Introduction
Agriculture, fishing, forestry, and mining—what geographers call
primary economic activities—have always been important to North
Carolina’s economy and at times have employed most of the state’s
residents. Today, however, these activities represent a diminishing share
of the Tar Heel economy. The farming industry is changing as a result
of technological progress, the rise of large-scale farms, and the decline
of small farms. The United States Department of Agriculture’s tobacco
buyout program is altering a way of life that for some families goes back
many generations. Environmental concerns about hog lagoons, overfishing,
mining, and deforestation cause controversy and concern. These issues
will affect the state’s economy for years to come.
Agriculture, Fishing, Forestry, and Mining and the Five Themes of
Geography
The theme of Human Environment Interactions figures most prominently in
the study of primary economic activities in North Carolina. The other
themes play important roles as well.
- Location: Lessons about agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining activities in the state can include instruction in both relative and absolute locations. As North Carolina exports the products of its primary economic activities across the nation and world, these lessons can also illustrate how far goods travel.
- Place: North Carolina’s primary economic activities have drawn new residents for hundreds of years and have shaped the human characteristics of the state.
- Human Environment Interactions: Primary economic activities have modified North Carolina’s environment.
- Movement: The products generated by primary economic activities move inside and outside North Carolina. New technologies related to these activities come into the state; those that originate here are disseminated beyond its borders. Technology, markets, natural resources, natural disasters, and urbanization all affect primary economic activities and the movement of people to, within, and out North Carolina.
- Regions: The landforms, climate, and natural resources of North Carolina’s three geographical regions determine the primary economic activities that occur there.
Agriculture
The Paleo-Indians, the first people to live in what is now North Carolina,
arrived at least twelve thousand years ago. They depended on the land
for their survival, gathering wild plants, fishing, and hunting. They
were seasonal nomads who adapted to their environment. Because the climate
was much colder then, they had fairly limited food sources. During the
Archaic period (8000–1000 BC), food sources grew as the average
annual temperature rose. Archaeological evidence suggests that by about
2000 BC, American Indians had begun to plant, tend, and harvest some of
their food as they settled in permanent locations. Squash, beans, and
maize, known as the “Three Sisters,” were the main crops of
the Woodland Indian culture (1000 BC–AD 1550). By the time European
settlers arrived in North Carolina in the 1500s, Indians had well-established
agricultural practices.
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This 1908 photograph shows a Cherokee woman using a mortar and pestle to grind corn into flour. Corn remained a staple for many American Indians into the early 1900s. The wording in the note on the bottom of the photograph reflects the time in which it was taken. Courtesy of the N.C. Museum of History. |
American Indians also had well-established trade routes connecting communities from the coast to the mountains and from present-day Virginia to South Carolina at the time of European contact. They traded farming tools, tobacco, and gourds for metal tools, glass and metal storage containers, and fruit tree seeds. The settlers learned about local agriculture from Indians and began planting corn, which rapidly became a staple food, and other crops.
Enslaved workers introduced crops from Africa, which had a great influence on North Carolina’s agricultural economy. One of their largest contributions was rice. Rice, which came from the “Rice Coast” of West Africa, proved a crucial moneymaking crop along parts of the coastal Carolinas and Georgia in the 1700s. Africans from the rice-growing region became valuable assets in the New World because they knew how to plant, harvest, and process the lucrative grain. Rice plantations were so dependent on slave labor that the emancipation of slaves quickly ended rice farming in the South. Some crops brought by Africans, however, have had a lasting impact: cotton, peanuts, and several grains for feeding hogs and poultry all remain important to North Carolina’s agricultural industry today.
Europeans brought grains, including wheat, rye, oats, and barley; cultivated tree fruits, garden vegetables, and herbs; hogs, sheep, goats, cows, and poultry; and horses and oxen for transportation and draft power to North Carolina. Unlike its neighboring colonies, North Carolina had few large plantations. Most farmers were yeomen, owning few, if any, slaves or indentured servants. These small farmers were largely self-sufficient, selling their surpluses locally. Corn quickly became an important crop that fed both people and livestock. The planters in the colony—those who owned large farms and often had slaves—raised cash crops like rice, cotton, and North Carolina’s most important commercial crop, tobacco. Plantations were largely located in the Coastal Plain. Though tobacco was the most important nongrain crop, it remained the fourth-largest export product behind naval stores, provisions, and lumber/shingles/barrels. The colony also lagged far behind Virginia and Maryland in tobacco production.
