The most modern feldspar plan! in Ihe world — The Carolina Minerals place al
Kona. — (Photo by Henimer.)
Beneath
The Soil
IMic*a lioom —
«110
of
many — excites the Toe
Valley.
By EVERETT ENGLISH
Long before English and Scot set¬
tlers started digging in the rocks of
Toe Valley someone had the same
idea, and left their tracks in ancient
shafts. These unknown miners might
have been Indians. Senator Clinman.
who prospected there, thought they
were Spaniards.
In the many generations since then,
a long list of minerals has been un¬
covered. but the three which have
been taken out in substantial quanti¬
ties and in paying operations, are
mica, feldspar, and clay (kaolin).
These three give the Spruce Pine dis¬
trict its world-wide fame and comprise
the bulk of North Carolina mineral
production, excepting sand and gravel.
The district produces about $6,000,-
000 in minerals annually, with Mit¬
chell producing the largest portion.
The topic of the day in Mitchell is
the government’s new mica-buying
program which is causing a new boom
in mining and in sale and lease of min¬
ing property and mineral rights. The
program contemplates the stockpiling
of $40,000,000 worth of high-grade
ruby mica, needed for use in elec¬
tronic and electrical devices.
Until this" buying is completed, mica
of a certain type will bring from $3
to $70 a pound, about four times
the open market price. Spruce Pine is
one of three mica centers selected as
buying points, the others being in New
Hampshire and South Dakota.
Romantic History
Skipping, because of ignorance, the
prehistoric mining period, the story of
mining in Mitchell is a romantic one.
While Senator Clinman vainly
was trying to find silver in paying
quantities in the old Sink Hole Mine
(one of the antique mystery mines) a
hardware salesman from Knoxville
named Heap chanced by, and saw
large blocks of mica — unwanted —
around the dump. He carried samples
away and found it had a market. In
the early 7()’s. Heap returned with
П.
B. Clapp, and the two succeeded
enormously in a mica-mining venture.
Heirs of Clapp own a large portion of
mica property and rights in the Valley
today.
Another of the first mining compa¬
nies had a curious start.
A Yankee Pioneer
During the Civil War one of the
many Union sympathizers in Mitchell
was Isaac English, who lived near
Spruce Pine. His home was a station
on the “underground railway" which
stretched across the mountains, and
over which escaped Federal prisoners
of war found their way back to the
North. He hid and fed many Yankees
in their flight.
After the war. English operated
an inn in a huge log house (still stand¬
ing» at Spruce Pine, and there he
received letters from a mysterious cor¬
respondent who signed himself "Gere."
His wife finally determined that the
mail was from Colonel J. M. Gere, one
of the Yankees the Englishes had shel¬
tered during the war. Gere had writ¬
ten directly so as not to embarrass his
benefactor.
Gere came to see English, and was
interested in the Tar Heel’s mineral
collection, especially the mica. The
visitor went home, learned about the
market for mica, and went into busi¬
ness with English, a business which
thrives to this day.
Mica is one of the oldest of minerals,
formed deep in the earth in a molten
state, and running in erratic veins, dif¬
ficult for the novice to follow. It may
be found in tiny veins which broaden
out into large chunks. Each individual
piece is called a "book" or a "block."
It splits easily, and each “leaf pre¬
sents a smooth, plane surface.
Usually, mica is split into sheets
about
1/1000
of an inch thick and the
cracked edges trimmed. Its quality of
resistance to electrical current is its
most valuable attribute.
In the whole of the U. S. there are
only about 1,500 experienced mica
shecters and graders, and most of
these live in the Spruce Pine district.
The skill with which they split, trim
and grade mica can make or break a
mining operation.
Mica mining received a tremendous
boost when new uses were discovered
for scrap mica, wet or dry- ground.
Robert R. Dent, associated with the
English mica interests, had a son who
was changing a bicycle tube, and
lacked powder to place between tube
and tire to reduce friction and prevent
sticking. Instead he used a handful of
ground mica. A year later. Denton saw
the boy removing this tube and no¬
ticed how easily it slipped from the
casing. The boy told him he had used
ground mica instead of the usual talc.
Denton went to Akron and per¬
suaded the Goodrich Rubber Com¬
pany to try a hundred pounds of mica
in their tire manufacture. Within a
12
THE STATE. JUNE 14. 19S2
