Preacher mine, Dahlonega, Lumpkin County, Georgia, USAi

Regional Level Types
Preacher mine	Mine
Dahlonega	Town
Lumpkin County	County
Georgia	State
USA	Country

This mine is situated in the northwest corner of lot 995, 12th district, which lies adjacent to, and east of, the Columbia lot. Like the Columbia, this lot includes a section of Findley Ridge, with the various yellow and black belts of schistose saprolites, bounded on the north by the large dike of hornblende schist. The property, which includes the Preacher mill, located in the southeast corner of lot 986, is owned by four gentlemen, as follows: - A half interest, by Judge W. W. Murray, and a sixth, each, by Messrs. J. Frank Johnson, J. C. Clements, and D. T. Harris, of Dahlonega.

It is said, that this lot was first worked for gold, by a man, by the name of Dollison, about fifty years ago, evidence of his work being still seen, in what is left of two old inclines, which were begun at the top of the ridge, near the contact of the yellow and the north black belts, on two rich shoots in an auriferous quartz vein. The upper parts of these old inclines have been removed, in excavating what it now the central open cut, at the top of the ridge; but it is known, that the inclines went down, in a northeast direction, at an angle, agreeing with the dip of the schists, for about forty feet, when the trough-fault, described in another part of this report, was encountered, and Dollison lost his vein. It is said, that the schists of the trough-piece were slightly auriferous; but, that they were so much "leaner", than the vein, he had been working, that Dollison abandoned the inclines. It is expected, by the present owners, that they will find the lost vein, on the north side of the trough-fault. The ore, taken by Dollison from the two inclines, was hauled in wagons, two miles, to a 3-stamp mill, the stamps being of the wooden type, then in use, and the device, for saving the gold, being an ordinary riffle-box. This ore is said to have yielded an average of $20.00 a ton, even on this crude mill. The property, at that time, was leased by Dollison from its owner, Mr. James M. Brawner, of Elbert county, to whom the property was originally granted by the State. The work continued, for only a short time when the vein was lost. No work seems to have been done on the lot, from that time to 1885, when Mr. Marion Chester, a miner, found, in the black slates, lower down the ridge, a rich auriferous quartz vein. Having secured a lease on the property, from Rev. H. S. Rees, of Turin, Ga., its then owner, he, with Col. Robt. H. Moore and Mr. Robert Howell, began to work the vein. Three months after operations began, Mr. Chester sold his interest in the lease to Mr. Jno. L. Wallace; and work was continued, off and on, for four years, the entire work, during this time, consuming not more than a year. After working a rich shoot of the vein, for some distance down, a tunnel, with its entrance in what is now the northwest cut, about twenty feet above the base of the ridge, was driven, for 2 50 feet, to cut the vein lower down. From this tunnel, the rich shoot was then stoped out, up to where work had been discontinued in the incline; and the incline was continued further down, at an angle of 45°, until it measured eighty feet below the tunnel floor.

The vein, at the surface, trends N. 55° E., and has a vertical position; but Mr. Chester informed me, that, at some distance down, it flexed under the ridge, occupying, thereafter, a position between the schists. He stated, that the vein was richest, along this fold. When the rich shoot, along which work had been prosecuted, had been excavated to a depth of 300 feet, thirty feet below water-level, the lessees were compelled to abandon it, on account of having to lift, with a hand-pump, an 80-foot column of water, in order to keep the shaft free. A further reason lay in the fact, that, as the ore became more pyritiferous below water-level, the amount of gold, which could be extracted by the mill, was constantly decreasing, with a consequent loss to the operators; though it is said, that, when work ceased, the ore was yielding $25.00 per ton, under the stamps.

When the incline had been excavated, for only fifty feet from the surface, the fault, elsewhere mentioned, in this report, was encountered, and Mr. Wallace withdrew from the enterprise. After some prospecting for it, the vein was found, about six feet north of where it had disappeared, and a few feet lower down.

The average width of this vein was about two feet; and the rich shoot extended twenty feet along the trend of the vein. This much of the vein was stoped out, to the bottom of the 300-foot incline. The ore, above water-level, consisted of free-milling, sacharoidal quartz, more or less cellular, and stained by iron oxide. Much of it is said to have shown free gold, in liberal quantity. Below water-level, the ore contained considerable pyrite.

