Thought This Was Interesting

[hydrogeologist]

wireupdate.com/local/at-least-77-bodies-found-in-abandoned-mexican-silver-mine%E2%80%8E-drug-gangs-suspected%E2%80%8E/

So this happened at a mine in Mexico, but about 7 years ago I heard a very similar story about the Ore Knob Mine in Avery Co., NC. The information source told me that the Ore Knob, due to its deep shafts, became a favorite body dump for Hells Angels drug deal-gone-bad victims. I was told that so much organic matter fell into the shafts each year that the recently-dumped bodies were covered up almost instantly. I also was told that when the Feds excavated the shafts there were so many bodies that they stopped digging and ended the investigation.

Has anybody else heard about this or a similar story, maybe at a different mine in the area? Or maybe, know enough to credit/discredit the story I heard a looooong time ago and just remembered???

Lawrence

[ncbbqnut]

Hey Lawrence,

The history of the Ore Knob Mine (a copper mine in Ashe Co., NC) has been long and varied as far as mining activity, but I have never heard of any body dumping that went on in that area. The mine has been closed for a long time now, and was purchased by the state several years ago for the purpose of cleaning and neutralizing run-off that had gone unchecked for many years.

Chalcopyrite was the chief ore mined and the sulfuric acid run-off was so bad that Little Peak Creek had a pH less than 3 and fish, salamanders, and macroinvertebrates were killed by the thousands. The state Wildlife Resources Commission, Division of Water Quality, and NCDOT partnered to neutralize the outlet stream and surrounding landscape. Today, the stream fauna is returning slowly. The old mine area is posted and collecting is no longer allowed, as far as I can tell.

I know several law enforcement folks and wildlife officers in that county, and no one has ever mentioned bodies being dumped in the mine. I cannot verify your story, but will ask around the next time I am in that area. It's a great story, and I can just imagine one of the mountain folk dumping a "revenooer" down the shaft when moonshine was the main cash crop in the county.

Peace,

Dennis

[hydrogeologist]

Thanks Dennis.

A cursory internet search didn't turn anything up, either. I'm now stuck wondering if it was actually the Ore Knob Mine or another mine that was mentioned altogether. The story just sounded too eerie to be fictitious, especially with all the details that were given. Of course a lot of mining-related stories might be a little exaggerated or altogether untrue and told only for the sake of telling. A former coworker of mine mapped the geology of the area surrounding a marble mine off of 80 and was good friends with the man that owned it (Bud ?) and leased it to several headstone/monument companies over the years. This is actually the locale referenced by Rick in his book and marble outcrops can be seen on the RR tracks on the way to the Abernathy mine. The owner told my coworker that he sank the small shaft further down the tracks from the Abernathy Mine in the '50s and told him that they actually sunk a shaft in the middle of the S. Toe River at the same time. Just goes to show you that a lot of mining-related stories might be a liiiiiiiiittle exaggerated or have the facts distorted along the way.

Lawrence