CI
X«7^1 ^4orth Carolina SJate Library
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North Carolina
Department of Conservation and Development
William P. Saunders, Director
Division of Mineral Resources
Jasper L. Stuckey, State Geologist
Bulletin Number 74
CRYSTALLINE LIMESTONES OF THE
PIEDMONT AND MOUNTAIN REGIONS
OF NORTH CAROLINA
By
Stephen G. Conrad
Raleigh
I960
North Carolina State Library
Raleigh
North Carolina
Department of Conservation and Development
William P. Saunders, Director
Division of Mineral Resources
Jasper L. Stuckey, State Geologist
Bulletin Number 74
CRYSTALLINE LIMESTONES OE THE
PIEDMONT AND MOUNTAIN REGIONS
OF NORTH CAROLINA
By
Stephen G. Conrad
Raleigh
I960
Members of the Board of Conservation and Development
Governor Luther H, Hodges, Chairman Raleigh
Miles J. Smith, First Vice Chairman Salisbury
Walter J. Damtoft, Second Vice Chairman Asheville
Charles S. Allen Durham
W. B. Austin . Jefferson
D.G.Bell Morehead City
F. J. Boling Siler City
Orton A. Boren Pleasant Garden
H. C. Buchan, Jr North Wilkesboro
Scroop W. Enloe, Jr Spruce Pine
Voit Gilmore Southern Pines
AmosR. Kearns ____High Point
H. C. Kennett Durham
R. W. Martin Raleigh
Lorimer W. Midgett Elizabeth City
Hugh M. Morton Wilmington
Edwin Pate Laurinburg
W. Eugene Simmons Tarboro
T. Max Watson Spindale
11
Letter of Transmittal
Raleigh, North Carolina
March 2, I960
To His Excellency, Honorable Luther H. Hodges
Governor of North Carolina
Sir:
I have the honor to submit herewith manuscript for publica-tion
as Bulletin 74, "Crystalline Limestones of the Piedmont and
Mountain Regions of North Carolina", by Stephen G. Conrad.
Limestone is the most widely used of all industrial rocks and
it is essential in more industries than any other metallic or non-metallic
mineral substance. It is believed that this report will be
of value to those interested in the limestone deposits of the Pied-mont
and Mountain Regions of North Carolina.
Respectfully submitted,
William P. Saunders,
Director
in
Contents
Page
Abstract 1
Introduction 1
Methods of investigation 2
Acknowledgments 2
Limestone 2
Definition 2
Origin 2
Physical properties 3
Varieties 3
Uses 4
Dolomite 4
Definition 4
Origin 4
Physical properties 4
Varieties 4
Uses 5
Marble-crystalline limestone 5
Definition and origin 5
Physical properties = 5
Varieties 6
Uses 6
Geographic distribution of crystalline limestone 6
Description by areas 9
Murphy belt 9
General statement '. 9
Murphy marble 9
Distribution 9
Character 9
Zoning in the Murphy marble 11
Accessibility 11
History of production 13
Description of workings 13
Columbia Marble Company 13
Nantahala Talc and Limestone Company 14
iv
Culberson quarry Ljl 15
Kinsey quarry 1 15
Regal quarry 16
Red Marble Gap 16
Peachtree-Brasstown area 17
Macon County 17
Dill lime kiln 17
Jackson County 18
Caney Fork deposit 18
Hot Springs area—Madison County 18
General statement 18
Lime bearing rocks of the area 18
Marble lenses in Precambrian gneisses and schists 18
Lenticular beds in the Sandsuck formation 19
Shady dolomite 21
Honaker limestone 23
Description of workings ; __ 23
G. C. Buquo Lime Company ^____ 23
Other properties , 25
Brevard belt :__ . 1 25
General statement : 25
Marble in the Brevard schist i^ _i__ 25
History of production 26
Description of workings 26
Transylvania County 26
Bear Wallow Creek 26
Curitan (Simms) quarry 26
J. W. McQuire property (Barnard quarry) 27
Henderson County 27
Woodfin, Allison and Ezell quarries 27
Cogdill Limestone Company 27
Fletcher Limestone Company 28
B & C Lime and Stone Company 28
Buncombe County ^_~ 28
Pinner Creek : 28
Robinson Creek 30
Groves Lake . 30
Gravel Creek .^ i 30
Bandana dolomite marble :___: 30
v
Ashe County 30
Horse Creek deposit '. 30
McDowell County 33
General Statement 33
Shady dolomite 33
History of production 33
Description of workings 34
Woodlawn quarry (State Highway Commission) 34
Clinchfield Lime Company 35
Siliceous marble along the Catawba River 35
General Statement 35
General geology 35
Description of marble 35
Location of outcrops 37
Exploratory drilling 38
Significance of alinement of outcrops 38
Economic possibilities of the marble 39
Kings Mountain belt 39
General statement 39
Marble in the Kings Mountain belt 41
History of production 41
Description of workings ' 42
Cleveland County 42
Superior Stone Company (Kings Mountain quarry) 42
Lincoln County 42
Finger quarry 42
Keener (Beal) quarry 43
Catawba County 43
Setzer quarry 43
Old limestone quarry of Catawba County 43
Shuford quarry 44
Stokes, Yadkin and Forsyth Counties 44
General statement 44
Marble in the quartzite and gneiss units 45
History of production 45
Description of workings 47
Yadkin County 47
Lime Rocky quarry 47
Watkins property 47
Stokes County 48
vi
Bolejack quarry 48
Wall property 48
Edwards property 48
Martin's lime kiln 49
Forsyth County 49
Hauser property 49
Jordan (Franklin) property 49
Bowen property 50
Pearl property 50
Other prospects 50
Selected list of chemical analyses 51
Murphy marble 51
Macon County 51
Jackson County 51
Hot Springs area—Madison County 51
Brevard belt 52
Mitchell County 53
McDowell County 53
Kings Mountain belt 53
Stokes, Yadkin and Forsyth Counties 54
References cited 55
vn
Illustrations
Page
Figure 1. Geographic distribution of marble and dolomite in North
Carolina 7
2. Map showing outcrop area of Murphy marble in Cherokee,
Clay, Macon, and Swain Counties, North Carolina 8
3. Generalized geologic section of the Murphy marble belt in
the vicinity of Marble, North Carolina 10
4. Geologic section showing stratigraphic sequence in Murphy
marble 12
5. Map showing location of lenticular limestone beds in the
Sandsuck formation 20
6. Map showing outcrop area of Shady dolomite and Honaker
limestone in Madison County, North Carolina 22
7. Map showing outcrop area of the Brevard belt 24
8. Map showing location of Bandana marble 29
9. Section of Bandana dolomite marble in Mitchell County,
North Carolina 31
10. Map showing location of Shady dolomite in McDowell Coun-ty,
North Carolina 32
11. Outline map of Marion area showing marble outcrops 36
12. Map showing outcrop area of Kings Mountain group 40
13. Map showing marble in Stokes, Yadkin and Forsyth Coun-ties
46
vm
CRYSTALLINE LIMESTONES OF THE PIEDMONT
AND MOUNTAIN REGIONS OF NORTH CAROLINA
By
Stephen G. Conrad
ABSTRACT
Crystalline limestones, or marbles, are found in 18
counties in the Central and Western Piedmont and
Mountain Regions of North Carolina. They occur as
far east as Stokes and Forsyth Counties, and as far
west and south as Cherokee County. The bodies of
marble in part form elongated areas of considerable
size and in part linear groups and isolated lenses of
comparatively small size. These areas include several
different geologic formations which range in age
from Precambrian, the oldest recognized age in the
earth's history, to Lower Paleozoic (?).
The most extensive marble formation is the Mur-phy
marble. It occurs in a narrow belt of meta-morphosed
sedimentary rocks that begins just south-west
of the Little Tennessee River in the southwest
corner of the State and continues southwest across
parts of Swain, Graham, Macon, Clay and Cherokee
Counties. The thickness of the marble formation
varies considerably along strike, but its maximum
thickness is estimated to be about 500 feet. Both
dolomitic and calcitic marble are present and the
only producer of dimension marble in the State oper-ates
a quarry in the Murphy marble in Cherokee
County.
In Madison County four types of lime-bearing
rocks are present. These are: (1) small lenses of
coarse crystalline marble associated with Precam-brian
(?) gneisses and schists, (2) lenticular lime-stone
beds in the Sandsuck formation, (3) the Shady
dolomite, and (4) the Honaker limestone. The Shady
dolomite was extensively quarried northwest of Hot
Springs, but the quarries have been inactive since
about 1930.
Small, apparently isolated lenses of white, coarse-grained
marble, associated with Precambrian (?)
gneisses and schists occur in Macon, Jackson, Ashe,
Mitchell and Cleveland Counties.
The Brevard belt is a narrow belt of metamor-phosed
sedimentary rocks which enters North Caro-lina
in Transylvania County and passes northeast-ward
through Henderson and Buncombe Counties.
White to bluish gray, dolomitic and calcitic marble
is known to occur in this belt from southwest of
Rosman, in Transylvania County, to northeast of
Fletcher in Buncombe County.
Two types of lime-bearing rocks are present in
McDowell County. The first, and only one that has
been of commercial value, is an elongate area of
Shady dolomite which occurs along the North Fork
of the Catawba River in the northern part of the
county. The other is a series of disconnected out-crops
of siliceous marble that occurs along the Cataw-ba
River between Greenlee and the west end of Lake
James.
The Kings Mountain belt, like the Murphy and
Brevard belts, is composed of a narrow zone of steep-ly
dipping metamorphosed sedimentary rocks. It
extends from just south of Gaffney, South Carolina,
northeastward almost to the Catawba River in North
Carolina. The Gaffney marble occurs as discontin-uous
beds, or lenses, for the entire length of the belt.
It ranges in thickness from less than 50 feet to about
800 feet and is predominently a fine grained, dark
bluish gray to white, schistose marble. The Superior
Stone Company operates the largest crushed lime-stone
quarry in the State at Kings Mountain.
In Stokes, Yadkin and Forsyth Counties two types
of marble are present. One is a white to dark blue,
fine grained, high calcium to dolomitic marble that
is very similar to that in the Kings Mountain and
Brevard belts. It occurs in a series of outcrops that
begin south of Enon in Yadkin County and continues
across Forsyth County through Vienna almost to the
Stokes County line near Germanton. The other is pre-dominently
a whitish, coarsely crystalline marble
that occurs interbedded with mica schist and quartz-ite.
The outcrops of this marble are found in Yadkin
and Stokes Counties, but do not form a conspicuous
pattern as does the other type.
INTRODUCTION
The limestone resources of North Carolina can be
classified into two broad groups. These are: (1) the
1
limestones and marls of the Coastal Plain, and (2)
the crystalline limestones, or*marbles, of the Pied-mont
and Mountain Regions.
The limestones and marls of the Coastal Plain
have been described in previous publications by
Emmons (1852), Watson and Laney (1906), Clark,
et. al. (1912), Loughlin, Berry and Cushman (1921)
and Berry (1947). All of these publications, except
Berry (1947), have been out of print and unavailable
for distribution for a newmber of years. In view of
the information contained in the report by Berry
(1947), the Coastal Plain was not included in the
present study.
The limestone resources of the Piedmont and
Mountain Regions were also described in the publi-cations
by Watson and Laney (1906) and Loughlin,
Berry and Cushman (1921). As these reports have
been out of print for a number of years, and as there
has been continued interest shown in the limestone
resources of the Piedmont and Mountain Regions of
the State, this report has been prepared to meet this
interest.
Methods of Investigation
The fieldwork for this report was carried out dur-ing
the summer and fall of 1958, and intermittently
during the fall and winter of 1959. An important
phase of the field work was to accurately locate and
describe every known occurrence of limestone in the
Piedmont and Mountain Regions of the State. Many
of these deposits were discovered by the early set-tlers
of North Carolina and used by them to provide
lime for local use. Most of the deposits were worked
from prior to the War Between the States to as late
as 1900. Many openings were small and during the
years of inactivity they have filled up and are grown
over by trees and undergrowth. Consequently, in
most cases there is very little physical evidence of
their ever having existed.
The examination of these old quarries consisted of
a study of the general characteristics of the lime-stone
and associated rocks and, where possible, repre-sentative
rock specimens were collected. Strike and
dip measurements were made along with observa-tions
of any other structural features present. The
size and shape of the excavations were noted and in-formation
collected from local residents on the his-tory
and production of each quarry visited.
The examination of the active quarries consisted
of the collection of essentially the same information
that was noted at the abandoned quarries. In addi-tion,
information was secured on the methods and
equipment used in quarrying, transportation facili-ties
and equipment and methods used in crushing or
cutting and finishing the stone. Information was also
collected on the production, uses, and the principle
market for limestone from each quarry.
Acknowledgments
This report was authorized by and conducted un-der
the direction of Dr. J. L. Stuckey, State Geologist,
who also furnished much background material and
examined a number of properties with the writer.
Grateful acknowledgment is also due the owners
and quarry operators who were very generous with
their time and knowledge. To the owners of the
land on which the abandoned quarries and kilns are
located, thanks are extended for their permission to
examine the properties. Local residents of the vari-ous
areas visited were most helpful in directing the
writer to the abandoned, and in some instances, al-most
forgotten quarries. On several occasions cer-tain
individuals guided the writer to remote or diffi-cult
to find localities and their assistance is much
appreciated.
Mr. P. N. Sales, Chemist, North Carolina State
College Minerals Research Laboratory, did the ana-lyses
on 14 selected samples. Mr. Earl C. Van Horn,
Consulting Geologist, furnished valuable information
in the form of chemical analyses and drill hole logs
on the marbles in McDowell, Yadkin, Stokes and
Forsyth Counties. Mr. W. F. Wilson of the staff of
the Division of Mineral Resources, drafted most of
the illustrations. The writer gratefully acknow-ledges
their cooperation.
