12 CORUNDUM, ITS OOCURKKNOE AND DISTRIBUTION. 
time Mr. Crisp and Dr. C. D. Smith began active work on the Corun- 
dum Hill property, and obtained about a thousand pounds of corun- 
dum, part of which was sold to collectors 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. 
Charles W. Jenks, of St. Louis, Mo., and Mr. E. B. Ward, of Detroit, 
Mich., and work was soon begun under the superintendence of Colonel 
Jenks. This was the first systematic mining of common corundum 
as distinguished from emery and the gem varieties ever undertaken 
in this country, the mining at Chester, Mass., being for the emery 
variety of corundum. 
In the following spring (1872) the Laurel Creek or Pine Mountain 
mine, in Rabun County, Ga., was opened by Colonel Jenks. This was 
the beginning of corundum mining in Georgia, although about the 
time that corundum was first found at Laurel Creek (1870) Mr. 
William R. McConnell, of Hiawassee, Towns County, had obtained a 
considerable quantity of surface corundum on his estate. In the 
sj^ring of 1875 both the Corundum Hill and the Laurel Creek mines 
passed into the hands of Dr. H. S. Lucas, of Chester, Mass., who 
for many years was the main promoter in extending the corundum 
industry. 
In 1874 or 1875 corundum was discovered near Statesville, in 
Iredell County, N. C. In a letter in regard to this discovery Mr. 
J. A. D. Stephenson writes : " " The first corundum found in Iredell 
County was found by myself near where the Collins (Acme) mine 
is now located, either late in 1874 or early in 1875. It was a mass 
weighing probably 2 pounds. I also found a lot of pink fragments 
near by." Soon afterwards corundum was discovered on the surface 
at many other points in this county and in the adjoining (Alexander) 
county on the west. 
Since these early discoveries prospecting for corundum has been 
carried on very vigorously in the peridotite belt of Georgia and North 
Carolina, and many deposits have been located, but because of their 
remoteness many of them have been but little developed. 
Until the year 1899 the corundum deposits of Georgia and North 
Carolina furnished nearly all the corundum (exclusive of emery) used 
in this country. A very small quantity was obtained from Penn- 
sylvania. Many localities throughout the Eastern States had been 
prospected for corundum, and at a number of places in Alabama, 
South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts mining on a small 
scale had been undertaken ; but although in most cases a little corun- 
dum was shipped, none of these localities developed commercial mines 
of this mineral. 
" Letter to Prof. J. Volney Lewis, Rutgers College. 
