Made in Appalachia: Beyond Cabins, Crafts, and Coal

Beyond coal, Appalachia is the source of a great variety of other mineral resources. The geologic processes that created these mountains produced many kinds of rock. People have found many different uses for these minerals, but extracting them from the landscape exacts a heavy toll on the people and the environment. Learning geology is key to understanding Appalachian mineral resources. Mining engineers use geology to find the resources and plan for their extraction.  Citizens need to understand geology to help decide the best ways to use (or not) these resources.

[Accession 2014.1.29]

From Spruce Pine District, North Carolina

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From north Georgia

Granite is an important building stone quarried in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.  It is crushed into gravel and cut into blocks.

[Accession 2013.33.1]

Quarried in Kentucky

Limestone is a sedimentary rock and is one of the most common rocks on earth.  It is quarried and shaped for building, crushed for gravel,  and used for making cement.

Limestone is abundant across Appalachia from northern Alabama to Pennsylvania. Historically it was very important for making millstones and fences. Now it is primarily a construction stone ground into gravel and riprap in sizes ranging from peas to refrigerators and cut into dimensioned stone. Cement is made from limestone as are some fertilizers.

Millstones from Clay City, Kentucky

[Accession 2014.1.4]

Creole Marble Specimen

Quarried in Pickens County, Georgia

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Fragment of Marble Baseboard (1928)

Quarried in north Georgia

Marble is a metamorphic rock, limestone changed by heat and pressure. Creole marble is the white and black variety found in Georgia and North Carolina. It has been used extensively on buildings and monuments in the U.S. 

Marble is a building stone used in some of the best known monuments and public buildings. Most of the marble used in the  U.S. comes from a small area of north Georgia. Native peoples used marble from natural outcroppings. In the mid-1800s a few small quarries and isolated stone masons made monuments. When a railroad line reached the area in 1883, large scale quarrying began, marble finishing factories were built in nearby cities, and marble building stone began shipping in quantity.

Georgia Marble Quarry, Tate, Georgia, ca. 1990

Georgia marble has been used on many well known structures, such as the U.S. Capitol Building and the Lincoln Memorial.  

The Lincoln Memorial is built from north Georgia marble

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Quarried in the Spruce Pine Mineral District, North Carolina

It can sell for $50,000 a ton.

Spruce Pine quartz has played a role in the manufacturing of integrated circuit chips, like the ones on on this board.  Spruce Pine quartz could have played a part in its manufacture. In 2009, the BBC reported that every computer chip in the world used Spruce Pine quartz in the manufacturing process.

[Accession 2014.1.40]

From Spruce Pine District, North Carolina

Made by Carr China Co. in Grafton, West Virginia

This mug likely includes Spruce Pine feldspar. Large amounts of North Carolina feldspar were sold to West Virginia and Ohio china manufacturers.

Spruce Pine District, North Carolina

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Sheet Mica Specimen

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Crushed Mica Sample

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Water Ground Mica Sample

Spackling Paste used for patching drywall and plaster, includes ground mica.

Heating Element

Made of sheet mica, Selected for its heat resistance

In 2009 the BBC reported that every computer chip in the world used Spruce Pine quartz in the manufacturing process. The Spruce Pine Mining District, 10 miles wide and 25 miles long, stretches through Mitchell, Avery, and Yancey Counties in North Carolina. Since ancient times this small area has been an important part of the world economy as the source of specialty minerals of unusual quantity and quality.

Mica mine near Bakersville, North Carolina, ca. 1880

Mineral processing facility, ca. 1970

Decorative stones from the area were known to native peoples and are found in archeological sites across North America. Feldspar and kaolin may have been mined by the Cherokee and shipped to British ceramic factories in the early 1700s. Mica became important in the early 1800s for its heat resistance properties and even more important in the mid-1800s for its electrical properties. Quartz was once a waste product of mica and feldspar mining, but the extreme purity of Spruce Pine quartz lends itself to modern electronics products.

City of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, ca. 2010

Open pit mine near Spruce Pine, ca. 2010