THE YANCEY* RECORD AND MTTCHSLI LEDGER JUNE 24, T 971
PAGE 14
Mica And Feldspar Mining Were Major County Industries
In 1870, a Salesman travel
ing by horseback noticed a
piece of mica (then called
isinglass) and he carried away
samples and found it had a
market.
The salesman, whose name
was Heap, returned with E. B.
Clapp, and the two succeeded
enormously in a mica-mining
• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••************************ # ***************
• Wonderful Sights To Behold In Mitchell Co.
phe Abundance Os Wildlife —At Any Time A Deer Could Be Watching As You Drive By:
Shop For Great Savings At
Grahams Hardware & Furniature
Balcersville, N.C.
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: We welcome you to the Festival\ to Mitchell County :
I and to the Spruce Pine Golf & Country Club :
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* Ine Spruce Pine Golf & Country Club is a sporty 18 Hole course with *
* bent grass Greens and blue grass Fairways and open almost all year. *
t Enjoy the Modern Club House and Golf Carts available. A Very Popular
* Course -- - - but No Congestion ! *
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venture.
Heirs of Clapp own a large
portion of mica property and
rights in the Valley today.
Mica mining received a tre
mendous boost when new uses
were discovered for scrap mica,
wet or dry ground. Robert R.
Dent, associated with the Eng
lish mica interests, had a son
who was changing a bicycle
tube, and lacked powder to
place between tube and tire
to reduce friction and prevent
sticking. Instead he used a
handful of ground mica. A
year later, Denton saw the boy
removing this tube and he no
ticed how easily it slipped fron
the casing.
Denton went to Akron and
persuaded the Goodrich Rub
ber Company to try a hundred
pounds of mica in their tire
manufacture. Within a week
they ordered five bags; then a
carload.
Mica occurs with feldspar,
quartz, kaolin and other
minerals, but for a long time,
thousands of tons of feldspar
went unwanted on the mine
dumps. In 1911 a sample car
load of feldspar, drawn byown,
was shipped out of the county.
In 1912 the first commercial
load of "spar" from Deer Park
Mine No. 1 on the James Bail
ey estate went to a pottery.
Feldspar, once a by- product
of mica, became a primary
product, often with mica as
the by-product.
Bowman Was
Valley Prophet
J.C.Bowman, bom in Ba
keisville in 1862 of a family
of pioneers, is an educational
pioneer in Mitchell County.
He was a man of determina
tion and vision, largely self
educated, and had a keen in
terest in schooling in this area.
In 1890, Bowman started
a little one-room academy—
the first public school in the
county to offer subjects beyond
those of common school which
was about the fifth grade.
Bowman was elected to the
legislature, but his advocacy
of progressive local legislaticn
so enraged his cons Wtuaats that
he was defeated at the next
election.
J.C.Bowman, regarded as
one of the prophets of the
valley, retired to Kentucky,
and the high school at Bakers
ville bears his name.