Loudon Free Press

Some friend has sent us a copy of the Knoxville Register, with an article "marked," which we find to be a description of some extraordinary mineral discovery, recently made in East Tennessee. So rich are the copper mines discovered; that about three quarters of a section of land in one locality was sold for the extraordinary sum of a million and a quarter of dollars. But this is not surprising, when it is stated that about five thousand tons of rich copper ore are taken from the mines monthly, worth nearly half a million of dollars, and it is supposed that this vast amount will be increased, when other shafts are sunk. The Register thinks these copper mines are not as valuable as other mineral resources in the vicinity, such as zinc, lead, marble and gypsum. If all these statements shall prove true, we shall soon hear of thousands of adventurers flocking to East Tennessee, with as much eagerness as they recently flocked to California, and with better prospects of realizing fortunes. Besides, if the half that is told shall prove true, there will be no great difficulty in extending railroads from Knoxville to every point of the compass. For the interest of the South, and the general interest of the country, we sincerely hope there may be no deception in these great accounts of the mineral wealth of East Tennessee and Virginia.—[Lou. Times.