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VOL. III., NO. 15.
PINEHURST, N. C, FEB. 9, 1900.
PRICE THREE CENTS
INDIFFERENCE.
TO E. B. S.
A Truth-Seeker.)
What is Indifference, thou seek'st to know?
It's meaning, I would truthfully define,
la it an earth-born trait? Is it divine?
Does it retard the growth like poison slow,
Like secret enemy, like subtle foe?
And dim the light which should within us shine,
ltellecting gifts and graces that combine
To glorify Life's earnest aims below?
We would not dare that attribute extol
Which cools the ardor of Love's sacred flame,
Which stills the pulse, the sympathetic sigh,
And fails to stimulate the seeking soul !
'Tis egotism with another name,
And born of earth, descends not from on high.
Anna Hubbard Mekcur.
February, 1900.
NORTH CAROLINA COLD MINES.
Several Located in This County Within
a Few Miles of Carthage.
The glowing accounts of the rich finds
of gold in Alaska, and the graphic de
scriptions of the different "diggings'" and
the routes taken to reach them, which
have tilled the columns of the press dur
ing the last few years, have made the
average man very well informed regard
ing that far-off' Eldorado; but there are
comparatively few of our readers who
know that we have a treasure-house
almost at our very doors.
Of all the states in the Union, but few
are so rich in natural resources as is
North Carolina, with its mines of coal,
iron, copper, silver, diamonds, emeralds,
rubies and many other metals and prec
ious stones. In early times this state
was noted for its gold mines, and up to
the time of the discoveries in California
was the greatest gold producing state in
the country.
Moore county is located on the south
east corner of the gold-bearing belt in
this state, and there are a number of
mines but a short distance from Carthage,
the county seat. Work in most of these
mines has been abandoned, but Mr. J. II.
Iluffstickler, our village blacksmith, who
has done considerable mining in this
county, informs us that the Belle and
Hums mines hereinafter described are
being operated on a small scale.
The following article is taken from
Bulletin Xo. 3, issued by the N. C.
Geological Survey in 1896, and will
doubtless prove interesting to our read
ers. "At what time gold mining was first
undertaken in North Carolina cannot be
ascertained, but several traditions, which
carry a large probability of truth, would
seem to indicate that the auriferous
character of the section was known
before the Revolutionary war. One of
the localities in this state, which it is
believed was worked before that struggle
began, was the Oliver mine in Gaston
county. The Brewer mine in Chester
field county, South Carolina, is another;
iind the "Aborigines" shaft, at this latter
place, is slill pointed out where work was
done earlier than any known records.
Information has recently been received
f the successful operation of the Parker
mine in Cherokee county, N. C, by the
Cherokee Indians long before thecoming
of the white pioneers into that section.
They obtained only nugget gold and
their art was entirely inadequate to the
winning of the fine dust gold.
"The first authentic find was on the
Reed plantation, in Cabarrus county,
where a 17 pound nugget was found in
1799. Its value was not suspected at
first, but when it was ascertained to be
gold, a systematic search was undertaken
and a large number of nuggets were
unearthed.
"Success at this mine stimulated search
elsewhere ; nugget gold was found at the
Dunn mine in Mecklenburg county soon
afterwards, and curious stories are still
current of the common uses to which
these nuggets were put by the local gun
smiths. 'By 1825 gold mining on a vigorous
scale was carried on along the entire
seams also occur. The rock has much
the appearance of being a schistose,
metamorphosed eruptive; propyllitic
alterations were observed. The strike
is N. 55 degrees E., and the dip 75 de
grees N. W. In the upper part of one of
the old shafts the schists were observed
to bend over with the slope of the hill,
from the normal dip to an anomalous S.
E. dip, which was as great as 45 degrees
near the surface.
"The mine was abandoned and no ore
visible when the property was visited in
1894. It is stated that the mineralized
schists themselves constitute the ore,
which exists in several narrow belts con
taining siliceous seams from 1-8 to 4
inches in thickness. Mr. Richard Wil
liams, the former superintendent, reports
that the pay streak was from 4 to 8 inches
wide, lying against the foot wall, and
that 1 1-2 to 2 feet of the material in the
foot wall side was mined and milled,
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BILLIARD UOOM, .HOLLY INN.
