Old Chimney at Byard Point

Old Chimney at Byard Point

A postcard photo: "Old Chimney at Byard Point". Two women sitting in a grassy area with trees and an old chimney, apparently left after a fire. The chimney appears to be what is left of the Eggemoggin Silver Mining Co Smelting Works pictured in 2012.2.714 and 2012.28.11. Views of this place include LB2012.28.124, 160, 191 and 318. Maine experienced a mining boom in 1870-1890 and Byard Point, at Eggemoggin Reach, with its deep harbor (which accommodated deep-drafted vessels) and an abundance of pine to fuel the steam boilers for smelting, offered an ideal place for a silver mine. Investors succeeded in completing one of two shafts fifty feet deep and most of a two-story smelting works building before tragedy struck. The Eggemoggin Silver Mine, built at great expense, was struck by lightning just as a depression engulfed the country, and the operation was abandoned. As Evie Barbour's photograph illustrates, however, the abandoned chimney at Byard Point made an attractive picnic site. The pines provide privacy and the old chimney is a romantic reminder of things past. [description courtesy of Mazie Hough, 2015]