Swansea Vale Railway nineteenth century, when land transport was limited to what pack animals could carry on their backs. At that time the extraction of copper in Cornwall became an important industry, and as a great deal of coal is required to smelt copper, it became the practice to bring the copper to Swansea by ship and smelt it there. This specific sector of the metal industry became so dominant that Swansea was given the nickname "Copperopolis". The works engaged in this industry were located on the banks of the River Tawe at first, but the construction of the Swansea Canal, opened in
Swansea, California Swansea, California Swansea is a former settlement and unincorporated community in Inyo County, California. It is located south of New York Butte, at an elevation of . Swansea was a boomtown located on the eastern shore of Owens Lake. Spawned by the success of the silver mining operations in the nearby Cerro Gordo Mines in the late 1860s, Swansea became a hub for smelting the ore and transporting the resulting ingots to Los Angeles, over 200 miles away. The smelter operated from 1869 to 1874. Swansea was named after the mining town Swansea in south Wales, from which many experienced