Gold was noted in a number of countries in New York, which were arranged into four districts as follows: first, Hamilton, Fulton, Saratoga, Herkimer and Washington; second, Dutches; third, Westchester and Rockland; and fourth, Erie, and Alleghany. Gold was also found in Manhattan Island. It has been difficult to determine the first discovery of gold in New York.
It is important to mention that argentiferous deposits were found in the metamorphic rocks of Columbia, Dutches, Washington and Rensselear counties. Probably the most important mine was the Ancranor Livingston, in Columbia County. Further, lead mines were prospected by German miners, southeast of Pine Plains, in Dutchess County, as early as 1740. Following and, in fact, during the Revolutionary War limited mining operations were undertaken by the Committee of Public Safety, in an endeavor to supply the army with lead. This ore is said to be rich in silver.
Reports on the auriferous quartz veins of Rhinebeck, Dutches County were published by the American J. Sci. and Arts, xlvii 139. According to the former, there were four veins dividing the talc-argillaceous schist in the direct of the cleavage. The quartz was cellular and brown with iron oxide, arising from the decomposition of pyrites, but below pyrite was unaltered. Assay of the rock reported 96.3 to 97.5% purity of gold, the rest almost solely silver. The geological formations on this property are of the lower Paleozoic age; the Potsdam periods of it were well represented by the metamorphic slates and the calciferous sandstone, but no fossils were found. The slates from a characteristic feature of the whole Appalachian range, and the presence of gold here supplies the link to the Appalachian gold fields. Gold prospectors indicated that there was no doubt that this part of the grand belt taking its rise on the St. Lawrence River, scattered its auriferous treasure for 1300 miles along the south eastern border of North America terminating in Alabama.