Lost Mine at Hanging Rock Traditional Cache

Lost Mine at Hanging Rock

A few miles northwest of Ft Blackmore, near the Clinch River, is said to the remains of a hidden mine that is rich in copper ore.  In the mid nineteenth century, a man by the name of Raymond Steele regularly appeared in Kings Landing with huge raft-loads of high-grade copper ore.  During these regular visits, he sold more than $50,000 worth of the rich mineral over a three or four year period.

Wanting to keep the location of his mine secret, Steele filed a mining claim on a tract of land that was actually about two miles from the shaft.  Living in a cabin near the Clinch River with his daughter, Steele continued to mine until he learned through a government survey that the mining claim he had filed was on another man’s property.

Though he would have liked to buy the land, he knew that an offer might reveal the location of the mine.  Instead, he and his daughter sealed up the mine, careful to hide any signs of digging, and made plans to go “Back East.”  His plan was to stay away for two or three years and then approach the owner about buying the land, under the pretense of farming the acreage.

However, Steele never made it further east than Roanoke, where he could keep up on the progress of SW Virginia mineral exploration and development.  But before he was able to return to the Ft Blackmore area, he died and his daughter eventually married, moving west without ever returning to Ft Blackmore. Though the folks in Scott County never saw the miner or his daughter again, the legend of the lost copper mine continued to be told.