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The Davenport Cuts Corundum Mining Operations at Buck Creek Clay Co., NC - November 2024 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2024) |
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The Davenport Cuts Corundum Mining Operations at Buck Creek Clay Co., NC - November 2024 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2024) |
| In October, I was examining LIDAR imagery in the general Buck Creek area when I noticed an unusual indication. It vaguely looked like it might be from mining activity, but it was odd-shaped, and some distance from the other corundum mining sites. Once the leaves had fallen off the trees, I checked it out. Sure enough, it was another mining operation, with four mostly slumped shafts, a long trench, and numerous smaller prospect pits. I haven't found any documentation of this site, but it's another piece of the rich mining history of the area. |
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| The LIDAR indication that got my curiosity up... |
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| Climbing to a hill-top, I looked down on Pit-Shaft 1. |
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| Pit-Shaft 1 from the opposite side |
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| View down on Pit-Shaft 2 |
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| Pit-Shaft 2 from the other side |
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| Pit-Shaft 3 |
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| Pit-Shaft 3 from the other side |
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| Pit-Shaft 4, the largest of the now collapsed shafts |
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| Pit-Shaft 4, from the opposite side On the right can be seen the trench that enters this pit from downhill. |
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| Pit-Shaft 4 at left; at right is the trench that intersects the pit-shaft |
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| Pit-Shaft 4 from the inside, standing where the trench intersects the pit-shaft. |
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| The trench that runs up the hill and ends at Pit-Shaft 4. |
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| One of the waste-piles dug out of Pit-Shaft 4. |