Wander Words

When I first moved up to the North Carolina/Virginia border, my husband was still living in Wilmington, 200 miles south. I had a lot of free time on my hands, and so, given my penchant for geology, I began to research the geology of the area. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this rural, sparsely populated, mostly-tobacco-fields area was home to a dozen or more working copper, gold, and silver mines at the turn of the century, with some of the mines within 5 miles of our house. I couldn’t believe it.

I got an out-of-print professional paper (dated 1917) from the Geological Survey, and read it cover to cover. It has lots of very specific information, including maps of the mines themselves, and even annual statistics on ore percentages and so forth. Of course, it’s difficult to locate something that went out of production a hundred years ago, more so when the location is listed as “half a mile west of the wagon road leading south from town.” I asked around to friends and finally got a vague location for one of the most productive mines, but rural North Carolina isn’t like rural New York; I can’t just pull off the side of the road and go wandering about, unless I want to get shot. So I decided I needed to get two things: a good source for verifying the historical facts and locations, and permission from all the property owners. With this I could do my research easily and document the locations and conditions of all the local mines.

So the other day I sent an email to the mayor of one of the towns involved. I was ecstatic to receive an enthusiastic reply! In a week or so we will be having a meeting, and I hope to be able to verify all the exact locations of the mines (there are at least five I’d like to research) and get the necessary permissions to go and actually see and document everything. Stay tuned; pictures are forthcoming!

satyavati devi wrote this on May 26th, 2005 and filed it under Travel |