The Wilderness Act (Public Law 88-577, September 3, 1964) and related acts require the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines to survey certain areas on Federal lands to determine their mineral resource potential. Results must be made available to the public and be submitted to the President and the Congress. This report presents the results of a survey of mines, quarries, prospects, and coal exposures in the vicinity of the Devils Fork Roadless Area in the Jefferson National Forest, Scott County, Virginia. Devils Fork Roadless Area was classified as a further planning area during the Second Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE II) by the U.S. Forest Service, January 1979.

The Devils Fork Roadless Area is in the Clinch Ranger district of the Jefferson National Forest, southwestern Virginia. It is located in Scott County, about 5 miles southeast of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and is accessible from there via U.W. 23 to Duffield, Virginia, and then northeastward along State Route 653 (fig. 1). Access from the north is provided by State Routes 616, 619, and Forest Route 237. Southern access is provided by State Routes 619 and 649. The interior is accessible by foot along overgrown logging railroad grades and abandoned forest roads on the lower portions of Devil Fork, Straight Fork, and Roddy Branch.

The Devils Fork Roadless Area is located at the eastern edge of the Appalachian coal region and is within the Cumberland Mountain section of the Appalachian Plateau physiographic province. Most of the area is drained by Devil Fork and its tributaries. Clinch Rock Branch of Straight Creek, Roddy Branch of Valley Creek, and Stinking Creek, all tributary to the Clinch River, drain small fringe tracts. Altitudes range from about 1,550 ft on the lower part of Straight Fork to about 3,490 ft at Cox Place on Little Mountain. Vegetation varies from mixed hardwoods in the uplands to thickets of conifer, rhododendron, and laurel in moist protected areas, as in coves along drainage courses.