2 Journal of the Mitchell Society [^June 



Some of these minerals are peculiar to the states in which they 

 are being mined, as monazite in North Carolina and South 

 Carolina, rutile in Virginia, zircon in ISTorth Carolina, gadol- 

 inite in Texas, samarskite in North Carolina. 



GOLD ^ 



The first authentic account of gold having been found in the 

 Southern States was in 1797 when a 17-pound nvigget was found 

 on the Reed plantation in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. 

 This caused a systematic search to be made for this metal not 

 only in North Carolina but in the adjoining States, which re- 

 sulted in the finding of a large number of nuggets and was the 

 beginning of gold mining in the South. By 1825 gold mining 

 was being very vigorously ca-rried on along the eastern slopes of 

 the Blue Ridge from Virginia to Alabama. The discovery, how- 

 ever, of gold in California in 1849 and the exhaustion of the 

 easily worked placer deposits had a decidedly retarding influence 

 on gold mining in these states, and, with the breaking out of the 

 Civil War in 1861, it practically came to a standstill. Stories 

 and reports of the value of the gold that was obtained continued 

 to be spread abroad and, as the years went by, they lost nothing 

 in the telling, and the unsuspecting hearer was given an idea of 

 untold wealth left in these mines. The results were that un- 

 scrupulous promoters made the most of these old stories and 

 reports for furthering schemes for the disposal of stock in min- 

 ing properties that had little or no merit; and that many in- 

 vestors have expected all mining properties to be bonanzas. 

 Failure to realize what had been expected caused a rather gen- 

 eral condemnation of all mining propositions throughout the 

 South, and it is only within the past few years that a reaction 

 has set in and the general public has been able to look squarely 

 and impartially at conditions as they really exist. 



The successful development of one or two good properties 

 and the publication of reliable reports regarding the general 

 mineral resources have finally awakened a confidence not only 

 in the gold mines of the South but in all kinds of mines. 



* Bulls. 3 and 10, North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey. 1896 and 

 1807. Bull. 4-A Georgia Geological Survey. 1896. 



