Coosa Valley 1

Explorations around Coosa Creek - I started out looking for old home sites and fall wildflowers but wound up exploring the remains of gold mining operations from the turn of the last century. 1 - Bowers Cove

Fallen mortared-stone chimney at old home site

A huge mushroom, about 12 inches across

This appears to be an Amanita species...

Along the upper end of Coosa Creek are jumbles of stone walls, and rock-lined channels. Many of these are the remains of ground sluices from the Coosa Crk placer gold mining operations. A century of vegetative growth, deadfall and flooding have made it difficult to comprehend the original lay-out of these ruins.



Narrow stone-lined sluice, now dry and full of leaves and sticks.

All that remained at another home site were two rock piles, a dump, and stones from a long collapsed chimney.

Water was bubbling from a nice mossy stone-lined spring head that is located nearby.

This meadow was covered with Coneflowers, 6-7 feet tall.

Coneflowers

I hadn't seen a black snake all year, and saw two within 100 feet of each other as I drove down a FS road. This Black Rat Snake was the first one.

It stretched almost across the entire width of the forest road!

Getting back in my truck to drive on, I immediately came across a second Rat Snake, barely a hundred feet down the road.

This one wasn't quite as long as the first, but still pretty big!
2 - Further downstream on Coosa Creek can be found better evidence of the old placer mining, as well as an example of hard rock mining:

Approaching the entrance to a mine adit / tunnel.

The rock face above the entrance collapsed in recent years.

This photo from a 2013 GATC field trip shows a clear path to the entrance, with a laid-rock facing above the entry frame. (Photo from "The Georgia Mountaineer", Vol. 88, No. 1; January 2014)

Apparently all the rock in the foreground collapsed from the ledge above the entrance sometime in the past 5-6 years.

Interior of the Coosa Creek Mine adit It appears that water was pumped out of the mine in recent times. It was still pretty mucky inside.

Evidence of extensive placer mining is still seen near the creek.

Numerous rock-lined channels still traverse the area.

These sluices are more extensive (and in better condition) than those I saw at Bowers Cove.



More examples of the Coosa Creek Mine placer operations...

A wider view, showing several sections of walls between the sluices. The natural creek bed is about 150 feet to the rear.

A photo from this mine in the early 1900s illustrates the use of ground sluices in placer mining. (From Bulletin B-19, Second Report on the Gold Deposits of Georgia, GSG, 1909)

Another photo of the Coosa Creek mine operation, late 1800s. You can see the edge of one of the ground sluice walls at lower left. (From Bulletin B-4A, Preliminary Report on the Gold Deposits of Georgia, GSG, 1896)

Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana) These plants, parasitic on the roots of American Beech, are unobtrusive and often overlooked, but very abundant this time of year (early autumn).

Beechdrops - Close-up of flowers...

Bowers Cove Index	South Union Co. Mine Index
Towns-Union Mining Index	S Towns - S Union Co. Index