Slateford
Upper Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
One of the first attempts to quarry slate in this country was made here at Slateford by a company chartered in 1808. Some of the quarries and slate factories in this vicinity were operated until 1917.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
At Slateford in 1808, a chartered company launched one of the earliest efforts to quarry slate in the United States, tapping the rich seams of the Lehigh Valley. Over the following century, quarries and slate mills in this vicinity turned local stone into roofing and building material, keeping their works running until 1917. The venture helped pioneer an industry that would make eastern Pennsylvania a national center of slate production.
Why it matters
Slateford marks the frontier of American industrial mineral extraction in the early republic, an early bid to build a domestic supply of the materials a growing nation needed to roof its homes and pave its future.
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Nearby & related markers
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