out of the Vietnam War because zinc ingots were attached to naval vessels. I always felt guilty about this deferment since most all of my close friends were drafted and went off to war. I stayed home. The East plant produced a byproduct of the process and had an acid producing facility at this location. Nasty! Always thought this acid plant was the primary reason for the defoliation around the town. First time visiting this area of the plant, I could hardly breathe. Coughed for an hour afterwards. Workers there just laughed at me. Thanks for this video. I always wondered what happened to the plant and town.
My great grandfather and my great great grandfather worked at the zinc factory their entire lives. my Pappys father died in his arms in the boiler room at 40 years old and my Pappy had to work in that same boiler room until he retired. The factory got torn down a few years back its no longer there. I miss Palmerton, this video makes me wanna go home. ~homesick in Seattle
I'm so glad I found your channel I love the work you're doing, I live in Schuylkill County Pennsylvania some very familiar with the places you travel to, safe travels and thank you
I live in Florida since 2017. I lived in PA from 1952 to 2017. I miss the rolling hills of PA. Cliff's channel keeps memories of PA fresh. Cliff lives about 50 miles from where I grew up. He has often covered the area where I grew up in past videos. Thanks, Cliff, for your wonderful videos of Pennsylvania.
I am originally from New York, I was from the original superfund site, Newtown. A site so polluted the creek that is, that as far back as the 1890’s they changed the name of the town to Elmhurst because of Real Estate development. Even then nobody wanted to live near Newtown Creek. Moved to PA about 35 years ago and had no idea about this story. I am up in the Poconos but visit Palmerston and Wilson fairly often.
The Lehigh Gap Nature Center is and has been involved in the remediation from the damage done to the mountain and the environment. I grew up about 15 miles from this area. I saw how bad this mountain looked (completely all vegetation destroyed from the zinc smelting) in the 1960's up until 2017 when I left PA. When I was young, I remember driving through that area and seeing the heavy smog from what was coming out of this plants stacks. It is so sad the massive damage this zinc company did to the environment and the towns people's health.
@@insectbite1714 Actually I did when I lived in PA. I contributed to the Lehigh Gap Nature Center on a regular basis. It is a wonderful organization and has done so much to bring nature back to the mountain.
@@lynfl9814 wow, I live in Pennslvania my area is having a new lumber mill get built sort of sad how no one in my area cares and at least the coyotes still have a good habitat.
There used to be a trail to the top of the blue mountain behind the east plant. We used to run it at least once a week to get ready for basketball. Graduated in 73 but haven't been back for about 40 years.
they also do control burning on the mountain from time to time. which somehow supposedly helps with nature reclaiming it back. and the lil house on top of the red hill has pretty neat lil history behind it on why it sits up there.
Thatguyontheinternet the Mansion is called Marshall’s mansion. I believe it was built or owned by Ezra Marshall over a century ago. The Red Hill is composed of naturally occurring red shale, though in the early 1900s that hill was covered in grasses as well.
Marshall mansion is for sale. Stop into Lehigh Gap Nature Center across from trail. They did the replanting over ten years and thousands working hours of volunteers.
The interesting thing about Palmerton is the negative environmental legacy is inseparable from all the things attributable to the New Jersey Zinc Company that make the town truly exceptional. Palmerton is a example of a kind of early 20th century planned community and a kind of paternalistic corporate largesse that saw to not only the employment of most of the people there (including many European immigrants) but the welfare of the community at large: swimming pools, health care, education. Visit the Historical Society on Delaware Avenue for more of that part of the story. As for the environmental legacy: Palmerton was a "company town" through and through, and the EPA intervention and the results of its reports of environmental damage became the locus of all sorts of denial and conflict. The controversies continued when the NJZC was turned over to interests who used the remaining smelting facilities in the East Plant to incinerate toxic waste. In total, a fascinating and illustrative example of people finding their way through the wasteland and uncertain future that lies at the end of the industrial era. BTW the green foliage covering the mountain lying behind the East Plant seen in your shot of the plant is evidence of the degree of recovery, based upon a remedy suggested by Penn State researchers. If you took a shot from the same angle as recently as the 1990's you would have seen an almost entirely denuded mountainside. As for the other concerns, here is the 2017 EPA report, the fifth of its kind: semspub.epa.gov/work/03/2247853.pdf
the bare mountain is due not only to the zinc company but if you look at the mountain on the left near the river and half way up the mountain you will see where there were rail road tracks.. back in the days years ago the mountains caught fire numours times because of the old steam trains coming through and with the zinc company sterilize the ground so nothing would rot. ... the zinc company came up with the way to regreen the mountain and it worked well... but the EPA halted it till they could see if no other harm would be done.. after seeing the benefits they restarted the greening but took all the credit from the zinc company.... I lived there from the time I was born in 54 till I left for good in 76...... but worked in the company till 96.... yea they were not perfect but they did a lot of good for the town and cleaned up the mess...
