22 EAST TENNESSEE. 



Persons starting from the East for Knox^'ille reach that place via 

 "Washington, Lynchburg and Bristol. From the West take the route via 

 Louisville, Nashville and Chattanooga. 



East Tennessee Copper. 



Just as this pamphlet was about to receive the last touch of the printers 

 the following facts, from an address to this Association by John Caldwell, 

 Esq., were placed in our hands, and though too late for classification we 

 give them for the information of all interested. lie asks : 



Can ]<]ast Tennessee present a field for copper mining equal to Cornwall 

 or Lake 8u})erior? 



In reply, let me call your attention to that magnificent mountain range 

 bordering the valley of East Tennessee upon the South-east from ^\e 

 Georgia to the A^irginia line, and give you a few facts and figures within 

 my own personal knowledge. 



Early in ISf)!, I commenced mining operations, for copper, in Polk 

 county, Tennessee, near the point where Tennessee, Georgia and North 

 Carolina claim a common corner tree. These operations, although on a 

 very small scale, sometimes working myself, with one man at the windlass 

 and onp in the shaft, resulted in opening four or five mines, which liave 

 been since sold and resold liy parties owning them, at from $50,000 to 

 $500,000 each, and which have been profitably worked after hauling the 

 ore, unreduced, for forty miles by wagon, shipping thence by rail from 

 Cleveland, Tennessee, to Savannah, Georgia, and thence by water to Bal- 

 timore, Maryland, or to England, to be smelted and refined. So rich, 

 indeed, was the ore here found, that, before a wagon road was cut through 

 moimtains which were declared to be imjn-acticable for a wagon road, a 

 company was formed in the North, and their agent sent out to work a 

 mine, whose favorite idea was to pack the crude ore over a mountain 

 pathway for twenty miles on nmles, to a point where wagon transportation 

 could be procured to the railroad. 



Polk county, Tennessee, and Carroll county, Virginia, are about three 

 hundred miles apart. I have traveled over almost every mile of the in- 

 tervening distance, and have found copi)er at various places, with evidences 

 of its presence on almost every mile. The stratum or foundation is iden- 

 tical, and the_ production very similar; and I believe the inference is a 

 fair and legitimate one. that this Smoky Mountain, as it is called, is a 

 continued cupriferous u.i)hcaval, which deserves the attentive considera- 

 tion, not only of individuals, Imt of the State and National Governments. 



The Smoky Mountains rise some five thousand feet above the level ol' 

 the sea. The Ocoee, Iliwassee and Tennessee rivers flow through this 

 range, cutting these mountains to their base and crossing at their foot a 

 hea\^ course of" hematite ore underlaid by lead. 



This course in Tennessee is two hundred and thirty miles in length, and 

 is a definite waymark at the southei-n terminiis of the limestone formation, 

 and tells the man of science and research where the transition series be- 

 gin; and after he crosses the clay and talc slate, the gneiss, granite. 

 felds]iar and quartz, wliieh form a hill from seven to eight miles in width, 

 he reaches the i)rimitive or micace(ms formation which, so far as the Vir- 

 ginia and Teimessee mines are concerned, is the matrix of coi)per. 



This inviting field for copjier oi)erations lies from fifteen to forty miles 

 south-east of the trunk line of railroad through East Tennessee, contiguous 