Messrs. Moore, Howell and Wallace hauled their ore in wagons, at first to the old Columbia mill, but, later on, to the Lockhart mill, paying fifty cents per ton, and twelve-and-a-half cents per miner's-inch, additional, for water, at the former, and one dollar per ton, at the latter.

After abandoning the shoot, thus far worked, Messrs. Moore and Howell began work on another vein in the black belt, parallel with the first, and about thirty feet north of it, farther down the ridge. It was essentially of the same character, as the first vein; but, instead of one, there were three rich shoots, about ten or twelve feet apart, the shoots dipping a little more, than in the upper vein. The ore, too, of the second vein was of the same character, as that of the first. Work was begun at the surface, on the lowest or most western shoot, and the one next above it, the third not having been discovered, at that time; and, later on, when these inclines had been sunk to some little depth, a vertical shaft was sunk, farther east on the vein, to a depth of thirty-five feet, cutting through the two upper shoots, the topmost, which was entirely new, being supposed to be one of the two, on which the inclines had been started. From this vertical shaft, inclines were sunk, and the shoots were stoped out, to water-level. Both shoots were then stoped upward, to the point, where they were dislocated by the fault. Here, work was stopped by Messrs. Howell and Moore, after having stoped out the bottom shoot from above, to where the vein was faulted. Soon after these gentlemen discontinued work, Mr. ]. Frank Moore, a son of Col. Moore, and Mr.]. B. Clements began work on the mine, sinking the vertical shaft deeper, and encountering the lowest shoot, at about twelve feet below, thereby discovering, that there were three, instead of two, shoots. This firm worked the middle shoot twenty feet further, stopping at about twelve feet below water-level. The lowest shoot, they worked from the bottom of the shaft, till it was twenty-five feet below water-level; and from the bottom of the shaft, they stoped it out, in an upward direction, to the fault, a distance of about forty-five feet. I was informed by Mr. Clements, who kindly guided me over the property, that the fault line presented good slickensides; and that, by excavating, from the fault end of one of his inclines, for twelve feet, in an upward direction, at an angle of 45° toward the south, and along the slickensides, he drove into the end of the corresponding incline, where Messrs. Moore and Howell had stopped work. The tunnels and shafts, at the time of my visit, were not in such condition, that I could examine the faulted veins; but the dislocation was plainly noticeable, at the surface. Both veins were cut by the same fault, and they were similarly affected.

Messrs. Moore and Clements hauled the most of their ore, three quarters of a mile, to the Lawrence mill in Dahlonega, paying seventy-five cents a ton for milling; but about seventy-five tons of it was hauled to the Mary Henry mill on Yahoola creek, one and a half miles from the mine, the same tariff per ton being paid for milling. I was informed by Mr. Moore, who is a merchant in the town of Dahlonega, that the ore, worked by himself and Mr. Clements, averaged ten dollars per ton, under the stamps, notwithstanding the fact, that much of the ore was highly pyritiferous. This firm worked the lower vein, off and on, for about two years, the entire work, however, not consuming over six or eight months. Having reached the point, where they had to contend with too much water, for their outfit, and with an ore, constantly increasing in the unaltered condition of its sulphides, they abandoned the old shafts, and spent more than a year prospecting. Mr. D. T. Harris, of Dahlonega, was then taken into the firm; and, having leased the Stanley 5-stamp mill, they began work at the top of the ridge, in the yellow belt, by inclines and open cuts, hauling the saprolite, with included small quartz veins, in wagons, to the mill. They worked, in this way, continuously, for a year, when the lease on the mill expired. Up to this time, all work on the property, since 1885, had been done, under lease from its owner, Rev. H. S. Rees, a Baptist clergyman, who had purchased it from the heirs of his wife's father. But, in January, 1895, the property was purchased by Judge Murray, who, in April, following, sold a half interest in it to Messrs. Moore, Clements and Harris; and the four have worked it, continuously, since then.

The old Columbia mill had been removed; and, in May, these gentlemen began the erection of a 10-stamp mill on its site, which is known as the Preacher mill. They ran a line of 4-inch gas-pipe, from the mill to the top of the ridge, for the purpose of carrying water to the reservoir at that point, pumped from the Tan-yard branch at the mill. The reservoir was 104 feet long by 14 feet wide by 4 feet deep, with a working capacity of 35,000 gallons of water.

