This week's meme for Sepia Saturday is "down." There are some mines still in these southern Appalachian mountains.
From our own History Museum in Black Mountain, we can see this plaque and some local boulders:
Western North Carolina's rich geologic history is as dramatic as its topography.
Geologic events beginning over one billion years ago influenced the type and structure of rock that formed, guiding where mountains, valleys, streams and rivers developed. Take a look at the first rock in our garden, which was mined right here in Buncombe County; it's not every day you can touch something that's a billion years old!
Western North Carolina's mountains consist mostly of igneous rock (cooled, molten material) such as granite, sedimentary rock (formed in bodies of water) such as sandstone, and metamorphic rock (formed under heat and pressure) such as gneiss.
Approximately 270 million years ago, North America and Africa collided, pushing up the Blue Ridge Mountains that surround us. At that time our mountains were among the highest in the world - as high as the Rockies are now - over 12,000 feet in elevation.
Today, due to hundreds of millions of years of erosion, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River, Mount Mitchell, is "just" 6,684 feet high. Mount Mitchel is located 10 miles to the north."
Go to the town of Spruce Pine and the remains of a booming railroad connection to the mines is evident. Unfortunately, whenever I go to Spruce Pine, it's to see the pottery show once a year, which is really grand.
But there is a rock museum nearby, right at the junction from the Blue Ridge Parkway that leads into town.
Let's look at some of my old posts from it!
Now to the Mineral Museum...
The kaolin mine in North Carolina was mined out by Wedgwood, and potters get their clay material from other mines now. Incidentally, our manufactured clay is mixed based on percentages of each mineral, but if a mine stops producing and the clay is mixed with different materials from a new source, it often has different results in the firing. Recently our community pottery studio had trouble with some glazes which used the same forumulas (recipes) but the source of some of the minerals had changed.
And thanks to Sepia Saturday for triggering thoughts of minerals and mines! Come visit other Sepians, or join us by linking with something you want to share!
Today's quote:
To love, my brothers and sisters, does not mean we have to agree. But maybe agreeing to love is the greatest agreement. And the only one that ultimately matters, because it makes a future possible. |
MICHAEL B. CURRY |
Hello,
ReplyDeleteThe rick museum looks interesting. Take care, have a happy weekend.
I could look at the rocks, say their names, and still forget them a minute, a second later. Seems to be a blind spot in my brain!
DeleteI would enjoy that museum.
ReplyDeleteI am sure you would. Small as it is, it does pack a lot of information.
Delete..mining, what a horrible way to earn a living.
ReplyDeleteYes, but it put food on the table for many families. We often forget that so many products we use depend upon those minerals. Coal now, another topic.
DeleteGeoloogy is fascinating, but I only know the very basics. I do have a 200 million year old fossilized trilobite on the shelves next to me.
ReplyDeleteCool to hear about your 200 M. old trilobite. They are amazing creatures!
DeleteI love living amid these more than ancient mountains.
ReplyDeleteThey do have lots of secrets, don't they!
DeleteI never knew that's what wedgewood was! Very interesting. I wonder if people are still making pottery with that type of clay.
ReplyDeleteThere are sources of Kaolin, the clay which formed the little white forms. Yes, Wedgewood is still in existence I think.
DeleteIn last week's "Up" prompt I spoke of sea shells embedded in the soil at the top of 3557 ft. Mount Diablo which, of course, is an indication that the mountain was once under the ocean. A weird thought, but the evidence is right there to see. Likewise, we have a 'mountain' in the area of the town where I live called "Table Mountain" because it is flat on top. Its elevation is only 1919 ft. but to look at it and know what it once was is kind of amazing. It was once a river! Eons ago a volcano erupted sending lava flowing into the river displacing all the water. Gradually over time, the softer soil around the hardened lava wore away leaving a long flat snaking mountain in place with gold underneath! Much of it has been mined by now, but some is still found.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun geological stories! I enjoyed hearing all about them. That I can remember!!
DeleteThis post brings up a memory fragment for me of way back in the past having had (or at least having handled) a small blue-and-white item like that - if not Wedgwood I think at least from Staffordshire. The annoying thing is I can't recall properly what it was, nor what happened to it (if it was ever mine). I had a penpal in Staffordshire in my teens though, and even visited her once on a family holiday travelling in Britain back in 1971...
ReplyDeleteThis is a great spin on our Sepia theme. The connection of Cherokee clay to English china is fascinating history. For many years I lived on the Atlantic coast and my only understanding of geology came from sand and silt. One Saturday in May while I was in college and living at home I realized that the next day was Mother's Day. I decided that the best (that is cheapest/easiest) gift for my mom would be big rocks for her garden. So I got in my truck and drove westward from Virginia Beach in search of free rocks. I had little sense of geography too and it took all day to reach the mountains, which I naively thought would have lots of rocks lying around. This was not the case though eventually I came across a building site on a twisty mountain road somewhere near Galax, Virginia, collected a modest heap of grey melon sized "rocks", and drove home to present them to my mom. Like any good mother, she pretended to like them and arranged them around the conch shells and drift wood that lined her flower garden. However within a few weeks after some heavy rain, we discovered that what I brought back was not stones but a type of Schist rock, essentially dirt clods that easily dissolved into our sandy soil. Now since living in Asheville my knowledge of geology has somewhat improved!
ReplyDeleteAn interesting take on the theme of “Down” . The reference to Wedgewood pottery surprise me, as I knew of no American connection. I have always thought of them quintessentially English.
ReplyDelete