Besides farming, slate was mined for a long time. In the Irmenach area are many slate mines, some of which already existed in the 17th century. As Johann Hofmann wrote in 1669: “Foremost, there are in the same mountain ranges a great many slate quarries / wherefrom the countryside’s inhabitants have as great an income / as perhaps others might not obtain from their fruitful fields”. According to local lore, Irmenach slate was used in the building of, among others, the Reichstag in Berlin and Brussels Cathedral. In the late 1960s, the last slate quarry was closed as recovery had become unprofitable.