Surface Hill Gold Mine Time Line

1799 - Reed found gold

1815 - Mining started on a ‘considerable’ scale

1820 - Mining leading industry

1835 - Mint established in Charlotte

1841 - Surface Hill discovered by Harris

1844 - Charlotte Mint burnedimmediately rebuilt

1845 - 1893 leased to Baltimore M

1892 - Reopened by Baltimore and North Carolina Mining Company

1893 - Mungo and Hinson attempted to sell to Chas H Toschof Baltimore for $10,000 - Leased to Baltimore Mining Company

1894 - Leased for 8 months by Dr. J P McCombs and Capt John Vivian Capt Henry Grose will assist

1895 - Surface Hill- chilean wheels - Shaft at 65 feet

1914 - Surface Hill Assay Office established

 

Surface Hill Assay Office

 

The assay office at it's original location.

 

The assay office looked when it was move to the Historical Society's village.

 

 

The interior floor as it was being replaced, the subfloor.

 

 

Original tungue and groove flooring placed over sub-floor.

 

 

The outside of the office restored.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surface Hill Gold Mine

 

Although gold had been sought, and small quantities had been found in North Carolina during colonial times, it was not until 1799 that documented discovery was achieved. That gold was found accidentally in Cabarrus County, North Carolina in part of the old Mecklenburg County, on a site to be later called the Reed Gold Mine.

The first documented piece of gold was found by Conrad Reed, a boy of about twelve years of age and the son of John Reed. The discovery was made in an accidental manner. The boy, accompanied by his brother and sister went to a small stream, called Little Meadow Creek to go fishing and saw a yellow substance shining in the water. He went in and picked it up, and found it to be extremely heavy, and carried it home. His father, John Reed examined it but did not know what it was at the time. The heavy shiny item was about the size of a small smoothing iron.

 

John Reed kept the piece for several years on his house floor, using it as a doorstop. In 1802, on a trip to the market in Fayetteville for supplies, John Reed showed the piece to a jeweler who immediately told him that it was gold. He asked Mr. Reed to leave it with him and that he would flux it to extract the gold. When Mr. Reed returned he was presented with a large bar of gold, reportedly about six or eight inches in length. The jeweler asked John Reed what he would take for the bar. Not knowing the value, John Reed asked $3.50, about a regular week’s wages. After returning home John Reed examined Little Meadow Creek and found additional gold in that creek. It was reported that the whole surface along the creek for nearly a mile was very rich in gold. Now John Reed was a farmer and needed to work his crops so in order to search and recover gold he formed an association with Fredrick Kisor, Hames Love, and Martin Phifer. During the next year, in 1803, a slave named Peter found a piece of gold in the creek that weighed twenty-eight pounds

Soon the word was out that gold was being found in the Little Meadow Creek. The local property owners searched every creek for gold when they were not tending their crops. They used any methods they could to find that gold.  The farmers would use their workers to search for gold when they were not tending the crops. The land owners that owned slaves would use those slaves to search for gold. Generally, the searches were concentrated in creeks and streambeds. Occasionally gold nuggets would be found in the fields after a rain. In 1828 gold was found in Dahlonega, Georgia and the people working for the land owners searching for gold felt they might become abundantly wealthy by finding their own gold. They left this area and headed for Dahlonega creating the first ‘Gold Rush’.

 

In the year 1831 it was discovered that large quantities of gold could be found in quartz veins that the Little Meadow Creek flowed through. The local ‘miners’ then began digging those veins and the ‘hard rock mining’ began on the Reed property. Colonel George Barnhardt, a miner in Rowan County made a sketch in 1848 and called this gold mine the first in the United States. Mining continued on the Reed Property until 1912. The last large nugget uncovered by placer mining was in 1896.

Gold mining continues in North Carolina from that first gold find in 1799 to present day. It has had times of tremendous activity and those of little activity. The expense of operating a mine has been the primary reason for the fluctuation of mining activity. Records are hard to find to fully document what was really happening in the gold industry during that time.

 

The Mint Hill Historical Society acquired the Surface Hill Assay Office in 2005 from The Wilson family and began a search for records and history for their newest addition to the Carl J. McEwen Historic Village in Mint Hill, North Carolina.

The mining of gold in Mecklenburg County was a major part of the economy for the area. All the gold in the United States came from the Carolina’s between 1803 and 1828 when gold was discovered in Georgia.

 

The majority of the gold minted in the United States between 1828 and 1850 also came from the Carolina’s. The gold production was great enough for the government Mint to be established in 1835 in Charlotte and Dahlonega, GA. The Charlotte Mint burned in 1844 it did have $500,000 annual production. One mine 5 mile from Charlotte produced $2,000,000. The Charlotte area was designated a financial center because of this and remains a financial center today. 

