lost diamond mine

[mcb]

A friend of mine is from WV and shared a story that's been told in his family for years. He's in his twenties. Basically his great uncle was hiking around the mountains and fell in a hole. He found that he was surrounded by diamonds. He did take what he could and planned to go back but couldn't find it again. I researched the location out of curiosity but with no intention of trying to find it. I can't remember the name of the town the mine is near but do remember the town was nicknamed after having a massive fire decades ago that kept burning. I'll update the name of the town as soon as I talk to him again. As for now I just want to share and see if anyone else has heard about this?

 

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[mcb]

It sounded like it was a family story but he tells people like its no big deal. I thought is was an interesting story. Occasionally the fam and I go to wheeling but the town with the mine was too far to even consider. I've been considering contacting a story teller in WV and running it by her to see if she's familiar. I'd love to see if anyone could put a little more fact into the story or even stumble upon the mine.

 

[wvwildman]

Gems and Gemstones: Appalachian Diamonds

 

[lgadbois]

There are no recorded instances of diamonds being found in West Virginia. The geology is not right for diamonds.

Herkimer diamonds, which are a double terminated quartz crystal, have been found in West Virginia.

 

[mcb]

I agree after researching mining I couldn't find anything.

 

[allen_idaho]

There are no recorded instances of diamonds being found in West Virginia. The geology is not right for diamonds.

Herkimer diamonds, which are a double terminated quartz crystal, have been found in West Virginia.

That is not entirely true. There was a large 34.43 carat diamond known as the "Jones Diamond" found in the southern tip of West Virginia along the Virginia border in 1928. There was another found years later just across the border in Tazewell County, Virginia.

But the original story itself is not very believable. Diamonds are usually found in kimberlite tubes which are normally a bluish clay which were once active volcanic tubes. The idea of falling into a hole in the ground and being surrounded by diamonds is not very realistic.

Also, in West Virginia, there aren't many active coal fires. There is are two which are in the general area that the Jones Diamond was found in. One is in Coal Mountain in Wyoming County. The other is in Elk Creek in Mingo County. Both are coal seam fires which have been burning for years and will continue burning for years. However, I don't believe any town was ever affected by it. The only place that comes to mind in that case would be Centralia, Pennsylvania. But that is quite a ways away from West Virginia.

 

[lgadbois]

"That is not entirely true."

My statement could be interpreted as being entirely true! One diamond is not a quantity of "diamonds."

 

[allen_idaho]

Sure. If you say so.

 

[CreativeAppalachia]

I want to do a story

A friend of mine is from WV and shared a story that's been told in his family for years. He's in his twenties. Basically his great uncle was hiking around the mountains and fell in a hole. He found that he was surrounded by diamonds. He did take what he could and planned to go back but couldn't find it again. I researched the location out of curiosity but with no intention of trying to find it. I can't remember the name of the town the mine is near but do remember the town was nicknamed after having a massive fire decades ago that kept burning. I'll update the name of the town as soon as I talk to him again. As for now I just want to share and see if anyone else has heard about this?

I am working with an upstart magazine yet to launch, and would love to tell this family story --whether true or not-- as a portion of family tradition and storytelling or as a supplemental story to an article about Ronald Bone, a local diamond prospector who is releasing his knowledge upon retirement from the trade. I realize this post is very old, but I'm hoping that if I reach out, somebody with knowledge of how I can contact that family or this poster will eventually be able to help. I can be contacted through email: lissat . 419 @ gmail .com

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Ed Munchausen. The man appears serious, relax.and drnk your coffee mixed with peyote buds.


Jose

 

[huntsman53]

I am thinking that the O.P. is referring to the town of Mount Hope as it was called and known by the name of Phoenix City for many years after being almost completely destroyed and then rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1910 and was said to have risen from the ashes of the fire.


Frank

 

[stefen]

There are any number of old tales of diamonds throughout the continental USA...

I recall reading about one outcrop that was discovered by gold miners tunneling in the Sacramento region...

And a while back, a TN member mentioned an outcrop near the California / Mexico border...

 

[huntsman53]

There are no recorded instances of diamonds being found in West Virginia. The geology is not right for diamonds.

Herkimer diamonds, which are a double terminated quartz crystal, have been found in West Virginia.

Since I already bit on this old Thread, I will chime in on this post!

To counter the statement in bold, I will offer the following facts. While most of the Volcanoes that existed some 100 to 300 million years or more ago East of the Mississippi River were along what is now the Eastern slopes of the Appalachians (mainly along what is now the Blue Ridge), not all of the Volcanic Pipes/Vents came to or near the surface in these areas. It is well known, at least around here, that there is a Kimberlite Pipe (Kimberlite Pipes are known Diamond producing Volcanic Pipes/Vents) on a small island out in the Norris Lake here in Central East Tennessee and in times past, there were Diamonds found there. This Kimberlite Pipe was not always out in the Norris Lake and was once on someone's property before TVA built the dams and flooded the valleys, thus putting much of the Kimberlite Pipe under water. As far as I know and can find out, there were no known Volcanoes anywhere in the vicinity of the Kimberlite Pipe and the closest possibilities of a Volcano (collapsed Calderas) that may have produced this Pipe is along the Tennessee/North Carolina Border and in North Carolina some 70 to 90 miles or more away. Even the Volcano responsible for producing the Kimberlite Pipe at the Crater of Diamonds State Park outside of Murfreesboro, Arkansas was located somewhere around Hot Springs, Arkansas, some 50 miles to the Northeast. It is now known that this Kimberlite Pipe ranges in width from 1 mile up to as much as 3 miles in some locations. Therefore, depending upon how close this town (that the O.P. was referring to) is located to where there were known Volcanoes, it is quite possible that there is a Diamond producing Kimberlite Pipe in that area.


Frank

 

[Oroblanco]

Great posts amigos!

Diamonds are where you find 'em, just like gold in that aspect; there are over 100 known diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes in Wyoming and Colorado for example, where no one expected them to exist. I have seen reports of diamonds found in W. VA too, and it may be a supporting piece of evidence that over 50 diamonds have been found in PA, which is the bordering state to the NE. The diamonds in PA are believed to have been transported by glacial action, but who knows? Heck a partner of ours found a kimberlite pipe in a gold mine in southern CA, which unfortunately only seems to have tiny diamonds but there are no known kimberlite pipes in the whole area even though dozens of diamonds have turned up in gold sluices in CA too.

A diamond bearing kimberlite pipe does not mean it is necessarily a volcano close by, for the kimberlite pipe may be an "outlier" quite some distance from any volcanic activity.

Anyway here is one article (from Wiki) about a somewhat famous diamond found in W. Virginia:
Jones Diamond - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good luck and good hunting amigos, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco