Polster Valley Wheel House

The Polsterberg Pumphouse (German: Polsterberger Hubhaus) is a pumping station above the Dyke Ditch in the Upper Harz in central Germany which is used today as a forest restaurant. As part of the Upper Harz Water Regale it was built in the 18th century and was used to lift the water needed in Clausthal for the mining industry from the Dyke Ditch (Dammgraben) to the level of the highest pond, the Hirschler Pond. Aside from this water hoist, the Dyke Ditch supplied, and still supplies, water over ditches and tunnels to the Hausherzberg Ponds and the Lower Peacock Pond (Unterer Pfauenteich). The problem was however, that, as it happened, the most productive silver mines in the Upper Harz mining region, the Caroline Pit and the Dorothea Pit, were high up in the mountains and could only be supplied with water power from the Hirschler Pond. The motive force for the wooden piston pumps was won in the Polster valley below by two water wheels. The headrace for these water wheels was brought via the Heller Valley Ditch (Hellertal Graben) from the Heller valley and from the Fortune Pond over its Bottom Ditch (Grundgraben), but frictional losses and poor efficiencies meant that a considerable amount of headrace water was required in order to lift just a few litres of water from the Dyke Ditch. These wheels transferred their output power over 260 and 560 m long flat rods made of wood to the pumping station on the Polsterberg hill. In the pumping station the water from the Dyke Ditch was pumped 8 m higher and fed into drinking troughs from which it was then further transported via the Hutthal Ditch and Huttaler Widerwaage to the Hirschler Pond, or via the Jägersbleek Tunnel and Ditch. The Polsterberg Pumphouse also acted as living accommodation for the master pumper and the ditch keepers, as well as a bar (Schankstube). At the beginning of the 20th century the wooden structures were replaced by electrically-drive pumps; the original can still be seen in the pumphouse by the ditch. Today the building is listed. It is purely run as a restaurant and is a popular destination for walkers from Altenau and Clausthal-Zellerfeld. Like the nearby Sperberhai Dam House it lies on the Harz High Road, the B 242.

Harz is an unincorporated area in the German district of Goslar. The uninhabited area is located in the Upper Harz (Lower Saxony). With a size of 371.76 km2 (31 December 2006), it is the largest unincorporated area in Germany. Although there are no residents reported, it carries administrative functions; the Community Identification Number is 03 1 53 504. The area extends over large parts of the Upper Harz, from Seesen/Langelsheim in the northwest to Hohegeiß in the south of the district of Goslar. The Harz unincorporated area in the district of Goslar has many enclaves: Thus the community of Clausthal-Zellerfeld has two exclave districts, Wildemann and Altenau-Schulenberg im Oberharz, and the community of Braunlage has an exclave district, Sankt Andreasberg, and other settlements (mostly restaurants) within the Harz area. The administration of the community-free area is the responsibility of the Lower Saxony Forestry Office Clausthal, which also collects business taxes from some quarries and would issue civil status certificate (birth certificate, death certificate) for events that occurred in the area. The forestry office also provides security and order.

The Sperberhai Dyke (German: Sperberhaier Damm) is in fact an aqueduct which forms part of the Upper Harz Water Regale network of reservoirs, ditches, dams and tunnels in the Harz mountains of central Germany. It carries the water of the Dyke Ditch over the depression of the Sperberhai to the Clausthal plateau. The Sperberhai Dyke was built in 1732 - 34 in order to satisfy the rising demand for water power for the water wheels of the Clausthal mines. The water crossed the embankment in a channel along its crest. The channel is only visible today at its western end. Its hydraulic capacity at peak times was up to 1,000 litres per second.

Altenau ([ˈaltə.naʊ] ) is a town and a former municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the town Clausthal-Zellerfeld. It is situated in the middle of the Harz mountains, between Clausthal-Zellerfeld and the Brocken. It was part of the former Samtgemeinde ("collective municipality") Oberharz.

