THE  CAROLINA  TIN  BELT. 
By  L.  C.  Graton. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The  exact  date  of  the  discovery  of  tin  in  the  Carolinas  is  not 
known.  About  1883  a  tin-bearing  mineral  was  found  in  a  street 
of  the  village  of  Kings  Mountain,  N.  C,  and  shortly  afterwards  id 
became  known  that  tin  oxide,  or  cassiterite,  occurred  scattered  upon 
the  surface  of  the  soil  in  and  about  the  town.  The  excitement 
which  this  knowledge  caused  abated  after  some  time  because  of  fail- 
ure to  find  the  mineral  in  large  quantities. 
Between  1886  and  1890  interest  was  revived  by  the  explorations 
carried  on  in  the  vicinity  of  Kings  Mountain  by  parties  from  New 
York  City.  A  second  failure  to  locate  valuable  deposits  of  the 
ore  led  to  another  period  of  inactivity,  which  was  brought  to  a  close 
by  the  discovery  in  1902  of  tin  ore  on  property  belonging  to  Mr. 
S.  S.  Ross,  near  the  town  of  GafTney,  S.  C.  In  1903  Mr.  EosJ 
shipped  nearly  20  tons  of  cassiterite  to  England,  and  in  1904  a 
second  shipment  of  about  the  same  amount  was  made.  This  actual 
production  of  tin  from  the  Carolina  belt  served  as  a  stimulus  to 
prospecting  and  development  work,  and  at  the  present  time  there 
is  considerable  activity  manifested  throughout  the  region. 
The  writer  visited  the  Carolina  tin  belt  in  the  fall  of  1904  and 
spent  about  three  weeks  in  a  study  of  the  deposits.  The  work  haa 
been  carried  on  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  Waldemar  Lindgren, 
who  spent  a  few  days  in  the  field  with  the  writer. 
LOCATION  AND   GENERAL  GEOLOGY. 
The  Carolina  tin  belt,  as  at  present  explored,  extends  in  a  north- 
easterly direction  from  GafTney,  Cherokee  County,  S.  C,  to  about: 
4  miles  east  of  Lincolnton,  Lincoln  County,  N.  C,  a  distance  of 
about  35  miles.  (See  fig.  12.)  It  lies  in  the  Piedmont  Plateau,  30' 
to  50  miles  east  of  and  approximately  parallel  to  the  Appalachian 
Mountains. 
a  A  more  detailed  paper  is  in  preparation. 
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