The multi-million dollar corporations must be brought to bare economic responsibility to restore the beauty and natural health of the areas they contaminated. The U.S. like anywhere exotic has very beautiful forests, beaches and countryside. It should be protected by laws and civil unrest when its learned that the companies are damaging the country.
Great story. Great podcast. I've been through Palmerton alot. I like your podcasting around PA. I have an opinion: If it comes from the earth, it becomes the earth. My dad is highly educated. He is a scientist. Metals from the earth will eventually become just soil, and that's why there is vegetation growing on the waste piles. Metals come from the earth. I know we need to care for the earth, but people panicking about global warming is nonsense, because Al Quieda and other hate groups are more of a scare, plus we have gang members from terrible gangs like MS 13 coming in. We have countries with crazy leaders, like North Korea, with a terrible communistic leader, Kim Jong Un. We need to worry more about the country's safety and future, rather than global warming, because it naturally happens. The earth changes. It's the earth.
The deforestation of the Blue Mountain began in the early 60’s when New Jersey Zinc switched to a cheaper coal that was higher in sulphur and hence more acidic. Any cursory understanding of agriculture/forestry will see how important ph is in plant health. Not sure where the heavy metal cadmium came from, zinc or coal? but it is there. The Appalachians are the oldest mountains in the world and one gets this ancient mystical calm in their presence. I heard you say you were going fossil hunting at the end of the video. When the glaciers came rolling down from Canada, they hit and were stopped by the Appalachians forming what is called The Stony Ridge of which Palmerton sits between and there can be found many fossils and quartz crystals. The Red Hill you noted not being a toxic slag pile is formed of a red shale and is called Marshal’s hill due to a 19th century fellow who built a mansion there and there the Aquasicola Creek joins the Lehigh River.
Ayyyeee I live in Palmerton. Also about the red mountain, I really recommend looking up stories about them. They're all fictional, but they're pretty neat. (Fun fact: the mountain that was ruined by the Zinc company was on fire for I believe 4-5 days and they couldn't control it, it was pretty scary considering I live so close)
@Terry Weinhold there used to be train tracks at the bottom of the mountain and also tracks part way up.. back in the early days with the steam engines some times fires were started on the mountain from the trains... that started the whole process. along with the fires and the pollution from the company caused the mountain to go sterile
Wonder what the world was like without toxic pollution and atomic radiation? Yes before the industrial revolution and ww2 s atomic bombs/ nuclear testing.
I Remember they said the vegetation would never come back. It's looking like another prediction of the media proved false. I've hiked up there several times. 👍
that long brick building you are showing .. is totaly empty and used only for storage... and the smoke you are showing is not smoke it is steam... all stacks have bagrooms on them no smoke just steam
Next time you want to make an informed video. Get your shit together. Do your homework, get the facts and dates. And for Gods sake, read off your notes.
Great to see green on top of that mountain. In the mid-1960s, me and some friends in Scouts did a hike on the AT from the Delaware Water Gap to the Lehigh Gap over several days. It was a great hike! When we were on the ridge above the Lehigh River, we all noticed the absence of vegetation along the ridge. It was just bare rock and soil. Nothing grew on that part of the trail.
