Vera Cruz Jasper Mines Visited by Lenni Lenape

 in Vera Cruz is named for a type of quartz rock, known as chalcedony or jasper, that was mined by the Lenni Lenape Indians for many uses, including arrowheads, scrapers, spear tips, knives and other tools. 

Jasper comes in many colors and it may be the first mineral resource mined in Pennsylvania, and possibly the first to be exported. 

“The honey, tan and red jasper are the most common colors found in the park,” said township resident John Fegley, who gives tours through the largest remaining quarry site in the park. 

The quarries, some as much as 100 feet across and 30 to 40 feet deep, are where the Indians worked, using their hand tools to break huge boulders and retrieve the jasper from them. According to Fegley, the heat of volcanoes and the cold of the ice age made for a perfect combination to form jasper, the third hardest rock (only the diamond and sapphire are harder). 

“Jasper was their tool to make other tools,” said Fegley, of the smooth, sharp-edged stone.   

Some of the arrowheads were used in trading to get needed items. Jasper from Vera Cruz has been found up and down the east coast, said Fegley. These arrowheads had a distinct look to them, he added, and were in high demand for trading.

According to Fegley, the pits were abandoned in the late 17th century/early 18th century when settlers from Europe began to arrive, bringing with them a more “modern” way of tool-making.

Over 100 pits were in the area of Jasper Park until the 1950s, when the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built next to the park. Most of the jasper pits were destroyed at that time, with no more than 20 remaining.

Fegley said Jasper Park was founded under the Project 70 Land Acquisition and Borrowing Act, enacted on June 22, 1964. The act “permits the state to issue bonds for the purchase of lands for public parks…and historical preservation purposes, and to coordinate those purchases with local governments.”

The quarries are hard to spot now, and the depressions have filled in with dirt and debris from erosion. Trees and brush also grow in these large craters, making it difficult to imagine the boulders filled with jasper.