Mining of the ore bodies in the Ogdensburg and Franklin area has occurred over the last 250 years.
Hungarians, Poles, Czechs, Russians, Mexicans and Irish Americans made up the labor used to perform the hard work that mining required.
The Sterling Hill mine provided the miners with low cost housing, free utilities, and job security even during the Depression of the thirties.
Today both Franklin and Ogdensburg have zinc mining museums.
The Ogdensburg Sterling Hill mining museum has as part of its museum the actual zinc mine with the addition of Exhibit Halls, outdoor displays, Geotech center, rock and fossil discovery centers and Thomas S. Warren Museum of Fluorescence.