A Natural History of Brandon, VT

 Last post, we saw how the Adirondacks are far older than mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire, and how the farther east you go, the younger the mountains. Even in their prime, the Taconics, Greens, and Whites never reached even half the height of the original Adirondacks. However, water and wind conspired over millions of years to break rock back down to grains of sand. Sediment from the mighty Adirondack mountains can be found today as far away as central Pennsylvania.  And iron oxide clays made of sediment from the Adirondacks settled in isolated pockets from Bennington to Monkton on the eastern slope of the mountains facing the ocean left in the wake of the retreating and so far anonymous continent.   Ochre production in Brandon may have started as a byproduct of iron mining.  One of the earliest industries in Brandon was founded by John Conant and Sons.  Although not all the details are known, this company probably had an interest in iron mining, fur...

  In our last installment, we learned how an ochre mine in Forestdale may have been home to a giant frog discovered in 1865.  So what is ochre anyway? And why was it being dug up?  Basically, ochre is a clay-based rock that contains iron oxide, aka rust. It produces colors from red to yellow when pulverized, which is easily done because it softens  quickly with water.  Native Americans used ochre for body paint, to decorate pottery, and in burial ceremonies.  Early European residents of Brandon also used ochre for paint, which was made on, you guessed it, Paint Works Road. So why is there ochre in Forestdale?  Clay is made when certain types of rocks break up into very fine particles, are washed away by moving water, and settle in layers when the water slows down or stops moving.  The story of Forestdale’s ochre takes us back 1.3 billion years ago on the part of the globe where South Africa sits today, with a continental collision.  As we’ll ...