Cane Creek Mountains is a small mountain range that lies south of

Burlington, North Carolina Burlington is a city in Alamance County, North Carolina, Alamance and Guilford County, North Carolina, Guilford counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the principal city of the Burlington, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which en ...

. The range covers an area including

Alamance County Alamance County (), from the North Carolina Collection's website at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved September 18, 2012. is a county in North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 171,415. Its county sea ...

Guilford County Guilford County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 541,299, making it the third-most populous county in North Carolina. The county seat and largest community is Greensboro. Since ...

, Randolph County, and Chatham County in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

Formation

The mountains are typical of the rolling terrain of the

piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

region of North Carolina, and are somewhat similar in formation to the nearby

Caraway Mountains The Caraway Mountains are a mountain range located in western Randolph County and a section of eastern Davidson County, North Carolina. The mountains are located between the cities of Asheboro and Lexington and are bisected by US Highway 64. T ...

and

Uwharrie Mountains The Uwharrie Mountains ()
from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

Alleghenian or Appalachian orogeny 300–350 million years ago during the formation and rifting of

Pangaea Pangaea or Pangea ( ) was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous period approximately 335 mi ...

. This earlier range is thought to have had peaks more than high, which would rival the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

, the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

, and the

Alaska Range The Alaska Range is a relatively narrow, mountain range in the Southcentral Alaska, southcentral region of the U.S. state of Alaska, from Lake Clark at its southwest endSources differ as to the exact delineation of the Alaska Range. ThBoard on G ...

. However,

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

has worn this old mountain range down. The highest peaks of this old range are now found in the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

on the eastern coast of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and in the

Anti-Atlas Mountains The Anti-Atlas, also known as Lesser Atlas or Little Atlas, is a mountain range in Morocco, a part of the Atlas Mountains in the northwest of Africa. The Anti-Atlas extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest toward the northeast, to the heig ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. The heavily eroded hills of piedmont, including the Cane Creek Mountains, are remnants of the sizable mountain chain.

Geology

The Cane Creek Mountains lie in the

Carolina Slate Belt Carolina may refer to: Geography * The Carolinas, the U.S. states of North and South Carolina ** North Carolina, a U.S. state ** South Carolina, a U.S. state * Province of Carolina, a British province until 1712 * Carolina, Alabama, a town in t ...

,USGS Map of Carolina Slate Belt
/ref> a belt that consists of heated and deformed

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

and

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock formed by the cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or deposited at Earth's surface. Sedime ...

rocks. The belt is best known for old abandoned

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

mines. North Carolina led the nation in gold production for 50 years, between the discovery of a 17-pound (7.7 kg) gold nugget at the

Reed Gold Mine The Reed Gold Mine is located in Midland, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, and is the site of the first documented commercial gold find in the United States. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark because of its importance and ...

in Cabarrus County, NC near

Charlotte Charlotte most commonly refers to: *Charlotte (given name), a feminine form of the given name Charles ** Princess Charlotte (disambiguation) ** Queen Charlotte (disambiguation) *Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, a city * Charlotte (cake) ...

in 1799 and the discovery of gold during the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

of 1849. Limited gold mining continues to take place, but several

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

companies continue to operate, both on the slate belt and in and near the Cane Creek Mountains. Most mineral production in the area is crushed stone for road aggregate and

pyrophyllite Pyrophyllite is a phyllosilicate mineral composed of aluminium silicate hydroxide: Al2Si4O10(OH)2. It occurs in two forms (habits): crystalline folia and compact masses; distinct crystals are not known. The folia have a pronounced pearly luster ...

for factories, ceramics, filler, paint and insecticide carriers.USGS Publication
/ref>

Geography

The northern edge of the mountains begins on the southern bank of

Great Alamance Creek Great Alamance Creek, also called Big Alamance Creek, is a 37-mile longMeasurement Tool on Alamance County GIS found on theAlamance County Website/ref> creek that is a tributary of the Haw River. The creek's headwaters are in Guilford County, ...

, approximately south of

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States, southeastern and Southwestern United States, southwestern portions of the United States. At a leng ...

Graham Graham or Graeme may refer to: People * Graham (given name), an English-language given name * Graham (surname), an English-language surname * Graeme (surname), an English-language surname * Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer * Clan ...

and runs in a southwesterly direction towards

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

in Randolph County. The range covers much of the southwest quadrant of Alamance County. While much of the range is a series of rolling hills that are common throughout the North Carolina Piedmont Region, there are several peaks in the Cane Creek Mountains located north of Snow Camp. The highest point in the range and in

is Cane Creek Mountain, which is approximately .TopoZone
/ref> Perhaps the most famous peak in the range is the 267 m (902 ft) Bass Mountain, the former home of an annual

bluegrass music Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Bluegrass has roots in African America ...

festival. Contrary to some local belief, Bass Mountain is not the highest peak in the range, although the range is occasionally referred to as the "Bass Mountains".

History

The mountains and Alamance County were home to the local

Native American Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...

tribes, including the

Sissipahaw The Sissipahaw or Haw were a Native American tribe of North Carolina. Their settlements were generally located in the vicinity of modern-day Saxapahaw, North Carolina on the Haw River in Alamance County upstream from Cape Fear. They were possib ...

. The area saw major activity during the

American Colonial American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), Spanish Colonial, French Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Georgian. ...

and

Revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

period, with several battles taking place in and near the range, including

Pyle's Massacre Pyle's Massacre (also known as Pyle's defeat, Pyle's hacking match or Battle of Haw River) was fought during the American Revolutionary War in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina on February 24, 1781. The battle was between Patriot tro ...

and the

Battle of Alamance The Battle of Alamance, which took place on May 16, 1771, was the final confrontation of the Regulator Movement, a rebellion in colonial North Carolina over various issues with the Colonial Government. The Regulators primarily wanted reforms ...

. There are several cave sites throughout the mountains where local historians theorize that small military parties may have been able to fortify their position.

Current Use

The mountains are home to families,

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

s, and

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

, and cellular communications towers. There is also a

fire tower A fire lookout tower, fire tower, or lookout tower is a tower that provides housing and protection for a person known as a " fire lookout", whose duty it is to search for wildfires in the wilderness. It is a small building, usually on the summit ...

located on top of Cane Creek Mountain that is no longer safe for use.

Nearby Mountains

The piedmont region of North Carolina is home to several small mountain ranges and

monadnock An inselberg or monadnock ( ) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an ...

s, including: * Stony Creek Mountain - a monadnock in Northern Alamance County that rises to 288 m (938 ft) *

- a small range in Randolph County, to the southwest *

Uwharrie Mountains The Uwharrie Mountains ()
from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

Occoneechee Mountain - a monadnock near the

Eno River The Eno River, named for the Eno Native Americans who once lived along its banks, is the initial tributary of the Neuse River in North Carolina, United States. Descendants of European immigrants settled along the Eno River in the latter 1740s and ...

in Orange County to the east

References

{{Mountains of North Carolina Mountains of North Carolina Mountain ranges of North Carolina Landforms of Alamance County, North Carolina Landforms of Guilford County, North Carolina Landforms of Randolph County, North Carolina Landforms of Chatham County, North Carolina