pip. ■^o^" 2lT" JOHN H. KERR RESERVOIR BASIN — ^MILLER 205 



Usually, whenever copper is found in prehistoric associations, it is 

 immediately attributed to the Great Lakes deposits, but Kickard 

 (1934, pp. 269-270) questions this. He indicates that many of the 

 early settlers, tradesmen, and travelers noted the presence of raw cop- 

 per pure enough to be hammered into sheets and utilized by the local 

 Indians. 



Strachey, it will be recalled, refers to the "highland to the westward" and to 

 the "hills of the northwest" as the source of copper. This is entirely in accord 

 with the results of modern exploration, and of actual mining operations in later 

 days. I cannot do better than quote Walter H. Weed, formerly of the United 

 States Geological Survey. "I have found native copper at a number of localities 

 in Virginia and North Carolina. In the Blue Ridge country it has been found at 

 certainly a dozen or more localities, as reported by authentic observers. I 

 myself have seen it in masses large enough to be worked into Indian implements 

 at High Knob, near Lindon, Virginia, and in pieces weighing a quarter of a 

 poimd or more from the flanks of the Blue Ridge, west of Barbersville, Virginia. 

 I also have native copper from surface croppings in Person and Rowan counties, 

 North Carolina, and Fairfax county, Virginia. All of this material is perfectly 

 pure copper, free from sulphides or other impurities, and soft and malleable. 

 There have been a number of copper excitements through the South, and at such 

 times the country people have prospected the hillsides and gathered great quan- 

 tities of native copper specimens, which have been taken home and may be 

 found in many cabins in the Blue Ridge country. I have known of the supposi- 

 tion that the Virginia Indians, and, in fact, the Indians of the Atlantic States 

 generally, derived their copper from the Lake Superior I'egion. Inasmuch, 

 however, as native copper can be found at all the locations I have noted, and at 

 many others, I have no doubt that the Indians discovered its presence in the 

 early days. At some of the ledges (lodes or veins) which I have seen, the native 

 copper stands out prominently upon the surface of the rock and one can hardly 

 fail to observe it. The largest mass which I have seen in place weighed perhaps 

 a pound. [Rickard, 1934, pp. 269-270.] 



Langley (1917, pp. 67-68) has indicated that native copper does 

 occur in the vicinity of Virginia, though not occurring in quantity. 



The copper occurs in the metallic state as small grains and small irregular 

 areas in the highly silicified and epidotized areas or zones in the country rock. 

 The native copper so far as noted is confined to areas of epidote, and in most 

 instances, in quartz stringers and areas in the epidotized schists, suggesting that 

 the solutions which produced the alterations in the country rock also brought in 

 the copper. ... It is known that minerals, even silicates, rich in ferrous iron 

 may, under certain conditions, reduce copper in solution to the metallic state. 



The findings of these two men give a completely new slant to the 

 trait of copper in Indian sites in Virginia and the surrounding States. 

 Since metallic copper does not appear in large quantities one can see 

 why the Virginia Indians never fashioned utilitarian objects from it. 

 As in our own culture, whenever rare metals were put to use it was 

 always in some form of jewelry or personal adornment. 



Unlike the Indians in the immediate vicinity of Lake Superior, who, 

 living near the source of large quantities of pure copper, made it into 



