Mineral resource potential map of the Gee Creek Wilderness, Polk and Monroe counties, Tennessee

Miscellaneous Field Studies Map 1474-D
By: , and 

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Abstract

The Gee Creek Wilderness comprises 2,493 acres (nearly 4 square miles) in the Cherokee National Forest, Polk and Monroe Counties, Tennessee, about 4 miles (6 km) southeast of Etowah, Tenn., and about 20 miles northeast of Cleveland, Tenn. All of the surface in the wilderness is in U.S. Government ownership; mineral rights on nearly half of the land remain in private ownership. The study area is in the Blue Ridge physiographic province.

The major rock types in the wilderness area consist of sandstone, shale, and conglomerate of the Chilhowee Group of Cambrian and Cambrian(?) age. Faulting appears to have controlled the location of minor subeconomic iron deposits, but no potential mineral resources were detected by the present survey. Shales, useful for brick or lightweight aggregate, and sandstone, useful for crushed stone or sand, have little economic interest because these rock types are common throughout the region and are found closer to potential markets. The possibility of natural gas occurring in untested rocks structurally beneath the Chilhowee strata cannot be discounted. No potential was found for any other mineral resource.

Study Area

Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Mineral resource potential map of the Gee Creek Wilderness, Polk and Monroe counties, Tennessee
Series title Miscellaneous Field Studies Map
Series number 1474
Chapter D
DOI 10.3133/mf1474D
Year Published 1983
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Description Report: 6 p.; Plate: 23.96 x 33.57 inches
Country United States
State Tennesee
County Monroe County, Polk County
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details