North Carolina Minute

North Carolina - Gold State

North Carolina contains almost every type of precious and semi-precious mineral and metal in the world. Mines for these have sprung up from one end of the state to the other. At one time North Carolina was called, "nature's sample house." Hiddenite, a yellow-green gem can only be found in North Carolina.

Although some 300 kinds of minerals have been found in North Carolina, and at least 70 of them have definite economic value - the state in recent years ranks only thirty-seventh in mineral production.

Before 1860, North Carolina had a much higher ranking and was the leading gold state in the country. Despite the interest in gold during the days of Sir Walter Raleigh (1585-1587), there is no official record of gold being found in North Carolina until 1799. It was at this time when a seventeen-year-old lad found a seventeen-pound gold nugget on Reid's Plantation near present day Concord, Cabarrus County.

Between 1799 and 1860, over $50 million worth of this precious metal was mined in North Carolina. Gold can still be panned in Western North Carolina.

Strange But True

In 1858, a man by the name of Robert Tallon was accused of cheating in a poker game in a saloon in San Francisco, and was shot to death. It was considered in the old west bad luck to take a dead man's money that got it by cheating. So the men at the poker table grabbed a total stranger and had him to play the dead man's hand hoping they could win their money back. The dead man had $600 on the table.

By the time the San Francisco police arrived the stranger had turned the $600 into a $2,200 winning stake. The police asked for the $600 so that it could be sent to the dead man's next of kin. The police had the stranger to sign for the $600 they took. Upon looking at the signature it revealed the stranger's name was Ralph Tallon, the dead man's son, whom had not seen his father in 32 years.

Cape Fear River Freezes Over

Rarely does the temperature in the lower Cape Fear Region of the state dip below freezing. For the freezing of the Cape Fear River it would be unheard of. However, on January 16, 1912 that is what happened.

At seven o'clock that morning the temperature stood at ten degrees above zero and the Northeast Cape Fear River had already froze over. By ten o'clock the Cape Fear River had a sheet of ice from bank to bank measure the thickness of a sheet of glass. Everything on the river had stopped moving.

On January 13, the town of Wilmington was covered with a blanket of snow measuring 8.6 inches. Everything in Wilmington came to a standstill. The only thing in Wilmington that was moving were the children who had ice skates, for Greenfield Lake had also frozen over.

Blockade Running

One of the most successful vessels to run the Union blockade during the War Between the States was the Giraffe, afterwards called the Robert E, Lee. The Confederate Government owned this vessel; its commander was Captain Wilkerson. The vessel exported and imported goods from Charleston and Wilmington to Nassau. The vessel cost $160,000 in gold; during her active period she exported over 7,000 bales of cotton, worth over two million dollars in gold. The Robert E. Lee ran the blockade twenty-one times before she was captured.

One merchant in Nassau, who was a part of the blockade running, said, "if a steamer had the luck to run the blockade into Charleston or Wilmington with merchandise twice, had paid for t he ship. After that the Yankees could have it."

According to the official Navy records the Union blockade captured or destroyed 1,504 blockade-runners during the war.

North Carolina & temperance

North Carolina had Temperance Societies as early as 1831. However, looking at history very little was really ever done until 1867.

Following the War Between the States the Order of Friends of Temperance was organized in Virginia. The Virginia interest spread into North Carolina and a state council was established in Henderson, April 8, 1867. Within ten years no less that 290 chapters were formed in the State of North Carolina.

In 1881 the North Carolina Temperance Society button-holed the legislature to "thrust the question of prohibition upon the state." The question was spread among the citizens and when the final vote was counted, prohibition was killed 166,325 to 48,370.

After that bitterly defeat, the Temperance Societies faded by the wayside.

Thought of the Day: Wishes too often come true.

J.C. Knowles is a traveling speaker, historian and antique expert. For more interesting North Carolina stories, visit www.heathero.com/ssg.