The primary rocks of the county consist of gneiss, hornblende,
granite, sienite, limestone, serpentine, angite and trappeau. They
extend over parts of several towns, and several mountains and hills
are composed of them. Granite is found at the foot of Butter Hill,
sienite at Butter Hill and on the east side of Bare Mountain at West
Point, gneiss along the Highlands, mica and slate north of Fort
Montgomery, angite rock between West Point and Round Pond and at
several points in Monroe, greenstone trap at Tuxedo Pond, granular
limestone at Cro'-nest and Butter Hill. Quartz rock and hornblende
are all along the Highlands and in Monroe and Warwick. Crystalline
serpentine is in the white limestone in Warwick, serpolite at Amity,
yellow garnet at Edenville, soapstone in Monroe. Large sheets of
mica are found southwest of the Forshee iron mine in Monroe, and in
this mine, which embraces an entire hill, are red garnet, brown
tremoline, carbonate of copper, serpentine, cocolite and umber. In
the O'Neil mine, half a mile northeast of the Forshee mine, are
crystallized magnetic ore, magnetic and copper pyrites, carbonate of
copper, serpentine, amianthus, asbestos, brown and rhombic spars,
angite, cocolite, feldspar and mica.
There are beds of arsenical and titanium ores in Warwick and a bed of
hemolite ore near Canterbury village. Magnetic oxide of iron abounds
in the primitive rocks of the Highlands, and at West Point is
associated with hornblende. Beds of lead have been opened at
Edenville and in the towns of Mt. Hope and Deer Park, and zinc and
copper ores have been found in small quantities. The Sterling iron
bed in Monroe, which was opened in 1781, extends over about thirty
acres, and has produced so strong an ore that it has been much used
in the manufacture of cannon. There are a number of other iron mines.
Searches for the traditional silver, gold, lead and tin mines have
been without satisfactory results.
Many evidences of glacial action in Orange County include masses of
boulders scattered in places throughout the county. These are mostly
of granite and gneiss, and there is occasionally one of grawacke. The
eastern slope of the Shawangunk Mountains gives evidence of the
passage there of an enormous glacier, which ground the rocks into the
rich soil that has been cultivated there for 200 years. Some of the
county's drift deposits are valuable for casting, brick and pottery
making, lithographic stones and glass.
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