In order to bring all the available information to-gether
and make this report as complete as possible,
free use, with proper acknowledgment has been made
of a number of previous publications. Particularly
helpful were those by Watson and Laney (1906),
and Loughlin, Berry and Cushman (1921).
LIMESTONE
Definition
Limestone is a loosely used term that has been
applied to a wide range of rocks that yield lime
(CaO) when burned. However, the suitability of the
rock for the manufacture of lime is not an essential
characteristic. Calcium carbonate (CaC03 ) is the
predominating componant of limestone, but mag-nesium
carbonate (MgC03 ) may be present in vary-ing
amounts.
Origin
Limestone is a sedimentary rock that originated
chiefly from the accumulation of calcareous shells, or
fragments of shells, or other limy remains of organ-isms
that inhabit oceans and lakes. These deposits,
supplemented by chemically precipitated calcium
carbonate, accumulate for long periods of time and
may eventually become quite thick. They may con-sist
almost entirely of carbonates and in time be-come
pure, high-grade limestones. On the other
hand, during deposition they may be mixed or inter-bedded
with varying amounts of sand, clay, iron
oxide, or other detrital material and become on con-solidation
sandy limestone, clayey limestone, or cal-careous
sandstone and calcareous shale, depending
upon the ratio of impurities to carbonates.
Although most limestones are formed in the above
manner, important deposits have also been formed
by the direct precipitation of calcium carbonate in
water. Two examples of this process are lithographic
limestone which is an extremely fine-grained or dense
variety, and oolitic limestone which is composed of
very small, rounded grains of calcium carbonate, re-sembling
fish roe.
Physical Properties
Limestones have a hardness of less than 4 (Mohs'
hardness scale) and can be easily scratched or cut by
a knife. The specific gravity ranges from less than
2.0 to 2.7, and the weight varies from 110 to 170
pounds per cubic foot, depending on the porosity and
the amount of impurities present. In texture they
range from amorphous to coarsely crystalline. The
color is determined largely by the impurities present
and may range from pure white to black. When
touched with a drop of dilute hydrochloric acid lime-stone
will react with a very brisk foaming or efferves-cent
action. This is due to the escape of carbon
dioxide gas (C02 ). A less noticeable reaction can
be obtained with vinegar or lemon juice.
Limestones are very soluble in the presence of
slightly acid water; consequently, they tend to
weather much faster than associated rocks and val-leys
or depressions often develop along a body of
limestone. This is particularly true where the lime-stone
is tilted and dips at a steep angle. During the
processes of weathering calcium carbonate is car-ried
away in solution and the insoluble impurities
are left behind. These impurities, plus the insoluble
remains of rocks that formerly overlay the limestone
become concentrated and form residual soils. These
soils are usually deep red or yellow clays and loams
and are so colored by the oxidation of the iron min-erals
originally present.
Varieties
There are many varieties of limestone and they
have been classified a number of ways. However,
the most commonly used and widely accepted classi-fication
is based on origin and impurities that give
the rock a distinctive character. Listed below are
most of the commonly recognized varieties:
Siliceous or cherty limestone.—A limestone inti-mately
mixed with silica, usually in the form
of chert nodules or layers.
Arenaceous limestone. — Limestone containing
considerable amounts of quartz sand.
Argillaceous limestone. — Limestone containing
considerable amounts of clay.
Carbonaceous or bituminous limestone.—Lime-stone
containing considerable organic matter.
Common compact limestone. — A fine-grained,
dense, homogeneous limestone varying from
light gray to almost black.
Lithographic limestone. — An exceedingly fine-grained,
homogeneous, crystalline limestone. Its
surface can be etched with weak acid and it was
once used extensively in lithographic printing.
Oolitic limestone. — A limestone composed of
small, rounded grains of calcium carbonate with
a concentrically laminated structure which re-sembles
fish roe. The name oolite was derived
from a Greek word meaning "eggstone". The
individual oolites often contain some object, such
as a sand grain or shell fragment, that served as
a nucleus around which the laminae of carbonate
were deposited.
Fossiliferous limestone.—A limestone containing
abundant fossil shells or other animal remains
such as bones and shark teeth. In some cases
the rock is composed almost entirely of the shells
or hard parts of one particular kind of organism.
In such cases, the limestone is named for the
predominating fossils; for instance, crinoid,
coral or coquina limestone.
Chalk.—A white to light gray, fine-grained, very
porous limestone composed mostly of minute
shells of foraminifera and plates and discs of
planktonic calcareous algae in a matrix of finely
crystalline calcite.
Marl.—A loose earthy material composed chiefly
of calcium carbonate intermixed with varying
amounts of clay and other impurities. There
are several varieties of marl and they are named
according to the special substance which they
contain, for instance, sandy marl. Shell marl is
a whitish, earthy material composed of frag-ments
of shells intermixed with varying amounts
of clay.
Travertine.—A limestone formed by the deposi-tion
of calcium carbonate from solution at the
orifices of springs. It is usually light colored,
concretionary and compact. Varieties that take
a good polish are called onyx marble, or Mexican
onyx, and used as ornamental stone. Porous or
cellular varieties are called calcareous tufa, cal-careous
sinter, or spring deposits. Stalactites,
stalagmites and dripstone, which are deposited
in limestone caves, are also forms of travertine.
Uses
Limestone is the most widely used of all industrial
rocks and it is essential in more industries than any
other metallic or nonmetallic mineral substance
(Bowles, 1939, p. 377). This wide range of applica-tion
is due to the fact that limestone has the neces-sary
physical properties that make it suitable for
practically all the uses for which any form of crushed
stone may be employed. It has certain chemical
properties that make it not only useful, but essential
to a great many industrial processes. In addition, it
is one of the most important building, or dimension
stones.
Listed below are some of the main uses of lime-stone,
based on these three major classes:
Uses as dimension stone:
Cut stone, including ashler
Rough building stone
Rubble
Flagstone
Uses based on physical properties:
Concrete aggregate
Road stone
Railroad ballast
Riprap
Dusting coal mines
Chalk, whiting and
whiting substitutes
Sewage filter beds
Stucco and terrazzo
Poultry grit
Asphalt filler
Uses based on chemical properties
:
Cement
Lime
Furnace flux
Agricultural limestone
Alkali
Calcium carbide
Sugar beet refining
Glass making
Rubber making
Paper making
Fertilizer filler
Carbon dioxide
Mineral wool
DOLOMITE
Definition
Dolomite is a mineral composed of calcium and
magnesium carbonates and expressed by the formula
CaMg(C03 ) 2 . Dolomite also refers to a carbonate
rock, which in its pure state is composed of 54.3
percent calcium carbonate (CaC03 ) and 45.7 percent
magnesium carbonate (MgC03 ). This can also be
expressed as 30.4 percent lime (CaO), 21.9 percent
magnesia (MgO) and 47.7 percent carbon dioxide
(CO:-). It is possible for some of the magnesium to
be replaced by manganese, ferrous iron and rarely
a few other elements without modification of the
crystallographic structure.
Origin
The problem of the origin of dolomite (the carbon-ate
rock) has been one of much interest and discus-sion
by geologists for many years. A number of
theories of origin have been proposed, but it is now
well established that most dolomites were formed by
the replacement of limestones. When this replace-ment
took place is still uncertain. It can take place
before the sediments are buried by succeeding strata,
after burial but before uplift, or after burial and
uplift. It is also possible that replacement, or dolo-mitization,
takes place at more than one stage.
For those interested in a more detailed discussion
on the origin of dolomite, "Sedimentary Rocks", by
F. J. Pettijohn and "Principles of Sedimentation",
by W. H. Twenhofel, are recommended.
Physical Properties
Dolomite is very similar to limestone and the de-scription
of the color, texture and other physical
properties given above for limestone applies equally
well to dolomite. Except for the fact that dolomite
is slightly harder and heavier than limestone, the
two are so similar that it is almost impossible to dis-tinguish
them by visual inspection in hand specimens.
However, where limestone effervesces freely in cold
dilute hydrochloric acid, dolomite will effervesce only
slightly or not at all. The acid has to be heated or
the dolomite powdered before a strong reaction takes
place.
Varieties
In the strict sense of the word only those carbon-ate
rocks in which the ratio of calcium carbonate to
magnesium carbonate is 54.3 to 45.7 should be called
dolomite. Rocks in which this theoretical ratio is
present are relatively rare. However, limestones
that contain varying amounts of magnesia (MgO)
are not uncommon. There are all gradation between
completely calcitic and completely dolomitic lime-stones,
but rocks that contain appreciable amounts
of both calcite and dolomite are less abundant than
those in which either calcite or dolomite predomi-nates.
As magnesian limestones may be considered physi-cal
mixtures of the minerals calcite and dolomite, it
is possible to subdivide the various gradations from
high-calcium limestone to high-magnesian limestone
to dolomite by determining the ratio of calcite to
dolomite present. Several such classifications have
been proposed by different workers, but the one
which is perhaps most widely recognized is that by
Pettijohn (1949, p. 313). Briefly, his classification is
as follows:
Limestone.—Contains more than 95% calcite
and less than 5% dolomite.
Magnesian limestone. — Contains from 90 % to
95% calcite and from 5% to 10% dolomite.
Dolomitic limestone. — Contains from 50% to
90% calcite and from 10% to 50% dolomite.
Calcitic Dolomite.—Contains from 10% to 50%
calcite and from 50% to 90% dolomite.
Dolomite.—Contains less than 10% calcite and
more than 90% dolomite.
Uses
In crushed and broken form dolomite and calcitic
dolomite are used for practically the same purposes
as limestone. These uses are based mainly on physi-cal
properties and the more important ones include
concrete aggregate, road metal, riprap, railroad bal-last
and as a fertilizer and soil conditioner. The use
of dolomite or calcitic dolomite instead of limestone
for these purposes, except as a fertilizer and soil con-ditioner
in North Carolina, is mostly a question of
economics rather than one type of rock being more
desirable than the other.
Although limestone and dolomite are interchange-able
for a number of uses, there are some processes
and products in which dolomite or calcitic dolomite
is essential. The most important of which are
:
High magnesium lime
Refractories (dead-burned dolomite)
Technical carbonate (basic magnesium carbonate)
Furnace flux
Glass manufacture
Source of magnesium metal
MARBLE-CRYSTALLINE LIMESTONE
Definition and Origin
Marble is a metamorphic rock that was formed by
the recrystallization under heat and pressure of lime-stone
or dolomite. It has essentially the same chemi-cal
composition as limestone or dolomite and is com-posed
mostly of grains of calcite, dolomite or a mix-ture
of the two. Crystalline limestone refers to a
limestone that has been metamorphosed, or recrystal-lized,
and the term is in most cases synonomous with
marble.
In the building industry the term marble has a
much wider application. As the facility to take a
polish is the chief commercial asset, it includes all
calcaceous rocks, and certan serpentine rocks which
are adapted to ornamental building or monumental
work. Most of the limestones and dolomites in the
western half of North Carolina, in the geological
sense, should be called marbles. However, owing to
excessive fracturing or unattractive color, they have
no commercial value as marble, but have been ex-ploited
for various uses as limestone or dolomite.
Consequently, most of these deposits have been re-ferred
to by the producers as limestone. Although
this is a misnomer, the term limestone is well estab-lished
and will probably continue in use as a trade
or commercial name, and perhaps as a field term.
Physical Properties
The hardness of pure marble is the same as calcite
(3) , and can be easily scratched by a knife. However,
the presence of impurities such as silica or silicate
minerals may increase the hardness. The normal
color of pure calcite or dolomite marbles is white.
Variations from the whiteness of pure marble are due
to pigmentary impurities, mainly carbonaceous mat-ter
and iron oxides. These impurities produce such
colors as gray, black, yellow or red. The coloration
may be uniform, but it is usually present as bands
or streaks.
The specific gravity of calcite is 2.7, whereas that
of dolomite is 2.9. Therefore, dolomitic marbles are
silghtly heavier than calcite marbles. Their weight
ranges from about 165 to 180 pounds per cubic foot,
depending on the porosity and composition. Unlike
most metamorphic rocks, marble unless it contains a
relatively high percentage of impurities, is generally
massive and nonfoliated but is often badly fractured
by joints. The grain size ranges from very fine (less
than 0.5 mm) to very coarse (up to 0.5 inch).
'*
**
Varieties
As previously stated most marbles have been form-ed
by the recrystallization of limestone or dolomite.
Based on mineral composition the resulting rock may
be a calcite marble or a dolomite marble. A calcite
marble may contain from 95 to almost 100 percent
calcium carbonate, and a pure dolomite marble ap-proaches
the theoretical composition of dolomite,
which is 54 percent calcium carbonate and 46 percent
magnesium carbonate (Bowles, 1958, p. 1). It is also
possible for the resulting rock to have a composition
anywhere between the two extremes.
Very few marbles are either pure calcite or pure
dolomite, but contain varying amounts of impurities.
The impurities occur as minerals, the most common
ones being quartz or some other form of free silica,
hematite, limonite, graphite, mica, chlorite, tremo-lite,
wallastonite, diopside, hornblende, tourmaline,
pyrite, garnet, feldspar, epidote, serpentine and talc.
Fossiliferous marbles have been effected not at all,
or only slightly in some cases, by metamorphism and
recrystallization and are therefore not marble in the
strict sense of the word. They are limestones that
have a close enough texture to take a good polish
and the fossils add to their decorative qualities. The
widely used Holston marble of East Tennessee is an
outstanding example.
Onyx marbles, or Mexican onyx, are chemical de-posits
that are formed by the precipitation of cal-cium
carbonate from cold water solution. These de-posits
build-up around springs, in rifts and cracks or
cavities in the rocks through which the solution
flows. Pigmentary impurities such as iron and man-ganese
oxide are often present during deposition and
successive layers may have different colors. This
causes a banding effect which makes a very attractive
decorative stone.
