The Wilmington, North Carolina firm of Bannister, Cowan & Company, in its glowing report titled, just as glowingly, The Resources of North Carolina: Its Natural Wealth, Condition, and Advantages, as Existing in 1869. Presented to the Capitalists and People of the Central and Northern States, wrote that Ò[t]he three most noted copper mines in the northwestern part of the State are the Elk Knob, Peach Bottom, and Ore Knob. É In the southeast corner of Ashe County is another mine of some note, known as Gap Creek [aka the Copper Knob Mine].Ó
THERE'S COPPER IN THEM THAR HILLS! contains the histories of those four mines, which, as Bannister, Cowan & Company pointed out in its report, were all located in the mountains of northwest North Carolina: the Elk Knob Mine in Watauga County, the Copper Knob Mine and the Ore Knob Mine in Ashe County, and the Peach Bottom Mine in Alleghany County.