Jefferson, South Carolina | |
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Town | |
Water tower, 2011
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Nickname(s): "J-Town" | |
Location of Jefferson, South Carolina |
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Coordinates: 34°39′6″N 80°23′22″W / 34.65167°N 80.38944°WCoordinates: 34°39′6″N 80°23′22″W / 34.65167°N 80.38944°W | |
Country | United States |
State | South Carolina |
County | Chesterfield |
Incorporated | 1904 |
Government | |
• Type | Council |
• Mayor | Charles Raley |
• Mayor Pro-Tem | Alvin Myers |
Area | |
• Total | 1.8 sq mi (4.6 km2) |
• Land | 1.8 sq mi (4.6 km2) |
• Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
Elevation | 476 ft (145 m) |
Population (2010) | |
• Total | 753 |
• Density | 420/sq mi (160/km2) |
Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
• Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
ZIP code | 29718 |
Area code(s) | 843 |
FIPS code | 45-36610 |
GNIS feature ID | 1223522 |
Website | townofjefferson.com |
Jefferson is a town in western Chesterfield County, South Carolina, United States at the junction of SC 265 and SC 151. Jefferson is located in the Piedmont region of South Carolina. Jefferson is located 16 miles northwest of McBee, 8 miles south of Pageland, 50 miles southeast of Charlotte, North Carolina, and 70 miles north-northeast of the state capitol Columbia. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 753.
Jefferson was incorporated in 1904.
Jefferson is located at 34°39′6″N 80°23′22″W / 34.65167°N 80.38944°W (34.651550, -80.389484). According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km2), of which, 1.8 square miles (4.7 km2) of it is land and 0.56% is water.
The Brewer Gold Mine is an abandoned mine located on the western border of Chesterfield County, about 1.5 miles due west of the town of Jefferson, South Carolina. Brewer Gold Company owns approximately 1,000 acres of land along a small north-south ridgeline that divides Little Fork Creek and the Lynches River. About one-quarter of the 1,000 acres has been disturbed by mining operations. Brewer Gold Mine was one of the oldest and most productive gold mines in the eastern United States.
Activities at Brewer are rumored to date to the 16th century involving Indian trade with the Spaniards. Before the Revolutionary War, the area was mined for iron. The first documented discovery of gold took place by Burrell Brewer in 1828. Brewer Gold Company, a subsidiary owned by the British Costain Limited Group (Costain), secured ownership of the mine in 1986, with the first gold production occurring in August 1987. Ore was mined using conventional open pit methods until January 1995. Rock was first fractured using drilling and blasting, and then loaded into trucks. Waste rock was used as fill for facility construction or hauled to a disposal area to the south of the Brewer Pit. Ore was hauled to the crushing area where processing for the cyanide heap-leach method began. The crushed ore was then placed on pads and a dilute cyanide solution was sprayed over the heaps and allowed to percolate through the ore, thereby dissolving the gold into solution.