June 1990

Cranberry Iron Mine

Cranberry Mine in 1990. The buildings and machinery here are from the late 50s/early 60s. All the original mine buildings and machinery were scrapped in the early 30s. The operation whose buildings are shown here was fairly short lived, but put in a lot of conveyors, crushers, separators and hoppers. The area then went through several different phases before shutting down completely. This operation, as I understand it, was taking mining ore and pulverizing it to very small pieces which were used to keep down the dust in coal mines, also used for ballast in nuclear submarines, and was further processed to be used in the manufacture of in-windshield automobile radio antennas.

The last operation here, I think in the 80s, was using the bins to load sand hauled from the Toe River area into bags. There where hundreds of paper bags left over, the kind in which you buy sand at a hardware store. I would love to hear any information about any of the operations that went on at this location if anyone knows more about it.

These buildings and equipment were scrapped by Elizabethton Herb and Metal in 1997.