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Corn crib, part of Nathaniel Macon's homestead in Warren County, built ca. 1758. Macon, originally a farmer, became a statesman and served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Courtesy of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. |
North Carolina agriculture changed little after the Revolutionary War. But improved technology and transportation increased both production and access to markets, and planters began to diversify, growing cotton, tobacco, indigo, rice, wheat, and corn as cash crops. Hogs and beef cattle were also a major source of income, and drovers led tens of thousands of livestock to various parts of the state and to South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and other states. By 1860 the state’s population remained largely rural and devoted to agriculture. Approximately 70 per cent of the landowners owned less than 100 acres each and had no slaves, and only 2 percent owned more than 500 acres. The average farm had 316 acres. The 1860 census listed 121 planters and 85,198 farmers. The farm remained the basic unit of economic production and social organization.
The Agricultural Depression and Recovery
The destruction caused by the Civil War, the emancipation of slaves, and
the bad economy following the war led to difficult times on North Carolina
farms. Some struggling white farmers and newly freed African Americans
became tenant farmers, who rented the land they tended. Others became
sharecroppers, who borrowed land and farming equipment from landowners,
had little say over what or when crops were planted, and gave their harvest
income to the landowners as rent. Sharecroppers often grew one of the
two cash crops that still promised to make money in the depressed times—cotton
and tobacco. Sharecropping and tenant farming continued in many areas
of North Carolina until the 1940s.
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A woman stands next to a bee hive (also known as bee gums) ca. 1900-1915. The photo's label reads "Bee gums! In the Carolina's. Photo by Margaret W. Morley." North Carolinians have been keeping bees since the 1600s, when settlers brought European honey bees with them. Named as the state insect in 1973, bees are today responsible for the annual production of more than $2 million worth of honey in the state. However, their greatest value is their role as pollinators of North Carolina crops. Courtesy of the N.C. Museum of History. |
Although agricultural technology advanced, few farmers had enough money to take advantage of it, so farming remained very labor intensive. Farmers in North Carolina were hit harder still during the Depression, receiving even less for their harvests. Most turned to growing cotton, one of the few crops still making money. However, large cotton harvests of the 1920s had produced a glut on the market, and prices for that commodity fell too. Raising hogs became less profitable when competition from midwestern hog producers lowered prices and new regulations requiring the use of hog pens increased production costs.
The post–World War II era saw the number of North Carolina farms decrease but farm size increase. The use of tractors, which had grown during the war (late compared with most other states), led to this increase in size. The larger farms diversified, producing sweet potatoes, soybeans, beef, milk, poultry, and eggs. Meanwhile, tobacco production continued to rise. Agriculture had become big business in the state by the 1960s, but the number of small farms steadily dropped, a trend that continues today.
Hog production had a resurgence in the 1970s and became a major industry, mainly in eastern North Carolina. By the 1980s farmers had begun hiring short-term migrant laborers, primarily Latinos, to help with planting and harvesting crops. Tobacco production dropped sharply in the 1990s the result of a decreasing demand for tobacco products, declining government quotas for production, and the importation of cheaper foreign tobacco into the United States.
Agriculture Today—and Tomorrow
Both the number of farms and the amount of farmland in North Carolina
have decreased in recent years. From 1997 to 2001, the number of farms
dropped from 59,000 to 56,000 and farm acreage decreased from 9,500,000
to 9,100,000. The average farm size in North Carolina (163 acres) remains
considerably smaller than the national average (436 acres).
However, agriculture is still big business in North Carolina, generating nearly $8 billion in 2001. Only seven states earned more from agriculture. The Tar Heel State is the number one producer of tobacco and sweet potatoes, turning out about 39 percent of total U.S. production for both products. It ranks second in the production of hogs, Christmas trees, pickling cucumbers, lima beans, trout, and turkeys, and third in turnip greens, collard greens, and poultry and egg products. Overall, North Carolina ranks among the top ten states for the production of over thirty products.
