I stopped off I-81 to take a phone call and spotted this marker that is near a hotel and across the street from a gas station. It points out some history that predates the Revolutionary War and continues past the Civil War.
The marker has the same text on both sides, reading "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."
This is marker number K-39 and was erected by the Department of Historic Resources in 2016.
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