Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1897-08-04
THE eLIsTESNe. CLEANING GOLD.

The Biggest Nugget Picked Up IN the Klon-
dixie Mines Is a Dwarf Beside One Of
the North Carolina Finds.
Gold, gold is the cry OF today. Out
on the Pacific coast the people are
fairly wild over the great Alaskan
fields and in every part Of the country
the people are talking about the new
Eldorado. The search for gold has be-
come almost mania with a large pro
portion Of the people of Europe and
America, and our newspapers are filled
with accounts of the new prospects In
Colorado and Montana they are dig
ging more gold than ever, the African
fields are as rich as at any time, British
Columbia has her mines, the lost mine
of Colorado has been found and now
the new and great Kiondike. One
thing is certain, and that ,js that the
country can not have too fmnch gold.
The more the better.
In the accounts Of the Yukon mines
the statement is made that the largest
nugget yet found weighed S222 This
is less than one pound, for q pound of
gold is worth $299. Still itts pretty
big chunk of gold. 1t isn't in every
gold field that such nuggets,are found.
nor is it every season that one is dis
covered. Our own Southern gold fields
have produced much larger nuggets
than that. That is q hard statement to
believe, when we have no mines which
produce millions year nor locations
from which few men can wash out
$4,000 day. tits, nevertheless. true.
In April, 1896, little over a vera ago,
there was taken out of the Reed Mine,
Cabarrus County, N. c., which is not
a great distance from Nashville, a gold
nugget which weighed twenty two
pounds, and which was worth $5, ,75S,
so that it weighed nearly twenty eight
times as much as the biggest Klondike
nugget. You can not see that nugget
at the Exposition, for twenty two pound
nuggets are too valuable 10 keep to ex.
hibit, and 1t has long since gone thro'
the mint and come out in half eagles
or double eagles. and now perchance is
small part of the gold reserve. But
in the exhibit of the Southern Railway,
Terminal building, Exposition grounds,
you can see cast of the nugget show
ing its exact form and size. There are
models in this exhibit of four other
great gold nuggets, the smallest one
two pounds, found near the line of the
road in North Carolina within the past
two years. They certainly make q
most interesting display.
They are only small part of the
gold display of the Southern Railway
exhibit. There are many aud various
samples of the gold ores of the South,
from Virginia. North and South Caro-.
lima, Georgia and Alabama. The
study of this exhibit, which, with the
gold exhibit from the States made by
the geological departments, forms, per-
haps, as interesting an exhibit as there
is in the mining or indu strial depart
ments of the Exposition, will probably
reveal many things unknown to the
great majority of the people. 1t will
be news to most that the Appalachian
gold fields are probably among the
richest of the world, and that in all
likelihood millions will be taken out
of them. Yet it is fact, and one will
be convinced If he will spend enough
time to study the gold exhibit of the
Southern Railway and learn about the
work at many of the mines which are
now operated-about the Halle, the
Brewer, the Reed, the Sam Christian,
the Villa Rica, the Dahlonega belt
mines. the Royal, the Franklin and
other mines,
While people are going to Africa and
the Koutenai and the Yukon for gold
they are not altogether neglecting the
Southern Railway territory. A large
amount of American and English capi
tai has gone into the region within the
past two years for mining and develop
ing, and the renewed interest in these
fields has only started.