Verde antique is a dark-green rock composed most-ly
of serpentine, a hydrous magnesium silicate. It is
usually streaked or crisscrossed with white and red
veinlets of calcium and magnesium carbonates.
Verde antique is not related to marble in either com-position
or origin but is classed commercially as a
marble because it takes a good polish and is a highly
decorative stone.
Uses
Marble is used primarily as a building stone, both
interior and exterior, monuments, statuary and
novelties. For exterior use in building the endurance
qualities of the marble are important, whereas, for
interior use appearance and color are primary con-siderations.
Products included in interior uses are
floors, steps, baseboards, wainscotings, wall panels,
balusters, columns and arches.
Because of its pure white color and uniform grain
size statuary marble is the most valuable variety for
monuments, as appearance and color are the primary
requirements. A wide variety of marble is used for
memorial stone. Onyx marble, verde antique and
other ornamental types are used mainly for interior
decoration as well as for novelties such as inkwells,
lamp bases, ashtrays, book ends, etc.
In even the most efficient marble quarries recovery
of usuable stone is usually less than 50 percent of
the gross quarry output (Bowles, 1958, p. 27). This
plus the further waste resulting from sawing, plan-ning,
cutting and carving in the finishing mill, creates
a serious problem of waste disposal to most marble
producers.
As most marble has the same chemical composition
as limestone, waste marble can be used for many of
the same chemical and industrial processes as lime-stone.
In crushed and broken form, waste marble
is used for terrazzo flooring, agricultural lime, con-crete
aggregate and roadstone. Waste blocks are
cut to convenient thicknesses and used for the same
purposes as bricks or other building stone veneers in
house construction. Marble used in this manner
makes a very attractive wall or fireplace and is be-ing
used in increasing quantities.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF
CRYSTALLINE LIMESTONE
Crystalline limestones, or marbles, are found in
18 counties in the Central and Western Piedmont and
Mountain Regions of North Carolina. They occur as
far east as Stokes and Forsyth Counties, and as far
west and south as Cherokee County. The bodies of
marble in part form elongated areas of considerable
size and in part linear groups and isolated lenses of
comparatively small size.
These areas include several different geologic
formations which range in age from Precambrian,
the oldest recognized age in the earth's history, to
Lower Paleozoic (?) (Geologic Map of North Caro-lina,
1958). In some regions of the country certain
limestone formations can be correlated for many
miles by fossil and physical evidence. Unfortunately,
this is not the case in North Carolina and although
some of the formations have been tentatively correl-ated
with others, the age and history of most of
the crystalline limestones and dolomites in North
Carolina is unknown and not thoroughly understood
at the present time. Therefore, each area and poten-tial
quarry site must be considered individually and
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for this reason the crystalline limestones and dolo-mites
will be discussed in geographic rather than
geologic order.
DESCRIPTION BY AREAS
Murphy Belt
General Statement
The Murphy belt begins just south of the Little
Tennessee River in the southwest corner of North
Carolina and continues southwest across parts of
Swain, Graham, Macon, Clay and Cherokee Counties
(Geologic Map of North Carolina, 1958) . It continues
into Georgia and is known to occur as far southwest
as Cartersville. The belt is composed of a sequence
of metasedimentary rocks which Keith (1907) map-ped
and named in ascending order: Tusquitee
quartzite, Brasstown schist, Valleytown formation,
Murphy marble, Andrews schist and Nottely quart-zite.
According to Keith's interpretation, the rocks
in the Murphy belt represent a syncline, the central
axis of which is marked by the Murphy marble and
Nottely quartzite. Besides Keith, other geologists
who have studied the Murphy belt in more or less
detail in North Carolina and Georgia, include Wat-son
and Laney (1906), La Forge and Phalen (1913),
Loughlin, Berry and Cushman (1921), Stuckey and
Fontaine (1933), Bayley (1925), Van Horn (1948)
and Hurst (1955). These previous publications were
freely drawn upon in the following discussion of the
Murphy marble.
Murphy Marble
Distribution.—The main belt of the Murphy marble
begins about 2 miles southwest of Wesser, Swain
County. It is exposed in the gorge of the Nantahala
River, and its tributaries, to Red Marble Gap and
Topton. Southwest from Topton to Valleytown the
marble occurs as a narrow sinuous band along the
headwaters of the Valley River. From Valleytown
through Andrews to Marble the Valley River forms
a broad valley. Along this interval the dip of the
marble beds flatten considerably and the marble
.spreads out and underlies most of the floor of the
valley. From Marble southwest through Murphy and
on into Georgia the marble stands nearly on edge
and forms a narrow almost straight band along the
Valley and Nottely rivers.
A second, but much smaller belt of the Murphy
marble, extends from Peachtree down Calhoun
Branch, across the Hiwassee River, and up Little
Brasstown Creek to the vicinity of Martin Creek
School. As stated by Van Horn (1948, p. 8) owing
to recent stream deposits, upper terrace gravels and
deep overburden, outcrops of the marble in this belt
are limited and previous mapping appears to have
been based mostly on indirect evidence.
Character.—The formation is a true marble in the
geologic sense. Dolomitic marble and calcitic marble
are present, but the dolomitic variety predominates.
Grain size ranges from fine to coarse and the pre-dominant
colors are white and gray. However, dark
gray or blue and mottled blue and white beds form
a large portion of the marble. Between Red Marble
Gap and Nantahala a limited amount of mottled light
flesh pink to rose marble is exposed in the steep
slopes above Rowlin Creek.
The Murphy marble is overlain by the Andrews
schist and underlain by the Valleytown formation
(Keith, 1907) . Outcrops of the contacts are rare but
from exposures in Nantahala River, Hiwassee River,
Marble Creek and several of the quarries it can be
seen that the marble passes into the overlying and
underlying rocks by gradation. Upward it grades
into the Andrews schist through a zone of alternat-ing
beds of marble and ottrelite schist. Van Horn
(1948, p. 13) states that the gradation is broad and
that nearly half of the overlying formation is calcar-eous.
Downward it grades into the Valleytown forma-tion
through several feet of interbedding with mica
schist (Keith, 1907, p. 5). Near the contacts with
the overlying and underlying rocks the marble con-tains
more of the secondary minerals and there is
considerable development of micaceous minerals. The
most common secondary minerals present in the
marble are muscovite, biotite, talc, tremolite, actino-lite,
ottrelite, garnet, pyrite and quartz. Also present
are lesser amounts of graphite, phlogopite, chlorite
and scapolite.
The thickness of the marble is variable. At the
North Carolina-Georgia state line it is less than 200
feet thick. At Kinsey it is estimated by Van Horn
(1948, p. 12) to be 350 feet thick. From Marble to
just northeast of Andrews the area underlain by the
marble reaches its maximum width (about y2 mile)
.
This is due in part to folding but the formation also
probably reaches its maximum thickness, which is
estimated by Keith (1907, p. 5) to be about 500 feet.
Northeast of Andrews the marble thins rapidly and
is absent in places along strike. It begins to thicken
again northeast of Red Marble Gap and attains a
thickness of up to 350 feet between Nantahala and
Talc Mountain (Van Horn, 1948, p. 11). Beyond
this point the marble again thins rapidly and dis-appears
entirely in the vicinity of Busnell 8. Except
for local variations the marble has an average strike
9
of N 45° E and usually dips about 50° SE. A promi-nent
feature of the marble is the abundance of frac-tures
or joints. Two systems of joints that strike
N 20°—35° E and N 30°—70° W, prevail throughout
the formation and in most places a third and some-times
a fourth system of subordinate joints are
present (Watson and Laney, 1906, p. 193). The
joints are spaced from an inch up to sixteen feet
apart. This abundance of closely spaced joints great-ly
reduces the amount of marble suitable for dimen-sion
stone. However, large amounts of good material
can be found in some areas.
As stated previously, the Murphy marble is com-posed
of both dolomitic marble and calcific marble.
Enough detailed sampling has not been done to
determine the ratio of dolomite to calcite through-out
the formation but Keith (1907, p. 5) states that
dolomitic marble occurs more frequently in the lower
portion of the formation. From various analyses
of the marble its composition varies from 58 to 93
percent CaC03 and from 3 to 36 percent MgC03 .
Zoning in the Murphy marble.—Previous to 1948,
most of the geologic studies of the Murphy marble
were limited to the relatively few natural outcrops,
quarries, talc mines and some exploratory core drill-ing
done in the search for suitable quarry sites for
dimension stone. Consequently, very little detail was
known about the stratigraphy of the formation. As
a result of a detail study by Van Horn (1948) on the
talc deposits which occur in the Murphy marble a
definite zoning or stratigraphic sequence has been
established. This sequence was worked out from the
study of some 75 drill hole cores which were drilled
intermittently from the vicinity of Hewitts south-west
to Kinsey. An average sequence as worked out
by Van Horn (1948, p. 12) from top to bottom of
the local attitude is as follows
:
feet
Fine to medium-grained white and light-gray marble
containing ottrelite and phlogoplite, and having
interbedded calcareous schist in the upper portion.
(Transition zone) 25
White, medium to coarse-grained marble having
tremolite and pyrite. (Coarse white zone) 25
Gray, coarse to medium-grained marble having trem-plite
and pyrite (Coarse gray zone) 30
Blue-black to bluish-gray, coarse-grained, graphitic
marble, occasionally styolitic, with short (2 mm)
tremolite needles and rarely grains or clusters of
pyrite. (Blue zone) 40
Medium to light gray, medium-grained marble, some-times
styolitic at top, with tremolite needles up to
10 mm long. (Gray zone) 20
Light bluish-gray, fine-grained, lusterless marble,
with or without tremolite, which is given a distinc-tive
mottled appearance because of a myriad of small
internal fractures. (Mottled zone) 15
White, medium to fine-grained dolomitic marble.
This is the zone which is often partly silicified and
which contains commercial talc deposits. (Talc or
white zone) 45
Mixed, sometimes banded, gray and white, medium
to coarse-grained marble which contains thin beds of
pink marble and accessory pyrite, phlogopite, actino-lite,
quartz, tremolite, muscovite, chlorite and scapo-lite.
(Mixed zone) 25
Light and dark gray, banded, argillaceous marble,
often jointed and brecciated, with accessory biotite,
chlorite and muscovite and small specks of talc.
(Slaty zone) 2*5
Medium to fine-grained marble, having intermittent
zones of white, pink and gray color, nearly all of
which is characterized by the presence of actinolite
clusters and pyrite, and which has considerable
phlogopite in the. lower portions. Sand grains, sec-ondary
quartz and small scales of talc occur at
random. (Actinolite zone) 85
Dark micaceous marble and thin slate and schist
laminae, having pyrite, chlorite, biotite and musco-vite.
(Transition zone) 20
As stated above, this is an average section where
the formation exceeds 150 feet in thickness. In
areas where the formation thins the sequence is dis-rupted.
It was also found that where the formation
retains a more or less constant thickness along strike
the individual zones thicken and thin at the expense
of each other.
According to Van Horn (1948, p. 19) the south-east
dipping beds of the formations included in the
Murphy belt are overturned, except in minor folds.
He interprets these overturned beds to be part of
the northwest limb of an overturned anticline. This
interpretation is in contrast to Keith's theory that
the rocks in the Murphy belt are part of a broad
syncline in which the marble is prevented from re-appearing
southeast of the fold axis by faulting. Re-gardless
of which interpretation of the structure is
correct, the zoning in the Murphy marble established
by Van Horn would be unaffected for all practical
purposes and should prove to be a useful geologic
tool in any future development in both the talc and
marble industry.
Accessibility.—The Southern Railway and U. S.
Highway 19-129, follow closely the main belt of the
Murphy marble from the northeast terminus of the
marble to Murphy. From Murphy southwest to Cul-berson
and on into Georgia the Louisville and Nash-
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N. C. Highway 60 serve as access to the marble.
The Murphy belt is covered by up to date 7y2 min.
topographic maps (scale 1:24,000) published by the
Tennessee Valley Authority. The maps which cover
the area are: Culberson (TVA 1941), Persimmon
Creek (TVA 1957), Murphy (TVA 1957), Peachtree
(TVA 1937), McDaniel Bald (TVA 1957), Marble
(TVA 1938), Andrews (TVA 1938), Wayah Bald
(TVA 1957), Hewitt (TVA 1940) and Wesser (TVA
1940). These maps can be purchased from the Ten-nessee
Valley Authority, Knoxville, Tennessee, or the
United States Geological Survey, Washington 25,
D. C.
History of Production
Marble beds in Cherokee and a part of Macon
County along the course of the Valley River, were
noted by Kerr as early as 1875. However, the first
recorded attempt to quarry the marble was not until
the late 1880's when the marble in the Nantahala
River gorge was quarried to a very limited extent.
The first attempt to quarry the marble on a syste-matic
basis was in 1891-92 when the Culberson and
Kinsey quarries were opened. The Culberson quarry
was not successful and operated for only a few years.
The Kinsey quarry, operated by the Notla Consoli-dated
Marble and Talc Company was somewhat more
successful and was worked intermittently until about
1912. Some dimension stone was produced for the
first few years but later production was mostly for
flux used in copper smelting.
During the early 1900's, the Murphy marble at-tracted
considerable attention as a potential building
and monumental stone and several companies were
engaged in exploration and development work. The
Hewitt quarry near Hewitt Station was opened about
1901 and the famous Regal quarry was opened about
1902 by the National Marble Company. The stone
produced at the Regal quarry was a very attractive
mottled blue and white marble and it became widely
known as "Regal Blue Marble". The Cherokee Coun-ty
courthouse in Murphy was built with stone from
this quarry and about 35,000 cubic feet of cut stone
were used. Ownership of the Regal quarry changed
hands several times during its history and it was
finally closed and the quarry flooded in 1926. After
the Regal quarry was closed the Regal Blue Marble
Company, which was the last company to operate
the quarry was reorganized under the name Carolina
Marble Quarries, Inc., and work was started on a
new plant and quarry at Marble. No production was
ever reported from this company and in 1931 the
Columbia Marble Company acquired the property.
