Lead Mines

Lead Mines is a Virginia historical marker in Wythe County, dedicated 2016.

Rte. 52, near intersection with I-81 at Fort Chiswell

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Col. John Chiswell is credited with discovering a lead deposit along the New River, about seven miles south of here, late in the 1750s. With partners he established mines and a smelting operation. Enslaved laborers were a vital part of the workforce. The mines, leased by Virginia during the Revolutionary War, supplied lead to the Continental army. Moses Austin, father of Stephen F. Austin, ran the mines during the 1790s, and the town of Austinville grew up nearby. The mines supplied the Confederacy and were destroyed by Union forces on 17 Dec. 1864. Rebuilt, they were again destroyed in April 1865. After the Civil War, zinc replaced lead as the primary resource extracted here.

TodayHistorical map

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Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1847 · Virginia (H. S. Tanner, 1847) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1859 · Virginia (Herman Boye, 1859) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1862 · Johnson's Kentucky & Tennessee (1862) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1869 · Colton's West Virginia (1869) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1889 · Hillsville, Virginia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Virginia (Herman Boye, 1859), 1859, covering the location of Lead Mines, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Virginia (Herman Boye, 1859), 1859, covering this location. Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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Lead Mines

Historical maps covering this location

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