Mines and Minerals

MINES & MINERALS

"Undoubtedly there is vast mineral wealth hidden in the Carolina mountains. A greater variety of minerals has been found here than in any other State save Colorado. But, for the present, it is a hard country to prospect in, owing to the thick covering of the forest floor. Not only is the underbrush very dense, but beneath it there is a hard country to prospect in, owing to the thick covering of the forest floor. Not only is the underbrush very dense, but beneath it there generally is a thick stratum of clay overlaying the rocks, even on steep slopes. Gold has been found in numberless places, but finely disseminated. I do not know a locality in the mountains proper where a working vein has been discovered. At my cabin I did just enough panning to get a notion that if I could stand working in icy water ten hours a day I might average a dollar in yellow dust by it. The adjacent copper mine carries considerable gold. Silver and lead are not common, so far as known, but there are many good copper and iron properties. Gems are mined profitably in several of the western counties. The corundum, mica, talc, and monazite are, I believe, unexcelled in the United States. Building stone is abundant, and there is fine marble in various places. Kaolin is shipped out in considerable quantities. The rocks chiefly are gneisses, granites, metamorphosed marbles, quarzites and slates, all of them too old to bear fossils or coal. (1913, Kephart, Horace. Our Southern Highlanders, pp. 73-74.)

"Should the proposed railroad from Columbia to Greenville, S.C., be completed, I am of the opinion that the manganese and chrome ores in this and some of the adjoining counties would be profitably exported. Though the veins of sulphate of baryta in the northern part of this county, contain pure white varieties suitable to form an adulterant in the manufacture of the white lead of commerce, yet, for want of a navigable stream, it is not probable that they will ever be turned to account in that way. They have, however, at some points, a metallic appearance at the surface, they lie at right angles to the general direction of the veins of the country, go down vertically, and being associated abundantly with several varieties of iron pyrites, oxides of iron, fluor (sic) spar and quartz, and containing traces of copper and lead, will doubtless at no very distant day, be explored to a greater or less extent. There is not a single county west of the Blue Ridge, that does not contain in abundance rich iron ores. In some instances these deposits are adjacent to excellent water power and limestone, and are surrounded by heavily timbered cheap lands. The sparry (sic) carbonate of iron, or steel ore, of which a specimen some years since, fell under the observation of Prof. Mitchell, though he was not able to ascertain the locality from which it came, is abundant at a place rather inaccessible in the present condition of the country. It is not probable that in our day the beautiful statuary marble of Cherokee, both white and flesh-colored, will be turned to much account for want of the means of getting it into those markets where it is needed. Besides the minerals referred to in Prof. Shepard's letter, some of the ores of copper exist in the western part of this State. I have the carbonate (green malachite,) the black oxide, and some of the sulphurets. Whether, however, these as well as the ores of lead and zinc (both the carbonate and sulphuret exist here) are in sufficient abundance to be valuable, cannot be ascertained without further examination than has yet been made. (T. L. Clingman's letter to the Editor of The Highland Messenger, Asheville [NC]'s newspaper in 1849 [Date is questionable, as the last known issue of the Highland Messenger was August 17, 1848] Lanman, Charles. Letters from the Allegheny Mountains, p. 188.)

"In the counties west of the Blue Ridge, there has been as yet no exploration to any depth beneath the surface of the ground, with perhaps the single exception of the old excavations in the county of Cherokee. According to the most commonly received Indian tradition, they were excavated more than a century ago, by a company of Spaniards from Florida. They are said to have worked there for two or three summers, to have obtained a white metal, and prospered greatly in their mining operations, until the Cherokees, finding that if it became generally known that there were valuable mines in their country, the cupidity of the white men would expel them from it, determined in solemn council to destroy the whole party, and that in obedience to that decree no one of the adventurous strangers was allowed to return to the country whence they came. Though this story accords very well with the Indian laws which condemned to death those who disclosed the existence of mines to white men, yet I do not regard it as entitled to much credit." (T.L. Clingman's letter to the Editor of The Highland Messenger, Asheville [NC]'s newspaper in 1849 Lanman, Charles. Letters from the Allegheny Mountains, p. 189.)