During 1932 considerable development work was
done and an all steel finishing plant was built. Since
1932 the Columbia Marble Company has been in
continuous operation and is the only producer of di-mension
marble in North Carolina.
About 1908 the North Carolina Mining and Talc
Company began developing the Hewitt quarry for
crushed stone and burned lime. The quarry has
changed hands several times since 1908 but it has
been in almost continuous production. Today, it is
operated by the Nantahala Talc and Limestone
Company, and is a large producer of crushed stone.
Description of Workings
Columbia Marble Company.—This company's main
quarry and plant are located on the north side of
U. S. Highway 19-129 and the Southern Railway,
1.5 miles northeast of Marble, North Carolina. Since
operations were started in 1931 some 10 quarries
have been opened between Murphy and Coalville.
Most of the quarries are located on the north side of
U. S. Highway 19-129 between Marble and the pres-ent
quarry. Two are on the southeast side of the
Southern Railway about 3 miles northeast of Mur-phy.
All of the quarries are from 100 to 200 feet in
length and range from 40 to 90 feet in depth. In
the summer of 1958, all but two of the quarries were
inactive and filled with water. The main producing
quarry is located on the west side of Welch Mill
Creek, 2700 feet northeast of the finishing plant. Ap-proximately
80 percent of the Company's production
is furnished from this quarry. It was opened in 1947
and since has been in continuous operation. The
quarry is about 120 feet long, 60 feet wide and 90
feet deep, the long dimension being almost due east-west.
The marble is overlain by about 10 feet of
flood plain deposits and the upper few feet of bed
rock are highly pitted by solution cavities.
The marble is predominently a mottled or streaked
light gray medium grained variety. The upper 8 to
10 feet contain numerous bands of light pink and
dark-gray marble. Mica is the predominent accessory
mineral, particularly in the dark gray bands, but
tremolite and pyrite are present in minor amounts.
Joints that strike N 70° W and N 25° E are present,
but are so spaced that they do not effect the strength
of the marble or cause excessive waste.
The other producing quarry is located on the south-east
side of an unpaved county road approximately
% mile southwest of Regal Station and 3 miles north-east
of Murphy. Development work was started in
1957 and in the summer of 1958 some of the first
13
sound blocks were being removed from the third
level. Owing to large solution cavities, some up to 10
feet high and 6 to 8 feet across the base, and joint-ing
much of the first two levels (upper 9 feet) was
waste.
The quarry opening is approximately 60 feet wide
and 120 feet long, the long dimension being north-east-
southwest. The opening is situated at the base
of a rather steep hill and overburden is in excess of
20 feet in places. The marble is predominantly
medium-grained, light to dark blue and mottled or
streaked with thin bands of white marble.
Located 0.2 mile southwest along the strike of the
marble on the southeast side of the same road as
the above quarry, is another Columbia Marble Com-pany
quarry that was closed in 1957. Development
work was started at this site in 1949 and it was work-ed
intermittently for about 8 years. It is now filled
with water and is in the process of being backfilled
with the overburden stripped from the new quarry.
Because of water and thick overburden the marble
cannot be seen in the quarry walls, but there is a
large dump on the southeast side. Most of that in
the dump is the blue mottled variety which is now
being quarried 0.2 mile northeast and which was
quarried at the original Regal quarry.
About 800 feet southwest of the quarry a rotary
drilling rig was drilling exploratory holes for talc
on the property of Mr. A. G. Thompson. At the time
(June 1958) five holes had been drilled and each hole
was about 200 feet deep. The marble was present in
each hole under 35 to 80 feet of overburden and con-sisted
of white, blue and gray varieties.
The Columbia Marble Company uses quarry meth-ods
and equipment in both of its operations that are
more or less standard throughout the industry. The
marble is laid out in blocks about 17 feet long and
4 feet wide. A line of vertical holes 3 to 4 inches
apart are drilled along the outside dimensions by
wagon drills mounted on horizontal bars. An under-cut
drill then drills a line of horizontal holes along
the base of the block. After the drilling is completed,
the blocks are wedged loose from the surrounding
marble and broken into two smaller blocks about
8 1/2 x 5 x 4 feet. The blocks are lifted from the quar-ry
by a double drum hoist and carried to the finishing
plant by truck.
At the finishing plant, the blocks are loaded onto
track mounted gang-cars and moved under the gang-saws.
These saws are made up of a series of iron
blades set parallel in a frame that moves backward
and forward. Quartz sand and water are fed to the
top of the blocks and as the blades drag the sand
across it cuts the marble by abrasion. The thickness
of the slabs cut is governed by the spacing of the
blades, the minimum thickness being 1 inch. The
saws cut at the rate of about 2 inches per hour and
are run 24 hours per day. After the blocks are slab-bed,
part of the slabs go to a guillotine rock breaker
where they are broken into sections 4 inches wide.
The length and thickness of the sections vary, but
do not exceed about 3 feet and 6 to 8 inches respect-ively.
These sections are used as a decorative veneer
in the building trade and a 4 inch width is used so
that they can be worked in with bricks. This veneer
has been marketed for about 4 years and has become
an important product. Some of the veneer is sold in
North Carolina, but a large percentage of it is ship-ped
to out of state markets.
The slabs not used for veneer go to the mill where
they are shaped into products that require cutting
and polishing. The slabs are first sawed to prede-termined
size by a circular diamond saw. The saw
is mounted on a rack and pinion gear and the slabs
rest on a mobile, hydrologically operated table. This
permits the operator to change the position of the
slab without disturbing it. After the slabs are cut
to proper size they are placed on a large horizontal
polishing wheel where they receive a rough polish.
Carborundum wheels are then used to cut the slabs
into the various desired shapes. Final polishing is
done by polishing wheels and buffers.
A majority of the marble finished in the mill is
for monumental work but mantles, tabletops, floor-ing,
and several other special products are made.
Specialty work includes hand carved figures, mostly
lambs and birds, and sand blasted inscriptions and
decorative trim on headstones. When in demand,
waste marble is crushed to size for terrazzo chips
and poultry grit.
Nantahala Talc and Limestone Company. — The
plant and quarry are located on the northwest side
of the Nantahala River at Hewitt, Swain County.
Systematic quarrying was started here as early as
1908 by the North Carolina Mining and Talc Company
and except for a short period during World War I,
the quarry has been in continuous operation. Early
quarrying was done at three places along the west
slope of Nantahala gorge some 300 to 400 feet above
the railroad (Loughlin, et al. 1921, p. 44) . The three
openings were connected with a lime kiln and crusher
by a tramway. Production was mainly for crushed
stone and burned lime, but in the late 1920's enough
white and light-gray mottled marble was quarried
to use as interior finish in the lobby of the Asheville
14
Hotel in Asheville (Stuckey and Fontaine, 1933, p.
11).
The marble occurs as a continuous outcrop along
the steep west slopes above Nantahala River and
according to Van Horn (1948, p. 11) is up to 350
feet thick in the vicinity of Hewitt. At the quarry
the formation strikes N 20° E and dips about 45°SE.
It is quite variable in color, the beds exposed in the
quarry face ranging from light gray to black and
from dull white to grayish pink and pink. Most of
the marble is very schistose, badly fractured and
breaks into thin plates and narrow blocks. The planes
of schistosity are frequently coated with a thin layer
of serpentine. Besides serpentine other excessory
minerals include talc, tremolite, pyrite and quartz.
Talc occurs locally as thin stringers and lenses, some
of which are quite large. Until a few years ago
ground talc and talc crayons were a by-product of the
quarry operation.
The composition of the marble ranges from cal-cite
marble to dolomite marble. In 1947 the Tennes-see
Valley Authority in cooperation with the North
Carolina Division of Mineral Resources conducted a
sampling program at the Hewitt quarry and immedi-ate
vicinity. The purpose of this investigation was
to determine the quantity and occurrence of high
calcium marble. Preliminary sampling indicated
that marble containing up to 97.17 percent CaC03
was present. However, the high calcium marble was
interbedded with the dolomite marble in such a man-ner
that the cost of separating the two would be
prohibitive.
Large scale development of the present quarry
site was started in 1938-39. The quarry has been
advanced into the mountain side and consequently
the working face is practically a vertical wall with
steep sloping sides. The face is approximately 200
feet high at the apex and 300 to 350 feet wide at the
base. As the quarry is situated above the water
table drainage is not a problem.
The rock is blasted from the face and trucked to
the primary jaw crusher, which is located on the
east side of the quarry floor. Final crushing and
sizing are done by cone crushers and screens. Con-veyor
belts move the crushed stone downhill to
stockpiles which are located near the railroad. Dur-ing
the summer of 1958 the quarry was operated 2
shifts a day, five days a week. Production ranged
from 500 to 750 tons per eight hour shift.
Crushed stone is the principle product of this
quarry and most of it is used by the State Highway
Commission for highway construction and mainte-nance.
Agricultural lime and terrazzo chips are also
produced, terrazzo chips being the more important
of the two. Within the past few years a secondary
quarry has been opened just northeast of the main
quarry in which selected beds with attractive colors
are quarried exclusively for terrazzo chips. As men-tioned
previously talc lenses exposed by the quarry
operation were used for ground talc and sawed into
crayons but none has been produced within the last
few years.
Reserves of marble suitable for the same type of
products now marketed by the Nantahala Talc and
Limestone Company appear to be unlimited.
Culberson quarry.—This quarry is located 50 feet
northwest of Trestle No. 15 on the northwest side
of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, 4500 feet
northeast of the community of Culberson and 9 miles
southwest of Murphy. This quarry was opened in
1891-92 and was one of the first attempts to quarry
the marble for dimension stone. Owing to excessive
water and the badly fractured nature of the marble,
the operation was unsuccessful and the quarry was
abandoned after a few years (Watson and Laney,
1906, p. 194).
The only evidence of the quarry that remains today
is a small pond approximately 100 feet in diameter
and several large blocks of marble. Some of the
blocks of marble project above the water in the
middle of the pond and some are scattered along
the edge of the pond next to the railroad. All of
the visible blocks are very similar and consist of
uniform medium grained, dark to medium bluish
gray marble. Thin bands of graphite, up to .25 inch
thick gives the marble a distinct layered appearance.
The marble does not crop out anywhere near the
quarry, but according to Watson and Laney (1906,
p. 194) it is overlain by from 4 to 7 feet of over-burden.
Kinsey quarry. — This quarry is located on the
northwest side of the Louisville and Nashville Rail-road
about 0.3 mile southwest of Comes Trestle
(Trestle No. 20) and 5 miles southwest of Murphy.
The quarry was named after the small community
of Kinsey which was located a few hundred feet
southwest of the quarry. Kinsey has long been aban-doned
and the few houses and buildings which stood
there have been torn down.
The quarry was opened about 1891-92 and oper-ated
until shortly after 1900 (Pratt, 1900, p. 22) . As
was the case at Culberson, the marble was too badly
fractured by joints to be suitable for dimension stone,
but was well adopted for crushed stone and flux.
Mr. J. M. Ledford (personal communication) reports
15
that most of the quarry production was shipped to
Ducktown, Tennessee, and used by the Tennessee
Copper Company for flux.
By 1906 the quarry had been abandoned for several
years and Watson and Laney (1906, p. 194) described
the excavation as being about 100 feet long, 80 feet
wide, 50 feet deep and extending almost to the rail-road.
Piles of discarded marble were scattered
around the opening and consisted mostly of a coarse-ly
crystalline, dark blue gray, mottled marble. Also
noted were lesser amounts of light-gray marble and
some blocks of light gray interbedded with pink.
Today the opening is badly slumped and over-grown
with a dense cover of vegetation and is barely
recognizable. The only rock that can be seen in place
is a ledge about 4 feet thick of white, silicified marble
that occurs near the top of the southeast wall. Sev-eral
large blocks of light to medium gray marble are
scattered around on the quarry floor.
Southwest from the quarry for a distance of about
1000 feet, between 25 and 30 exploratory drill holes
were drilled for talc by Mr. J. M. Ledford about
1954. Although no talc was found, considerable
marble was cut in each hole and the cores from a
number of the holes were scattered around through
the woods. Most of the cores examined consisted of
light to medium-gray marble, but white and blue
mottled marble was also present. Tremolite crystals,
some up to V2 inch long, were quite common, par-ticularly
in the light-gray marble. The majority of
the holes were drilled on the southeast side of the
railroad, which is at a higher elevation than the
quarry and the marble was overlain by as much as
60 feet of overburden. The deepest hole drilled was
280 feet and the marble was not drilled through at
that depth.
Regal quarry.—This quarry is located on the south-east
side of the Southern Railroad at Regal Station,
about 3 miles northeast of Murphy. It was opened
in 1902 by the National Marble Company and a small
production was reported for 1903 and 1904. No pro-duction
was reported again until 1907 when it was
taken over by the Casparis Marble Company. This
company produced steadily until 1913 when it was
succeeded by the Regal Blue Marble Company. From
1913 to 1926 the quarry was operated continuously
and the marble produced gained a wide reputation as
"Regal Blue Marble". It was shipped as far as Cali-fornia
and used extensively as a building and monu-mental
stone. The Cherokee County Courthouse in
Murphy, North Carolina, was constructed from mar-ble
from this quarry. After 1926 the quarry was
abandoned, allowed to fill up with water and has
remained inactive since that time.
