Turkey Hill mine, Dahlonega, Lumpkin County, Georgia, USAi

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

The Turkey Hill property consists of a 250-acre lot, No. 163, and the greater part of a fractional lot, 169, in the 11th district, originally a part of Hall county. The fractional lot lies along the east bank of the Chestatee river. This part of the river, it is said, has never been dredged; and, from the rich returns, which have been had from the dredge-boat work, it would, in all probability, prove of great value for dredging. It is estimated, that there are about thirty acres of auriferous gravel on the property, which have never been worked. About ten or twelve acres of the gravel beds have been worked over, once, and about one acre, twice. Where work has been done, on the gravel placers, near the mouth of the Van Dyke tunnel, there are piles of pebbles, remarkable for their sharp angles, which are very slightly rounded, showing, that the material was brought, only a short distance, and was well covered with sand etc., before the water had much time to act upon it.

The Turkey Hill Mine is located on one of the high ridges, in the southern part of Lumpkin county, south of a similar ridge, on which the Calhoun mine is located, the two properties adjoining. All the work on the Turkey Hill mine, has been done on the south side of this ridge; whereas, most of the work on the Calhoun mine has been on the north side of the adjacent ridge. The hill, on which the mine is located, gets its name from the abundance of wild turkeys, that were formerly to be found on the ridge, it being, still, very good hunting-ground for this species of game. The hill is made up of mica and hornblende-schists. I did not observe any of the latter, high up on the hill; but there are two dikes, near the base of the hill, on the south side, near the mill, to which I have before referred, in another part of this report. Adjacent to these dikes, are two veins on the east side of lot 163. One of these, the more northerly, is a 3-foot quartz vein, with a trend, N. 55° E., and its dip, with the schists, at an angle of 60° to the southeast. A small prospect opening had been made on this vein, at a point, about 250 yards from the center of the north and south lot-lines on the east. The vein consists of saccharoidal quartz, more or less marked with parallel lines of limonite, resulting from the decomposition of some iron-bearing mineral, which, while apparently pyrite, I was not able to positively identify. The stain-lines are parallel with the trend of the vein. Lying adjacent to this vein, on the north, is a dike, about fifty yards wide; while, on the south side, is another, about 150 yards wide, both referred to, above. On the south border of this dike, lies what is known as The 12-Foot Vein. The width of this vein, of which I saw a cross-section, was twelve feet, consisting of quartz stringers, intercalated with mica-schist, striking N. 35° E., and dipping 60° to the southeast, the schists of the country-rocks having the same strike and dip. This vein was worked, about fifty years ago; by a man by the name of Reuben Morse. He sunk a shaft, forty feet deep, on a rich shoot; and another shaft, about thirty feet southwest of the first, between fifty and sixty feet deep, on another rich shoot. The ore from these shafts was crushed by four arrastres; and I am informed by Mr. W. T. Bryson, that Morse told him, that this ore averaged from $8 to $10 per ton. The ore was a white, saccharoidal quartz, but little stained, as far as I saw it. The most important work, that has been done on the lot, resulted in an open cut, in the northwest corner of the lot, the cut reaching to the top of the hill, near the east and west lot-lines. This cut exposed five veins, which are about fifteen or twenty feet apart, varying from one to six inches in thickness. These veins are very rich, and show considerable free gold in a porous, saccharoidal quartz, very slightly stained, throughout, to a dirty-cream color, by iron sesqui-oxide. Excellent examples of the free gold in quartz from this mine are on exhibition in the State Museum, in Atlanta, the gift of Mr. James J. Packard, one of the owners of the property. These are very attractive specimens. Besides these five small veins, there are other very thin, ribbon veins. The open cut is about two hundred feet long, by about forty feet wide at the top, and about thirty feet deep. The rocks, exposed by it, consist of gray mica-schists, the saprolite of which, near the top of the cut, varies from red to yellow. At .the bottom of the cut, the mica-schists are only partially decomposed, and are too hard, to be worked by hydraulic mining. The hard schists appear, at from fifteen to thirty feet below the Surface. The gold is said to occur, both in the schistose saprolite and in the quartz veins, running through it, in a ratio, usually of one to one. The hard schists are said to contain gold, in varying quantities. I was informed by Mr. Bryson, who guided me over the property, that, at the top of the cut, the veins were about thirty feet apart; but they are now from fifteen to twenty feet apart, at the bottom of the cut. Just west of this cut, a great deal of gold was obtained, by washing the surface of the hill with a hydraulic giant, for a depth of from one to two feet. About one thousand square feet have been thus worked. Lying west of the upper end of the open cut, is what is known as The Sulphuret Vein, a small vein, of from four to six inches in thickness, which outcrops lower down the hill. At the point of outcrop, samples taken by the owners, were submitted to Mr. W. R. Crandall, M. E., of Dahlonega; and these yielded $5.57, as a general average of the vein at that point. Another quartz vein, six inches in thickness, passes through the lot, about its center, outcropping on the north side. No work has been done on this vein; but samples, taken, by the owners from the surface, for assay, yielded $3.00 or $4.00 per ton, when assayed by Mr. Crandall.

In 1867, Dr. M. H. Van Dyke did some prospecting work on this lot, running a tunnel from the bottom of the hill, just east of the mill, for 150 feet, hoping to strike the 12-foot vein. His work was stopped by the hard mica-schists, encountered.