Black Mountain Mines

The mines in Black Mountain were created in the 1920's for the arsenic in these hills which was used to combat a boll weevil infestation at the time.  There is also rumor that they were used at one point to mine gold.  The mines and structures were abandoned by the end of the decade as the infestation died out.

 Various debris.

 A small mine north of the oven.

 A bigger mine north of the oven.

 View from inside the mine.

 These structures date back to the 1920s.

 The long oven.  You can spot this from the north side of the preserve on Trail 4.

Dangers

Arsenic, snakes, unstable mines, bees, tics (not confirmed). Some trespassing required.

Path Details

You will start by taking the Miner's Ridge Loop Trail head to the following route:

You will take the path behind the wooden fence with the no trespassing sign.  It's a very short walk from the parking lot.  This route has already been established and there is no need to plow through the bushes randomly as I have seen some people do.

The trail drops off at the top of the shaft.  Walk down that to the buildings at the bottom.  There are a couple mines further up the hill which you can reach by following the path up. Bring a flashlight for the biggest one.  Further down the path you'll find additional dig spots as well as some more buildings. I've marked the spots below.  You can see the structures on here as well.

Summary 

A unique piece of history that is easily accessible. As always with spots like this, I'm sharing the path to reduce the amount of damage to the environment as well as to provide the safest route.  I've seen videos of people just straight plowing through the bushes when there's no need.  Another website also left some junk from a video shoot. Let's do our part to preserve this almost 100 year old piece of history.