When slate mining boomed in the first half of the 19th century, several adventurers tried to cash in. This quarry was founded towards the end of the 19th century by two such adventurers, two brothers. Initially a small operation, a lack of funds prevented the company from expanding, and the brothers were eventually forced to sell their mine to a larger mining company, Gesellschaft Schönborn, a German company based in Cologne. The slate quarry subsequently developed rapidly, and by the early 20th century, it employed 62 workers. In 1902, the brothers bought back "their" mine and established a new company to inject capital into their business. Thanks in part to the construction of a narrow-gauge railway and the connection to the national railway line, the company continued to expand, but in late 1905, a collapse caused the deaths of the two brothers, leaving the slate quarry orphaned.