There was a rural property, not far from Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, which following the War of Independence / American Revolution, was purchased by a French sea captain named Audubon. The property included a working lead mine.
When I visited the place some years ago, the thought of mining for lead in this place gave me pause; I thought, not of the mining itself, but of the lead-based paints, the resulting possibilities for lead poisoning. I don't know when the mine was closed down.
It seems that the lead mine was still functioning when that French captain sent his eighteen-year-old son to maintain the property in his own absence.
The eighteen-year-old grew up to be John James Audubon, with no head for business in general or lead mining in particular. But this property was Audubon's introduction to the North American countryside, and it was in this spot that he first started studying birds.