"I have recognized in the geological formation of the southwestern counties of North Carolina, the same character which distinguishes the gold and diamond region of the Minas Geraes of Brazil, and the gold and platina district (where diamonds also exist) of the Urals, in Siberia. It is this circumstance, beyond even the actual discoveries made with us, that satisfies my mind of the richness of the country in the precious metals and the diamond. The beautiful crystal of this gem which you sent me last spring, from a gold washing in Rutherford, however, establishes the perfect identity of our region with the farm-famed auriferous and diamond countries of the South and the East. (Sept. 15, 1746 Letter of Charles Upham Shepard from New Haven, Conn. to the Hon. T. L. Clingman in 1849 Lanman, Charles. Letters from the Allegheny Mountains, p. 190.)

"Neither can there remain any doubt concerning the existence of valuabel deposits of manganese, lead, crome (sic) and iron, in your immediate vicinity, to which I think we are authorized to add zinc, barytes and marble. I have also seen indications of several of the precious stones, besides the diamond, making it on the whole, a country of the highest mineralogical promise." (Sept. 15, 1746 Letter of Charles Upham Shepard from New Haven, Conn. to The Hon. T. L. Clingman in 1849 Lanman, Charles. Letters from the Allegheny Mountains, p.191.)

"With regard to the means employed by the miners I have but one word to say. The deposit gold is extracted from the gravel by means of a simple machine called a rocker, which merely shifts and washes out the metal. The vein gold is brought to light by means of what is called a pounding mill, which reduces the rock to the consistency of sand, when the ore is separated by the use of quicksilver. In this particular department of their business the Dahlonega [GA] miners confess themselves to be comparatively ignorant; and what proves this to be the case is the fact, that some of their ore has frequently been worked over a second time with considerable profit." (1849, Lanman, Charles. Letters from the Alleghany Mountains, p. 17.)

"...I may here mention what must be considered a remarkable fact in geology. Running directly across the village of Murphy is a belt of marble, composed of the black, gray, pure white and flesh-colored varieties, which belt also crosses the Owassa river." [Murphy, NC lies at the junction of the Owassa and Valley rivers in southwest NC, above the GA state line.] (1849, Lanman, Charles. Letters from the Alleghany Mountains, p. 63.)

"When we alighted, weary, at the gate of the pretty hotel, which crowns a gentle hill and commands a pleasing, evergreen prospect of many gentle hills, a mile or so below the works and wholly removed from all sordid associations, we were at the point of willingness that the whole country should be devastated by civilization. In the local imagination this hotel of the company is a palace of unequaled magnificence, but probably its good taste, comfort, and quiet elegance are not appreciated after all. There is this to be said about Philadelphia--and it will go far in pleading for it in the Last Day against its monotonous rectangularity and the Babel-like ambition of its Public Building--that wherever its influence extends there will be found comfortable lodgings and the luxury of an undeniably excellent cuisine. The visible seal that Philadelphia sets on its enterprise all through the South is a good hotel." (1889, Warner, C. D. On Horseback..., pp. 42, 43.)

