Evening star., 1915-11-28

61fSHERE nave Deen q numDer Oh Iel-
erences recently to the gold-bear-
ing rocks and soils of the District
of Columbia, Montgomery county, Md,
and Fairfax and Loudoun counties, va
The gold fever which ragged along the
upon Potomac and the rocky streams
pouring into that river is well remem-
bered by thousands of persons. has not
completely burned out in the minds OF
some ardent and hopeful folk. and the
fever may sweep through that secton
again If some lucky man happens to nit
on a pocket of rich ore.
The first touch of the gold fever was
felt in the vicinity of Washington IN
1861 when some soldiers in oregon ana
California regiments, encampeo heai
Great Falls on the Maryland side OF the
Potomac, panned out gold in numerous
places in the country adjacent TO tue
falls But in the excitement of the c1Sll
war thoughts of gold mining were given
over and there seems to have been no
recurrence of the gold fever until IN the
eighties and ninetieS, when some pockets
of valuable ore We're found ana srea,
deal of money was thereafter invested IN
prospect and development work, ana IN
mine buildings and machinery. In the
America II Journal of Science. in 1850. there
is reference to the discovery OF gold IN
Maryland. but the part of the state III
toned, and very little excitement seems
to have ensued The announcement was
this:
"A letter just received from cor
respondent in Baltimore informs US
that gold has recently been found IN
Maryland 1t is known to exist in Nir-
ginia and these localities. with those
of North Carolina. appear TO form d
straight line parallel or nearly so, 1t IS
believed with the Allegheny range
is. hllr, Ia mt N
that discovered in Maryland, as is the
case also in that of North Carolina
The memory of the gold craze is fresh
In the minds of many persons, out only
q few old-timers remember the copper
fever that swept over parts OF Virginia
not far from Washington, and WHICH
spread all over the southern states III
1s54-1S56 as result of the discovery OF
rich block copper ores of the eossah
lead" of southwest Virginia ana Oh
Ducktown Tenn. A great deal OF money
was invested in copper mining and cop
nor nrospecting in the Blue Ridge ana
Piedmont regions but at the oeglnnlhs
of the civil war all mining operations
were suspended and were not fesui'ieu
for twenty years or more
I<ai+b the seologist. noted the exist
ence of copper ores in Virginia ana IN
1894 he wrote: Deposits OF copper IN
the schists have long excited interest,"
and led to mining operations me
amount of ore. however. appears not 10
have justified any considerable WORK.
Such deposits have been worked on the
Blue Ridge east of Front Royal and
along the northern end OF South noun
tain
walter Harvey Weed. in a bulletin
issued by the United States Geologl-
cal Survey in 1911. said that recently
numerous attempts were mace 10 "orK
ores in the vicinity of Front Rosai; |
Bentonville and Luray.' Mr.. Weed
wrote that in the locality of Luray !
a property near Ida was developed
BY a shaft 900 feet deep, but with this
exception the workings up to lsoo
were relatively shallow. so far as
information is available he writes. |
"none of the shafts exceeded ninety |
feet in depth. This shows that al
though much money and EFFORT nave
been expended the work has been COM
paratively superficial and the extent |
Of the ore bodies in depth had not
been satisfactorily answered. In 1900
six companies were prosecuting work
and some prospecting work was IN
up to 1906 no producing mine had
been developed. Numerous stock COM
panies have been formed to acquire
and work such properties, and both
local and OutSlue luNcSSoiS nave ANA
nished considerable sums of money
for development purposes.
The presence of copper in the Blue
Ridge country of Virginia has been
known for centuries. but as in the
case of the gold fields of the Potomac |
valley, few persons are believed TO
have made a fortune in getting the
metal out of the ground.
Prof W. b. Rogers, who was state |
peologist of Virginia from 1885 TO |
1s4I, whose labors and studies covered |,
many more years than those included
between the dates given and whose !
books on Virginia geology are still
standard. devoted some work and study |
to the copper deposits OF the state, !
and from the many pages which that |
distinguished geologist wrote on the |
subject the following remarks are ex-
tracted:
In many parts OF the Blue Ridge. in the |
neI-hhnriro1d Of the transverse belt whose gen !
eral characters | am describing, virgin copper |
,nd the green carbonate have been discovered !
ia Thin veins and small masses In the BODY OF
nuartzoze and cpidotic rock. In the neishbor.
hess Of stony Man, of the loftiest ano |
widest peaks of this range. near swift Kun
gar and at several other points. small sIeci- |
mems have been picked up and their richness