 

According to an article in the Charlotte Daily Observer on 3/24/1900 the Surface Hill Gold Mine was discovered in 1844 by a man named Harris. Mr. Harris then sold the property to Joseph Blair from Lancaster, South Carolina and Joseph Blair worked the mine with slaves.  As the research continued newspaper articles revealed several instances of the progress of the Surface Hill Gold Mine as noted below:

 

6/22/1892 - W. H. Clark and James Long took an option to buy the Surface Hill Gold Mine.

 

11/15/1892 - Surface Hill Gold Mine reopened by Baltimore and North Carolina Mining Company additionally a collapse of Surface Hill Gold Mine closed after 6 months, T.C. Mungo and E.H. Hinson picked $3000 worth of gold from tailings

 

8/2/1893 - 50 hands working at the Surface Hill Gold Mine finding dozen pounds of gold

 

9/16/1893 - Mr. Younts of Surface Hill Gold Mine Rousification and a second article regarding a lawsuit – C.P. Mungo, E.H. Hinson first part vs. JE Kiker second part

 

Kiker rented for ¾ shares and Mungo and Hinson wanted ½ share

 

F.M. Hinson held specimens that disappeared

 

9/5/1893 - Squire C P Mungo was part owner of Surface Hill Gold Mine, $56 was made in two days from 4000 penny weights and 58 lbs of ore to be worked and the ore assayed at the mint and sold to banks

 

9/29/1893 - Surface Hill paying handsomely many hands was working and the Sunday visitors were immense

 

10/13/1893 - $500 from 10 inch square space a 30 lb rock covered with gold was found and the operating expenses were $5 day

 

10/24/1893 - Martin Hinson left 44 ounces at mint from Surface Hill Gold Mine

 

12/16/1893 - Pat Mungo and F.M. Hinson sold to Chas H. Tosch of Baltimore for $10,000

Deed signed yesterday, Pat Mungo and F.M. Hinson took $5000 of gold out in last few months however on 12/21/1893 Eli Hinson reported that the sale has not been made because Tosch has not brought up the cash

 

4/18/1894 - R.M. Miller, Sr. and Thos Greir view purchasing Surface Hill mine for $10,000 

 

5/6/1894 - Dr. J P McCombs, Capt John Vivian leased then Surface Hill Gold Mine for 8 months, Capt Henry Grose will assist

 

5/28/1895 - Cols Mungo, Hinson working day in and day out at the Surface Hill Gold Mine

 

6/14/1895 - Surface Hill Gold Mine obtains Chilean wheels the shaft at 65 feet

 

11/28/1895 - $75 out of packet expenses for the Surface Hill Gold Mine

 

John Kiker and James Younts put gold in safe keeping of superintendent Julius Younts who put it in a chest and that chest was stolen overnight

 

9/8/1907 - Nuggets from Surface Hill Tailings assayed at $1,700

 

8/21/1912 - Preparations are again underway to develop Surface Hill Gold Mine. Initial capital of $500,000 is required to develop the mine. R. Burdge, E.M. Tucker others in OK and AL are the people involved, the mine is at 65 feet depth, 62 ½ acres and assays at $20 a ton.

 

10/19/1912 - Dr G.S. Pettit Vice President of Surface Hill Mining & Milling Company

Moving from Oklahoma City, smelter will be installed it is the first ever used in the state.

$40,000 to be spent on equipment, Captain Olstrem is the primary backer his money is from Texas oil. He will be organizing the new Clear Creek Mining Company with $50,000 capital.

 

12/12/1912 - R. Brudge is the promoter and general manager of the Surface Hill Gold Mine.Up to date machinery is being installed to improve the $50,000 taken in past years by old and crude methods.

 

7/9/1914 - Surface Hill Gold Mine assay office is opened, complete assaying is being provided. Surface Hill Mining and Milling Company operating the office, the mine has 80 feet of depth; ore assay at $100 to $1000 a ton; established prior to 1849; got its name from outcroppings of veins.

 

7/11/1915 - Surface Hill Gold Mine has 6 or 8 shafts, 40 to 48 feet, $25 to $4000 per ton, 1 acre washed to three feet, production of $500,000.

 

And finally on 6/24/1916 the Charlotte Observer reported there were 59 placer mines and 24 deep mines producing $224,250 in 1915 $50,000 more than 1914 and that E.H. Hinson dies at 92 oldest residents of this section and buried at Arlington.

 

The mine activity seems to stop at this point, no additional records have been found. However, I have been told that gold has been found on the property in recent years and with the price of gold at its highest ever, who knows maybe the mine will open again and the saga will continue.