The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-24
PRECIOUS STONES FOUND IN AMERICA Discoveries Too Small to Be
 Profitable ALL KINDS WERE FOUND Diamonds Are Found In Four Differ ent Places, Among Them Being the Piedmont Region of
 the Appa achians.
ALL KINDS WERE FOUND
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

BY FREDERIC J. HASklN.
 While all the leading precious stones have at some time been found in the United States they have never been dis covered in sufficient quantity or value to make them a source of great profit In fact our annual find in gems is not equal in value to the daily output of iron and coal Sometimes the discovery of real stone, misleading crystal, or q fine pearl causes a wild stampede to some particular part of the country, transforming an erstwhile sedate and in dustrous people into nomadlc treasure hunters, but sooner or later they all re- turn to the less exciting but more cer- tain tasks of farming or merchandising.
 Occasionally very fine gems have been found, and this has led the United States government to make a systematic in- quiry of nature regarding her treasures, the geological survey conducting the work. Private enterprises have sometimes re- suited in a considerable profit to the pro moters. though the field is not yet large enough nor the prospects sure enough to make the discovery and polishing of
 
 revenue The latest survey shows that each state in the Union has gems of value, though generally to a small eX tent, and also that the United States has several varieties of her own that Mother Nature has given her to the eX clusion of others. beautiful golden gr T stone called utahlite, capable of being used as gem and decorative stone, has been found in Utah: while the mountains of California bid fair to excel the Ural mountains in the production of bery topaz and tourmaline, stones in which the Ural mountains have long led the rest of the world.
 Diamonds have been found in four dif- ferent parts of the United States. sec tions totally unrelated geologically, and so far the original sources If the dia- monds have not been discovered. All that is known is that at some remote age the gravel drifts in which these inn prisoned sunbeams had found a home be- came part of a great glacier, and were swept down in the morning of creation to cover this continent as far south as the vahey of the Tennessee. When the ice had melted the long moraines held the diamond crystals among the coarser gravel, far from their original source. One of these diamond fields lies in the Piedmont region of the Appalachians from Virginia to Alabama. Another edges the region once covered by an ice sheet n Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. another follows the western base of the Sierra Nevada mountains and crops put
 
 believed that many stones have been de- stroyed in California by the machinery useI in the gold mines, they having been crushed with the gravel. The fourth dia- mond field Is In Kentucky and rennes- see, and the fact that the general ap- pearance of the Kentucky fields was like that of the Kimberly fields in South Africa led hopeful people to believe in similar treasures hidden there.
 |rhere have been several notable finds" anu many that have brought great dis appointment to the finders. The famous Dewey diamond" found by workman ut Manchester, Va. in 1853 is the largest that North America has produced. Once its value reached $60O0, but now it is said to be worth only a few hundred. North tarolina has produced stones valued at about $100. One black diamond that may have been of very great value was crushed by hammer in the hands of an enterprisin2 citizen. who confused the Idea of n diamonds hardness with its strength, and tried a test of his own to determine It's genuinness North Carolina h s a peculiar sandstone that is flexible It is known as ltacolumite and is be- l., ed to be a matrX for diamond crys- tals. Georgia has produced several good diamonds. and high did the patriotic interest once run that a Georgai womdn refused ta become engaged to any of her many sutors until he could bring her as an engagement ring Georgia da- mond prcttily set.
 The first California diamond was seen In 1853 and taken to a clergyman for Identification. He published the fact and rush almost as great as the famous gold stampede of forty-nine was the re- suit The rivers flowing into Coos Bay often brought down small stones, and fin the Idaho placer diggngs several of value have been discovered. At present ninety-five per cent of the diamonds used in this country came from Africa and the home product cuts little figure. Yet In 1895 diamond cutting became a con- siderable industry here, notieeably low ering the price of such work in Holland where it had been almost a monopoly for years because of the superior skill of the workmen. A Brooklyn and New York firm brought over skilled Dutch workmen and there are now over 300 dia- mond cutters in New York alone.
 The eredulity of the people in the mat ter of gems has been played upon more