Mines, Miners, and Minerals of Western North Carolina: Western North Carolina's Hidden Mineralogical Treasures
Mining in Western North Carolina played an important economic role in the lives of its people and the state's history, but little has been recorded about the industry, especially the day-to-day trials and triumphs of the individual miner. History books are filled with articles about frontier life, trade with Native Americans, railroad and road construction, the Civil War, and large mining operations, but history has taken individual mines for granted, and most records that still exist are found in land records. This book tells the story of how North Carolina miners and mines have arrived at where they are today.
Presented here are the tales of old-timers as they talk about discovering huge books of mica, outrunning muck cars, and finding out in the nick of time that a mine has bad air. Marvel at Conrad Reed who found an interesting-looking rock (a seventeen-pound gold nugget) or Dr. George Kunz, vice president of Tiffany's, who searched for hiddenite but had to settle for gem-quality emeralds instead. Learn about the famous commercial and private mines that supplied this country with the raw materials needed for defense and technology.
Minerals mined in Western North Carolina include alum, asbestos, lay, corundum, copper, chromium, feldspar, granite, gold, graphite, gravel, iron, kyanite, lead, limestone, mica, marble, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, quartz, sand, silver, tin, tungsten, talc, uranium, vermiculite, zinc, and many varieties of gemstones such as diamonds, garnets, emeralds, rubies, and beryl.
Author Lowell Presnell is a native of North Carolina and a descendant of a mining family. He is a member of the Southern Appalachian Mineral Society.