Chart and map courtesy of the North
Carolina Atlas Revisited
The traditional products—corn, hogs, tobacco, and cotton—are still important in the state and are all produced primarily in eastern and central North Carolina. Corn is strong and stable, but cotton prices are dropping, the tobacco industry is in a state of change, and large hog farms have created serious environmental problems that must be addressed. Meanwhile, farmers have been diversifying into new territory. New trends in North Carolina agriculture include agri-tourism, such as corn mazes and pick-your-own produce farms, floriculture (flowers), vineyards, and organic farming.
Fishing
Can You See Food? Yes, I Can! Seafood in North Carolina’s Waters
By William N. Still Jr.
Reprinted from Tar Heel Junior Historian 28 (spring 1989),
30–34.
The seafood industry once was the most important industry in the tidewater section of the state. In earlier days fishing was primarily for subsistence. For the colonial settlers living in North Carolina’s tidewater section, fish from the sea was probably the most important food. In 1765 a French traveler wrote that the “inhabitants [of Beaufort] seem miserable, they are very lazy . . . they live mostly on fish and oysters. . . .” The same French traveler mentioned that some colonists caught fish in the rivers and salted them. Fish were placed in salt to preserve them for eating later because refrigeration and ice were not available. Salted fish such as shad and alewives were then shipped to inland cities and the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea.
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Fishing
was important in the traditional diets of many American Indians.
The photograph on the left shows Jim Tail, a Cherokee, in 1908.
Tail is equipped with fishing gear elaborated by the text at the
bottom of the photograph that reads "Jim Tail, fisherman, fishing
pole, fish, basket and bait of wasp grubs." On the right is
a Cherokee fish basket, made in 1900, similar to the one Tail wears.
Courtesy of the N.C. Museum of History. |
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During the colonial period, nearly all fishing was done on the rivers. Most of it was done from shore because the sounds and ocean were considered too rough for fishing from small boats. As early as 1765, the inhabitants fished with nets on the Chowan River in the northeastern part of the state. Some harpoon fishing for whales was conducted off Cape Lookout.
As early as 1681, the eight Lords Proprietors were informed that “there are many whales upon the coast of Carolina.” Much money could made in the whaling business and there was a need for whale oil for lighting. The proprietors, in 1715, encouraged whale fishermen to settle in North Carolina by saying, “such persons as are willing to come and settle [in North Carolina] to catch whale, Sturgeon, or any Royal Fish . . . paying only two deer skins yearly to the Lords as an acknowledgement to them for the same. . . .” Some New England whalers were attracted to the area. They used Lookout Harbor at Cape Lookout, Carteret County, as a base and hunted in the waters off Cape Hatteras. They used large sailing ships and stayed at sea for weeks and months.
Men from North Carolina fished for whales from shore in the vicinity of Cape Lookout. This shore-based whaling began during the colonial period. In shore-based whaling, the whalers used small boats that they kept on the beach and launched when a whale was sighted. The center of North Carolina’s whaling industry in the 1800s was Diamond City, located near Cape Lookout. Late in the 1800s, whale oil was not worth as much money, fewer whales appeared off the North Carolina coast, and in 1899, Diamond City was destroyed by a hurricane. With these changes came the end of the whaling industry in North Carolina.
Fishing in the 1800s was still done primarily in the rivers. Yet more boats were being used. Fishermen began to leave land more and go further into the sounds. In addition to whales, herring and shad, commercial fishermen caught over forty other species. Most of these were sold locally.
In 1815 two northern fishermen began using long haul seines in Albemarle Sound. Long haul seines are nets pulled through the water between two boats. That year is considered to be the beginning of the commercial fishing industry in North Carolina. Soon catching shad and herring in this region became one of the most important fishing industries in North Carolina.
In 1860 these fish catches were the main reason why North Carolina ranked second in the South in commercial fishing. Yet problems remained for North Carolina’s commercial fishermen. The fishing industry was still small. In 1860 the fish and shellfish commercially sold were valued at only $120,000. It was difficult to preserve seafood during shipment, and it was difficult to transport seafood to markets. Only those fish and shellfish that could be salted or smoked to preserve them—such as herring, shad, and oyster—were exported. Without adequate preservation techniques and a good transportation system in the eastern part of the state, seafood could not be shipped for sale.