Later, in the early 1990s, I was working for a Superfund contractor and me and a coworker were assigned to visit the site and obtain soil samples from one of the plant areas. Can’t remember if it was the east or west side of the river. Our sampling equipment was limited to 4-inch bucket augers. It was a hot day and we were in level B PPE, meaning coated Tyvek suits, boots, two layers of gloves and respirators. Within minutes after suiting up, we were drenched in sweat, which is why I remember this job. All we encountered in the study area were dry cinders spread on the ground from the smelting refuse. Our augers could only penetrate 4-inches before the holes collapsed. So we collected surface samples. It was a long hot day and a very long ride back to the shop.
My husband was born and raised in Palmerton. His father and uncle both worked at the Palmerton New Jersey Zinc and then in mid-60's my husband was also employed at the West plant with his dad. His uncle worked in the Lab at the East plant. Thank you for sharing this. Brought back so many good memories seeing it again. Also nice to see all the growth on the mountain side.
Thanks!
Stumbled across this video. I worked in the Engineering Dept. for NJZ from 66 to 70 as a Drafter for maintaining and improving material handling for both the East and West plants. I, along with the plant Chief Engineer conducted a study and survey of the East Plant refuse piles you showed. I prepared drawings and sketches of those piles and attempted to quantify the a point of material contained within those piles. I was young at the time (~20) and wasn’t privy to the purpose of our study, but years later think it was the beginning of the realization that the pollution coming from this plant would soon put them out of business. Worked a lot in the West plant where the vertical retort furnaces produced their main product, Zinc ingots. I was given a military draft deferment and stayed out of the Vietnam War because zinc ingots were attached to naval vessels. I always felt guilty about this deferment since most all of my close friends were drafted and went off to war. I stayed home. The East plant produced a byproduct of the process and had an acid producing facility at this location. Nasty! Always thought this acid plant was the primary reason for the defoliation around the town. First time visiting this area of the plant, I could hardly breathe. Coughed for an hour afterwards. Workers there just laughed at me. Thanks for this video. I always wondered what happened to the plant and town.
My great grandfather and my great great grandfather worked at the zinc factory their entire lives. my Pappys father died in his arms in the boiler room at 40 years old and my Pappy had to work in that same boiler room until he retired. The factory got torn down a few years back its no longer there. I miss Palmerton, this video makes me wanna go home. ~homesick in Seattle
I thank you for this history of palmerton. Always heard stories. I thru hiked that area and the views were awesome. Love what you do,
keep it up!
Love my town, regardless of the pollution levels in our soil/drinking water!
I'm so glad I found your channel I love the work you're doing, I live in Schuylkill County Pennsylvania some very familiar with the places you travel to, safe travels and thank you
Me also I am originally from Pottsville but I have lived in Saint Clair for over 20 years.
I live in Florida since 2017. I lived in PA from 1952 to 2017. I miss the rolling hills of PA. Cliff's channel keeps memories of PA fresh. Cliff lives about 50 miles from where I grew up. He has often covered the area where I grew up in past videos. Thanks, Cliff, for your wonderful videos of Pennsylvania.
I am originally from New York, I was from the original superfund site, Newtown. A site so polluted the creek that is, that as far back as the 1890’s they changed the name of the town to Elmhurst because of Real Estate development. Even then nobody wanted to live near Newtown Creek. Moved to PA about 35 years ago and had no idea about this story. I am up in the Poconos but visit Palmerston and Wilson fairly often.
Thank you for this story, Cliff. I'm glad to see the green things growing.
The Lehigh Gap Nature Center is and has been involved in the remediation from the damage done to the mountain and the environment. I grew up about 15 miles from this area. I saw how bad this mountain looked (completely all vegetation destroyed from the zinc smelting) in the 1960's up until 2017 when I left PA. When I was young, I remember driving through that area and seeing the heavy smog from what was coming out of this plants stacks. It is so sad the massive damage this zinc company did to the environment and the towns people's health.
Why didn't you do anything about it?
@@insectbite1714 Actually I did when I lived in PA. I contributed to the Lehigh Gap Nature Center on a regular basis. It is a wonderful organization and has done so much to bring nature back to the mountain.
@@lynfl9814 wow, I live in Pennslvania my area is having a new lumber mill get built sort of sad how no one in my area cares and at least the coyotes still have a good habitat.
