In the late 19th Century, three significant discoveries of emerald were made in western North Carolina. The earliest of these were the emeralds of Hiddenite, North Carolina in the 1870’s, followed by the discovery of the Crabtree Mine in Alexander County in the 1890’s. The third find was on a small cotton plantation located near Shelby in Cleveland County.

The origins of the “Old Plantation Emerald Mine” lie in the discovery of two small emerald crystals at Shelby in the late 1890’s in loose soil on a nearby farm. In an ironic twist of fate, Shelby had become the home of George L English, one of the most famous US mineral dealers of the late 19th and early 20th Century. In 1903, English had left the mineral specimen business to prospect for monazite in North Carolina for the National Light and Thorium Company. Learning of the earlier finds of emerald in his new town, English attempted without success to locate the source.

In 1909, about a dozen emerald crystals were discovered on the cotton farm of W B Turner, located about 4 ¾ miles south-west of Shelby. English immediately brought the find to the attention of Douglas B. Sterrett, an economic geologist who had considerable interest in the mineral resources of North Carolina, and who had replaced George F. Kunz as the author of the US Geological Survey’s annual summary of precious stone production in the United States.

In December, 1909, Sterrett had the opportunity to visit the Turner farm in person. At that time, “no digging had been done, but about a dozen emeralds had been found loose in the soil of a cotton field.” He estimated that the emeralds came form “an area of about 100 feet by 25 feet on a hillside… The field in which the emeralds were found had been cultivated and they were exposed by plowing and by the washing of rains.”

For the next several years, excavations were made on the Turner farm to recover emeralds loose in the soil and, hopefully, to find the in-situ source of the emeralds. The earliest efforts were made by Turner and English working in concert, and included a cross cut trench 100 feet long and reaching a depth of 14 feet. In 1911, the property was leased with a option to buy by Lovat Fraser, a 42 year old New York City gem dealer who had attended Harvard University. Fraser continued the work of prospecting the property and decided that the site offered promise enough to attempt commercial exploitation. Fraser partnered with Ellis P Earle to form the “Emerald Company of America” to initiate a concerted effort to mine the site. Earle was a wealthy New York City mineral broker and President of Nippissing Copper Mines Co.; in the later years he would be one of the five primary investors to finance the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City. In the early spring of 1912, they purchased the Turner cotton field and renamed it “The Old Plantation Mine”.

Of the emeralds recovered loose in the soil, Sterrett wrote that they

“…had a fine dark-green color, but were somewhat checked and flawed, and some contained silky internal markings. The largest of these emeralds and the best specimen so far found measured about 1 inch by three-fourths of an inch by half an inch. It was about half of a crystal split parallel with the length. This piece has been cut into about 20 gems, the largest of which is a faceted stone weighing about 3 carats. This stone has been described as having an excellent deep-green color and as being particularly beautiful at night. It has almost no visible flaws but is slightly foggy in strong daylight. The other gems cut from this crystal are of similar quality, but some contain more flaws. The other stones found on the surface ranged down to less than a carat in weight in the rough and most of them were deep green. Some were nearly whole crystals and others were fragments of crystals. All were rather strongly etched and striated. Very pretty gems have, been cut from smaller fragments of crystals found on the surface. Some of these were sold at rather low prices before their true value was realized and the proceeds were devoted to prospecting. These gems brought $10 to $30 per carat. A lot of 11 of these emeralds cut "en cabochon," weighing about 9 carats, have been mounted in a small necklace and would bring several hundred dollars at retail prices.” (Sterrett, 1911, p. 1053)

In July 1912 they struck a pocket “filled with reddish-brown, greasy-feeling clay” (Sterrett, 1911) in a section of decomposed pegmatite dike which contained emeralds in situ. A second emerald-bearing pocket was hit in August, 1912. This yielded “269 carats of irregularly shaped pieces and fragments of crystals were obtained. These lots of emeralds consisted of both clear and partly cloudy gem material, the color of some of which was a fine deep green.” (Sterrett, 1912) As their exposure of the emerald-bearing dike continued, it developed into a moderate size open cut mine, which was dubbed “The Cotton Boll Pit” in recognition of the original use of the site as a cotton field. “Some of the emerald crystals are firmly attached to other minerals, and some are loose and may be obtained by washing the semi-decomposed pegmatite.” Sterret wrote, adding “At first many small fragments and crystals of emeralds were found in this way, but later gem emerald was also found in place in the rock.”

By November, 1912, the Cotton Boll Pit consisted of an open cut about 75 feet long and 10 to 25 feet deep with a shaft or pit several feet deeper in the bottom. A 15 foot long tunnel was excavated at the east end of the pit to facilitate access, and 250 foot long section of track with a ore car was installed to carry waste rock to a dump located north of the mine. A crosscut trench 160 feet long was excavated on the hillside adjacent to the bottom of the pit, extended north from the bottom of the pit for prospecting, drainage, and to facilitate mining. The Emerald Company of America continued exploration on the site, digging numerous “pits and trenches” on the site, both to recover potential emerald bearing overburden and in the less-than-succesful attempt to find other emerald-bearing dikes.