On the 4th of July, following, the firm began work, in the extreme northwest corner of the lot, at the foot of the ridge, in the north black belt, digging out the saprolite and its vein content, and flooding it twice a day, through a flume, to the mill, 1,1OO feet of the flume being supplied with riffles, and the remainder with false bottoms. This flume discharged its contents into the mill-house, the muddy water, bearing up much of the more finely divided gold, passing through the racks and into the Tan-yard branch, while the coarser material remained in the ore-bin, to be passed through the mill. It was ascertained by the firm, that the loss of a great deal of the gold attended this method of flooding; and Judge Murray, at the time of my visit, was taking steps, by which he hoped to obviate this difficulty. Four or five miners found it profitable business, to pan the debris from this mill, for a considerable distance down the Tan-yard branch; and it was their daily avocation.

At the time of my visit, the cut above mentioned, which I shall designate as the Northwest Cut, had been completely excavated, for about three hundred feet, in a line, S. 32° E., through the black belt, to the top of the ridge, where it was made continuous with an open cut, running 162 feet, along the top of the ridge, N. 68° E. These cuts varied, in width, from fifteen to forty-five feet, and, in depth, from about eight feet, at the bottom of the ridge, to something like fifty feet, in the cut at the top, which I shall designate as the Central Cut. The walls of this cut were, respectively, the north and the south black belts, the intervening yellow belt having been scooped out, to the bottom of the cut, and sent to the mill. From the lower part of a small cove, farther east, beginning at the north lot-line, another cut had been started, with a branch flume, connecting with the first, farther down toward the mill, the northwest cut not affording sufficient drainage. This cut was, at the time of my visit, 275 feet long, with a trend N. 47° E. Its widest point was 50 feet, and its deepest was about the same, with an average depth of, probably, forty feet.

Work on the yellow belt was being rapidly prosecuted; and only thirty-five feet of it was left between this cut and the east end of the central cut. Before my field-season closed, this entire mass. had been removed and milled, making a continuous cut from the foot of the ridge, where the work began, in the northwest cut, to the lower end of the Northeast Cut. This, however, was subsequent to my survey of the property. The northeast cut is wholly in the yellow belt, though the south black belt forms the lower end of the southeast wall, opposite which, forming the lower part of the· northwest wall, is an apophysis of decayed hornblende-schist, from the large dike farther down the ridge.

In the lower end of this cut, the yellow schists have been mined to the south black belt, except a thin, wedge-shaped layer on the surface, which extends only a short distance up hill; but, on the north side, beyond the cut, there still remains about thirty feet of the yellow schists untouched, giving an approximate maximum width of eighty feet to the yellow belt. In the central cut, it did not exceed forty feet. While the central cut coincided with the trend of the belt, the northeast cut was diagonally across it, but, approximately, in the direction of the schistosity. The normal schistosity seems to be to the northeast; and the variation to the southeast is likely due to folding. In the upper end of the northeast cut, the yellow schists dip, along the southeast wall, at an angle of 25° to the southeast, and strike northeast; while, on the northwest wall, they dip at an angle of 35° to the northeast, and strike northwest, indicating an anticlinal fold.

In the central cut, along the north wall in its west end, the black slates dip 70° to the northeast, and have a northwesterly strike. On the same wall, at the other end of the cut, just beyond the trough-fault, they dip about 25° to the southeast, and strike northeast. On the south side of the cut, the dip of the schists of the south black belt varies from 25°, at the east end of the cut, to 35°, at its west end, being constantly to the southeast. The trough-fault, which crosses this cut, in an east and west direction, has been described elsewhere in this report. The fault, which dislocates the two auriferous veins described, is parallel with the trough-fault, in trend, and is eighty feet north of it. Still another fault crosses the lower end of the northeast cut, dislocating the yellow and black schists, with a throw of three feet to the south. This fault, like the others, is of the type, known as normal faults.

On this property, very beautiful specimens of auriferous saccharoidal quartz, containing plates of gold six or eight millimeters in width, have been found, occasionally. A handsome suite of these are on exhibition, in the State Museum.

Besides the black and yellow belts, the Fish Trap belt crosses this lot, on the south side of the ridge. So far as I was informed, however, no work has been undertaken on this belt. It may be well to add, that the only work, done on the south black belt, is the stoping, for a short distance, of a rich shoot.