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Buck Creek Mining Corundum Knob 2024 - Page 1 Clay County, NC |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2024) |
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Buck Creek Mining Corundum Knob 2024 - Page 1 Clay County, NC |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2024) |
| Over the years, I have explored many of the remains of the various Buck Creek corundum mining operations. I had only photographed a few of the cuts on Corundum Knob, so I spent several days roaming around the area in January and February 2024. All of the works on the Knob are surface cuts; I found a few places where they started following a vein underground, but there are no tunnels to speak of. Most of the ore cuts (and their associated veins and dikes) here were named for individuals. Details of the early mining here are scanty, but many of these veins and cuts bore the surnames of local men who owned, leased, or worked the mines. The Cat-Eye Cut: |
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| Cat-Eye cut, all overgrown The Cat-Eye cut was the source of fine specimens of coarse white corundum with intense blue colors. Some was in the form of radiating blue and white plates, known locally as cat-eye corundum, and much sought for gems. |
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| Members of the Hosea Moses family, who'd mined on Ellijay Creek, a few miles north of Corundum Hill in Macon County, expanded their operations to Corundum Knob when the area opened up. The Moses 1 Cut: |
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| Approaching the Moses 1 cut from the lower end |
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| Dike cutting through the Moses 1 cut |
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| Excavated hole in Moses 1 vein |
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| Brush-filled cut at opposite (west) end of Moses 1 cut |
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| The Moses 2 Cut: |
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| One end of the Moses 2 cut |
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| Center section of Moses 2 cut as it goes over the Knob |
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| Moses 2 cut |
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| Opposite end of the Moses 2 cut |
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| The Moses 3 Cut: |
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| Moses 3 cut |
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| Moses 3 cut, further along... |
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| View into Moses 3 cut from upper rim, near center of cut |
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| Moses 3 cut |
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| Far (west) end of the Moses 3 cut |
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| The Moses 4 Cut: |
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| East end of the Moses 4 cut |
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| Moses 4 cut |
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| Iron pipe in the Moses 4 cut |
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| West end of the Moses 4 cut |
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| Old Man Tree |
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| Against all rules, somewhat had actually carried a powered rock saw up here and cut chunks out of some boulders. |
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| And even worse, the a**holes just discarded their empty water containers (used for cooling the saw). Talk about sorry POS's! They carried full containers of water up there but couldn't be bothered to carry out the empties. Morons like this ruin the outdoors for everyone else! |
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| I found two folks named Basco (Basco Ledford & Basco Reynolds) who lived in the Shooting Creek area in the late 1800s. I don't know if they were associated with these cuts or not. I couldn't find a Basco surname in the area... The Basco 1 Cut: |
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| West end of the Basco 1 cut |
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| Basco 1 cut Assays of the corundum bearing amphibolite in the Moses and Casco cuts, performed by the Bureau of Mines in 1945, showed an average percent corundum of 5.8% in these cuts. |
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| Basco 1 cut |
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| Basco 1 cut |
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| The Basco 2 Cut: |
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| View down the Basco 2 cut |
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| Looking up the Basco 2 cut |
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| View from the bottom of the Basco 2 cut |