"This [Bakersville, the capital of Mitchell county,] is the centre of the mica mining, and of considerable excitement about minerals. All around, the hills are spotted with 'diggings.' Most of the mines which yield well show signs of having been worked before, a very long time ago, no doubt by the occupants before the [Cherokee] Indians. The mica is of excellent quality and easily mined. It is got out in large irregular-shaped blocks and transported to the factories, where it is carefully split by hand, and the laminae, of as large size as can be obtained, are trimmed with shears and tied up in packages for market. The quantity of refuse, broken, and rotten mica piled up about the factories is immense, and all the roads round about glisten with its scales. Garnets are often found imbedded in the laminae, flatted by the extreme pressure to which the mass was subjected. It is fascinating material, this mica, to handle, and we amused ourselves by experimenting on the thinness to which its scales could be reduced by splitting. It was at Bakersville that we saw specimens of mica that resembled the delicate tracery in the moss-agate, and had the iridescent sheen of the rainbow colors--the most delicate greens, reds, blues, purples, and gold, changing from one to the other in the reflected light. In the texture were the tracings of fossil forms of ferns and the most exquisite and delicate vegetable beauty of the coal age. But the magnet shows this tracery to be iron. We were shown also emeralds and 'diamonds,' picked up in this region, and there is a mild expectation in all the inhabitants of great mineral treasure. A singular product of the region is the flexible sandstone. It is a most uncanny stone. A slip of it a couple of feet long and an inch in diameter each way bends in the hand like a half frozen snake. This conduct of a substance that we have been taught to regard as inflexible impairs one's confidence in the stability of nature and affects him as an earthquake does. (1889, Warner, C. D. On Horseback..., pp. 58-60.)

"This excitement over mica and other minerals has the usual effect of starting up business and creating bad blood. Fortunes have been made, and lost in riotous living; scores of visionary men have been disappointed; lawsuits about titles and claims have multiplied, and quarrels ending in murder have been frequent in the past few years. The mica and the illicit whiskey have worked together to make this region one of lawlessness and violence...."(1889, Warner, D. D. On Horseback..., p.60.)

"We are excluded from a knowledge of ancient American history....Before Europeans set foot on the western shore of the Atlantic, before the [Cherokee] Indians...[was] a race well advanced in mechanical and aesthetic art....It came and flourished and perished, leaving only monuments of its existence in the form of works of earth, and works of stone--mounds, forts, and pottery.... The race has been designated the 'Mound Builders.' They inhabited, among other places, the southern Alleghanies, the largest number of mounds being found in the upper valley of the Little Tennessee. Most of the rich mica dikes bear evidence of having been worked centuries ago. The marks of stone picks may still be seen upon the soft feldspar with which the mica is associated, and the tunnels and shafts show some knowledge of mining. The fact that a great many ancient mounds all over the country contain skeletons, encased in mica plates, associates these diggings with the builders of the mounds." (1883, Zeigler, Wilbur and Ben Grosscup. The Heart of the Alleghanies, pp. 15, 16.)

"There is always a deserted mica mine on a neighboring height, shining like a fountain of silver gushing from the rock; there is always a stream which 'would give a powerful yield of gold, only we folks don't count much on them oncertain ways of makin' a livin'. (Davis, Rebecca Harding. "By-Paths in the Mountains," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 61, issue 363, September 1880, p.369.)

"The Doctor, Hixley, and Sarah rode up to a mica mine a few miles distant, and found only a great crack in the ground, out of which a few men wheeled the tea-colored glittering plates. There were one or two sheds in a wild ravine, where these flakes are cut in oblong squares by enormous shears, sorted, packed, and sent North. Heaps of broken wafer-like waste sheets littered the whole side of the mountain, sparkling like silver in the sun. Mica mining, like every other effort to work in these mountains, languishes for want of transportation." (Davis, Rebecca Harding. "By-Paths in the Mountains," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol.61, issue 363, September 1880, pp.538, 539)

"...North Carolina was the first government in America to order a geological survey....While it is not probable that a second California or Colorado exists in this section of the Alleghanies, there is sufficient evidence in the things seen, and the hope of things unseen, to stimulate the zeal of explorers and excite the cupidity of operators. The value of minerals already taken out has passed the enumeration of thousands, and the surface of the jewel-field has not yet been marked out. (1883. Zeigler, Wilbur and Ben Grosscup. In the Heart of the Alleghanies..., p.198, 199.)

