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______________________________________________________________________________________ 2008 annual meeting – Spruce Pine Mining District: Little Switzerland, North Carolina ______________________________________________________________________________________ STOP No. 1 – The Sink Hole at Bandana: A Blue Ridge mica mine reveals Its prehistoric past By: Peter R. Margolin Please see paper located in front part of this guidebook. STOP No. 2 – Spruce Pines mines – Overlook and handout By: Samuel E. Swanson, Department of Geology, University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602 Please see paper located in front part of this guidebook. STOP No. 3 -- Vulcan Materials Company -- Spruce Pine Quarry By: Jim Stroud and Marion Wiggins, and Jeff Panther Vulcan Materials Company’s Spruce Pine Quarry in Spruce Pine, North Carolina was originally called the Bear Creek Quarry or Mayland Stone and was opened in 1978. It is located in the Blue Ridge Mountain Province. The topography at Spruce Pine Quarry consists of relatively steep terrain with high relief, typical of the Blue Ridge Province of North Carolina. Spruce Pine Quarry is underlain by the Late PreCambrian Ashe Metamorphic Suite of the Spruce Pine thrust sheet. This thrust sheet is part of the Blue Ridge thrust complex and consists of amphibolite facies metasedimentary rocks. These rocks are described as amphibolite, biotite schist, biotite-amphibole gneiss, and biotite-amphibole schist. Quartz veining is widespread. The major minerals observed in these rocks are feldspar, amphibole, biotite, and quartz. Garnet and pyrite are also evident in trace (
______________________________________________________________________________________ 2008 annual meeting – Spruce Pine Mining District: Little Switzerland, North Carolina ______________________________________________________________________________________ situation. Vulcan turned the bench orientation approximately east-west or perpendicular to the major sturcture in order to minimize hazardous mining conditions. This rock is produced to provide quality construction stone (aggregate) to be used as the major ingredient to make asphalt and concrete. It is also used extensively in other construction projects such as base for highways and roads and as an erosion control material. STOP No. 4 – Lunch stop STOP No. 5 -- Emerald Village and the Seven Mines By: Alan Schabilion, Emerald Village, Inc., P.O. Box 98, Little Switzerland, NC 28749 www.emeraldvillage.com, 828-765-6463, alan@emeraldvillage.com Emerald Village is a fascinating collection of mines buildings and attractions nestled into the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains near Little Switzerland, North Carolina. Seven large abandoned mines dot the mountainsides at Emerald Village and offer evidence of man’s long search for buried treasures. One of the mines, the Bon Ami Mine, is now home to The North Carolina Mining Museum, offering visitors the opportunity to go underground into a real mine. Another mine, the Big McKinney Mine, was once the world’s largest Feldspar mine and today the abandoned mine is quite spectacular. The other five mines each offer a unique glimpse into our earth. Together these mines tell the historic story of mining, miners and minerals in this important part of the Spruce Pine Mining District. Feldspar mining began at the Big McKinney mine around 1923 and continued steadily through the 1950’s. The development of flotation separation for mixed ores spelled the end of these massive underground mines, although they were far from worked out. Vast underground operations were risky and expensive. Today, more than 54 gems, rocks and minerals have been documented from these seven mines, and the area remains a rockhound treasure chest. Other minerals sold from these mines over the years included mica, columbite, and beryl. Many minerals found here are extremely rare, such as Samarskite, Torbernite and the exquisite crystals of Pumpellyite documented in 1996 in the Mineralogical Record. The McKinney Mine is the only place in the Carolinas where this mineral has been found. The mines were owned or worked by various companies over the years, and in some cases workers in different mines mined within a few feet of each other. Sometimes only a thin wall remained between the workings. During depression years the mines offered some of the only work available in the area, and old-timers recalled lines of would-be workers on the road, just waiting for someone to get hurt or quit. Average wages at that time were 10 cents an hour for 10 long hard hours a day. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Page 58 ______________________________________________________________________________________
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Carolina Geological Society 2008 Fi
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The Spruce Pine Mining District - A
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GEOLOGY The geologic history of Spr
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The Sink Hole at Bandana: A Blue Ri
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of the site on U.S. 226, between Sp
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additional quality, mica’s dielec
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1919). Holmes and others have specu
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FIGURE 1 William H. Holmes, taken d
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FIGURE 6 View in 1936 of “ancient
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FIGURE 10 View of the Seip Mound, R
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