All that remains of the quarry today is a pond
about 250 feet long and 50 to 60 feet wide. It is
reported to be about 175 feet deep. A heavy growth
of underbrush and trees have grown up around the
edges of the pond and access is limited. Large blocks
of marble are piled up around the edges, particularly
on the southeast side, and appear to be identical
with the marble which is presently being quarried
% mile southwest. At the northeast end a large
wall, the width of the quarry, was built out of waste
blocks. This was done evidently to prevent a nearby
stream from overflowing into the quarry.
According to Watson and Laney (1906, pp. 195-
197) and Loughlin. et. al. (1921, pp. 37-40) the mar-ble
quarried was mainly of two kinds, predominently
a dark bluish gray mottled variety and a light gray
to white variety. Both varieties were medium grain-ed
and had a slight schistose structure. Tremolite,
pyrite and graphite were the chief accessory miner-als.
The beds had a strike of about N 45° E and dip-ped
about 50° SE. In the opening studied by Laney,
there were three distinct sets of joints, the more
prominent trending N 40° W and N 20° E. The joints
ranged from a few inches to a few feet apart and
caused considerable waste in the upper part of the
quarry. As the quarry was deepened the joints be-came
less prominent and caused less waste. Solution
channels and small caves also caused waste in the
upper 20 feet.
The property on which the quarry is located is
presently controlled by Mr. H. W. Alexander of the
Appalachian Veneer Company, Regal, North Caro-lina.
Red Marble Gap.—Northeast of Red Marble Gap
the Murphy marble crops out along the steep slopes
of the gorge some 300 feet above Rowlin Creek. One
of the better outcrops in the area is located on the
northwest side of the railroad tracks approximately
2 miles northeast of Red Marble Gap. The area is
rather inaccessible, but can be reached by traveling
northeast from Red Marble Gap for 1.9 miles on
U. S. Highway 19. At this point the highway crosses
Rowlin Creek just a few hundred yards beyond Row-lin
Creek Baptist Church. A roadside pull-off is on
the northwest side of the road and an old trail that
leads up the mountain side to the railroad tracks
starts at this point. The marble crops out about 50
feet above the railroad at the place the trail crosses
the railroad tracks and beneath the Nantahala
Power and Light Company transmission lines.
,16
The side of the mountain is covered with a heavy
growth of vegetation, but the marble can be seen
intermittently for 300 to 400 feet along strike. The
strike is about N 25° E and the dip about 70° SE.
The marble is mostly medium grained and varies
from light gray to light pink. It has a distinct
schistose structure and bands of serpentine, which
lie parallel to the schistosity, are distributed irregu-larly.
This combination of colors results in an un-usual
and very attractive rock.
A small amount of marble was quarried here many
years ago as indicated by a small opening toward
the northeast end of the outcrop. The old working
face is about 15 feet high, slopes off gently on each
side and is about 30 feet wide at the base. The floor
of the opening is covered with slabs of waste marble.
Another outcrop of marble very similar to the
above occurs on the northwest side of U. S. Highway
19, 1.0 mile northeast of Red Marble Gap. The out-crop
is on a steep hill directly behind the Gibbons
house.
Peachtree-Brasstown area.—A second but much
smaller belt of the Murphy marble occurs 5 to 6 miles
east and southeast of the main belt. It begins in
the vicinity of Peachtree and extends in a southwest-ward
direction down Calhoun Branch, across the
Hiwassee River and up Little Brasstown Creek to
the vicinity of Martins Creek School (Keith, 1907)
.
Outcrops of the marble are rare and except for
the geologic mapping by Keith (1907), very little
detail work has been done on this belt. The few out-crops
that can be seen are predominantly fine grain-ed,
light bluish gray to dark gray banded marble.
The thickness is unknown, but two water wells drilled
near Brasstown cut about 67 and 50 feet of marble.
Both wells were about 100 feet deep and were still
in marble when drilling was stopped (Mr. F. O.
Scrogges, personal communication)
.
Owing mainly to the fact that the belt is not
serviced by rail transportation, no recorded attempts
have been made to quarry the marble on a commercial
basis. However, there are several places where small
amounts of marble were quarried and burned, or
crushed, for agricultural lime for local consumption.
Four such places are: (1) behind Martins Creek
School on the west side of the creek, (2) from a bluff
near the headwaters of Little Brasstown Creek
(Whitmire Hertford Farm), (3) from a farm 1.3
miles northeast of Brasstown near the Hiwassee
River and (4) near Peachtree School on Peachtree
Creek. According to Mr. F. O. Scrogges (personal
communication) these localities were last worked
about 1935. The work was done by local residents in
an attempt to produce agricultural lime for local
farms.
Most of these old workings have been back-filled
and could not be examined. However, the outcrop on
the Whitmire Hertford farm (Locality 2) occurs in
a bluff above the creek and is one of the few reason-ably
good exposures in the area. The outcrop, which
is about 10 feet high and 15 feet long, stands about
15 feet above creek level and is overlain by 10 feet
of red clay. The marble is fine grained and light
bluish gray to gray. It strikes N 40° E and dips 50°
SE. Several sets of joints are present, the most
prominent strikes N 40° W.
This is the site of a small quarry and lime kiln
which was worked intermittently from about 1890
to 1935 (Mr. E. L. Arrant, personal communication)
.
As most of the quarrying was done by hand methods
it appears that only a few tons of rock have been
removed from the outcrop. Directly below the quar-ry
are the remains of the last lime kiln that was used
on the property.
Macon County
Northeast of the Murphy belt in the northeast
corner of Macon County are the only other known
deposits of marble in this section of the State. The
deposits were briefly described by Watson and Laney
(1906, p. 208-209) as follows: "In Macon County,
near the headwaters of Ellijay Creek, near Cullow-hee
Gap, limestone has been burned to lime for build-ing
and fertilizing purposes on the property of John
Bryson. About one-half mile west of the gap is the
Hashett lime quarry that was worked quite exten-sively
some years ago".
During the present investigation two marble de-posits
were located in this area, but their locations
do not conform too closely with the above description.
According to local residents the Hashett lime quarry
is located about a mile south of Cullowhee Gap on
Bryson Branch, a tributary to Ellijay Creek. This
deposit was not seen, but it is reported to be next
to the creek and about 100 feet upstream from an
abandoned pegmatite mine. The other deposit is
located 2.0 miles southwest of Cullowhee Gap. It is
referred to by local residents as the Dill lime kiln
and is on the property of Mr. Lee Dill.
Dill lime kiln.—The Dill deposit can be easily
reached from either Franklin or Cullowhee. It is on
the northwest side of an unpaved county road, 0.25
mile west of the Ellijay Creek road. The county road
intersects the Ellijay Creek road 8.4 miles northeast
of U. S. Highway 64 and 9.0 miles southwest of Cul-
17
lowhee. A few disconnected lenses and pods of mar-ble
are exposed in the roadcut, but the main outcrops
are located at the old quarry site on the nose of the
hill about 50 feet above the road. The largest out-crop
stands about 10 feet high and 5 feet wide. It
strikes N 30° E, dips about 70° NW and consists
mostly of white, coarsely crystalline marble. Grain
size ranges from 0.5 to 3 mm. with a few calcite
crystals up to 5 mm. Excessory minerals dissemi-nated
through the marble include biotite, garnet,
quartz, amphibole (tremolite ? ), epidote and graph-ite.
The graphite occurs as small foliated masses
and as tabular hexangonal crystals. The latter form
is very rare, this being the only place where it has
been reported in North Carolina. Two other outcrops
are present nearby. One is about 15 feet across
strike to the east and the other is about 30 feet to
the southwest. Both of these outcrops are smaller
than the one just described, but for all practical
purposes are identical in character.
The marble is composed predominantly of coarse
crystals of calcite with very little cementing mater-ial.
Consequently, the calcite crystals weather out
before they are dissolved by chemical action. This
produces a rough, granular surface on the outcrop.
The outer few inches of the marble are so deeply
weathered and badly stained by iron oxide that it is
difficult to obtain a representative sample with only
a hammer and chisel.
As revealed in the roadcut exposures, the marble
is intimately associated with gneissic rocks that
have been injected with granitic solutions and badly
folded and possibly faulted. On the Geologic Map
of North Carolina (1958), the area in which these
rocks occur falls into the Precambrian (?) gneiss
unit which would in this case correspond to the
"Carolina gneiss", as denned by Keith (1903, p. 2).
Owing to the deep soil cover and heavy growth of
timber which covers the hillside, the marble could
not be traced for any distance along strike. Con-sequently,
no estimate could be made as to the quan-tity
of marble present in this deposit. However,
from the surface exposures it is doubtful if a ton-nage
of any significance is present..
Jackson County
Caney Fork deposit.—An impure crystalline lime-stone,
or marble is reported to occur at Caney Fork,
Jackson County (Loughlin, et. al., 1921, p. 71), but
it was not visited during the present investigation.
On the 1957 edition of the State Highway Com-mission's
map of Jackson County, there is no place
specifically referred to as Caney Fork. However,
18
Caney Fork Creek is a major stream that heads-up
in eastern Jackson County, flows west and joins the
Tuckaseigee River southeast of Cullowhee at East
Laport. It is assumed that the marble deposit is
located along this creek or one of its tributaries.
A partial chemical analysis of the marble (Lough-lin,
et. al., 1921, p. 151) shows 16.45 percent Si02,
9.86 percent A12 3 and Fe2 3 , 71.27 percent CaC03
and 0.52 percent MgC03 . This deposit has not been
previously described and its size and geologic rela-tionships
are unknown, but it is probably very simi-lar
to the deposit on Ellijay Creek in Macon County.
Hot Springs Area—Madison County
General Statement
The Hot Springs area lies in the rugged mountain-ous
terrain of western Madison County near the
North Carolina-Tennessee border. Hot Springs, the
only town in the area west of Marshall, is situated
on the French Broad River and lies about 40 miles
northwest of Asheville.
The French Broad River traverses the area in a
northwesterly direction. The Southern Railway and
U. S. Highway 70-25 closely follows the river. Num-erous
paved and unpaved state maintained roads
make most of the area reasonably accessible. The
following topographic maps on a scale of 1:24,000
cover the area
:
Paint Rock (TVA 1940), Hot Springs (TVA 1940),
White Rock (TVA 1939), Marshall (TVA 1945),
Lemon Gap (TVA 1940) and Spring Creek (TVA
1946) . These maps can be purchased from the Ten-nessee
Valley Authority, Knoxville, Tennessee, or
the United States Geological Survey, Washington
25, D. C.
Lime Bearing Rocks of the Area
Four types of lime bearing rocks occur within the
area. These are: (1) marble lenses in Precambrian
gneisses and schists, (2) lenticular limestone beds
in the Sandsuck formation, (3) the Shady dolomite,
and (4) the Honaker limestone.
Marble lenses in Precambrian gneisses and schists.
—The area around Marshall is underlain by a series
of gneisses and schists which Keith (1904) mapped
as Carolina gneiss. The unit consists mostly of light
and dark gray mica gneisses and mica schists with
varying amounts of hornblende schist. The enclosed
lenses of marble which occur in the vicinity of Mar-shall
were described by Keith (1907) as follows:
"Associated with the gneiss, but forming an un-usual
exception to it in character, is a group of mar-ble
beds. Two of these are found in Marshall and
five are two miles west and northwest of Marshall,
four of these lying in a nearly straight line south-ward
from French Broad River. Outcrops of the
marble are found only in or near the streams, on
account of the soluble nature of the rock. At first
they seem to be different outcrops of a continuous
bed, but it is doubtful if this is the case because at
a few intervening points the marble is plainly absent.
It is probable, therefore, that the marble deposits are
of lenticular shape. Considerable differences in thick-ness
can be observed, even in the small exposures
near the streams, but these may be due to the ex-treme
folding that all of the rocks of the region have
undergone. The maximum thickness observed was
on Walnut Creek northwest of Marshall, where the
outcropping beds are 60 feet thick, with a possibility
of as much more concealed. About 200 feet farther
north the entire section was occupied by gneisses.
South of French Broad River, the thickness observed
ranged from 10 to 35 feet. The thickness shown in
Marshall have about the same variations.
The marble is fine grained and is usually white.
It contains 84 percent of carbonate of calcium, 2 per-cent
of carbonate of magnesium, and 13 percent of
silica. Many portions have a somewhat greenish
color, due to tremolite, which forms many small
prisms and stubby crystals. Other variations of
color are due to small knots of epidote, tremolite and
calcite and to lenses of fine quartz and hornblende.
These seem to be in the nature of secondary segrega-tions
and are of frequent occurrence throughout all
the marble beds. The most important variation in
the marble is seen in the series of thin lenses and
sheets of silica that it contains. These are seldom
over 2 inches in thickness and are composed of ex-tremely
fine-grained quartz. They appear to repre-sent
original sedimentary bands, replaced by silica
and have been extremely contorted and folded like
the adjoning gneisses. The value of the marble for
building stone is much injured by these various im-purities.
A few seams of mica-schist found in the
marble contain the same minerals and are metamor-phosed
to the same degree as the adjoining Carolina
gneiss. There is, therefore, little doubt that the mar-bles
are of substantially the same age as the gneiss.
The gneiss is cut by Cranberry granite at many
points within a few feet of the marble, but the gran-ite
does not touch the marble at any point".
An attempt was made to locate the marble lenses
described by Keith as occurring about two miles west
and northwest of Marshall. Those reported to lie
southward from the French Broad River could not
be found but the one on Walnut Creek 2 miles north-west
of Marshall was found. This deposit lies on the
south side of Walnut Creek about 100 feet east of
where Sweet Water road crosses Walnut Creek and
0.3 mile west of Dry Branch Church. The marble is
massive fine grained and varies from white to light
green. Mr. Hubert Dill reports that about five years
ago a private company attempted to quarry the mar-ble
for crushed stone but only about 100 tons of
rock was crushed. When the operation was started
the marble stood as loose blocks in the face of a cliff
about 60 feet high on the south side of the creek.