"The Brindletown mines [12 miles south of Morgantown] have yielded many thousands of dollars [of gold], obtained merely by washing the sand and gravel. Quartz, containing a very large percentage of gold, has been found in these south mountain spurs and valleys. The practical difficulty experienced by miners, is the incontinuity of veins, for which even the richness of the gold deposit, where it is found, does not compensate.(1883. Zeigler, Wilbur and Ben Grosscup. In the Heart of the Alleghanies..., p.200)

"[Gold] has never been found or even looked for except in placers. [Veins of gold play out.] The zone runs across Cashier's valley into the Georgetown and Fairfield valleys. Its existence in quartz veins near Chimney Top mountain is well established. The deposits in Georgetown valley have yielded more largely than any other locality in this region. The zone seems to pass around the southern base of Hogback mountain, thence across the Blue Ridge into Transylvania, making its appearance, as has been noted, on Boylston creek." (1883. Zeigler, Wilbur and Ben Grosscup. In the Heart of the Alleghanies..., pp.200, 201.)

"Mica mining in Mitchell country has been attended with better results than in any other locality. The Sinkhole mine near Bakersville was nearly half a mile long, the crystals imbedded in kioline (decomposed feldspar) and the rubbish easily removed. Tons of mica were taken out of this mine. The Clarissa Buchanan mine has been worked to the depth of more than 400 feet. (1883. Zeigler, Wilbur and Ben Grosscup. In the Heart of the Alleghanies..., pp. 202, 203.)

"...Only one mine has stood a prolonged test of energetic work--the bowers mill, on Burningtown creek. The proprietor and superintendent, Charles Bowers, is of the ghird generation, in direct line, of mica miners, and consequently has the advantage not only of a long personal experience, but also the communicated experience of his father and grandfather in the mines of New Hampshire. Mr. Bowers has been working on the same dike for about eight years. It is 200 yards long and 12 feet wide, with a central granite vein about two feet thick. The quantity of mica and character of crystallization is unchanged at that depth. (1883. Zeigler, Wilbur and Ben Grosscup. In the Heart of the Alleghanies..., p. 204.)

"Corumdum is a crystaline mineral of varying color, and next in hardness to the diamond. It is, conse- quently, a valuable abrasive, and its use, in the mechanical arts, for that purpose is increasing. It occurs, usually associated with chrysolite. There is a zone of chrysolite dikes extending from Mitchell county to Union county, Georgia, in which...corundum has been struck, but not generally in sufficient quantity to pay for mining. (1883. Zeigler, Wilbur and Ben Grosscup. In the Heart of the Alleghanies..., p. 205)

"The Cranberry [iron] ore bank in Mitchell is pronounced by professor Kerr, 'one of the most remarkable iron deposits in America.' Its location is on the western slope of Iron mountain in the northwest part of the county, about three miles from the Tennessee line. It takes the name Cranberry from the creek which flows near the outcrop at the foot of the mountain. The surrounding and associated rocks are gneisses and gnessoids, hornblends, slate, and syenite. The ore is a pure, massive, and coarse granular magnetite. The steep slope of the mountain and ridges, which the bed occupies, are covered with blocks of ore, some weighing hundreds of pounds, and at places bare, vertical walls of massive ore, 10 to 15 feet thick, are exposed, and over several acres, the solid ore is found everywhere near the surface. The length of the outcrop is 1500 feet, and the width, 200 to 800 feet. (State Geological Report) (1883. Zeigler, Wilbur and Ben Grosscup. In the Heart of the Alleghanies..., pp.206, 207.)

"Last, but greatest in importance, are the ores of Cherokee. The region of the Valley river seems to be the culmination of the mineral wealth of the Alleghanies. Gold, silver, marble, limestone, and sandstone are associated with massive beds of brown ore, which yields an iron already celebrated for its malleability and strength. The breadth of the iron and marble range is from two to more than three miles, and occupies the bottom of a trough which has been scooped out by the streams. The direct valley range is about 24 miles in length, and there is a branch more than six miles long, which follows Peach Tree and Brasstown creeks, making the whole iron range upwards of 30 miles. The ores were used in forges by the Indians, and have always since been used by the country blacksmiths in preference to the manufactured iron." (1883. Zeigler, Wilbur and Ben Grosscup. In the Heart of the Alleghanies..., p. 208, 209.)