The Jägersbleeker Teich in the Harz Mountains of central Germany is a storage pond near the town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the county of Goslar in Lower Saxony. It is one of the Upper Harz Ponds that were created for the mining industry. The reservoir lies in the Upper Harz within the Harz Nature Park. It is located around 3.5 km east-southeast of the quarter of Clausthal. Its water surface lies at 586.5 m above sea level (NN), it has a retention capacity of 380,000 m³ and its dam is 13.65 m high. A little below the Jägersbleeker Teich is another pond, the Fortuner Teich. The history of the Jägersbleeker Teich goes back to around 1670.Near the southeastern end of the dam is a refuge hut for hikers named after the forestry official (Forstamtmann), August Weppner, called the August Weppner Hut, inside which is checkpoint no. 127, Weppner Hütte, Jägersbleeker Teich, of the Harzer Wandernadel hiking network.

The Huttaler Widerwaage is a small reservoir that is a part of the Upper Harz Water Regale, an old mining water management system in the Harz Mountains of Germany that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The reservoir lies east of the mining town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld. It is designed to feed water from the Huttal river during times of low water to the reservoir pond of the Hirschler Teich and, during times of high water, to handle the overflow of water from it.

Schulenberg im Oberharz (German pronunciation: [ˌʃuːlənbɛʁk ʔɪm ˈʔoːbɐhaːɐ̯ts]) is a village and a former municipality in the district of Goslar in Lower Saxony, Germany. It has been part of the town Clausthal-Zellerfeld since January 1, 2015.

The Upper Harz (German: Oberharz, pronounced [ˈoːbɐhaːɐ̯ts]) refers to the northwestern and higher part of the Harz mountain range in Germany. The exact boundaries of this geographical region may be defined differently depending on the context. In its traditional sense, the term Upper Harz covers the area of the seven historical mining towns (Bergstädte) - Clausthal, Zellerfeld, Andreasberg, Altenau, Lautenthal, Wildemann and Grund - in the present-day German federal state of Lower Saxony. Orographically, it comprises the Harz catchment areas of the Söse, Innerste and Grane, Oker and Abzucht mountain streams, all part of the larger Weser watershed. Much of the Upper Harz area is up to 700 metres (2,300 ft) above sea level. In a wider sense, it also comprises the adjacent High Harz (Hochharz) range in the east, climbing to over 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in the Brocken massif.

The Oker Dam (German: Okertalsperre) is a dam in the Harz mountains in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is fed by the River Oker.

Auf dem Acker (commonly called the Acker) is a mountain ridge up to 865.1 m (2,838 ft) high, which is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains in Lower Saxony (Germany).

The Abzucht, also known in its upper reaches as the Wintertalbach, is a 12.1-kilometre (7.5 mi) long, orographically left-hand, tributary of the Oker in Lower Saxony, Germany. The stream flows through the town of Goslar.

The Schalke is a mountain, 762 m above sea level (NN), in the Upper Harz in the German state of Lower Saxony. It lies in Goslar district north of Clausthal-Zellerfeld and west of Schulenberg. From 1959 there was a French listening post on the summit, which was supplemented in 1968 by a 64 m high concrete tower. This tower stood empty from 1993 and was demolished on 11 October 2002; the entire facility being removed in September 2003. Other listening posts in the Harz were located on the Wurmberg and the Stöberhai. Towers that still exist include those on the Ravensberg and the Bocksberg, the latter not far from the Schalke. The observation tower, which was about 10.5 m high, stood about 50 metres southeast of the listening post until 2002 and, following the demolition of the latter, was moved back to its original site on the summit. However it only has good views towards the east and south. The view extends from the Brocken past the Wurmberg and Hanskühnenburg to Clausthal-Zellerfeld. Next to the tower stands a shooting hut belonging to the Harz Club and stamp checkpoint no. 125 which is part of the Harzer Wandernadel hiking trail network. The tower is the oldest (built 1892, restored 1992) of four steel observation towers belonging to the Harzklub in the Harz. A road, closed to private cars, runs from the Auerhahn Inn on the B 241 federal highway up to the Schalke. There are also long hiking trails from Zellerfeld and Goslar and a short, steep footpath from Mittelschulenberg past the Lower Schalke Pond and Festenburg, two parishes in Schulenberg, up to the Schalke.