Appalachian slope, from Virginia to
Alabama. The placers or like deposits
were first worked, then the gossan out
crops of the veins, where slight skill with
few and cheap appliances were adequate
to the work. The exhaustion of these
easily worked stores was effected about
the time of the discovery of gold in Cal
ifornia and there was a large exodus of
miners to that territory. The mining
work had not recovered from the retard
ing influences of this exodus when the
civil war came and put an end to all
work. At the close of the war but one
gold mine in North Carolina was in
operation. Since then there have been
spasmodic revivals and depressions in
gold mining throughout the state, and at
the present time (1896) everything points
to a healthy growth of the industry.
"The gold mines in Moore county are
situated in the northern and western part
of the county, not far from the north
west boundary of the Jura-Trias basin.
They are as follows :
"The IJelle mine is in the northern part
of the county, 8 miles N. N. W. of Car
thage. The country rock ischloritic schist
sometimes garneti Tenuis. Small calcite
yielding as much as $30 per ton. The
entire vein matter, averaging fully 4 feet
in width will run $12 per ton.
"There is very little sulphuret present,
and the free gold is very "leafy," which
has caused great difficulty in working
the ores by the ordinary modes of amal
gamation. In the northwestern part of
the county is a group of 9 or 10 mines,
comprised in an area 2 miles wide from
northwest to southeast, and 6 miles long
from northeast to southwest. These
limits indicate the productive part, but
the actual auriferous area is considerably
more extended.
"The Burns (or Burns and Aired) mine
is situated 11 miles W. N. W. from Car
thage on Cabin creek. The freehold and
land tracts comprise more than 300 acres.
"The country rock is a sericitic, chloritic
schist, in part silicified. The strike is
N. 20 degrees E., and the dip 55 degrees
N. W. ; the joint planes dip 35 degrees
S. E.
uThese schists are filled with quartz
stringers and lenticles. It is difficult to
say what is ore and what is not, for
the rock is everywhere aurifer
ous, though not everywhere capa
ble of being profitably worked.
"It is mined in large opencuts, 20 to 100
feet wide, to a depth of about 50 feet.
The cuts extend along the strike for a
distance of about 1-5 mile. This is on
Moody Hill; some work has also been
done on Brown Hill.
"The selection of places for exploitation
has been almost exclusively determined
by the results of mill runs of the ore, or
by panning; and while this method of
work has been wasteful in some respects,
it was probably the best method availa
ble. The cuts are scattered about pro
miscuously, without much evident con
nection or relation, and are usually very
irregular in outline.
"It is stated that the average ore yields
$2.50 to $3 per ton, free gold ; and at
intervals schists of high grade have been
found, and may be encountered at any
time.
"Iron sulphurets also occur in the
schists, but they have not yet been
treated, as little, if any, of the work
extends below the water level. The
rock is also intersected by quartz veins
in all directions, but they are presumably
barren. Some of the quartz contains
included fragments of the country schist.
Several interesting specimens were ex
hibited by the superintendent at the time
of our visit. These were small pieces of
the soft, unsilicified schist, also free from
quartz stringers, containing free gold.
"The mill house is equipped with 5
Crawford mills, which treat 8 tons of
ore per 24 hours. Three of these were
in operation (Nov., 1894). This mine
has been operated for more than 40 years.
Under the old, and for the most part
successful, methods the work was on a
small scale, the machinery inexpensive,
the capital small, the management eco
nomical, and the attention to business was
unremitting. And these circumstanc.es
will not unfairly indicate the conditions
of successful work for all the mines of
this group in the future.
"The Cagle mine is situated about 3-4
mile north of the Burns, and the country
rock and ore are similar. The strike is
N. 27 degrees E., and the dip 55 degrees
N. W. The mine was formerly operated
by a series of inclined shafts, on the dip,
to a depth of 160 feet.
"The Clegg mine is 1-4 mile west of the
Cagle, on the west side of Cabin creek.
It has the same character of ore, though
the body i3 larger, and of relatively lower
grade. It has been worked by open cuts.
"The Brown mine is on the northeast
edge of the district, on the road from
Moffitt's to Richardson's mill. It has
been worked for a distance of 300 yards,
and to a depth of 40 or 50 feet. The dip
is very flat; the ore body is three feet
thick, but the "pay streak" was a com
paratively narrow seam of rich quartz,
which, it is stated, finally narrowed down
to such limits that it could not be profita
bly worked.
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