In the post–Civil War years, commercial fishing expanded rapidly for a number of reasons. Transportation improved. There were better roads, more railroads, and a more efficient system of water transportation—steamboats. It became easier to preserve seafood. With the use of ice, fishermen could send fresh fish to be sold in the Piedmont and to other parts of the country. (Ice was usually brought to the fishing communities by boat or railroad from the northern states. Salt continued to be used to preserve many types of fish.) Also better fishing equipment and more efficient methods of fishing were introduced in these years. Steam power aided fishing, for small steamboats could carry larger nets in the sounds and rivers. After 1900, gasoline-powered boats were being used. They made it possible to go farther and faster from shore in search of fish.
In the late 1800s, one of the largest and most valuable aspects of the fishing industry was menhaden fishing. The menhaden fishing industry originated in the northeastern United States. It came to North Carolina immediately after the Civil War. In the 1860s and 1870s, menhaden processing plants were built on Harkers Island, in Carteret County, on Portsmouth Island, across Core Sound in Carteret County, and near Oregon Inlet, in Dare County. It became the most important fish caught (in terms of money value) in the 1900s. Catches of millions of fish were possible because they schooled together near the water’s surface, making them easy to spot and catch.
Other seafood, such as shellfish, have not been as important as fish in North Carolina’s waters. . . . Before the 1880s only small amounts of oysters were shipped out of North Carolina, but beginning in the 1880s, oysters became important in the state’s seafood industry. It was not until the 1880s that large numbers could be shipped to seafood markets in the cities. And when Chesapeake Bay’s oyster population declined, Virginia oystermen started coming to North Carolina to catch oysters. . . . Attempts were made by North Carolina authorities to regulate the oyster industry, but these efforts were unsuccessful. North Carolina’s oyster industry declined in the 1900s. . . . Commercial harvesting of clams has always been limited in North Carolina, and the same is true of scallops.
Until the last fifty years, crabs and shrimp were considered pests. People considered them insects or bugs and refused to eat them. They were of no value to commercial fishermen and were frequently thrown back in the water when they were caught. Fishing for blue crabs did not become important until the 1930s and has continued to be a valuable fishing industry in this state. During the late 1800s and the early 1900s, some shrimp were caught by commercial fishermen. Up until the 1930s, nearly all of the North Carolina shrimp were caught in Brunswick County, in the southeastern part of the state. Since then, shrimping has spread as far north as Pamlico Sound. The industry began to expand rapidly in the post–World War II years when offshore fishing developed. Its peak was in 1953 when 14.6 million pounds were harvested. Since then the shrimp-fishing industry has remained the number one seafood above all others. |
 Fishermen unloading shrimp on a boat in Southport, ca. 1945. Courtesy of the N.C. Museum of History. |
 Six gentlemen enjoy leisure fishing in Manteo ca. 1900-1920. Courtesy of the N.C. Museum of History. |
Offshore sport fishing also became an important aspect of the fishing industry in the post–World War II years. Before the war nearly all sport fishing was confined to the sounds and rivers. The big game fish at that time was the channel bass. Offshore sport fishing started in Southport in the late 1920s when a few individuals began to go out to the Gulf Stream. They caught amberjack, albacore, wahoo, bonito, barracuda, blue marlin, and red snapper. |
The seafood industry has continued to grow in North Carolina. . . . But today fishing may be a dying industry. North Carolina’s waters are polluted by cities, farms, and industries many miles upriver or just yards from the water. Federal, state, and local governments are looking for ways to help fishermen, but little is being done to improve water quality. If the waters remain polluted and the fish die, fishing will only be seen in photographs and not on the waters of North Carolina.
[end of Tar Heel Junior Historian article]
Fishing Today—and
Tomorrow
North Carolina’s 320 miles of coastline, plus sounds, bays, rivers,
marshlands, lakes, and streams, have always provided plenty of opportunities
for fishing, and residents and visitors have long taken advantage of them.
Although commercial fishing is one of the state’s oldest economic
activities, it is not a major statewide industry. But it is important
along the coast and, to a lesser extent, in the Mountain region.