There used to be a trail to the top of the blue mountain behind the east plant. We used to run it at least once a week to get ready for basketball.
Graduated in 73 but haven't been back for about 40 years.
i graduated in 72 do we know each other?
Great educational videos. Thanks brother.🙏🏻🥊
Sudbury area in Canada is famous for the same issues (NE of Lake Huron). Surrounding area is growing again now that emissions have been cut.
they also do control burning on the mountain from time to time. which somehow supposedly helps with nature reclaiming it back. and the lil house on top of the red hill has pretty neat lil history behind it on why it sits up there.
Any info on it?
Thatguyontheinternet the Mansion is called Marshall’s mansion. I believe it was built or owned by Ezra Marshall over a century ago.
The Red Hill is composed of naturally occurring red shale, though in the early 1900s that hill was covered in grasses as well.
The ash fertalises the eroded soil with nutrients making it possible for new plants and trees to grow in soil that previously had no nutrients
Marshall mansion is for sale. Stop into Lehigh Gap Nature Center across from trail. They did the replanting over ten years and thousands working hours of volunteers.
The interesting thing about Palmerton is the negative environmental legacy is inseparable from all the things attributable to the New Jersey Zinc Company that make the town truly exceptional. Palmerton is a example of a kind of early 20th century planned community and a kind of paternalistic corporate largesse that saw to not only the employment of most of the people there (including many European immigrants) but the welfare of the community at large: swimming pools, health care, education. Visit the Historical Society on Delaware Avenue for more of that part of the story. As for the environmental legacy: Palmerton was a "company town" through and through, and the EPA intervention and the results of its reports of environmental damage became the locus of all sorts of denial and conflict. The controversies continued when the NJZC was turned over to interests who used the remaining smelting facilities in the East Plant to incinerate toxic waste. In total, a fascinating and illustrative example of people finding their way through the wasteland and uncertain future that lies at the end of the industrial era. BTW the green foliage covering the mountain lying behind the East Plant seen in your shot of the plant is evidence of the degree of recovery, based upon a remedy suggested by Penn State researchers. If you took a shot from the same angle as recently as the 1990's you would have seen an almost entirely denuded mountainside. As for the other concerns, here is the 2017 EPA report, the fifth of its kind: semspub.epa.gov/work/03/2247853.pdf
the bare mountain is due not only to the zinc company but if you look at the mountain on the left near the river and half way up the mountain you will see where there were rail road tracks.. back in the days years ago the mountains caught fire numours times because of the old steam trains coming through and with the zinc company sterilize the ground so nothing would rot. ... the zinc company came up with the way to regreen the mountain and it worked well... but the EPA halted it till they could see if no other harm would be done.. after seeing the benefits they restarted the greening but took all the credit from the zinc company.... I lived there from the time I was born in 54 till I left for good in 76...... but worked in the company till 96.... yea they were not perfect but they did a lot of good for the town and cleaned up the mess...
Thanks for the information
You don't get a gold star for cleaning up the mess you made.
@@katebattista7400 who asked you for an opion that you know nothing about
@@katebattista7400 the ones that destroyed the mountain are not the same ones that cleaned it up..
The multi-million dollar corporations must be brought to bare economic responsibility to restore the beauty and natural health of the areas they contaminated. The U.S. like anywhere exotic has very beautiful forests, beaches and countryside. It should be protected by laws and civil unrest when its learned that the companies are damaging the country.
the Zinc company brought the mountain back to nature
YES! Thank you. We need to hold these companies accountable!
@@WouldntULikeToKnow. They just declare bankruptcy and walk away. Unregulated capitalism is like allowing the fox to watch the henhouse.
Thanks Cliff, we (humans) sure can mess things up nice to see we can fix it too. I wouldn't want to drink the well water for awhile though.
Enjoyed the history lesson! So glad nature is being allowed to regenerate. Thanks for sharing!
