Old Mine Tales

Editors Note:

These were originally submitted as letters to the Faceter’s Digest. They are a personal history of the author’s experiences with the mines in North Carolina.

There are many unconventional spellings in the text. They have been left in their original form, as they convey the flavor of the area. However, it will cause trouble for those of you having it translated.

They are delightful reading, as well as a good source of historical information. Enjoy!

Franklin

OK Roy here begins the soggy saga of Franklin in the older days. We first visited Franklin ca. 1963. We were living in Schenectady, New York then. We were on the way to a gem show somewhere down south and stopped by Franklin to see what it was like. At the time there was a place known as Dale and Demko’s. There was a restaurant and gift shop on route 28 before the mines. We stayed in one of the cabins up on the hill behind the restaurant. They were new then and quite nice. It only took a few years of inattention to completely destroy the place.

Our first mine was Shuler’s. It was run by Mr. Shuler himself. He was…