In 2002 close to 111 million pounds of fish and 49 million pounds of shellfish, worth over $94 million, were caught commercially in the state. In addition, aquaculture—fish farming—brought in over $20 million in the same year, with the production of primarily trout in the Mountain region and catfish in the Coastal Plain. Aquaculture is a growing industry in North Carolina, and its future looks bright as it fills growing demands resulting from the decline of marine fisheries.
Overfishing in marine areas over many years has led to large declines in several fish species. Destruction of fish habitats is another serious issue, as well as problems such as Pfiesteria (a sometimes toxic dinoflagellate associated with fish lesions and fish kills in coastal waters) and eutrophication (water pollution caused by excessive plant nutrients). Fish management legislation is in place for both commercial and recreational fishing to curb overfishing, and pollution laws limit materials toxic to fish from entering the state’s waters.
Forestry
North Carolina has a wide range of forest vegetation stretching from the
Mountains to the sea. The southern Coastal Plain is dominated by longleaf
pines, while in the northern part of the region, mixed pines and hardwoods
prevail. In the Piedmont, oak, hickory, and pine are plentiful. In the
Mountain region, oaks grow up to an elevation of 4,500 feet, above which
spruce and fir are found. These natural resources provide much more than
lumber, including food and cover for wildlife and fish, erosion control,
medicinal plants, pine needles used for mulch, and areas for recreation.
In an economic sense, however, forest products represent the most important
use of forests, and North Carolinians have been taking advantage of this
fact since the colonial period.
Large pine forests hindered colonists in North Carolina, who were intent on clearing land for farming. In the 1720s, however, colonists began to take advantage of the trees to make tar, pitch, and turpentine from pine resin. These products, known as naval stores, were essential for the caulk, paint, and wood preservatives used to build and maintain ships. Although the industry was profitable on its own, the Naval Stores Act, passed by Parliament in an effort to cut British dependence on foreign sources of naval stores, encouraged the production of commodities by paying producers premiums. The Cape Fear River valley, with its abundance of longleaf pines (prized for their high resin yield) and river access to Wilmington, became the center of production. Planters who owned large tracts of land and many slaves produced most of the naval stores. By 1768, 60 percent of the naval stores exported from the colonies came from North Carolina. Colonists also produced barrels, planks, cypress shingles, fencing, and boats from their vast forests.
The naval stores industry flourished in North Carolina until the beginning of the Civil War. In fact, in 1840 the state produced 96 percent of the nation’s naval stores, and in 1860 turpentine production was the state’s leading industry. However, technological advances in the mid-1860s gradually reduced the need for naval stores. Mismanagement in the late 1800s and early 1900s, together with years of overproduction, led to further decline of naval stores production. By 1929 naval stores were no longer produced in the state.
This photo
from the museum's collection, dating between 1880 and 1900, shows Randolph
Mills, a lumber mill in Randolph County. "18 years/18 ago" is
written in pencil on the top right.
Lumber was also important during the early history of the state. Most lumber, usually produced by operators of small sawmills, was used locally or regionally. Lumber production peaked in the early 1900s. Shortly thereafter, the clear-cutting of forests for logging and farming had caused a significant decrease in forested areas and caused severe soil erosion and stream sedimentation. North Carolina, though, became a leader in forestry management, with the nation’s first school of forestry, Biltmore Forest School, opening in 1898. North Carolinians who were intent on the conservation and improvement of forests also helped the state secure the first national forest east of the Mississippi, Pisgah National Forest, in 1915. Since then, more sustainable methods of taking products from forests have been implemented, such as replanting areas and limiting clear-cutting, and forestry has remained of significance importance to the state’s economy.
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The Biltmore Forest School near Brevard. Today the building is part of the Cradle of Forestry in America, a 6,500 acre historic site within the Pisgah National Forest, set aside by Congress to commemorate the beginning of forestry conservation in the United States. Courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Commerce. |
Forestry Today—and
Tomorrow
The following statistics reflect the importance of the forestry industry
to North Carolina’s economy.
- North Carolina has more timberland today than it had in 1938. Sixty percent of all land in the state, 18.7 million acres, is timberland. Individuals own 40 percent; farmers own 27 percent; federal, forest companies own or lease 13 percent; state, and local governments own 11 percent; and other corporations own 9 percent.