After the blocks were blasted down there was no
more marble present in the cliff and the operation
was abandoned. A number of loose blocks are now
scattered along the creek for about 100 feet.
Lenticular limestone beds in the Sandsuck forma-tion.—
The Sandsuck formation is the upper member
of the Ocoee Series of Upper Precambrian age. It is
of limited extent in North Carolina, most of that
present occupying an irregular area northeast of
Hot Springs along the northwest edge of the county
(Geologic Map of North Carolina, 1958). Keith
(1904) originally mapped these rocks as Hiwassee
slate, but subsequent work, by Ferguson and Jewell
(1951) and Oriel (1950) has shown that Keith used
the name Hiwassee slate for approximately the same
rocks he had mapped in Tennessee as Sandsuck shale.
Since the name Sandsuck shale has priority over
Hiwassee slate, the latter term has not been used by
recent workers.
According to Oriel (1950, p. 24) in the Hot Springs
area the formation is about 700 feet thick. It is
composed mostly of dark green to black, silty and
argillaceous shale and slate. Coarse conglomerate
lentils are interbedded with the shale near the top
of the formation and light gray to blue gray calcare-ous
sandstones, sandy limestone, and thin-bedded
quartzite occur in the lower half of the formation.
The calcareous sandstones and sandy limestones
occur as lenticular layers interbedded with the slates.
The limestone varies considerably in short distances,
but the most common variety is a blue or dove-colored
limestone containing abundant grains of
quartz sand. In some places the siliceous material
increases to the point where the rock becomes a
calcareous conglomerate containing pebbles of quartz
and feldspar.
There are a number of outcrops of the limestone
in the area, but the most accessible are located along
Franklin Mountain Road, an unpaved county road
19
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that connects State Highway 208 with State Highway
212. One outcrop occurs on the north side of Franklin
Mountain road, 1.5 miles west of State Highway 212
on the property of Mr. Troy Rice. Here the lime-stone
strikes N 35° E, dips 50° SE and is about 85
feet thick. It is mostly light blue gray to dark blue
gray, medium bedded and fine grained. It contains
thin stringers of calcite, small cubes of pyrite and
a few scattered quartz grains. Another outcrop is
present 0.3 mile northeast of the Rice house on the
east side of the road. This limestone is in general
quite similar to the above but contains argillaceous
and sandy beds.
The most extensive outcrop of the limestone seen
in the area occurs on the property of a Mr. Franklin,
whose house is located on the north side of Franklin
Mountain road 0.45 mile west of its intersection with
State Highway 212. The limestone is present in the
face of a steep hill about 200 yards behind Mr. Frank-lin's
house. Here the limestone strikes N 15° E,
dips about 60° SE and is well over 100 feet thick. It
is for the most part light to medium blue gray and
contains abundant pebbles and cobbles of shale and
sandstone along bedding planes. Agillaceous beds and
beds containing abundant quartz sand grains, many
over 1 mm in diameter, are quite common. It is re-ported
by Mr. Franklin that an attempt was made
several years ago to crush the limestone but the
operation was abandoned because of the hardness of
the limestone.
There is evidently a large tonnage of limestone
available which is well situated for quarrying. How-ever,
its high silica content and poor location in re-gard
to transportation and markets eliminates it
from any foreseeable development.
Shady dolomite.—The Shady dolomite is the oldest
(Lower Cambrian) of the thick carbonate deposits
of the Paleozoic section in the Appalachians. It is
widely distributed in northeastern Tennessee, but is
of very limited extent in North Carolina. In the Hot
Springs area it, along with other Cambrian rocks,
rocks of the Ocoee series and Precambrian crystalline
rocks are involved in one of the most complicated
and unusual structural units found in the Southern
Appalachians, the Hot Springs window.
Within the Hot Springs window the Shady dolo-mite
forms an elongate belt about 6 miles long and
from 1500 to 4000 feet wide, the long dimension be-ing
east-west. The eastern edge of the belt begins a
short distance on the east side of the French Broad
River at Hot Springs. It extends almost due west to
just beyond the North Carolina-Tennessee border.
The belt is terminated at each end by the Mine Ridge
thrust fault (Oriel, 1950, Plate 1).
The formation consists predominantly of blue
gray, light gray, and white dolomite with a minor
amount of interbedded limestone. In northeastern
Tennessee in the area of the type section King, et. al.
(1944, p. 16-27) made a detail study of the Shady
dolomite and divided the formation into several
distinct members. Within the Hot Springs window,
Oriel (1950, p. 9-10) was able to recognize essentially
these same rock types and his generalized section of
the Shady dolomite is as follows
:
"Maroon shales of the Rome formation above.
Shady Dolomite
:
(6) Upper blue member: Blue-gray to black, medium
to thick-bedded and massive dolomite; interbedded
light gray dolomite common; includes some silty
and shady beds near the middle. Some irregular
blebs and nodules of light-to medium-gray chert
are present. Very well displayed in the two quar-ries
along the railroad track on west bank of
French Broad River and on the undercut bank
opposite the town of Hot Springs.
Approximately 650
(5) Upper white member: Bluff-colored to white to
light gray dolomite. Very finely crystalline near
base and near top, but middle part is quite sac-charoidol.
Well exposed in Spring Creek near
hotel and south of quarries on railroad track on
west bank of French Broad.
Approximately 600
(4) Middle blue member: Blue-gray to black, medium
to thick-bedded somewhat silty dolomite. Includes
some beds of white to buff-colored coarsely crystal-line
dolomite. Very well exposed at the old quarry
on the east bank of the French Broad just north
of Highway 25-70.
Approximately 250
(3) Ribboned member: Medium to coarsely crystalline
light gray to buff-colored dolomite in thick layers
interbedded with fine-grained blue-gray to black
dolomite. Some ribboned limestone is present in
this member. Best exposed along lower Spring-
Creek and in south quarry on east side of river.
Approximately 300
(2) Lower blue member: Light to dark blue-gray,
black, generally thick-bedded to massive dolomite;
includes some light gray and blue-gray dolomite
near base. Best exposed in road cuts on U. S.
Highway 25-70 on east side of French Broad River
bridge and along Spring Creek.
Approximately , 150
(1) Basal ribboned member: Thinly interbedded white
and light gray, very fine-grained dolomite. Poor
exposures make determination of thickness diffi-
21
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LEGEND
1
'"
1 Ce SHADY DOLONflTE
€hk HONAKER LIMESTONE
MAP SHOWING
figure e. OUTCROP AREA OF SHADY DOLOMITE AND HONAKER LIMESTONE
IN MADISON COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA
22
cult. Outcrops on north side of Camp Grounds
road, 700 feet east of French Broad River.
Approximately 25 (?)
Helenmode member of Erwin formation below
Total thickness of Shady dolomite
Approximately 1975"
This section was not measured directly, but was
calculated from a series of discontinuous outcrops.
The total thickness of 1975 feet is therefore probably
somewhat greater than the true thickness.
Owing to the soluble nature of the dolomite, out-crops
of fresh rock are relatively rare. The best ex-posures
occur along the northeast and southwest
river bluffs in the vicinity of Hot Springs where the
French Broad River has cut across the strike of the
formation.
Honaker limestone.—The Honaker limestone oc-curs
as a single, elongated patch about 4000 feet long
and 1500 feet wide. It is located 3 miles northwest
of Hot Springs between U. S. Highway 25-70 and
the French Broad River. This formation was origi-nally
mapped by Keith (1904) as part of the Shady
dolomite, but Oriel (1950, p. 8) correlated it with
the Honaker limestone (Middle Cambrian) of north-eastern
Tennessee and western Virginia.
The overburden is thin and there are many good
exposures along both sides of Mine Hollow, an east
flowing tributary to Shut-in Creek ; however, the best
exposures are in and along the south slope of Mine
Hollow. The limestone has a gentle dip and a section
about 100 feet thick is exposed. It is predominantly
a dense, very fine-grained, dark bluish-gray lime-stone.
Individual beds vary from 1 to 3 feet thick,
but faint laminae are present on some weathered
surfaces.
About 200 yards up Mine Hollow from its conflu-ence
with Shut-in Creek, on the south side of the
creek, are the remains of an old lime kiln and a
large dump of limestone blocks. When this kiln was
active is unknown, but it was probably worked prior
to 1900 for local use.
Only limited chemical analyses are available but
indications are that the limestone contains upwards
of 80 percent CaC03 and about 10 to 12 percent
MgC03 . Whether or not these percentages of CaC03
and MgC03 are representative of the entire section
can be determined only by more extensive sampling.
The south slope of Mine Hollow is one of the best
undeveloped limestone quarry sites in the State. The
limestone is about 100 feet thick and stands well
above the creek valley. The gentle dip of the beds
would make for easy development of benches and
transportation facilities are close by. The Southern
Railway is one mile north by an unpaved county road
and U. S. Highway 25-70 is only 0.3 mile south. The
most serious drawback for the development of a
quarry at this site is its poor location with regard
to markets. It is in a remote section of the State
and unless a demand for a product for which this
limestone is suited should develop close by, it will
probably remain unexploited.
Description of Workings
G. C. Buquo Lime Company.—Of the four types of
lime bearing rocks in the Hot Springs area, the only
one that has been of more than local interest is the
Shady dolomite. From 1912 to the early 1930's the
G. C. Buquo Lime Company operated two quarries
about % mile northwest of Hot Springs on the south-west
side of the French Broad River adjacent to the
Southern Railway. At this point the dolomite is
prominently exposed in bluffs more than 75 feet
high for about 1200 feet along the river.
The rock exposed in the now abandoned quarries
is chiefly the upper blue member of the Shady dolo-mite
(Oriel, 1950, p. 53) . It is fine grained and varies
from light gray to dark bluish gray, but the dark
bluish gray variety predominates. Beds strike east-west,
dip about 75° north and range from a few
inches to about 3 feet in thickness. Some of the beds
are separated by a thin layer of reddish shale. Joint-ing
is conspicuous in places, but the lack of consistant
horizontal fractures is said to have made it difficult
to maintain benches during the time the quarry was
in operation (Loughlin, et. al. 1921, p. 52). The com-position
of the dolomite is fairly uniform and aver-ages
about 54 percent CaC03 and 41 percent MgC03 .
Si02 (mainly quartz) averages about 4 percent and
the remaining plus or minus one percent consist
mostly of small grains of feldspar, sericite, tremo-lite,
pyrite and apatite.
Most of the rock quarried was finely ground and
used for agricultural lime; however, some was used
for road metal. The grinding plant was located just
north of the quarry and the rock was transported to
the plant over a short inclined track on cars operated
by cable. The plant had a capacity of 20 tons per
hour and it was estimated that at that capacity the
company had sufficient reserves to last for about
200 years (Loughlin, et. al. 1921, p. 52). This would
amount to over 10 million tons, much of which is still
in place. After the quarry was closed the plant was
torn down and all that remains today is part of the
foundation.
23
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As stated above, there is a large tonnage of dolo-mite
still available at this site. Should the need
arise the quarry could be reopened very easily, but
ordinary bench type development would be restricted
because of the proximity of U. S. Highway 25-70.
Other properties.—The Shady dolomite is well ex-posed
in bluffs for about 2000 feet along the east side
of the French Broad River beginning just north of
the highway bridge at Hot Springs. The dolomite
here is fine-grained, predominantly medium to dark
blue gray and is part of the middle blue member of
the Shady dolomite (Oriel, 1950, p. 53)
.
About 0.10 mile north on U. S. Highway 25-70 a
small quarry was opened in these exposures on the
east side of the river. The quarry has been aban-doned
for sometime and there are no records avail-able
that indicate when the quarry was operated and
for what purpose.
The dolomite has practically the same chemical
composition as that at the Buquo quarries and there
are a number of places where large reserves could
be easily developed. The chief disadvantage to a
quarry on this side of the river is that if the railroad
facilities were to be used the stone would have to be
hauled for about one half mile.
Brevard Belt
General Statement
The Brevard belt is a narrow belt of metamor-phosed
sedimentary rocks which enters North Caro-lina
in Transylvania County and passes northeast-ward
through Henderson and Buncombe Counties
(Geologic Map of North Carolina, 1958). Keith
(1905, 1907) mapped the belt in North Carolina and
showed it as fingering out into the "Carolina gneiss"
in the vicinity of Graphite ; however, it may continue
for some distance northeastward (King, 1955, p.
357). To the southwest the belt follows a straight
and persistant course through South Carolina, Geor-gia
and into Alabama, where it passes beneath the
Coastal Plain sediments.
In North Carolina the rocks of the belt have not
been subdivided into formations and it is referred
to as the Brevard schist (Keith, 1905, p. 5) . As im-plied
by the name the formation is composed mostly
of schist. The scist is always dark colored, varying
from bluish black and dark gray to black. It is fine
grained and composed mostly of muscovite, quartz
and iron oxide. Graphite is commonly disseminated
through large masses of the schist and in some layers
is concentrated to the extent that the rock becomes
a graphite schist. Small garnet crystals are also
commonly disseminated through the schist (Keith,
1907, p. 4) . Thin quartzite beds, phyllites and mar-ble
are also present, but form a minor part of the
formation.
The Brevard belt is bordered on the northwest
and southeast by different rock types. On the north-west
side the contact is gradational with the "Caro-lina
gneiss" and no sharp boundary can be drawn.
However, on the southeast there is an abrupt con-tact
between the Brevard schist and the Henderson
granite gneiss, and for this reason it is possible that
the southeast contact is along a fault (Ingle, 1947,
P. 1).
Marble in the Brevard Schist
Marble, or recrystallized limestone, is known to
occur in the Brevard schist from Buncombe County,
North Carolina, through South Carolina and into
Georgia. The deposits in North Carolina begin just
southwest of Rosman and occur intermittently over
a distance of about 30 miles to a few miles northeast
of Fletcher. The marble underlies relatively large
areas, but because of its soluble nature outcrops are
very rare. In most cases it is present in creek valleys
and is overlain by 2 to as much as 30 feet of over-burden.
