State

Before California had dreamed of the discovery of the precious yellow metal, the Old North State was hum¬ ming with mining activity. For it was here, and not in California, that gold was first discovered in the United States. A yellowed copy of the old Sail Lake Mining Review, a pamphlet published in Salt Lake City. Utah, in the 1820's, vividly recounts the story of the discovery. It was during the early 1800’s that a man made his way on foot along the trail that went up Brindlc Creek in Burke County. He became aware a hole was wearing through the thin sole of his shoe. This hole made a fortune for a large number of people, includ¬ ing the man who wore the shoe and the man who fixed it. How it Happened Here is the story as spread on the pages of the old Sail l.ake Mining Re¬ view in 1824: The wanderer was Samuel Martin, who was born in Connecticut but spent most of his life sailing. Outside of the dusty garb on his back, the only pieces of clothes that he owned at the time were a couple of shirts, some socks, and an extra pair of trousers. These items, together with two books and a shaving kit. constituted all of his belongings. Martin, during his lifetime, had been in South America working as a mining engineer. Heading back home lie had taken a position with a firm in Nica¬ ragua, in the old Kingdom of Olancho. From Central America he came on ship to a landing in Alabama and was proceeding from there on foot to Con¬ necticut. a journey that the almost penniless wanderer expected would take him about three months to make. After noticing the hole in his shoe. Martin passed on up the road, limp¬ ing around sharp pebbles, until he saw a rude sign hanging in front of a log cabin that read. "Bob Anderson. Shoemaker." Anderson looked at the shoe. Then he appraised the stranger and said. "You stay and have dinner with us. and I will repair your shoes for two bits." Martin readily accepted. In his stocking feet, the eagle-eyed miner walked out in the yard and stood on the cool, green grass fringing the log cabin. The home was. as were all the log dwelling places in those days, daubed with mud. It was this mud that attracted Martin's attention. He had already been intrigued by the unusual appearance of the red hills in the surrounding country and now- closer up he saw something in the clay that caused him to gasp, lie- stepped over and pulled out a piece of the chinking that was about to fall out. After examining it closely he found that the clay was exceptionally like the best gold-bearing gravel of South America. Plenty of Signs The plain Anderson home was about 26 feet in length, and 15 feet wide. Martin noticed that there was also on the lot a smokehouse. But what struck him most about the two houses was that every log was daubed with the same yellow speckled mud that he had examined. The chimney was built of quartz, he noted. His long experience in the gold fields of South America had shown him that gold ap¬ peared in great amounts in this quartz rock. Going on these two evidences, he concluded that there must be gold on the premises, lie looked at the hills and the banks of the creek that ran nearby the house and saw the same yellow strains. While he was deeply absorbed in his examination of the landscape. Mrs. Anderson came to the cabin door and invited him in to din¬ ner. After the meal. Martin proposed to the shoemaker that lie be permitted to investigate the land in that vicinity for gold. Anderson readily agreed and Martin first tested the clay that was used for daubing in the buildings. He made a pan out of an old Indian camp kettle and started washing the clay. At the bottom of the pan after the final washing was a layer of gold! Thus the first gold to be found in America, says the author of the article in the Sail l.ake Mining Review, was panned out that day by the adventurer, paying for his shoes and board, on the lands of a poor shoemaker in Burke County, along the banks of Brindlc Creek. That afternoon, after the discovery was made. Martin agreed to prospect the land of the shoemaker, doing all the work himself and was to receive half of the profits. Start of the Hush When news that gold had been dis¬ covered broke on the country pande¬ monium prevailed. Poor farmers, and their wives, storekeepers, mule traders, speculators, rich and poor alike, from all over the western part of North Carolina and Georgia burst down in hordes on the banks of Brindlc Creek. Through a whole year the country teemed with people from far and near. The area boomed. Hungry moun¬ taineers sold their bald plots of ground for unbelievable prices. Slaves were brought into the area in huge num¬ bers. Prices on foodstuffs and mer- The Sailor With a Hole in His Shoe Ills historic discovery of gold brought pandemonium to Kurke County. THE STATE. APRIL 15. 1969 9