- Of the timberland in North Carolina, hardwood forests account for 53 percent; pine forests, 33 percent; and oak-pine forests, 14 percent. Of the more than sixty commercial species of trees, the most important are yellow and white pine, red and white oak, soft maple, sweet gum, ash, and yellow poplar.
- Nineteen percent of all manufacturing firms in the state, 2,256 establishments, produce wood products. The wood products industry employs 18 percent of the state’s manufacturing workers, or nearly 136,000 individuals. The industry’s annual payroll is $3.8 billion, ranking it behind only textile mill products and apparel.
- North Carolina’s forest products industry includes lumber, hardwood veneer, pulpwood, furniture lumber, flooring, plywood, wood chips, and paper products. The state is also one of the country’s largest producers of Christmas trees (it ranked second in 2003).
- The total value of wood products shipments is $19 billion annually, or 11 percent of the state’s total exports.
Despite the state’s early emphasis on forest conservation, forestlands have been threatened in recent years by a rapidly increasing population and the upsurge of development in traditionally rural areas, a reduced timber harvest in the western states leading to a greater demand from North Carolina forests, and increasingly fragmented forest areas. However, with proper forestry management, including increasing annual growth and extending the time between regeneration and harvest, the outlook is cautiously optimistic for the state’s forest resources and the important economic contribution they make.
Mining
North Carolina has an abundance of rocks and minerals. More than three
hundred varieties are known to occur in the state. Of these, over seventy
have commercial or industrial uses. Consequently, North Carolinians have
been mining materials for thousands of years.
The earliest miners were American Indians, who used rocks and minerals for tools and clay for pottery. About four thousand to five thousand years ago, some Indian groups used soapstone to carve bowls, vessels, and ornaments. They also mined mica to create ornaments and to trade with groups as far away as the Ohio River Valley.
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto was lured to North Carolina by tales of gold-bearing mountains, but he left disappointed. Gradually, though, settlers did discover mineral deposits in the Mountain region. In 1767 English china maker Josiah Wedgwood sent Thomas Griffiths to North Carolina to find raw clay for pottery. Griffiths mined more than five tons of white china clay, called kaolin, in Macon County and shipped it to England. Wedgwood found a better supply in England the following year, and no more kaolin was mined in North Carolina until the 1880s.
In 1788 the General Assembly passed legislation encouraging the development of local iron ore mines and refining operations. As a result, many small iron forges were built in central and western North Carolina in the early to mid-1800s. The iron industry flourished and helped stabilize early development in the state. Most of the iron ore came from small deposits along the eastern edge of the Piedmont. The industry began to decline in the late 1800s with the advent of better transportation and discoveries of larger deposits elsewhere in the country.
The discovery of gold in Cabarrus County in 1799, the first documented gold find in the United States, is credited with ushering in the first period of significant mining in the country. Legend has it that Conrad Reed, the twelve-year-old son of an immigrant farmer, found a large yellow rock in Little Meadow Creek on his family’s property while fishing. This rock reportedly weighed seventeen pounds and for three years was used as a doorstop at the Reed house. In 1802 a jeweler identified it as a gold nugget. The Reeds began a mining operation, and a twenty-eight-pound nugget was unearthed the first year. Gold mining gradually spread to nearby counties and eventually into other southern states. During its peak years, gold mining was second only to farming in the number of North Carolinians it employed. The estimated value of gold recovered reached over $1 million a year. North Carolina led the nation in gold production until 1848, when it was eclipsed by the great rush to California. The last underground mining conducted at Reed Gold Mine occurred in 1912. The mine operates today as a state historic site, where you can try your luck at panning for gold.
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The Bechtlers
One famous immigrant who came to North Carolina during this gold rush was Christopher Bechtler, Sr. He came to Rutherford County in 1830 with his son Augustus and a nephew, Christopher Jr. The Bechtlers were experienced metalworkers who had immigrated from Germany to Philadelphia shortly before coming to Rutherford County. A short time after opening a jewelry shop in Rutherfordton, Christopher Sr. apparently realized that the regional economy was hurt by a lack of gold coins for use in trade. At the time, people in North Carolina were often using gold dust, nuggets, and jewelry as currency. Few people dared to make the long trip to the United States Mint in Philadelphia, where gold could be made into coins. As a result, the Bechtlers decided to coin gold. They made their own dies and a press and struck $5.00, $2.50, and $1.00 gold pieces. Between 1831 and 1840, the Bechtlers coined $2,241,840.50 and processed an additional $1,384,000.00 in gold. Because of their success a branch of the United States Mint was established in Charlotte in 1837.
