Discovery of Precious Stones
Diamonds, emeralds, rubies anil oilier rare
jewels have been found in an appreciable
niiniher in North Carolina. Many others
may still he brought to light.
By TRAVIS TI C K JORDAN
ONCE upon a lime in McDow¬
ell County, up in the western
section of North Carolina, a
little barefoot boy was sent to the
spring for a bucket of water. It
was a hot. sunny day, so he hung
the bucket on a hickory limb and
paddled up and down in the cool¬
ing freshness of the spring branch.
Suddenly a bright and shining
pebble caught his eye — it was
round, smooth and sparkling as a
glass bead. Me picked it up,
brushed off the sand and grit and
put it in his pocket to add to his
store of jackrocks.
But this glassy stone turned out
not to belong to the homely jack-
rock family, but a real diamond of
4 1-3 carats; a beautiful sun-tinted
fern of an alluring grayish-green.
oday the model of this diamond
is in the Tiffany-Morgan collection
of the American Museum of Nat¬
ural History in New York.
Many Jewels Have Been Found
This is just one of the many
jewels that have been found
pinned to the dark breast of
Mother Earth up in the Carolina
hills.
The discovery of North Carolina
ems began with the corundum in-
ustry and mica mining that was
carried on in Madison. Lincoln,
and Gaston counties. It was in the
corundum mine at Franklin, Ma¬
con County, that the famous green
sapphire was discovered. This
stone is classed as the finest green
sapphire in the world; it is the
rarest of all colors of sapphire, and
is known as the Oriental Emerald.
It is now in the Morgan-Bement
collection in New York.
It was in 1871 that the first sys¬
tematic gem mining was done by
opening the Cullasaja Mine on
Corundum Hill. This mine is sit¬
uated on the Cullasaja or Sugar
Fork of the Little Tennessee River,
and is a few miles southeast of
Franklin. The largest crystal ever
known came from this mine. It is
three times larger than any other
known crystal. It weighs 312
pounds, is 22 inches long, 18 inches
wide, and 12 inches thick. The
color is a deep, hazy, smoky blue.
This crystal is now in the Shepard
collection at Amherst College.
Mass. There arc crystals that hold
the dark blue of midnight, those
with the pale delicate violet of the
waking dawn, others that catch
the flame of the setting sun. then
we find those as thinly blue as the
June sky at noontime, and others
of the soft tawny amber of maple
syrup.
Another prolific mine is the
Buck Creek or Cullakeenee Mine
in Clay County. This mine has
given masses of emeralds, grass-
green amphibolite, and pink and
ruby corundum.
Rubies From Cowee Valley
Rubies, the gem of love and pas¬
sion, come from the Cowee Valley
in Macon County It was also left
to Cowee Valley to bring to light a
new variety of garnet to which
was given the name of Rhodolite.
This gem is a distinctive variety
of garnet, as it is found in North
Carolina, only, and has proven to
be the most valuable gem com¬
mercially in the state. The name
comes from "rhodon," meaning
rose color. The stone is brilliant
and sparkling of a very light red
that catches the sun and creeps
and crawls like a live thing.
Emeralds, the cool, deep green
of the sea. come from Mitchell and
Alexander counties, as do acqua-
marines as blue as an old seaman’s
eyes, and weighing from 1 to 30
carats.
Of the diamonds, most of them
have been discovered in discarded
gold washings. There is a diamond
of 1 1-3 carats, clear and flawless
as a moonlit lake that comes from
Rutherford County. From Lincoln
County comes a half carat stone as
transparently green as a dew drop
on a morning glory leaf. Mecklen¬
burg gives the white and block
diamond, and Cleveland the glit¬
tering octahedron weighing :ii
carat and as citron yellow as the
wing of a rice bird.
Rubies, small but of good color,
have been found scattered loosely
among the sand and pebbles of the
mountain streams of Jackson and
Transylvania counties. From Hay¬
wood come the finest specimens of
corundum of blue, grey-blue and
red. Yancey gives the white blue
mottled crystals. In Lincoln. Ma¬
con and Haywood counties is found
the amethyst varying from the
deep royal purple of a petunia to
the faint orchid of a Japanese
Cherry tree in its last blooming.
McDowell has the brown sapphire,
and Jackson the asteriated sap¬
phire.
Rock crystal is found in many
ports of the slate. A rock crystal
from Ashe County weighing 51
pounds is in the Morgan collection
in New York. The most important
crystal from this county was
carved into a special design and
exhibited as the finest piece of
American lapidary ever executed
in rock crystal. This work of art is
in the Metropolitan Museum in
New York.
Species of Quartz.
Species of quartz of the soft can¬
dy tint of a wild rose seen through
the opalescence of a mirror come
from Iredell and Cabarrus coun¬
ties. Rutilated quartz of gorgeous
red. crumbling gold, brown and
black first saw the light in Ran¬
dolph. Catawba. Burke. Iredell.
Jackson and Alexander counties.
The Hiddenite or I.ithia Emerald
is found only in Alexander County.
In color this gem is of a rich em¬
erald as transparent as a drop of
green water; it is the finest emer¬
ald ever found and is now in the
Morgan-Bement collection. Alex¬
ander County gives us the
amethyst, smoky quartz and crys¬
tals, but it is Ashe County that
gives quartz in its choicest form
(Continued on page IS I
THE STATE. May 14. 1949
