Before summer vacations brought bathers to Lake George beaches, lumbering and mining formed the business base of Hague. The hamlet of Graphite, on the mountain west of Hague, began in the lumbering era and grew quickly after the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company bought the graphite mines and works in Ticonderoga under the name American Graphite Company. After surveying promising locations west of Lake George, the company found rich seams of graphite, and men using dynamite and then shovels opened the hillsides and dug miles of tunnels. As the mines prospered, so did Graphite, with mill and plant offices, small houses, stores, a post office, a school-house, a livery stable, three bars, and a poolroom. By 1912, the mines at Graphite were the largest American producers of graphite used for pencils, stove polish, and crucibles for melting metal, and graphite was hauled to a dock where barges carried it to Ticonderoga for refining while returning barges brought coal to power mining machinery. In the early 20th century, foreign sources of graphite drove down domestic prices and profits, and the mines shut down abruptly and forever on April 1, 1921. Shafts were boarded up to prevent accidents, buildings burned or were abandoned, and some were moved elsewhere, turning once-bustling Graphite into a ghost town. Though the mines are no longer accessible to humans, they have become a sanctuary for six different species of bats, nearly 125,000 of them.