Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1867-07-27
The York Gold Mines.

lestoh Courier, after visiting these mines,
writes as follows. The mines n'York are on
the mountain ranges, as are ours in Pickens.
The mines here are equally as rich as those
.iu York District. A we'll directed effort
should be made. to put them on the market.
But to the correspondence:
" A few days ago accompanied gentle.
men of this place to the Mining section Of
this District. bad rcad and studied the va.
rious report Of tho Geological Surveys of the
State, frequently visited and rambled among
the hills. Of York, and became intimately uc.
quainted with the people. and familiar with
the topography Of this part Of che State, yet
[ declare to you that never dreamed that
such immense beds of gold were 80 densely
deposited beneath the soil Every stone you
crush contains more less of the precious met
al, and the rock k-ribbed sides of every hill. from
its buse to the summit, torus network rich
with auriferous deposits. We visited the
McCaffrey mine, twelve miles above York
vile. The tract contains 2T9 acres of land.
with veins Of orc running in every direction.
The principle lead has just been opened aud
ore selected f,om one of the pits yield, i about
So to each bushe.
We had no means Of assaying so that we
could tost CARLY tho exact per cent. it would
yield, but feel satisfied that there is gold in
abundnnccin in that locality. 1t seems that this
has been overlooked and neglected, while con,
tigons mines have been carefully tested and
examined. The gold is deposited in stratum
OF quartz running from five to thirty feet be-.
low the surface aud from eight inches to three
trct w'dc, cnvclopcd in IL bed of hard red clay
The geological formation, as well rs the sur.
IA, II ~: = =. n
miner at no distant day. The relative conncc.
ton with the lending nuriferdus duets from the
ncighborng hills converging in one direction
and divcrging in nno5her, shows distinctly that
Just here there must be an immense deposit of
gold. The Bolyn mine is south of this. The
most productive veins lead off the hill imthc
direction Of the McCaftrcy lot; dry ravinc
running down tn within few yards of a beau
tiful, gold spring, whose crystal water ripples
along over beds of the precious metal. A
mile to the West we find the Beach Branch
Mine, owned, believe by Mr.. VIM. Nesb;t,
of Georgia. Several pits have been opcnc 4,
shafts sunk, and very satisfactory evidence OBJ
tained in reference to the value and quantity
of gold found here. ] picked up in one of
the side sections of this mine some beautiful
specimens Of copper.
South. 1t was first opened in 1927. Since
that time, it has been continually worked, aud
perhaps no SPOT of earth has been more
fruitful source of anxiety and disappointment
on the Que hand, and glorious realization of
high hopes onthe other. For months the mi
ner realized onlya few cents day for his toll
and wcarisome labor. Tn 1856, an immense
nugget of gold was discovered miners
dubbed it with the miifuous title of the
Bee Cnm." n piece of quartz about the
size of mans head contained 400 penny
weights. or a little more than 81 900 in pure
gold. This cre;itcd intense excitement through,
for is fellow bdt To- ts av an' + ns1. %s
Or has been found The lot c,ntins thirtv
acres, and every foot Of it has been turned
over md over time aud again, until it is well
! nigh exhausted There are only two old
'hountalnoers at work now. and they arc only
wishing the debris which has accumulated
below the pond. They use the nld fashioned
Ao"9 Tam" and with this primitive appn.
ratus they have the varicd success of tihe
gambling miner A few days ago they washed
| ont fourteen pennywcigh,s the dny we yisi-
ted them they only collected half penny
weight
was greatly disappointed in this mine.
IL never was re than surface deposit.
running up West from the branch a narrow
oack bone between two ravincs, encountcrinn
near the summit of the hill a stratum of rot.
ten slate, and a few yards higher still bed of
pure iron ore, with no trace of cold. The
consequence has been that tho Martin mine
Is exhausted and will never pay to work it.
again. Cropping ont few hundred yards
above this bed of iron orc is large rich vein,
running off in Westerly dicection which.
IN my! opinion, is more valuable than the Mar
tin mine ever was. A few miles to the South
we visit the Wyic mine which has recently
been purchased by New York Company for
$1,000. They intend, l learn having their
machinery in operation by August.
F" In the same ncighborhood are the Smith
mines, which was bought few days ago by
Company of BostoDians for $4,000. Both
these mines are said TO he rich, and with i'm,
proved machinery will undoubtedly yield
handsome income. | learn that the same
mlncralogical formations in North Carolina
are ar, now producing large amounts of gold
The Pennsylvania and North Carolina Gold
Mining Company of.Tamaqua five miles
North of Charlotte; the Phmnix Mining
Company of New York, six miles from Con.
cord; the Bakely Mining Company, New
york. fourteen miles from Concord; tlo
now'e aud Hardness, arc all in successful en-. c,.
era'lon' e a single ten stamp mill will crush ton