Gold In Alabama The Tallapoosa New Era 1 July 1887
GOLD IN ALABAMA
Valuable Discoveries as Shown by the Assays
The Mining Camps in the Coosa Valley.
A Field Largely Worked Before the California Fever – The Advantages of Present Methods
The Tallapoosa New Era
21 July 1887 Page 2
(Part 1 of 2)
Alabama must have more natural resources than any other state in the union. Nearly every day there is discovered some new source of wealth in the rich and fertile hills and valleys.
It is not generally known, but long before gold was discovered in California there were mines in Alabama which paid handsomely. Then the methods of mining were rude and crude. A pick, pan and mortar were the only implements used in those days, but tremendous profits were made. In Tallapoosa county, in the Coosa valley, there is said to be a stretch of country which has millions of dollars worth of gold and other minerals in its rock. That section is exciting considerable interest. Many mining experts have visited that section recently and pronounce the outlook to be very encouraging.
Major W.E. Horn, than whom there is no man in the world that knows more about mines and mining, writes the following to the New Orleans Times-Democrat:
Alexander City, Ala., June 20, 1887.
–My last letter was from the Coosa river, where for the first time in the history of Alabama a mining camp had been established, and an assayer, with his outfit, located on the grounds, ready to make from time to time an analysis of the ores.
This camp was located at the extreme southern point of the gold belt, which runs through Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, but increasing in mineral volume, with veins and lodes more intact and freer from faults, in the southern part of Georgia and Alabama.
Here some time since the Times-Democrat published a description of the gold field of Abercouchee, above which rises Turkey Heaven, the highest point in the belt, and alike conspicuous with Hog Mountain in Tallapoosa county, both for volume of gold and for altitude.
Pike’s Peak and Shasta Butte were prominent land-markers in the early California days, and from them the western miner took his bearings; and so it will be here in these new fields and recent discoveries of gold in Alabama, with Turkey Heaven and Hog Mountain. They both rise high above the divides, flanked by veins of gold, and are formed, in fact, by large outcrops of both gash and fissure veins, with chimneys of free milling gold ores, which assay from $8 to $40.
It is no longer an open question as to the value and volume of the gold ores in Alabama, and they may be true of Georgia and a portion of North Carolina.
Your correspondent has just returned from Virginia City and Gold Hill, Nev., where he had assays of Alabama ores made by Mr. James, of the Gold Hill assay office. These assays represent the average free milling gold ore from different veins at Hog Mountain, in Tallapoosa County:
On the surface of this mountain there is at least 50,000 tons of similar ores. This property gives promise of millions. These veins are true fissures, and form, taken as a whole, a gold belt with inviting prospects throughout their entire length, reaching into Georgia.