June 1993

Abandoned Machinery at the Cranberry Iron Mine

Here's an interesting piece of equipment left over from the 60s mining operation at Cranberry. It appears to be a crane without any cab sheet-metal.This is the same piece of machinery that I shot in a previous year's photos. I'm assuming it too was recycled when Elizabethton Herb and Metal cleaned out all the old machinery and buildings in 1997. This was positioned outside the mine on a hilltop overlooking a hole down into the mine. It didn't take much thought to figure that it was picking up ore from its outside position up to the hillside where it could be hauled away. But...who knows. Perhaps it was used for something we never thought of.

It looks like the mine operations may have lasted longer than the crane did. There should be somebody still around that worked in this operation who could explain some of the daily activities around here. It seems as if we know more about the operations from over 100 years ago than we do about this operation from only 40 years ago.