A 21st Century Visit to the Jinny Hill Mine

by Mitzi Romano, President, Cheshire Historical Society

Historical Society President Mitzi Romano enters (or exits?) the mine.

Property owner, Gunnar, stands next to “his” mine entrance.

The classic Jinny Hill Miners photo from about 150 years ago.

During our August 2024 Open House, our one visitor was very interested in the Cheshire barite mines. As we were poring through our files, he mentioned that his curiosity had been piqued by the recent reopening of the Jinny Hill Mine. I live just off Jinny Hill Road and had no idea that this had occurred. He mentioned a YouTube video. I immediately went home and searched on YouTube. There I found three 2021 videos relating to the Jinny Hill Mine and one more recent short video “Checking Out the Reinhard Mine and Peck Mine.” The longest Jinny Hill Mine video showed the discovery of the western opening of the northernmost of the three veins (I apologize to any Geologists if I have butchered the terminology) and the descent into the mine. It was amazing to watch!

I am known for going down “rabbit holes” when I do research, and this mine was the ultimate rabbit hole. When I saw that the owner’s name was “Gunnar” (I had not even noticed the name on his tee shirt because I initially watched the video on my phone) and recalled that he said he grew up in Cheshire, my first thought was of a classmate of my younger son. A little more research and a blind reach-out via LinkedIn, and before I knew it, I had a date to see a mine opening!

I was fully prepared to see a hole blocked by boulders, but when I arrived, Gunnar was cleaning out the entrance so I could have a good look and even climb into it! Of course, I did not get as far as the mine excavators did, but I can truly say I have been in a barite mine. While Cheshire’s 1935 Tercentenary Celebration of the Settlement of Connecticut marked the site of the Jinny Hill Mine, the mine openings have since been buried by time, so this was an exciting “discovery.”

This visit rekindled my own interest in the barite mines. For example, the cave-in that occurred around 1850 and trapped four miners for several hours before they were successfully rescued. Then, out of the blue, the Cheshire Public Library contacted me to ask my recommendation for the local expert on the barite mines, because they wanted to do a presentation. Gunnar provided a fascinating presentation to a standing room only audience in February 2025.

“Mines and Mysteries: Reopening the Jinny Hill Baryte Mine” produced by Mike Sandone is a 17-minute video available at: https://youtu.be/slsjkJ3e1Tk?si=3zvYc2Mp9I8Kcoay