THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
“There’s
gold in them thar hills!” The cry is not
too grammatically correct, but
that early pronouncement of prospectors reverberated through the hills
and
hollows of
The most famous of the gold mines and
the one that operated with a business-like setup was known as the Coosa
Mine at
Coosa Creek. It is reported that more
than $2 million dollars in gold was mined there. Another
report deals with the pure quality of
the gold ore. It is said that the
assayers in Washington, D. C. could tell by looking that gold ore was
from the
Coosa Mines because it was “the yellowest gold” submitted and its
brilliant
color set it apart.
In addition to the Coosa Mining
operations, placer mines were located at Wellborn Mountain, in the
Gumlog
District, at Bowers Cove and in Owltown.
Stories abound about James Bly Nix and his brother John who
found a rich
vein of gold in the Choestoe District.
This latter lode’s location still remains a mystery.
Two brothers, William Franklin (called
Frank) and Zed Summerour, mining engineers, played an important role in
Union
County gold mining operations beginning in the early 1900’s. Some of the mines they plumbed can still be
located on land lots 85-87, 93-95, 124, 129 and
130 at Coosa Creek about four miles south of Blairsville. Another operated by the Summerour brothers
was at Gold Mine Knob south of Owltown Gap.
The miners referred to this location as “Hooter Gap” because of
the
prevalence of owls whose loud hoots punctuated the nighttime stillness.
Frank Summerour (1876-1940) was
proficient as a machinist and builder.
He operated a grist mill and sawmill on Coosa Creek. In the early 1930’s he set up a generator
system that supplied electricity from water power for his family’s
residence. The sawmill provided the
lumber needed for shoring up the mines and building the mining camps
where men
boarded.
The stamp mill Frank Summerour
operated at Coosa Creek separated the gold from the ore.
Loads of ore were hauled by mule teams from
the various placer mines in Coosa, Wellborn Mountain and other outlying
mines.
Mining settlements sprang up. A man
named Herschel Summerlin built mining
camps at Coosa Creek and at Owltown about 1912.
The mining settlement had a saloon operated by a woman known as
“Ma”
Mulkey. She demanded that payment for
the spirits purchased be made in gold.
Frank Summerour’s expertise as a
machinist helped him to fashion the first steam engine in the county. The steam shovel operated by this engine was
used in mining operations.
Mr. Summerour sold the stamp mill in
November, 1926 to Mr. J. C. McGeehee.
Following his tenure at the Union County gold mines, Mr.
Summerour mined
at Auraria in Lumpkin County. There
in
seven days at the Battle Branch Mine, his ore assayed at 22 pounds, 12
and 4/5
ounces.
A meticulous record-keeper and
diarist, Mr. Summerour wrote copious notes of his work in gold mining,
carpentry and engineering. The wealth of
information from his pen was lost to posterity when rats found the
papers
stored in a shed, chewed them, and made beds of the scraps. Thus was lost some important primary source
history of the fabulous era of Union County’s gold mining.
An afterword: In October,
1993, the area of Coosa Mines
was opened to visitors. My husband
Grover and I toured the site and saw one of the old mines and Coosa
Creek where
Mr. Summerour’s stamp mill operated. As
with all important historical sites, I felt an affinity with the past
and to
the ingeniousness of an early Union County engineer whose daughter,
Kathryn
Summerour Batchelor, was a wonderful classmate of mine in the Class of
1947 at
Union County High School. “More’s the pity” (to use an old mountain
saying)
that I did not know then how important her father was to the early
industry of
Union County.
[Sources: I
am indebted to the following sources for
information for this column: The Heritage of Union County, 1832-1994,
pages 57 and 296; Mountain Relic, Spring, 1980, pages 38-40; and
Sketches of Union County History, 1976, page 40.]
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Updated October
4, 2008
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