Keith (1907, p. 4) interpreted the marble
as occuring as disconnected lenses interbedded with
the schist. However, Ingle (1947, p. 4) mapped the
area from Fletcher to Fairview and concluded that
the marble is more extensive than previously thought
and that it may be a more or less continuous marble
horizon rather than lenses. The writer concurs with
this idea, but only core drilling along strike will
prove this.
Most of the marble is white and finely crystalline,
but it contains beds of light and dark blue marble.
Zones of quartzite and chlorite-sercite schist, which
may contain some serpentine, are present in the
quarries southwest of Fletcher, but the marble is
for the most part pure and contains few impurities.
The composition ranges from almost pure calcium
carbonate to nearly theoretical dolomite. The eastern
half of the Blue Ridge Lime Company quarry (now
the Fletcher Limestone Company) was reported
(Loughlin, et. al. 1921, p. 68) to be high calcium
marble, whereas the western half was dolomitic.
Whether this is a local relationship or is generally
true of all the deposits is unknown.
Locally the strike varies considerably, but aver-ages
about N 45° E. The dip is to the southeast be-tween
35° and 85°. In the deposits southwest of
Fletcher the marble reaches its known maximum
thickness of about 250 feet. The quarries at the
25
head of Boylston Creek showed about 50 feet of
marble (Keith, 1907, p. 4). Northeast of Fletcher
the marble evidently thins out because the last
known occurrence is 5 miles northeast of Fletcher
on Gravel Creek, a tributary to Cane Creek. North-east
of this point the last evidence of any carbonate
beds in the Brevard schist is a 2 foot bed of calcare-ous
quartzite. The rock is exposed in a road cut on
the northwest side of the paved county road between
Fletcher and Fairview, 1 mile southwest of Fair-view.
This outcrop is next to Cane Creek, in strike
with the marble to the southwest, and may represent
a sandy facies of the marble.
History of Production
Marble beds in the Brevard schist have been uti-lized
for well over 100 years. Prior to 1900 a number
of small quarries were opened and worked inter-mittently
over a period of years in Transylvania,
Henderson and Buncombe Counties. These early
quarries were small scale operations and all of the
production was consumed locally. Lime for fertilizer
and building purposes was the principle product. The
marble, or "limestone", was burned in small beehive
type kilns. Although these kilns have not been used
for many years the remains of a few of them can still
be seen. The lime obtained from these kilns was
evidently of excellent quality, because a structure in
which it was used as mortar was in almost perfect
condition after having stood for over 60 years (Wat-son
and Laney, 1906, p. 208).
In 1904 the first quarry was opened to produce
lime on a commercial scale. The Blue Ridge Lime
Company began operations on the Westfeldt property
west of Fletcher near the old Lance quarry. Initial
kiln capacity was 700 bushels per day, but this was
doubled during the second year of production (Pratt,
1907, p. 63) . This company was in continuous opera-tion
from 1904 until about 1936. Lime was the prin-ciple
product for many years, but crushed stone was
also produced during the latter years of operation.
Sometime between 1908 and 1910 the King Lime
Fertilizer Company of Brevard was organized to
develop several of the deposits in Transylvania and
Henderson Counties. The company had an ambitious
plan to lay some 3 miles of track which would con-nect
the quarries with a large crushing plant, six
coal burning kilns and the railroad (Pratt, 1911, p.
115). For reasons unknown these plans did not ma-terialize
and no production was ever reported from
this company.
During the period of 1929 to 1936 three companies
worked the deposit west and southwest of Fletcher
;
The B & C Lime and Stone Company, the Blue Ridge
Lime and Stone Company and the Fletcher Limestone
Company. The B & C Lime and Stone Company was
active from 1926 until 1936. Its quarry was located
about 1000 feet southwest of the Blue Ridge Lime
and Stone Company. The Fletcher Limestone Com-pany
took over the property formerly worked by the
Blue Ridge Lime and Stone Company about 1936
and it has been in continuous operation since that
time.
The Cogdill Limestone Company opened a quarry
about 3500 feet southwest of the Fletcher quarry
shortly after World War II and it too has been in
continuous operation since that time.
Description of Workings
Transylvania County
Bear Wallow Creek.—A siliceous marble occurs
on Bear Wallow Creek about six miles southwest of
Rosman. This deposit was not visited during the
present investigation but was described briefly by
Watson and Laney (1906, p. 208) as outcropping
prominently in the creek and on both sides in ridges
that rise about 150 feet above the creek. The rock
forms Limestone Ridge which is about 0.30 mile
above the junction of Bear Wallow Creek with Tox-away
River.
Prior to 1900 the marble was worked for a number
of years and burned to lime for local use as building
lime and fertilizer. The deposit is situated in a very
inaccessible area and has not been worked for over
50 years.
Two other deposits occur near Rosman. One is
located 1.5 miles northwest of Rosman on the North
Fork French Broad River near the confluence of
Diamond Creek. The other is located about 2.5 miles
southwest of Rosman. Neither of these deposits
were visited and there is no information available
as to their extent or character.
Curitan (Simms) quarry.—These abandoned work-ings
are located on the southeast side of State High-way
280 at Little Mountain Gap, 2.0 miles northeast
of the intersection of this highway with U. S. High-way
64-276. An abandoned unpaved road joins the
highway at about the crest of the gap and the work-ings
are about 200 yards up this road.
It was reported (Loughlin, et. al., 1921, p. 71)
that this deposit was worked in at least four places.
However, the quarries have been abandoned for many
years and the faces are now completely covered by
soil moving down the steep slopes above the quarries.
No outcrops of marble can be seen at present. The
26
openings are located on the northwest slope of a
broad northeast trending ridge. The marble dips
steeply to the southeast, or into the ridge, and the
overburden is quite thick. This deposit was last
worked in 1934 by a Mr. Simms and loose material
sliding into the quarry from above was a great
hindrance to the operation, finally causing its suspen-sion
(Ingle, 1947, p. 2)
.
The marble is dark blue and dolomitic. Much of it
is stained yellow and brown along mud seams, joints
and small tight fractures (Loughlin, et. al., 1921, p.
71). There is evidently a large tonnage of rock pres-ent
in this deposit, but the overburden is so thick
that open pit quarrying would probably not be prac-tical.
J. W. McQuire property (Barnard quarry).—This
quarry is located 0.2 mile southeast of State High-way
280, 4.1 miles northeast of the intersection of
this highway with U. S. Highway 64-276, 0.80 mile
southwest of the Henderson-Transylvania County
line. The quarry site is reached by turning southeast
onto a dirt farm road which dead ends at a house.
The old workings are located about 100 feet north-east
of the house.
This is the site of one of the oldest "limestone"
quarries and kilns in the area and is referred to
locally as the Barnard quarry. Rock was quarried
here and burned into lime prior to the War Between
the States and for many years after. However, no
work has been done for a long time and the excava-tion
is covered by slump material and a heavy growth
of vegetation. Ingle (1947, p. 3) considered this to
be one of the best potential quarry sites in the area
—
citing light over-burden, thick bedding, moderate dip,
light blue color and sufficient elevation to avoid
water problems as favorable factors. He also reports
that the State Highway Commission drilled 16 feet
below the quarry floor and found good "limestone"
all the way.
Henderson County
Woodfin, Allison and Ezell quarries.—About 1.5
miles northeast of the Henderson-Transylvania Coun-ty
line, on the flood plain of a southeast flowing tribu-tary
to Boylston Creek, and on the northwest side of
the State Highway 280, is the site of the old Allison
quarry and kiln. The quarry has been abandoned for
many years and the marble cannot be seen in place
because alluvial material covers the whole locality.
This quarry and two others which are located nearby
were described by Watson and Laney (1906, p. 208)
as follows:
"In Henderson County quite a large body of lime-stone
occurs 7 to 10 miles west of Hendersonville, the
county-seat, in the vicinity of Boilston. The lime-stone
outcrops at intervals from about 3 to 5 miles
northeast of Boilston to some distance above Bre-vard,
the county-seat of Translyvania County. It is
capped in many places by a schistose rock and is dip-ping
approximately 45° SE. On the land of Mr. J. F.
Woodfin, about % of a mile a little east of south of
the Boilston gold mine, limestone has been worked
for a little over 200 feet along the strike. The lime-stone
apparently contains very little grit and is of a
bluish tinge known locally as "blue limestone". Con-siderable
of this limestone has been burned to lime,
some of which has been used for fertilizing purposes
On the W. B. Allison farm, three-eights of a mile
due west of the Woodfin quarry the limestone is
whiter in color and is known locally as "white lime-stone",
to distinguish it from the "blue limestone" of
the Woodfin quarry. A similar quarry has been open-ed
on Bryson Ezell's farm 3 miles northeast of Alli-son's.
Considerable of the lime burned from this
limestone has been used for building purposes."
In connection with these quarries it is significant
to note the following observations: (1) they are all
located on the flood plain of either Boylston Creek or
one of its tributaries, (2) Boylston Creek flows from
southwest to northeast, which is also the direction of
the strike of the marble, and (3) the dip of the mar-ble
apparently changes from steep at the Curitan
property to moderate at the Barnard quarry. In view
of what is known about the geologic conditions in the
Murphy belt, these factors strongly suggest that the
flood plain of Boylston Creek is underlain with mar-ble
from just northeast of the Barnard quarry to
possibly as far northeast as the old Ezell quarry or
beyond.
Owing to the flood plain deposits which completely
cover the bed rock, the only way this could be proved
or disproved is by drilling. However, if the valley of
Boylston Creek is underlain by marble, as believed,
then this would represent a body of marble about 4
miles long and up to half a mile wide. The thickness
of the marble is unknown in this area, but 100 feet,
more or less, would not be unexpected.
Cogdill Limestone Company.—This quarry is locat-ed
on Kimsey Creek about 2 miles by road southwest
of Fletcher (TVA Map 193—NE). This is one of
the two active quarries in the Brevard belt and has
been in continuous operation since about 1946.
The rock quarried here is predominently a white,
fine grained dolomitic marble whch is about 150 feet
27
thick. The average strike is about N 45° E and the
dip about 45° SE. Closely spaced joints that strike
N 45° W and N 10° E, badly fracture the rock. The
marble is bounded on the northwest and southeast by
a chlorite schist.
The quarry is being developed northeastward along
the strike of the formation by standard open pit
methods. Overburden is stripped off for a consider-able
distance in advance of the face. A single bench
about 25 to 30 feet high is maintained. After the rock
is blasted from the face, a % yard power shovel
loads two 6-ton dump trucks which haul the rock to
the crushing plant. The crushing plant is located
just outside the quarry at the southeast end and
consists of a 20 by 36 inch jaw crusher, a gyratory
secondary crusher and two sets of shaker screens.
This set-up is capable of producing about 50 tons
per hour of crushed stone that ranges in size from
% inch up to iy2 inches. Most of the stone produced
is used for road metal and concrete aggregate. Fines
from the crushing plant are further processed and
used as agricultural lime, but this amounts to only a
small percentage of the total production.
Fletcher Limestone Company. — This quarry is
located on Kimsey Creek about 1.3 miles by road west
of Fletcher and about 3500 feet northeast of the Cog-dill
quarry. This is also the site of the old Blue Ridge
Lime Company, but their original quarry lies about
200 feet southwest of the present quarry and is now
filled with water. Prior to the Blue Ridge Lime
Company, the Lance quarry was located in the same
area and its production dates back to or early as
1835 (Loughlin, et. al, 1921, p. 68).
The Fletcher quarry is more extensive than the
Cogdill quarry and practically the whole thickness of
the marble has been exposed. The southeast side of
the quarry extends almost to the contact with the
adjacent rock. The marble on this side is predomi-nently
bluish white and fine grained. The beds range
from less than a foot to about 2 feet in thickness and
are badly fractured by joints. The middle portion
of the quarry is occupied mostly by white, fine
grained marble. The northwest side is composed of
a bluish white, fine grained marble very similar to
that in the southeast side.
All of the quarry is below average ground level
and Kimsey Creek has been diverted around the
southeast side of the opening. Excessive water is
sometimes a problem and three large pumps are used
to control it. The quarry has been advanced north-eastward
along the strike and is about 1500 feet long
and averages about 200 feet wide. The depth to
which the marble has been quarried varies between
40 and 60 feet.
The walls of the quarry are advanced by bench
drilling with wagon drills and shot in small sections.
Primary breakage is not too good and a drop-ball is
used for secondary breakage. Quarry equipment
seen on the ground at the time of inspection included
two wagon drills, three jack hammers, two air com-pressors,
six dump trucks, one % yard power shovel,
one % yard power shovel, one % yard drag line, one
front end loader and one bulldozer.
The primary crushing and screening plant is locat-ed
on the floor of the quarry and is modern and effi-cient
in most respects. The quarry rock is dumped on
a traveling roll grizzley and minus 4 inch rock drops
through to a conveyor belt. Plus 4 inch rock goes to
a 24 by 36 inch jaw crusher. Two 24 inch conveyor
belts in series discharge to a double-deck shaker
screen. Plus 2 inch rock is returned to the jaw
crusher by chute. Plus 1% inch minus 2 inch rock
passes through a 22 x 40 roll crusher. The discharge,
together with the minus iy2 inch rock, which by-passed
the rolls, is taken by a 24 inch belt conveyor
to a 36 inch short-head cone crusher and final screen
outside the quarry.
Production from this set-up was reported to be
about 125 tons per hour. However, another 22 by 40
roll crusher was being added to the primary crushing
plant at the time the quarry was visited. This addi-tion
plus several other adjustments was expected to
increase the production to 150 tons per hour.
