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 |