Great story. Great podcast. I've been through Palmerton alot. I like your podcasting around PA. I have an opinion: If it comes from the earth, it becomes the earth. My dad is highly educated. He is a scientist. Metals from the earth will eventually become just soil, and that's why there is vegetation growing on the waste piles. Metals come from the earth. I know we need to care for the earth, but people panicking about global warming is nonsense, because Al Quieda and other hate groups are more of a scare, plus we have gang members from terrible gangs like MS 13 coming in. We have countries with crazy leaders, like North Korea, with a terrible communistic leader, Kim Jong Un. We need to worry more about the country's safety and future, rather than global warming, because it naturally happens. The earth changes. It's the earth.
Lehigh Gap Nature Center did the reforestation on the mountain. Check them out!
I read a few months ago that 2 warehouses are going to be built on the old site.
you should have seen that place 30 years ago. major change in how it looked
Superfund/Brownfield Wandering. Exotic places and interesting work.
The deforestation of the Blue Mountain began in the early 60’s when New Jersey Zinc switched to a cheaper coal that was higher in sulphur and hence more acidic. Any cursory understanding of agriculture/forestry will see how important ph is in plant health. Not sure where the heavy metal cadmium came from, zinc or coal? but it is there.
The Appalachians are the oldest mountains in the world and one gets this ancient mystical calm in their presence. I heard you say you were going fossil hunting at the end of the video. When the glaciers came rolling down from Canada, they hit and were stopped by the Appalachians forming what is called The Stony Ridge of which Palmerton sits between and there can be found many fossils and quartz crystals.
The Red Hill you noted not being a toxic slag pile is formed of a red shale and is called Marshal’s hill due to a 19th century fellow who built a mansion there and there the Aquasicola Creek joins the Lehigh River.
They did aerial remediation in that area with choppers dropping ecobloom (treated poop)and wild seeds. There are lots of blueberries.
which was researched by the NJZ
I wouldn't eat them. Too bad the animals returning to the area do.
very interesting but tragic history...but i am glad that nature is rebounding and I hope it continues!!!
I hope it does as well.
In the clean up where do they take the waste?
very interesting, thankyou for making it!
Thanks for watching
Ayyyeee I live in Palmerton. Also about the red mountain, I really recommend looking up stories about them. They're all fictional, but they're pretty neat.
(Fun fact: the mountain that was ruined by the Zinc company was on fire for I believe 4-5 days and they couldn't control it, it was pretty scary considering I live so close)
yo I live close to Palmerton to
@Terry Weinhold there used to be train tracks at the bottom of the mountain and also tracks part way up.. back in the early days with the steam engines some times fires were started on the mountain from the trains... that started the whole process. along with the fires and the pollution from the company caused the mountain to go sterile
Pollutants from places like the zinc plant and the Bethlehem Steel had turned the Lehigh River into an almost lifeless river.
Thank you for your work
Sounds like it was a real mess... It was interesting to hear about the rehabilitation work being done.
Mankind certainly does make a mess 😖
Wonder what the world was like without toxic pollution and atomic radiation? Yes before the industrial revolution and ww2 s atomic bombs/ nuclear testing.
Glad this town is trying to get over its past and begetation and flowers are coming back.
I found some crystal points in Palmerton near the public swimming pool. Cindy Schmied
I live in Palmerton for a few years, but raised in Lehighton
Wow what a place.
Love ur videos
is it a underground mine or what?
Ive watched several of your videos for the past few months. Thought I might as well Sub.
Thanks
Kind of depressing.
I Remember they said the vegetation would never come back. It's looking like another prediction of the media proved false. I've hiked up there several times. 👍
So what happened to the wildlife, the animals? Did the pollution kill them? Did they move to some else?
Local from Palmerton
Lehighton 🏠
that long brick building you are showing .. is totaly empty and used only for storage... and the smoke you are showing is not smoke it is steam... all stacks have bagrooms on them no smoke just steam
Had a fire over there last week
Tried that mid April and got the fire department called
I love Palmerston
Its called MARSHALLS HILL not RED HILL...
When we had to wrestle that school we would call them pod people ,,some strange folks,,,
You should really do more research. You are incorrect about quite a few things.
PLEASE STATE WHAT IS "INCORRECT" ?
Well inform us please!
No
Next time you want to make an informed video. Get your shit together. Do your homework, get the facts and dates. And for Gods sake, read off your notes.