14 HISTORY OF THE GEMS FOUND IN NORTH CAEOLINA.
Possibly the Indians may have employed fragments of corundum in executing these designs on the rock (?).
This
first recognition, far to the west, was soon followed by some on the
eastern side of the Blue Eidge. In 1852, Prof. R. T. Brumby, of the
College of South Carolina, collected specimens of corundum at Clubb
(now Chubb) Mountain, in Gaston County, and placed them in the cabinet
of the College, where they still remain, with Professor Brumby's dated
labels. They are rough crystals and crystalline masses, of dark blue
color, covered with the micaceous alteration-products so frequently
present; but they have high interest in being perhaps the first North
Carolina specimens to be determined, labeled, and placed in a public
collection. About the same time Dr. C. L. Hunter discovered corundum in
Gaston County, perhaps at the same locality, and Professor Emmons
referred to it in his report on the midland counties of North Carolina
in 1853.12 The
Civil War began soon after, putting a stop to further research, and it
was not until its close that investigations were resumed.
Eev.
C. D. Smith, of Franklin, N. C, who in his former position on the State
Geological Survey, had become very familiar with the minerals of the
State, now discovered most of the important localities in North
Carolina. In 1865 a specimen was brought to him from a point west of
the Blue Ridge, which he recognized as corundum; he visited the
locality, collected specimens, and announced the occurrence. This was
the origin of the mining industry now so valuable. These discoveries
led to further exploration, and many localities were found in the same
region, which have since been more or less developed.
In
1870, Mr. Smith sketched the corundum belt of North Carolina, as
running in a southwesterly course across Macon County, where it strikes
the Georgia State line, its general direction coinciding with the trend
of the Blue Bidge, until it reaches the head of the Tennessee River,
when it suddenly ceases on encountering the Nantahala Mountain (a spur
of the Blue Ridge here running due north), to reappear 10 miles to the
northwest on Buck Creek, whence it pursues its original course of
northeast and southwest across the Chunkygal mountains, where it again
enters the Blue Ridge. Later investigation has revealed a more extended
belt.
Two of the localities in this region have been much the more prominent,—those at Corundum Hill and Buck Creek.
With
the opening of the Culsagee (Cullasagee, or Cullasaja) mine, on
Corundum Hill, near Franklin, Macon County, by Mr. C. W. Jenks, in
