John P. Holland’s First Submarine

was launched in 1878,

a one man craft with engine which after a series of trials was sunk in the Passaic River at this spot where she lay buried until raised in 1927 by a group of Paterson youths who presented ...

Frank Padget

In memory of Frank Padget, a coloured slave who during a freshet in James River in January 1854, ventured and lost his life by drowning in the noble effort to save some of his fellow creatures, who were in the ...

D Retort and Condensing System

The D retort, line the rotary furnace, was used to recover mercury from cinnabar ore. Whereas the rotary furnace was a continuously-operating system, the D retort was loaded with ore, fired for a period of time (usually 8 to 24 ...

Lafayette Town Hall

Community spirit led to construction of this hall by the Lafayette Improvement Club. Land was donated by Frank and Rose Ghiglione with funds and labor provided by the townspeople. A grand opening ball and midnight supper were held on May ...

Shaker-Concentrator

The shaker-concentrator, also known as a shaker table, was used in gravity beneficiation (the concentration of ore) for sorting fine-grained materials, such as heavy cinnabar, from ordinary rock and dust particles. The beneficiation process was carried out on the surface ...

Frank Padget Water Tragedy

Heavy rains in late Jan. 1854 left the James

River and the treacherous Balcony Falls in

full flood. On 21 Jan., the canal boat Clinton

and its passengers became stranded in the

raging waters. Frank Padget, a skilled

boatman and slave, led four other men ...

Mercury Storage Vault

After cleaned mercury is collected, it was placed in iron flasks for transportation to market. A flask of mercury weighs about 76 pounds when filled and a flask needs to be strong because of the density of the liquid metal.

Filled ...

Hoeing Table and Cleaning Tank

Hoeing tables and cleaning tanks were used to purify mercury as the final step in the process of converting cinnabar to mercury. Mercury collected in the condensers of a furnace or retort was contaminated with soot, water, dust, sublimed sulphur ...

The Leaping Tuna

(The Thunnus Thynnus or Bluefin Tuna)

The sport of big game fishing originated in Avalon when Charles Frederick Holder caught a 183 pound Blue Fin Tuna with sport fish tackle on June 1, 1898. This angling milestone inspired him to ...

Hacienda Mining Display

Preserved here is equipment used in quicksilver mining. A few examples are from New Almaden, but most are from the Guadalupe Mine and were used in the last fifty years of mining, until the mines closed in the 1970s.

The equipment ...