The Virginia Geological Survey Bulletin has excellent info on the  
copper deposits. The general area is known and in one of the accounts  
there was a story of a set of miners in the 1880's breaking into an  
"old works" with antique tools. That must have been one  
contemporaneous with Byrd as it had passed out of living memory. That  
is the only one that is locatable. Some of the others are in the  
empoundments of the Roanoke River.

The folks doing the mining were all big-time Indian traders. Getting  
smelted copper to a port for shipment (the preferred alternative for  
the Crown) was 80 miles to Petersburg by pack mule. There are no  
records of exports that I've found yet. So, given that they were  
Indian traders, and that copper was a prized commodity, it might be  
we're looking in the wrong places. We should be looking in NC, TN,  
and Alabama for VA copper objects traded down the pipeline. Copper in  
the Dept. of Historic Resources collection from Late Woodland  
villages has been tested and has been found to be Native Copper from  
Minnesota or European in origin. None from VA was identified. So, no  
exports, no VA copper in VA, and everyone Mine Mad according to Byrd.  
Vast effort to chase ore veins suggests an economically viable  
enterprise of some antiquity. My conclusion would be that they were  
either unproductive or else it was traded. Now all we need is one  
smelter site to test, and to talk with the SHPO offices in the  
southern states to see what they have.

Lyle Browning, RPA


On Mar 8, 2007, at 9:49 AM, Sunshine49 wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone had tried using the expertise of a  
> geologist to find possible copper deposits along, I presume, the  
> Va./ NC border; you might find the mines Byrd spoke of, and other  
> archaeological sites as a result. Maybe enlist the help of some  
> adventurous, civic minded geologist who's up for some exploration  
> [and works for free]?
>
> Nancy
>
> -------
> I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
>
> --Daniel Boone
>
>
>
> On Mar 8, 2007, at 8:02 AM, Brent Tarter wrote:
>
>> In partial response to Tom Magnuson, who wrote,
>>
>> "We don't have nearly enough information on who was out in the
>> backcountry when or where, and we really should encourage an
>> archaeological emphasis to tell that story as it is almost entirely
>> undocumented.  We know there were many living beyond the reach of law
>> from earliest times and in increasing numbers as indentures  
>> matured.  We
>> don't know how many or where.
>>
>> "Can list members familiar with VA priorities and resources  
>> suggest if
>> there is a chance that this sort of subject will get serious
>> consideration in the near future?  And if it is a possibility, what
>> would need to be done to get such a large scale, long term project
>> started?   I know they ain't pretty but they sure are interesting  
>> folk."
>>
>> I suggest taking a look at Warren Hofstra's The Planting of New
>> Virginia: Settlement and Landscape in the Shenandoah Valley (Johns
>> Hopkins University Press, 2004), which employes archaeological and a
>> wide variety of other evidence to very good effect in describing how
>> people in the lower Shenandoah Valley developed their distinctive
>> communities.
>>
>> Brent Tarter
>> The Library of Virginia
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Visit the Library of Virginia's Web site at http://www.lva.lib.va.us
>>
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