The main product from this quarry is crushed
stone, practically all of which is used by the State
Highway Commission for road material. Other uses
include crushed stone for concrete aggregate, private
roads, driveways, etc. Prior to World War II, con-siderable
lime was burned here for agricultural and
building purposes. Owing to the war time shortage
of fuel and labor the production of lime was discon-tinued
and as yet has not been resumed.
B & C Lime and Stone Company.—This quarry is
located along strike and about half way between the
Cogdill and Fletcher quarries. This company was in
operation from 1926 to about 1936. The quarry has
been inactive since that time and is now filled with
water. While the quarry was active it produced lime
and crushed stone from the same rock that is now
being used at the above active quarries.
Buncombe County
Pinner Creek.—On the flood plain of Pinner Creek,
0.5 mile northwest of the Buncombe-Henderson
County line between the creek and the Southern
28
29
Railway tracks, is the site of a small quarry that
was worked many years ago. The excavation has
been backfilled and leveled over and all that can be
seen now are a few pieces of light colored marble
scattered around in the soil. It is possible that a con-siderable
amount of marble underlies the alluvial
along the creek.
Robinson Creek.—On the west side of Robinson
Creek where the road to Christ School crosses the
creek is the site of another small abandoned quarry.
The excavation has filled with water, is heavily over-grown
with vegetation and no marble can be seen in
place. About 600 feet east of the quarry site, on the
east side of the paved road to the Asheville-Hender-sonville
airport, are the remains of a kiln where the
marble was burned to lime.
Groves Lake.—This abandoned quarry is located
0.8 mile northeast of the Robinson Creek site on
Merrill Cove Creek. The best preserved kiln seen in
the area is located at the north end of the lake on
the west side. The lake is apparently the site of
the old quarry but no rock can be seen in place.
Gravel Creek.—The most northeastern point where
the marble in the Brevard belt is known to have been
worked is just southeast of where Gravel Creek
crosses the road between the Asheville-Henderson-ville
airport and Fairview. Residents report that
"limestone" was quarried here about 50 years ago,
but all signs of the old workings are now completely
obscured.
Mitchell County
Bandana dolomite marble.—The only known oc-currence
of carbonate rock in Mitchell County is
located on the east side of the North Toe River, 1.3
miles northwest of Bandana. The deposit can be
reached by turning northwest onto the first unpaved
road northeast of the post office in Bandana and
traveling 1.1 miles to the end of this road. From
this point follow a small west flowing creek to the
Clinchfield Railroad tracks. Walk north along the
railroad for about % mile, or to the first creek on the
east side of the tracks. The marble is exposed in
the railroad cut about 200 feet south of the creek.
The deposit is composed of a white, uniformly
coarse grained dolomite marble. It is associated with
a series of alternating layers of fine to medium
grained quartz biotite gneiss and muscovite schist
which Keith (1905) mapped as Carolina gneiss. The
entire series, including the marble, is cut by an ir-regular
pegmatite dike.
As seen in the railroad cut, there are two distinct
layers of marble. The upper layer is about 60 feet
thick and is separated by about 15 feet of gneiss
from the lower layer of marble, which is about 10
feet thick. All of the contacts between the gneiss,
schist, marble and pegmatite are sharp and no transi-tion
between the rock types is apparent. The marble,
as well as the enclosing gneiss and schist, strikes
about N 65° E and dips 50° —55° SE. The marble
is massive, free from joints, and the only impurities
noted were a few stringers of quartz and some actino-lite
and serpentine. Chemical analyses show that the
marble closely approaches the composition of pure
dolomite and that it is also unusually low in acid in-solubles.
The marble is not continuously exposed along
strike, but has been traced northeast of the roalroad
and river by prospect trenches and pits and boulders
protruding above ground level for some 2000 feet. It
is also exposed in a narrow zone about 18 feet wide
on a hill above a small creek about 1800 feet north-east
of the railroad. No outcrops of the marble are
known to occur on the west side of the river. It has
been conservatively estimated (Hunter and Gilder-sleeve,
1946, p. 28) that the Bandana deposit con-tains
at least 500,000 tons of high-grade dolomite
marble. This estimate was based on an average out-crop
width of 25 feet and a downward extension of
100 feet below railroad level.
This deposit is favorably situated for quarrying,
being well above the river and next to the railroad.
Also, it is uniform in color and contains few impuri-ties.
The principal disadvantages are the presence of
the pegmatite dike, which is reported to extend the
whole length of the marble (Watson and Laney,
1906, p. 204) , and the distance from a large market.
Ashe County
Horse Creek deposit.—A deposit of moderately
coarse grained white marble, containing small grains
and lenses of magnetite, is located on Horse Creek
near Lansing, in Ashe County. It is situated next to
the Norfolk and Western Railroad about 1.2 miles
southeast of Lansing.
This locality was not visited during this investiga-tion,
but the deposit was worked for iron ore by the
Ashe Mining Company in 1920 and was described in
detail by Bayley (1923, p. 183-197). The marble is
associated with a coarse grained, quartz-feldspar-mica
gneiss and mica and hornblende schists. It
strikes N 35° E and dips 40° SE.
About 0.3 mile northeast of the railroad station in
Lansing and 0.75 mile N 20° E of the deposit on
30
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BUNCOMBE
COUNTY
RUTH ERFQRD COUNTY
LEGEND
SHADY POLOMITE
SCALE
12 3 4
MILES
FIGURE 10. map showing
location of shady dolomite
in Mcdowell county
32
Horse Creek, is another old iron ore prospect pit in
which marble was found in association with gneisses
(Bayley, 1923, p. 194).
McDowell County
General Statement
There are two types of lime bearing rocks in Mc-
Dowell County. The first, and only one that has been
of commercial value, is an elongate area of Shady
dolomite which occurs along the North Fork of the
Catawba River in the northern part of the county.
The other is a series of disconnected outcrops of
siliceous marble, or recrystallized limestone, that oc-cur
along the Catawba River between Greenlee and
Lake James. This siliceous marble was only recently
discovered, and although some exploratory drilling
has been done its potential as a commercial deposit
is still uncertain.
Shady Dolomite
The Shady dolomite occupies three areas in the
northern part of the county. The northernmost and
largest area extends for about 12 miles from Sevier
northward along the North Fork of the Catawba
River and U. S. Highway 221 to just south of Lin-ville
Falls. The second begins at Woodlawn and un-derlies
part of the flat area of Turkey Cove and the
lower part of the ridge on the south side of the cove.
It forms an area roughly circular in outline and about
one mile in diameter. The third is a small body
located 2 miles southeast of Woodlawn where the
Clinchfield Railroad crosses the river. This body of
dolomite is situated in a very remote and inaccessible
part of the county, and as it is practically eliminated
from any commercial development it will not be
discussed further.
As described and mapped by Keith (1905) and
Keith and Sterrett (unpublished) the Shady dolo-mite
in McDowell County consists of white, gray and
bluish gray beds of fine to medium grained recrystal-lized
dolomite or marble. The calcium carbonate con-tent
ranges from 52 to 62 percent and the magnesium
carbonate from 33 to 41 percent (Loughlin, et. al.,
1921, p. 56). The layers are thick and massive and
badly fractured by closely spaced joints. The beds
near the base of the formation contain considerable
amounts of silica in the form of detrital quartz grains
and chert and some have a high content of iron.
Beds in the upper part of the formation are generally
less impure than the lower beds, but quartz, pyrite,
iron carbonate, feldspar and mica have been noted
as excessory minerals (Loughlin, et. al. 1921, p. 57-
58).
Considering the total area underlain by the dolo-mite,
outcrops are relatively rare. The base and
lower part of the formation are exposed at several
places along the North Fork of the Catawba River
and U. S. Highway 221 between Ashford and Lin-ville
Falls. In places the dolomite is present for at
least 200 feet up the west side of the steep slope next
to the North Fork, but is almost completely covered
by overburden and a thick growth of timber. The
best exposure of dolomite along the North Fork is
at Linville Caverns on the west side of U. S. High-way
221 about 3 miles south of Linville Falls. Above
and behind the caverns the formation has developed
a narrow ridge about 2500 feet long and 1250 feet
wide. Along the small valley which parallels the
western side of the ridge is a completely exposed
section of the upper two thirds of the formation
(Hunter and Gildersleeve, 1946, p. 27). About 0.75
mile north of the caverns on the southeast end of a
northwest trending ridge, is an extremely shattered
zone of dolomite about 75 feet wide in which galena
occurs in association with several small quartz veins.
The dolomite overlying this galena-bearing zone is
about 250 feet thick and is much whiter than any
other dolomite exposed along the North Fork (Hunt-er
and Gildersleeve, 1946, p. 27).
The Shady dolomite in McDowell County, like the
Shady dolomite in the Hot Springs area, is involved
in a complicated structural unit that disrupts the
normal rock pattern of the Blue Ridge belt in the
Grandfather Mountain area. The Shady dolomite,
part of the underlying Chillowee group, possibly
rocks equivalent to the Ocoee series, and igneous
rocks and gneisses of Precambrian (?) age have
been folded and faulted into a unique structure
known as the Grandfather Mountain window. Al-though
Keith (1903, 1905) and Keith and Sterett
(unpublished) were unable to map a fault continu-ously
around the complex southeastern side of the
area, the structure has been interpreted by many
geologists as a window. Recent mapping in the area
by members of the United States Geological Survey
(Bryant and Reed, 1959) has confirmed this hypo-thesis
that sedimentary and igneous rocks in the
Grandfather Mountain area are exposed in a window
beneath an overriding plate of crystalline rocks.
History of Production
Outcrops of "limestone" along the valley of the
North Fork of the Catawba River were noted by
Kerr in 1875. However, the presence of the dolomite
33
was undoubtedly known to the local residents long
before this. Small amounts of "limestone" were
burned in beehive kilns for local use at several
places in the area. Kilns are known to have been
located along Limekiln Creek, in the Turkey Cove
area, and on the North Fork about 1.5 miles north
of Linville Caverns. There are no records to indicate
when these kilns were active, but some of them were
very likely in use prior to the War Between the
States.
The first attempt to utilize the dolomite for any-thing
other than burning to lime was made a few
years prior to 1890 when the North Carolina Geologi-cal
Survey conducted an extensive drilling program
on the plantation of Col. J. G. Yancey. The purpose
of this exploration was to locate a marble deposit
suitable for dimension stone. Records made at the
time this work was done state that although much
of the rock was too badly fractured by joints for use
as a dimension stone, portions of it were fairly free
from joints and would be well adapted for use as a
building and ornamental stone (Lewis, 1893, p. 97-
98) . Owing to the lack of railroad transportation and
other unfavorable economic factors no development
work was done on this deposit for dimension stone.
Shortly after the Carolina Clinchfield and Ohio
Railroad completed its line from Marion, North Caro-lina
to Johnson City, Tennessee, the first commercial
quarry was opened in the Shady dolomite. This was
the Clinchfield Lime Company quarry which was
opened in 1916, and was located a few tenths of a
mile north of Ashford on the west side of North
Fork. Production from this quarry consisted of
crushed stone and agricultural lime. The quarry
was worked by the Clinchfield Lime Company until
1925, after which it was idle until the Campbell
Limestone Company took over the property and pro-duced
crushed stone for a few years prior to World
War II. The quarry has not been worked since about
1940.
In the mid 1930's the State Highway and Public
Works Commission obtained an option on the dolo-mite
deposit on the Yancey Estate at Woodlawn.
After investigations by the State Geologist and Mr.
Frank L. Hess, U. S. Bureau of Mines, the commis-sion
purchased the property and opened a quarry to
furnish crushed stone for road construction and
maintenance and agricultural lime. This quarry has
been in continuous operation since 1937 and is still
owned and operated by the State Highway Com-mission.
Description of Workings
Woodlawn quarry (State Highway Commission).—
This quarry is located on the south side of Turkey
Cove about 0.5 mile south of Woodlawn. It is about
0.25 mile east of U. S. Highway 221 and 7.5 miles
north of Marion, North Carolina.
The quarry has been developed southward into the
face of a large hill which rises some 600 feet above
the level of the cove. It is roughly rectangular in
shape with the north end open. The east and west
faces are about 360 feet long and the south face
about 240 feet wide. Height of the faces vary from
180 feet in the southeast corner to 200 feet on the
west side.
Fine grained, bluish-gray dolomite is the predomi-nant
rock type, but dark blue, pink and white beds
are also present. Thickness of the beds range from
a few inches to several feet and all are badly fractur-ed
by closely spaced joints. Owing to an undulating
effect, the dip varies considerably but averages about
10° to the southeast. This is well displayed in both
the east and west faces which have been developed
about parallel to the dip.
Quarrying is advanced by drilling a line of 8 inch
churn drill holes parallel to and 20 feet back from
the south face. The holes are drilled several feet
below the level of the quarry floor and the entire face
is blasted simultaneously. A very large tonnage of
rock is dislodged at one time, reported to be almost
enough for one year's production, but primary break-age
is poor. Considerable secondary breakage is
necessary and this is done with jack hammers and a
wagon drill.
A power shovel is used in the quarry to load the
rock on two dump trucks which haul it to the crush-ing
plant. The plant is located just outside the quarry
at the north end and consists of a 20" x 36" jaw
crusher, a 40" roll crusher, triple deck screens (12
feet) a washing system and storage bins. This set-up
is reported to be capable of producing up to 100 tons
per hour of % mcn and under crushed stone. All of
the stone produced is used by the State Highway
Commission for road construction, maintenance and
asphalt filler.
When the quarry was first opened it was proposed
that the Highway Commission sell agricultural lime-stone
at cost as a by-product from the quarry opera-tion
(Bryson, 1937, p. 112). This would have made
limestone available to the farmers of North Carolina
at a considerable savings. However, since the quarry
has been in operation only a comparatively small
amount of agricultural limestone has been produced.
34
Clinchfield Lime Company (inactive).—This quar-ry
is located al
State Publications II
