Gold Mining In North Carolina And Adjacent South Appalachian Regions

Excerpt from Gold Mining in North Carolina, Vol. 10: And Adjacent South Applachian Regions In the present publication that paper has been partly reproduced, but it has been largely rewritten, elaborated and brought down to the end of 1896. N o attempt has been made to describe all of the mines or even to present detailed descriptions of all of the more important mining regions to be found in North Carolina and adjacent States. Only such mining and metallurgical methods practiced in this and the other States are here described as it is believed will be found useful in a study of the best methods for use in the development of the North Carolina gold fields. This report may be regarded as being in a measure supplemental to Bulletin 3 (gold Deposits of North Carolina), published by the Survey in 1896, which described with more detail the gold-mining regions in this State. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The first gold discovery in the United States occurred in 1799 when young Conrad Reed went fishing in Little Meadow Creek in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. The 17-pound nugget he found was used by his family as a doorstop until they figured out what the strange rock was. This chance discovery set off the first gold rush in the nation's history. For more than a century, men extracted gold from the rolling hills and valleys of the North Carolina piedmont, as well as from the high peaks and rugged mountains of the western part of the state. Prior to the California Gold Rush of 1849, North Carolina led the nation in production of this precious metal and was the largest gold-producing state in the South well into the 20th century.