Even more sensational, perhaps, is the ongoing habit of eating kaolin that has been documented recently in middle Georgia. First, the bright side. Kaolin was extensively mined in Western North Carolina from the late 1880s until roughly 1950. Old kaolin quarries still dot the landscape. It has also been widely used in the making of paper, rubber, paint, and heat resistant materials.
Fine chinaware is, of course, associated with the nation that first refined the process.
As they explored the New World, the Europeans sought out natural products that could be utilized in colonial industries or shipped back home. Sure enough, the white clay materialized in feldspar deposits throughout the southeastern region of what became the United States. Some of the finest deposits were located in the middle Cherokee homeland here in the far southwestern tip of North Carolina, especially in present Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties. Thomas Griffith arrived at Charleston in September 1767 and reached the clay mine area at Iotla just south of the Indian town of Cowee on the Little Tennessee River in November. By the time he embarked for England the following spring, he had dug five or more tons for Wedgwood, the famous British pottery manufacturer renowned for artistic and scientific approaches that revolutionized the porcelain industry.