The Portis Gold Mine

            The North Carolina gold rush began nearly 20 years before the California gold rush. The first public notice of gold in Nash County appeared in the Weekly Raleigh Register 10 Nov 1831. It said: “A new Source of Gold. — In the land of a Mr. (John) Portis, in the vicinity of Ransom’s Bridge Post-Office, and near the place where the Counties of Nash, Franklin, Warren and Halifax join each other, a very rich deposit of Gold has been discovered. One piece weighing several pennyweights has been found and smaller pieces in great number. It is said to be quite common to make $5 a day, and there are nearly twenty different places where the precious metal can be obtained in sufficient quantity to reward the searcher for it.”

Gold Nugget
Taken from Minerals Education Coalition website:
https://mineralseducationcoalition.org/mining-minerals-information/minerals-elements/gold1_90782147/

            The State Chronicle, Raleigh, NC 29 Jan 1893 told the story of the Portis mine’s beginning:

            Years ago a peddler stopped at the mud-thatched cottage of a poor shoemaker in the County of Franklin. The shades of evening were falling and he enquired if he could obtain food and shelter for the night.

     "We are very poor, stranger," said the old cobbler, "but if you can put up with such accommodations as we can give you, we bid you welcome."

     The peddler accepted the hospitality, and after a scanty supper of plain and coarse food, laid himself down on a straw bed on the floor to sleep. When he arose the next morning, the family was astir and he asked if they had a pan or bowl in which he might bathe his face and hands.

     "No," replied the cobbler, "we have neither. When we bathe, we usually … go down to the spring and remove a little sand in the branch and wash."

     The peddler took a towel and went to the spring, used a little sand to wash his face and hands. He was struck with the appearance of numerous bright, shining particles in the water. He took a handful of the sand with him to the house and asked, "What is this?"

     "I don't know. Some says it's gold and some says it ain't."

     “Why don't you have it tested? I believe it's gold."

     The old cobbler, John Portis, had the test done and sure enough, it was gold. …

            John Portis, a shoemaker, knew nothing of mining, but it is believed that he was able to find enough gold to support his family. According to the Henderson Gold Leaf, Henderson, NC 26 Oct 1911 Portis leased the property to Plum Austin for ten years. Austin worked the property by moving the dirt with ox carts and wheelbarrows, and removing the gold by rocking and “long toms.” In ten years he was said to have found $500,000 of gold. [A rocker box was a wooden box with riffles along its bottom. Water was poured in from the top and as the box rocked the gold would settle behind the riffles and lighter elements would wash away. A “long tom” was similar except longer and using running water in a stream to wash the gold out.]

Gold Panning
Shutterstock
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/gold-rush-panning-california-1849-engraving-237233470

            John Portis died in 1850, and Thomas K. Thomas acquired the mine. He worked it for about 15 years, still using the most basic of tools and methods. Nevertheless, U. S. mint records showed that the Portis Mine sent $1,000,000 to the Charlotte mint before the Civil War. Other records indicate that another $1,000,000 was used in trade, making the output, according to estimates, at about $2,000,000. Most of the gold that North Carolina had during the Civil War came from the Portis Mine.

            In 1868, the mine was sold to Stephen G. Sturges and William E. Sturges of N. J. An article in The Wilson News, Wilson, NC, 14 Dec 1899 mentioned that “Raleigh people now own most of the stock in the Portis gold mine.” Over the years, various names were mentioned as having an investment in the mine, and the ownership seems to have varied. Each change in ownership brought changes in the methods of extracting the gold.

            An observer in 1866, described the operation this way: “Mr. Platt (an officer of the Portis Mine Company) had a steam saw mill in full operation in just three weeks from the day the machinery left New York, which, taking into consideration the distance from the railroad and the nature of the roads over which the machinery had to be hauled, is a remarkable feat. They had also completed a two story building, seventy by thirty, built from material sawed at their own mill since it was erected some six weeks ago.

911 Metallurgist
https://www.911metallurgist.com/blog/long-tom-sluice

            “The machinery to be used in mining is a new invention recently patented by a Newark manufacturer, which, if as successful as the experiments promise, is destined to work an entire revolution in the process of surface gold mining.”  The process used quicksilver (mercury) to extract the gold. [The Daily Standard (Raleigh, NC) 20 Oct 1866.

            By 1888, a new process, the Wheeler process, had been invented and was being tried at the Portis mine. This process, according to an article in The Charlotte Observer 5 May 1888 increased the yield from .50 per ton to $2.52 per ton. This was because the Wheeler process did not allow fine gold to escape. Mr. Sturges, owner at that time, wrote that the process was really wonderful and that he could find no fault with it.

            The Wilson News (Wilson, NC) 14 Dec 1899 revealed that new owners had installed a 15-stamp mill. The oar was crushed and then washed by sluice. It was being proposed that a hydraulic plant be installed.

            There were plans, in 1912, to be able to process 1,000 yards of soil per day, with an eventual plan to process 5,000 yards per day. Mr. Elmo Weir of Philadelphia, who was one of the investors, said in an interview “North Carolina, which has hitherto been famed for its pitch, tar and turpentine, will shortly be famed the world over as a producer of the ‘yellow metal.’ [The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, NC) 6 Aug 1912

            According to NCpedia, gold became difficult to extract from the red clay at the Portis by the early 1900s. A final effort was made by the Norlina Mining Company. Although the latest techniques were used, “the cost of the mining operation exceeded by one-third the value of the gold recovered, and the mine was closed in 1936.”