The gold region elsewhere described in the southern states, extends into the southeastern part of Tenneseee. The spot affording the metal, is situated about 12 miles south of the Tellico plains, near the Unika mountain, which separatee the state from North Carolina. The gold occurs in small grains, and appears to have been produced by the disintegration of the rocks which compose the mountain. The gold is found in the small rivulets and brooks, and also on the declivities of the mountains, and very near their summits. It is contained in a stratum of the soil of 10 or 12 inches in depth, and is separated from the earth by washing.
Gold.?Gold has been found in Tennessee only along the eastern edge of the State in the Cambrian or pre-Cambrian rocks on the western flank of the Great Smoky Mountains. Placer gold has been found in the creeks a few miles east of Montvale Springs and back of Chilhowee Mountain in Blount County; in Polk County; and on Citico Creek, Cane Creek, the headwaters of the Tellico River and on Coker Creek, in Monroe County. The last locality has furnished nearly all of the gold found in the State, amounting to probably not over $200,000.
The Coker Creek (Coca or Coqua Creek of the old reports) deposits embrace a strip of country eight or nine miles long by two or three wide. Gold was first discovered here in 1831, followed by the usual "rush," during which the whole region was thoroughly prospected. The gravels at first yielded an average of $2 a day, but gradually decreased to a yield of about fifty cents a day. The largest piece reported found was worth about $20. Later a 6-inch vein of gold-bearing quartz was found on Whippoorwill Branch of Tellico River, and has been worked some. It is more than probable that some day, other, and probably richer, quartz veins will be found. In 1908 Monroe County yielded 21.61 ounces. In the same year 149.33 ounces were obtained from the copper ores of Ducktown, in Polk County, as a by-product.
Gold (lode and placer). Monroe County, Whippoorwill Branch of Tellico River, has been mined.
Gold (placer). Blount County, has been mined in Montvale Springs and back of Chilhowee Mountain. Monroe County, Coker Creek. Polk County.
GOLD. (5.)
1289. During the last thirty-eight years gold, in limited quantity, has been obtained in Tennessee. The region which affords it lies in the south-eastern part of the State. From my own observations, I would give greater limits to this region than those hitherto assigned it.
1290. More or less gold could doubtless be found in the mountain parts of all the eastern counties, from the French Broad to Georgia, wherever the semi-motamorpbic slates of the Ocoee Group are to he met with.
In many psirts of this region lenticular conformable veins of quarts abound, and some of them will doubtless prove to be rich enough to work. (See ? 475.)
1291. There are numerous localities where qold has been found. At most of them it occurs in small quantity. In all cases, with but a few exceptions, it has been washed out of the gravel and guilds of branches, creeks or rivers.
The following are some of the localities: In Blount County, a few miles cast of Montvale Springs, and back of Chilhowee Mountain; in Monroe, at several points, as follows?on tho waters of Citico Creek, in the bed of Cane Creek, on the headwaters of Tellico River, and on those of Coca or Coqua Creek; in Polk County, also, it has been found.
1292. Coca Creek and Vicinity.?The localities which have afforded most of or nearly all the gold, are those of Coca Creek und vicinity, embracing a strip of country perhaps eight or ten miles long, and two or three wide. This region is a part of the depression or mountain trough spoken of in ? 437. It is intersected by the Tellico, and supplies some of the important tributaries of that river. Coca Creek, a tributary of the Hi- wan>ee. flows through the southern part.
1211:5. The first gold was discovered in 1831. So soon as the feet became generally known, hundreds of persons flocked to the golden field, and engaged in working the debris of all the low places and streams, small and great, in the region. Every year since, more or less work has been done, and gold to the value of many thousand dollars has been collected and carried off.
At first, in the richest localities, an industrious man could average two dollars a day, which was then, when wages were low, considered an excellent business. In a short time, the average was reduced to a dollar and a half, and then to one dollar, and lower.
At present some washing is occasionally done. About filty cents a day to the hand can be depended upon, with the additional prospect of greater yields at intervals.
1204. The following table shows the amount of Tennessee gold deposited at the United States Mint, and branches, from 1831 to 1853, inclusive:*
at any time in the Coca region, weighed twenty-one pennyweights; a smaller peice weighed eleven.*
1295. Source of the Gold?the Whippoorwill Vein.?The gold found in Tennessee has been derived mainly from quartz veins. Liberated by the disintegration of these, the rains and the streams have washed it, together with gravel, sand and earth, into the low places. This view has been confirmed, within a few years, by the discovery of a gold-bearing quartz vein in the Coca Creek .Region. This has been found on a small branch called Whippoorwill, the waters of which find their way into the Tellieo. The place is near a low ridge, dividing the Coca Creek and Tellieo waters, and is about six miles east of the Tellieo Iron-works.
1296. Through the kindness of Austin Fry, Esq., I had the opportunity of seeing and examining this locality.
The "vein" lies between the strata, not intersecting, but dipping with them to the south-east at an angle of about forty-five degrees. It is composed of brittle quartz, rather compact, but occasionally affording cavities, some of which are rhombohed- ral or cubic (pyrite) in outline, and filled with brownish or yellowish ferruginous matter. This vein or sheet of quartz, has an average thickness of about six inches; its surfaces have a wavy or rolling character like those of the adjoining slates.
The outcrop was exposed for many yards, and ran up the side of the hill. The gold occurs in grains and scales through the quartz, and also occasionally in tho ferruginous matter mentioned above. I saw many fragments of quartz, taken from the vein along its outcrop, containing visible particles. Some very fair cabinet specimens have been obtained.
1297. A company was formed some years ago, under the style of the Whippoorwill Mining Company, that proposed to ascertain the richness of the quarts, and the extent of the vein. What they have done, if anything, I am not advised.
This vein we regard as but one of many auriferous veins like it, some of them perhaps much more extensive, that may be found at different points in tho region specified in tho beginning of this section.
The geological character of the Coca Creek .Region is given in ?? 437 and 438, to which the reader can refer.
A bed of copper ore has been discovered five and a half miles south-east of Tellico Plains, on the waters of Crawfish creek, a small tributary of the Tellico, which enters from the left of the stream. This bed of quartz and copper glance appears at the foot of a water-fall some fifty feet high. The principal bed crosses the stream at right angles and shows an exposed surface of about four feet. It is enclosed between two layers of hard talcose slate. Two other veins appear, one four feet below and the other six above, in which the copper glance is seen, though not so abundantly as in the middle vein. The direction of the vein is north-east and south- west, and the copper glance shows itself in bunches distributed through the quartz, so as to make probably a tenth of the whole mass.
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