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In 1867 commercial mica mining began in the state. Originally used as a material for windows in lanterns and wood- and coal-burning stoves, mica was later used by the electronics industry as an electrical insulator. Today North Carolina leads the nation in mining mica, which is used in wallpaper, paint, and fireproofing material. Since 1917 the state has also led in the production of feldspar (used to make glass and ceramics), which is mined primarily in Spruce Pine, Mitchell County. The state is first in pyrophyllite production as well, with 99 percent of the nation’s supply coming from Alamance, Orange, and Moore counties. An aluminum silicate, pyrophyllite is used in ceramics and refractories. North Carolina ranks second in lithium, phosphate, olivine, and clay mining. Sand, gravel, and stone mining are also big business in the state.
North Carolina is also known for a variety of precious and semiprecious stones found in the Piedmont and Mountain regions. Emeralds, the state gemstone, are found in Hiddenite, Alexander County, and the Spruce Pine area. The two largest emeralds ever recovered in North America came from the Tar Heel State. North Carolina also lays claim to the two largest star sapphires ever found. Most gem mines in the state today are for amateurs hoping to find emeralds, rubies, sapphires, hiddenite, and garnets in crushed ore.
The North Carolina mining industry, though small, is important to the state’s economy, and the demand for its products, especially those used building materials, is growing. Mining can cause air and water pollution and inflict great damage to the land, but relatively small areas of North Carolina have been affected by it.
Documenting the American South: Board of Agriculture: North Carolina
and Its Resources
http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/state/menu.html
Gold in North Carolina
http://www.geology.enr.state.nc.us/Gold%20brochure/Gold%20Brochure%2012222000.htm
Harvesting the Hardwoods: Logging, Lumbering, and Forestry in Southern
Appalachia
http://www.etsu.edu/cass/Archives/Subjects/Hardwoods/intro.htm
History of Forestry
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/forestry/hough/index.html
Horne Creek Farm State Historic Site
http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/horne/horne.htm
Industrial Minerals: Geography of N.C.
http://www.geology.enr.state.nc.us/NCIndustrialMineralsForum/pages/geologyofnc.htm
North Carolina Atlas: Agriculture
http://www.ncatlasrevisited.org/homefrm.html
(click on Agriculture)
North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
http://www.ncagr.com/
North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services: N.C.
Seafood
http://www.ncagr.com/markets/seafood/index.htm
North Carolina Farm Bureau: Ag in the Classroom
http://www.ncfb.com/aitc/homeindex.htm
North Carolina Forests
http://www.ncforestry.org/docs/Ncforest/index.htm
North Carolina Museum of Forestry
http://www.wilmingtontoday.com/Attractions/Museums/Forestry.html
Reed Gold Mine State Historic Site
http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/reed/reed.htm
Tobacco Farm Life Museum
http://www.tobaccofarmlifemuseum.org/
Assignment 2
Complete one of the following assignments:
Option1:
Create a lesson plan for your students using the relevant state symbols
to teach about agriculture, fishing, forestry, and/or mining in North
Carolina. See http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/NC/SYMBOLS/SYMBOLS.HTM
for information about the symbols.
Option 2: (If you are seeking reading credits, choose
this option.)
Create a vocabulary list for your students using terms associated with
agriculture, fishing, forestry, and/or mining that will give them an idea
of the processes and/or equipment utilized. Include a discussion on the
meaning and purpose of jargon. The following Web sites are a starting
point for vocabulary:
http://www.agclassroom.org/teacher/pdf/agcounts/6glossary.pdf (agriculture), http://www.pbs.org/emptyoceans/glossary.html (fishing), http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/leaf/educators/Vocab/VocabT.shtml (forestry), and http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/reed/glossary.htm (gold mining).
Submit your completed assignments via e-mail to: tricia.l.blakistone@ncmail.net.