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Local prospector Doug Emerson demonstrates panning for gold in a creek at Old Fort during the annual North Carolina Gold Festival on June 4. Daily Planet Staff Photo

By JOHN NORTH

OLD FORT —  Under the blazing sun on June 4, prospector Doug Emerson was in his element, demonstrating the use of a pan and a sluice in searching for gold, during the last day of the two-day annual North Carolina Gold Festival on the Mountain Gateway Museum grounds.

“The snakes outweigh the gold,” he quipped. “I got four snakes — and three (small) pieces of gold.” The snakes were just harmless water snakes, which he released from his dredge. Emerson expressed mild exasperation at his meager production at the festival, despite being positioned in a less-than-promising small creek.

Emerson, who lives behind the now-closed Lucky Strike Mines near Vein Mountain on the outskirts of Marion in McDowell County, said he prospects for gold for recreation.

“I started back in 1979” as recreation. “I found I could work it and make some money ... Four or five years ago, we got back in on a small scale, panning, and then I got a dredge.”

“North Carolina gold runs better” than that of many states, averaging between 19 to 21 karats, he said. “Georgia’s got some of the prettiest gold,” averaging 21 to 22-plus karats — even to 24 karats.

“Normally, small pieces (of gold) come up from the top. You can used liquid soap,” such as Jet Dry dishwashing detergent, “when you’re doing real fine stuff.”

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This vial holds about $300 worth small nuggets of gold, based on the weekend’s $1,542.40 spot price.

He told of buying a dredge with a trailer on which to haul it for $3,000 cash, which normally would cost $10,000 to $12,000.

“I’m not in this to make money,” Emerson told the Daily Planet. “Here, in North Carolina, it’s more recreational” prospecting.

One of his frustrations is that, “in the ‘70s, it was more of a good-ol’ boys’ thing,  leaving (beer) cans (and other trash) everywhere” around prospecting sites.

As a result, landowners with rivers or creeks running through their properties are more cautious about letting prospectors work their land. “Now, people say ‘no’” frequently,” even when more environmentally aware prospectors ask for permission to pan or dredge for gold.

What’s more, “Once you come in and start finding gold, people (property-owners)” get excited and ask prospectors to leave “and they check (for gold) themselves ... Gold’s funny,” especially its effect on people.

In sharing tips on how to get the best results from panning and dredging, Emerson said, “In a river, gold goes to the place of least resistance” — the inside bend.

Emerson belongs to the Vein Mountain Recreational Miners Club, based in Marion, and his wife Kathy proudly displays a bezel filled with the first gold her husband obtained using his new dredge at the Lucky Strike mining area.
On a separate note, he pointed out that the Suntrust bank in Graham was built atop a former gold mine. “I went down (to the bank) and asked if I could dig down through their basement,” but was turned down by amused bank officials. “It was kind of funny” for everyone, when he told the bankers of their golden location.

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A more experienced panner demonstrates his technique for a beginner (wearing cap).

Meanwhile Liz McCormick, owner-manager of The Miners Diner in Marion, caters to the miners, noting, “I’m like Levi.” (Her reference was to Levi Strauss, maker of the famous blue jeans.)

During the California gold rush, “the miners didn’t necessarily make wages,” McCormick said, but the people selling the blue jeans and other necessities” to the miners profited, often tremendously.

In 1992, “I wanted somewhere to make baloney sandwiches,” McCormick quipped, whereupon she found a site near the gold miners. Some enterprising friends moved a small electrical building from the mining area, so that McCormick could open a diner. With pride, she noted that she has expanded twice since opening.

When running the restaurant, “I’m always amazed when some of the miners bring out their ‘brag boxes,’” filled with nuggets of gold, she said.

However, “if you ask them how they did,” prospectors on any particular day will say, “‘Actually, it’s been slow.’” She likened the situation with miners to that of an angler with a good fishing hole, where the latter does not want anyone else to know about it.

Besides providing meals at her diner, McCormick said she sells products that are handy to gold prospectors and it serves as “the home of the miners club.”

Perhaps the most bizarre items she sells are “buckets of dirt,” taken from the Lucky Strike fields. She charges $10 per bucket. Customers buy the dirt, hoping to find gold and gemstones in it. McCormick noted that her husband, who used to be in commercial mining, was paid $20 per truckload of dirt for many years.

Among the fare at The Miners Diner are appropriately named items, such as Bonanza Burger, Klondyke Dog, Burro Steak, Golden Nuggets (french fries), Golden Rings (onion rings), Sluice Juice (iced tea) and Miners Mud (coffee).
Elsewhere at the festival, mining expert John Dysart was asked by Charlotte architect John Phares why he thinks the price of gold has jumped lately.