Of the emeralds found in the Cotton Boll Pit, Sterrett noted that

Gems cut from emeralds removed from the vein have also proved of good quality but are probably not quite so deep in color as those found on the surface. The crystals from the vein range in size from that of a portion of a large needle to a broken specimen measuring seven-eighths of an inch thick and nearly 5 inches long. Some of these emeralds have fairly well developed crystal faces, but the majority are roughly striated and pitted, though retaining a rude hexagonal outline. In some specimens no trace of crystal form remains. As usual with emeralds, only small pieces are free of flaws and imperfections. Many crystals contain slight checks across their length, and in some the flaws lie at all angles. Some stones are cloudy and others contain fine internal striations or silkiness. Stones in which this is pronounced give a fine cat's-eye effect when tipped to and fro. Small crystals have been found that will cut practically flawless stones up to one-half carat in weight, and even in such small gems a flawless emerald of good color is very rare. The quality of many of the emeralds can not be judged from their external appearance, as the exterior is badly striated and by reflection of the light makes the stone appear both of lighter color and more imperfect than it really is.” (Sterrett, 1911, p. 1052)

Fraser estimated that the work at the Old Plantation Mine had, by the end of 1911, yielded 2,700 carats of rough emeralds (of which 2,510 carats was produced in 1911).
The rough produced in 1911 was alone worth $9,500, placing North Carolina into 5th Place as one of the leading gem producing states in the Union. He calculated that the rough would yield about 700 carats of cut stones, of which 200 carats had already been cut either en cabochon or facetted. The finished gemstones ranged in wholesale value between $5 and $200 per carat, and he conservatively asserted that on average the value of the rough was $15 per carat. In 1912 the mine produced 2,969 carats, with an estimated value of $12,875. Fraser estimated that the rough production of that year would yield 800 carats of cut gems with an average wholesale value of around $25 per carat. Sterrett proclaimed “the average of the emeralds from the Turner mine has been pronounced equal in quality to the average run of Colombian emeralds, and New York dealers are beginning to recognize the beauty of the North Carolina gem.”

Sterrett described some of the cut stones gems that the Old Plantation Mine had produced by the end of 1911:

One lot of 27 cut stones ranging up to over a carat in weight, seen by the writer, contained some fine stones. One of these with a table cut, weighing 0.83 carat, was a fine, clear, dark-green gem with only a slight flaw. This stone has been variously estimated by lapidaries and dealers as worth from $125 to $200. Reputable lapidaries valued it at about $200 per carat. Other stones in this lot are worth up to $90 per carat, but some would probably not bring over $10 to $25 per carat. Mr. Fraser mentions a lot of smaller gems, chiefly about one-fourth of a carat in weight, but some at least half a carat, which are brilliant, very clear and clean, and of good green color. One oblong faceted stone of about 1 carat has a good color, is clear, and is not badly flawed. It is considered one of the best gems found. Another fairly clear and fairly brilliant gem weighing 2-1/4 carats and having a good color has been classed by a lapidary as one of the most important gems. An attractive gem is a long tapering drop weighing 20 carats. It has an excellent color and is clear in spots.” (Sterrett, 1911, p. 1053)

Associated minerals occurring in small, irregular miarolitic cavities in the pegmatite veins included:

• Quartz - occurs as both colorless or smoky quartz “in crystals of average perfection, and in many of the specimens exhibits trapezohedral faces indicating a right-hand character.” Sterrett noted that some of the quartz crystals was “penetrated by numerous fine light-colored needles of actinolite’ and was “cut into very pretty gems.”

• Albite – occurs in the “form of rough crystals and of aggregations of stout crystals;” Sterrett noticed that the clevelandite variety of albite commonly associated with gem pegmatites was absent.

• Tourmaline-group mineral – occurs as black, deeply striated prismatic crystals. A doubly terminated 3.5cm by 2 cm crystal found in 2005 (and currently in the collectional of Donald Campbell) shows distinct pyramidal terminations). Sterrett described the black tourmaline as “plentiful”.

• Beryl – in addition to the emeralds themselves beryl frequently as greenish crystals of the “common beryl” hue, up to 5cm in size. About 1912, in a pegmatite dike near the Cotton Boll Pit, an quantity of “small, clear, nearly colorless beryl crystals” were discovered which yielded “very brilliant stones when cut”.

• Apatite-group mineral – Sterrett noted the occurrence of “bluish-green apatite” in some of the pegmatite but offers no further information.

• Rutile – was found as stout crystals “some of which show brilliant red streaks”.

While Fraser has set aside a quantity of matrix emerald specimens and examples of the associate minerals (whether for museums or resale to collectors is unclear), these were tragically lost in a fire in April 1913 that destroyed an outbuilding on the site.

Ultimately the production life of the Old Plantation Mine was short lived, with work being terminated in 1913 when the Emerald Company of America decided that the limited possibility of finding another emerald-bearing pegmatite precluded further investment of capital.

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Bibliography

• Merrill, George P.
Handbook And Descriptive Catalog Of The Collections Of Gems And Precious Stones In The United States National Museum. Smithsonian Institute Bulletin 116, US Government Printing Office 1922

• Sterrett, Douglas B. “Precious Stones”
Mineral Resources of the United States Calendar Year 1911
United States Geological Survey, US Government Printing Office 1912

• Sterrett, Douglas B. “Precious Stones”
Mineral Resources of the United States Calendar Year 1912
United States Geological Survey, US Government Printing Office 1913

• Vance, Robert C. (1945) “Memorial Of George Letchworth English” American Mineralogist, Volume 30, pages 130-134, 1945

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Completed: 18 February 2008