“Immigrants are disposable”, This is what mining recruiters used to think when mining was a huge industry in the Adirondacks. Immigrants were taken advantage of in the early days of the Adirondack mining industry, and deserve more recognition for how much they contributed to the history of the land. People today only see the Adirondacks as a place of beauty, failing to realize the history behind the landscape which they admire so much.

The mining that was done in the Adirondacks did a great job of employing people while also introducing a very diverse group of people to the region. While this sounds good at the surface, there was actually a darker side to the story of mining in the Adirondacks. There were recruiters for the mines that would take immigrants directly from the docks of New York and give them an opportunity to work. While innocent at first, the jobs given to these immigrants were inherently dangerous and they weren’t treated well.

What was done in these small mining towns located in the Adirondacks was cold and calculated. Some towns were “ethnically segregated…exacerbating tensions between old and new immigrant groups – which served to reduce the chances of miners finding common cause and striking, or, worse, unionizing” (Mining in the Adirondacks). Unfortunately, the way that these mines were run, their only purpose was to increase profits and production by exploiting workers. A clear example of this exploitation is when Italian mine workers “had to pay for their own tools and…pew rents in the local parish that new immigrant workers could not afford”(Mining in the Adirondacks). It is a shame to see what was done to these people, but all of this grueling work didn’t go to waste.

New discoveries today show that some of the mining waste and tailings that were left over from the past work done in the area still have ample amounts of rare earth metals that can be valuable to us today. These rare earth metals are essential to certain types of production, so if the effort is taken to extract these materials from the tailings and waste, what was once just pollution will become useful. It is truly unfortunate how these mines were run in the past, but there certainly have been good things to come of it. Not only was mining a great way of making money back during the Adirondacks’ early years of exploration, but benefits still might be seen today.

Immigrant mine workers were essentially the backbone of the region. Mining used to make up a huge part of the economy. Although this may not be the case today, the history of the land should at least be recognized to some extent. Not only has mining been pushed out of a lot of people’s view of the Adirondacks, almost no one would know about the immigrant workers that actually worked in the mines. People want to have this false vision of what the Adirondacks were, but the true history should not be hidden from the public no matter how dark it may be. What these workers did was essential to the development of the land, so they should hold their place in history when the Adirondacks come to mind.

Works Cited

“Mine Waste in the Eastern Adirondacks May Be Untapped, Accessible Source of Rare Earth Element Minerals.” Mine Waste in the Eastern Adirondacks May Be Untapped, Accessible Source of Rare Earth Element Minerals, 22 Dec. 2020, https://www.usgs.gov/news/mine-waste-eastern-adirondacks-may-be-untapped-accessible-source-rare-earth-element-minerals.

 “Mining in the Adirondacks.” Adirondack Experience, 9 Apr. 2021, https://www.theadkx.org/mining-in-the-adirondacks/.