Josephine Mine, Dahlonega, Lumpkin County, Georgia, USAi

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

The property, now known as the Josephine Mine, consists of lots 526, 595 and 1215, 12th district, and lots 17, 18, 48, 49 and 82, 11th district, north half. It was formerly known, as the Auraria mine, and was worked by The Auraria Mining Co., with Mr. John W. Hutchinson, Superintendent. Probably, no mine in the county has been so productive, as a gravel placer, as the Josephine. One mile of the Etowah river, which has never been dredged, flows through it, along which the gravel-placer yield has been rich. The McCluskey branch, however, seems to have been more productive, as a rich placer. About a quarter of a mile of this branch flows through the property. A large amount of placer work was done along these two streams, in "the forties."

Besides the gravel placers, the auriferous saprolite has been worked, to some extent. A large open cut was begun about 1878, on one of the hillsides, not far from the mill. Considerable work was done, in milling the decomposed schists, with their included quartz veins, from this cut. In addition, a tunnel, 185 feet long, was driven from the rear of the open cut, under the hill. A cross tunnel was run out from this, and several stopes were made along the vein. One of these stopes, 87 feet long, came out at the top of the hill. The rocks, shown in the open cut, are mica- and hornblende-schists, a considerable dike of the latter appearing near the top of the hill, on the south side of the cut. On the hill, near the dwelling-house, in which Mr. Bigbee resides, an incline was run down for fifty feet. This, as well as the tunnel mentioned above, had caved in; and neither was in condition for examination, or for the taking of specimens for assay. Nor was the cut in proper shape; for the soft decomposed schists had fallen into it, from long disuse. At the time of my visit, no work had been done on the property, for some time, except on lot 49, where a very rich strike of gold was recently made, by two or three men, claimed to be trespassers, near the line of an adjacent lot. These men were boldly aggressive, and taking the matter into court, they have managed to have this part of the property tied up, for the present. The work, done by these men, consisted in running an incline on a six-inch vein, and stoping it, eight or ten feet, along the trend of the vein. Levels, on each side, were also run. On the same lot, on another vein, a 45-foot incline was sunk, some time ago, on an eight-inch vein, which is said to have milled $12.00 per ton.