42 Journal of the Mitchell Society lOctoher 



light in Macon, Jackson, Buncombe, and Yancey counties. In 

 1871, Dr. Genth discovered the emery of Guilford County. 

 About this time, Mr. Crisp and Dr. C. D. Smith began active 

 work on the Corundum Hill property, and obtained about a 

 thousand pounds of corundum, part of which was sold to col- 

 lectors for cabinet specimens. Some of the masses that were 

 found weighed as much as 40 pounds. 



Systematic mining for corundum did not begin until the fall 

 of 1871, when the Corundum Hill property was purchased by 

 Col. Chas. W. Jenks, of St. Louis, Missouri, and Mr. E. B. 

 Ward, of Detroit, Michigan, and work was soon begun under 

 the superintendence of Col. Jenks. This was the first systematic 

 mining of common corundum, as distinguished from emery and 

 the gem varieties, ever undertaken, while the first mining of the 

 emery variety of corundum in America was at Chester, Massa- 

 chusetts. The Corundum Hill mine produced corundum almost 

 continuously from 1872 to 1901. Other mines that have pro- 

 duced corundum are the Buck Creek mine in Clay County ; the 

 Ellijay mine in Macon County; the Carter mine in Madison 

 County ; and the Higden mine and Behr mine in Clay County. 



Mica mining in I^orth Carolina began about 1870, and for the 

 first 5 years practically all the mica mined was handled by Heap 

 and Clapp, and was obtained from the mines of Mitchell and 

 Yancey counties. Mica has continued to be mined almost con- 

 stantly since that time not only in Yancey and Mitchell counties, 

 but in Ashe, Buncombe, Hay^vood, Jackson, and Macon coun- 

 ties. There are a great many old workings on these mica dej)osits 

 and before they had been investigated and the mica discovered 

 they were supposed to be old workings of the Spaniards who were 

 hunting for silver. It is now supposed that these old workings 

 were made by the Indians for these sheets of mica; and it is 

 known that mica has been found in Indian mounds and was 

 used by the Indians who inhabited what is now Ohio in the 

 manufacture of their beads. JSTorth Carolina mica is still known 

 as standard mica, as it was reckoned from the beginning. 



Several other minerals should be mentioned in connection with 

 the descriptions given above as they were first identified in I^orth 



