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North Carolina Diamonds
by Roger Grinnell
There have only been
about a dozen diamonds found in the history of North Carolina. The first was found near
Brindleton in 1843 by Dr. M. F.
Stephenson of Gainesville, Georgia at the ford of Brindleton Creek, Burke
County. It was an octahedral crystal valued
at about $100.00.
Another from the
same neighborhood was found by Professor Featherstonhaugh,
while acting as a US
geologist.
The third was
observed in 1846 by General Clingman in D. J. Twitty’s collection having
been found at Twitty’s gold placer mine in Rutherford County.
It was described by Professor Shepard as a distorted hexoctahedron with
curved faces, clear, flawless, and having a yellowish color.
The fourth diamond
was discovered in the spring of 1852 near Cottage Home, Lincoln County and recognized by Dr. C.L. Hunter.
The form was similar to that of diamond number three but more elongated,
greenish in color, transparent, and about a half a carat is size.
In the summer of
1852, the fifth diamond was found in Todd’s branch, Mecklenburg County. It was a perfect white crystal
weighing about a carat. It was later in the collection of Dr. Andrews in Charlotte.
Two diamonds were
found at the Portis Mine, Franklin County, most likely just past the
mid-1850’s. One was said to have been very beautiful. Diamond number
eight was found at Todd’s branch by three persons while panning for
gold. The stone was a beautiful black diamond the size of a small
chinquapin (hazelnut). In their ignorance, believing that it could not
be broken, they smashed it into pieces. Dr. Andrews tested the hardness
of a fragment, which scratched corundum, proving it to have been a
diamond later reporting the story to Dr. Genth according to W. C. Kerr,
author of “Geology of North Carolina” printed in 1875.
In 1877, a small boy
found a diamond in the area of Dysartsville, McDowell County. It weighed 2 3/8 carats and was
described as white, lustrous, but somewhat flawed and of an irregular
flattened form, resembling a bean, with crystal faces obscure. It was
sold to a man in Marion, NC, who put it in
the hands of James M. Gere of Spruce Pine, a buyer of NC mica, who took
it to Syracuse, NY
and sold it to C. M. Ball and Company jewelers for $18.00. It was
finally sent to NY (city) where it was cut and its identity lost.
In 1886, the largest
recorded diamond was found near a spring in Dysartsville, weighing 4.33
carats. The little son of Mr. Grayson Christie, going for water to a
farm spring of Alfred Bright, observed the shinning pebble and brought
it home. A model of it was exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1889. It
was a distorted and twinned hexoctahedron, transparent, with a
grayish-green tint. There is a drawing of it in Kunz, 1907. It has been
reported a couple of other diamonds were found in this same general area
with at least one of them found near the headwaters of Muddy Creek.
In 1893, the last
recorded diamond of the 1800’s was recorded. It was found near King’s
Mountain, Cleveland
County. It was a polished
octahedron, weighing ¾ carat, and of a bright light canary yellow.
From
the information I have there were no recorded diamonds found in the
1900’s in North Carolina.
References: 1.
Grinnell, Roger B. 2004. Geology of
North Carolina. A partial reprint of the book by
W. C. Kerr. 1875. 2. Kunz, George Frederick,
Ph. D. 1907. History of the Gems Found
in North Carolina.
3. Schlegel, Dorothy M. 1957. The Gem Stones of the United States.
New Diamond Found
A
North Carolina diamond was found on June 21st
2008 by Roger B. Grinnell of
Burnsville, NC. I was found while gold panning during the
annual Western Piedmont Mineral and Gem Society of Conover’s annual gold
panning contest at the Lucky Strike Gold Mine at
Vein
Mountain south of Marion, NC.
It is a near perfect octahedron, colorless crystal weighing about
1/6 of a carat. Roger has collected minerals for over 25 years and has
dug at Hiddenite, the opal area of Virgin Valley,
Nevada, Alaska,
Ontario, Northwest
Territories, and the Yukon
in Canada.
The find was immediately identified with its distinct crystal
shape by Roger, Ken Arnold or Newton,
North Carolina,
and tested with a diamond tester by a member of the gold mine staff.
Roger has a major interest in monazite which is found in small pieces or
crystals in the area and believes this is what helped him find the small
crystal.
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