Location: NC 226 at SR 1191 (Mine Creek Road) northwest of Ledger
County: Mitchell
Original Date Cast: 1939
The Sink Hole Mine in Mitchell County was one of numerous mines in western North Carolina that originally were worked by American Indians before the arrival of white settlers. It therefore was predominantly used for mining mica. Commercial mica production began in 1867 and continued on a mass scale until the 1960s, when the development of solid-state electronics led to a decrease in the need for sheet mica. The remains of the Sink Hole Mine are still evident, about four miles southeast of Bakersville.
Mica is composed of a group of aluminum silicates common in the Blue Ridge Mountains and western Piedmont. Since the 1870s, North Carolina mines have produced the majority of mica in the United States. Sheet mica initially was used as a form of window glass, and then as an insulator for electrical equipment. Additionally, in the early 1900s, scrap mica became a popular product as a friction-causing agent.
There is evidence of mining for a variety of minerals in North Carolina far before the development of modern mining. Although information about earlier miners is lacking, it is believed that mining began prior to 1500. Modern mining in Mitchell County, specifically, was developed in the trenches and mining pits already dug by Indians. Prospectors in western North Carolina from the 1860s expanded upon older mines and developed a formidable industry.
Senator Thomas L. Clingman established the location for the modern Sink Hole Mine, having been hired by a New York mica dealer to investigate the accessibility of the mineral. As word of successful mining spread, mica operations were set up in Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Jackson, Yancey and Macon Counties. The mining of mica in North Carolina became hugely successful, eventually making the state the dominant source of mica in the nation.
References:
Jasper Leonidas Stuckey, North Carolina: Its Geology and Mineral Resources (1965)
Bill Sharpe, A New Geography of North Carolina, I (1954)
John P. Arthur, Western North Carolina: A History (1914)
William S. Powell, ed., Encyclopedia of North Carolina (2006)
Mitchell County Board of Education, “Discovering Mitchell County” (1939)