There’s Copper in Them Thar Hills!: Copper Mining in Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany Counties of North Carolina

The Wilmington, North Carolina firm of Bannister, Cowan & Company, in its glowing report titled, just as glowingly, The Resources of North Carolina: Its Natural Wealth, Condition, and Advantages, as Existing in 1869. Presented to the Capitalists and People of the Central and Northern States, wrote that ＂[t]he three most noted copper mines in the northwestern part of the State are the Elk Knob, Peach Bottom, and Ore Knob. ... In the southeast corner of Ashe County is another mine of some note, known as Gap Creek [aka the Copper Knob Mine].＂ THERE’S COPPER IN THEM THAR HILLS! contains the histories of those four mines, which, as Bannister, Cowan & Company pointed out in its report, were all located in the mountains of northwest North Carolina: the Elk Knob Mine in Watauga County, the Copper Knob Mine and the Ore Knob Mine in Ashe County, and the Peach Bottom Mine in Alleghany County.