“The price of gold hasn’t changed” for years, Dysart replied. “It’s the drop in the value of the U.S. dollar” that is reflected in the jump in gold prices.

In 1992, the last gold mining operation in North Carolina closed, he noted. “Charlotte had 87 gold mines,” at one time. “Literally, the streets of Charlotte are paved with gold,” particularly Trade, Tryon and Church streets, he said, pointing out that the foundations of the streets were made from material from the gold mines.

 “There’s a honeycomb of tunnels beneath the streets, where a gold mine used to be located,” Dysart said.

“Charlotte’s the second largest financial district in the country because of gold,” which has been found in the area for years.

Mike Hargett, whose father was superintendent of Wolverine Mining Co. in Rutherford County, now works for the U.S. government in technology innovation, but has much knowledge and many memories from growing up amid the mining business.

“My family actually owned the property,” Hargett said. “These mountains are made of what is know as ‘soft rock’ and they don’t hold up tunnels without lots of timbers for support.

“One of the real hazards of our area (of Rutherford) is we had all these pits across the land, which could be dangerous for people. “We’d fill them up with dirt,” every chance they had, he said.

Hargett claimed that “up until 1949, “this area produced more ounces of gold than anywhere else in the world.”

He said it all started in the 1540s, when the Spanish explorers built three forts in the Southeast. “Those forts were temporary garrisons,” set up to protect the area’s gold-laden territory on behalf of Spain.However, “Spain lost this area to England.”

“Queen Elizabeth was very adamant about wanting” the gold area, which spanned from Georgia through the Carolinas. The British determined that the area was rich in gold because the settlers “used gold for barter,” while those in other colonies did not, Hargett said.

“Old Fort, in 1775, was the settlement farthest west in North Carolina” and in the American colonies, he said.
“This area was not significant for agriculture,” so when British Gen. George Cornwallis, commander of the southern campaign for the British Army in the American colonies, “was given orders to defeat the Colonial troops, he asked King George III why he wanted the Carolinas,” not seeing much value there.

“The king said he wanted the wine and gold” from the Carolinas. (Hargett said scuppernong wine, produced in the Carolinas’ coastal areas, was extremely popular among the British at the time.)

“This area evolved as a major textile area” in the world, Hargett noted. For those who “weren’t making enough in agricultural operations, that’s when they turned to gold mining,” he said.

“With the tools and techniques available at that time, gold mining was hard,” Hargett said. “In the summer, you’d farm. In the winter, when you couldn’t find something more productive to do, you’d mine for gold” to make money to cover expenses during the cold-weather months.

“California was mined out fairly quickly,” Hargett noted. “It was over in 10 years.” (Wikipedia reported that the California gold rush lasted from 1848 to 1855.) About 80,000 people from around the world crushed into California during the gold rush, Hargett claimed.

At the time when gold was first found at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, Calif., North Carolina was the top gold-producing state in the U.S. Some sources say that many North Carolina prospectors immediately dropped their shovels and moved to California, as gold fever struck Americans hard.

To the contrary, Hargett said that the aformentioned characterization, while popular, is erroneous. “The mining rights (in North Carolina) were consumed and calibrated,” well before California’s gold rush.

With property, family and other responsibilities, most Tar Heel State prospectors were not in a position to drop their shovels — and their claims — to move West, Hargett contended. “Those small miners wouldn’t have left because they had mineral rights and property.”

Agreeing with Hargett’s assessment, Dysart said North Carolina gold was more pure than California’s, with the former averaging 98 percent pure and the latter, 94 percent.

Hargett noted that his grandfather sold mining rights to wealthy Northerners at a large profit for many years, joking that “that’s the reason we’ve got so many damn Yankees” in North Carolina today.

In 1896, the Alaska gold rush began and a near-repeat of the California gold rush ensued, the two experts said.
Neither Dysart nor Hargett knew of any prospector in North Carolina who is able to make a living from panning or dredging, even with gold selling at more than a whopping $1,500 per ounce. Dysart said one might do better mining for gemstones, noting that nearby Spruce Pine “is the breadbox of America as far as gems and gold go.”

Dysart and Hargett noted that dredging is much faster than panning, but ultimately, even with a dredge, one must pan for gold.

“The guy who made the most money from mining in Alaska was the guy running the store” near the miners, Dysart said. The same was the case in California because, in both cases, a prospector had to begin by buying a “grubstake” — everything needed to mine for gold, he asserted.

On second thought, Dysart said with a laugh, “The guy counting the money was the guy making the most money.”
More seriously, Dysart said, “I think a lot of (North Carolina) miners became moonshiners,” which proved much more profitable for them than prospecting for gold.