Carter County Ore

[The_Frontiersman]

Curtis - Boomer,

Have either of you ever had a chance to obtain any silver-ore samples from any of the mines located in Carter County? Just wondering, if so has any of it been tested for quality?

Frontiersman

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[boomer]

working for the railroad, we had old time blacksmiths that could do anything with metal. i would take samples to them and they would melt or has they would say boil out. after that i would take it to the jewelry store and they would test it for purity. i use an old idea i found in a book on early mining, take a pound of ore and melt it out. the book said miners would use a small scale to check the ounces per pound of rock and this would give them the amount per ton. all the samples that were tested had silver, iron, zinc and lead. the best silver ore came from lewis county and it was laying on the ground on a branch of kinny creek called silver run. no cave, rockhouse or mine opening. this had an ounce to the pound. but where. we crawled over every inch of that ridge, nothing. only two thing it could be, it was dropped off a load or it was planted there.

[truckinbutch]

working for the railroad, we had old time blacksmiths that could do anything with metal. i would take samples to them and they would melt or has they would say boil out. after that i would take it to the jewelry store and they would test it for purity. i use an old idea i found in a book on early mining, take a pound of ore and melt it out. the book said miners would use a small scale to check the ounces per pound of rock and this would give them the amount per ton. all the samples that were tested had silver, iron, zinc and lead. the best silver ore came from lewis county and it was laying on the ground on a branch of kinny creek called silver run. no cave, rockhouse or mine opening. this had an ounce to the pound. but where. we crawled over every inch of that ridge, nothing. only two thing it could be, it was dropped off a load or it was planted there.

Gotta be as frustrating as me holding a fiddle and bow : I know there's music in there ; I just can't get it out

[boomer]

Butch, this ore has had me wondering for a long time. who? la kane, waite, sprinkle or Shawnee. those are the most famous for mining on the greenup/carter county area. i believe that there were several small operations going on. with la kane, he had several people helping out, so a poor ore can become a big prize. waite took his ore across the ohio river to smelter it and of course he had help. the indians? this leaves sprinkle he was a hermit and worked alone, he was vary secretive and looking at him, he would leave ore out like that. this way you would be looking in the wrong area. if he did find an outcrop of silver and working alone, it had to be rich for the amount of dollars made. i can just see him making the coins and putting them in a safe place. but where?

[Curtis]

Boomer,

Did you just arbitrarily pick up some ore or was there something that gave you a clue to it being ore?

Can you pinpoint the place it was on the creek? If we checked that location plus where the old silver mine that was someplace up Kinney(an old gentleman came out of there once and died after having worked the mine for some years, they found great silver ore on him,...Jesse Stewart wrote about it as being a true story...cant seem to find it again.

That find, the older gentleman's, and any other finds could all be put on a a large map and I am sure something would pop out to us. I can make us a map any size up to 42 x 72 by blowing up topos but they pixelate too bad that size. I am working on using .jpg files so they can be enlarged. I'll bring one to the meeting and we can put push pins in it and compare notes with anyone who wants to participate.

[boomer]

Curtis: we were following an old path and stopped on the ridge. one had an old detector and was fiddling with the knobs and it sounded off. the ore had been there a long time. now that i think about it. the pile was laying between two trees. we almost passed the place. were they using the path or was it a setup. the maps have been e-mailed.

[Curtis]

Frontiersman,

Sorry but after reading your question again I guess I didn't answere...got too interested in Boomers posted reply. I do not have samples of the ores in Carter county as I had not been looking there until recently(Boomer however has found some). The Elliott county silver mines are buried and I did not want to disturb the ground until I had the last one found...like most treasure hunters I have started a book on the mines and how I found them. Mason supplied the location of the last one..guess we had walked right by it (this was before I started using the element detector). So, no, I do not have samples. Will have some when I tell the farmer what is on his land, I am sure he will let me dig. I think the sample will be pretty good, as the Indian who wrote the Waybill says about the one on the farmers land"it is the richest mine the Indians ever saw". My device shows a silver rich area about 8 feet underground that goes at least 40 feet wide and over 100 feet long. The Indians did the strip mining type work there, not shoring it up with timbers like the English, French, Spanish do. The Indian mentions one of the mines has a vein 2 inches thick at the bottom of a 35 foot deep pit...but that is not the richest one so I look for this one to be a lot thicker vein. Its real close to some weird volcanic structure so the location makes sense for silver to be there. I had originally thought these were Swift's mines too, but now I am doubting it...I think Swifts are near the Carter Caves area.