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ago, that these veins were wrought on a large scale and for many ages by some ancient
peoples, most probably the so-called Mound Builders” (Kerr 1880:457).
Kerr summarized his observations of aboriginal work at a number of mica mines in
western North Carolina as follows:
They opened and worked a great many veins down to or near water level. . .as
far as the action of atmospheric chemistry had softened the rock so that it was
workable without metal tools. . . . Many of the largest and most profitable
mines of the present day are simply the ancient Mound Builders’ mines
reopened and pushed into the hard undecomposed granite by powder and steel.
Blocks of mica have often been found half imbedded in the face of the vein,
with the tool-marks about it, showing the exact limit of the efficiency of those
prehistoric mechanical appliances [Kerr 1880:457].
Examples of the “appliances” Kerr referred to were illustrated by drawings that
appeared in Holmes’ 1919 report (Figure 4). Kerr had also heard the stories of old
Spanish silver mines. He visited the prehistoric diggings at Bandana in the same year that
Clingman sank his shaft; however, his Report of the Geological Survey for 1875 made no
mention of Clingman’s presence or activities there. The geologist described “a dozen or
more open pits 40 to 50 feet wide, by 75 to 100 long, filled up to 15 or 20 feet of depth”
(Kerr 1875:300). He went on to relate that two years after his visit to Bandana (by 1870),
he had learned that “mica was of common occurrence in the tumuli of the Mound
Builders” and that “cut forms similar to those found in the mounds were occasionally
discovered among the rubbish heaps about and in the old pits” (Kerr 1875:300). This
latter piece of information Kerr (1875:300) took as revealing “unmistakably the purpose
and date of these works [the pits at Bandana].” If it could be verified, it would have a
direct bearing on the question of where the ancient miners originated. Among Kerr’s
general comments on North Carolina mica mines in 1875 were the following
observations regarding prehistoric work:
Since the development of mica mining on a large scale in Mitchell and
adjoining counties, it has been ascertained that there are hundreds of old pits
and connecting tunnels among the spurs and knobs and ridges of this rugged
region; and there is no doubt that mining was carried on here for ages, and in a
very systematic, skillful way. . . . The pits are always open “diggings,” never
regular shafts, and the earth and debris often amounts to enormous heaps. . . .
The tunnels are much smaller than such workings in modern mining, generally
only three to three and a half feet in height and considerably less in width.
Some have been followed for fifty and a hundred feet and upwards [Kerr
1875:300].
A year after Kerr’s visit and Clingman’s departure, two stove merchants from
Tennessee, J. G. Heap and E. B. Clapp, began mining mica at what by then was known as
the Sink Hole Mine. They established in Bandana the headquarters of what grew to be a
large, profitable enterprise, producing mica from many properties within the district. The
economic value of their product was based on its transparency, its resistance to fire and
heat, and the ease with which it could be split into thin flexible sheets that could be
trimmed to any size or shape. These qualities made mica eminently suited for stove and
furnace windows, lanterns, and lampshades.
Within a few decades, by the turn of the century, it became apparent that mica
would play an even more important role in industry. This new role depended upon an
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