Mica is one of the most useful and versatile minerals. It has been used since 40,000 B.C.E., and is still used today in everything from cosmetics to advanced electronics. Two families started the mica industry in the U.S. in the early 1800s and this is their story. It began with Sam Ruggles, a Boston merchant and grocer who purchased property in New Hampshire and had local folks quarry the mica. Many myths about Sam Ruggles abound, but historically accurate accounts of his family history and mica business are virtually nonexistent. Sam's business included several members of his immediate family, his nephew and grand-nephew, grandsons and great-grandson. Clearly, there is a need for a thoroughly documented history of Sam Ruggles. For over 60 years in the 1800s, the Ruggles' only competition was James Bowers, a self-sufficient farmer in New Hampshire, and his family. James loved collecting rocks and minerals and was a mineral dealer. This led him into the mica business that continued across three generations of his family with mines in two states. Before about 1870, the entire mica industry consisted of only the Ruggles and Bowers. The family histories and mining histories for both Ruggles and Bowers are discussed in four separate chapters. The mining history chapters describe mines opened and/or operated by these two families in New Hampshire and North Carolina from 1805 to the early 1900s. The Ruggles worked mines only in New Hampshire, while the Bowers began in New Hampshire in the early 1830s and expanded into Western North Carolina in 1873. There is also a chapter describing early mica mining in Western North Carolina beginning with Native Americans around 200 B.C.E., their trade with other tribes in the Mississippi Valley, and their sales of kaolin (for making china) with England in the 1700s. It also discusses some of the first commercial mica mines in Western North Carolina. There are descriptions of what mica (once known as isinglass) is and how it's used for anyone not familiar with the mineral. To make this a useful reference, there are separate indexes for persons and subjects. This book portrays the lives, adventures, business challenges and occasionally intense loss and sorrow of these pioneers across the 19th century. The book is filled with maps, photographs and illustrations, many of which have never before been published, and a historical account that is thoroughly documented. A lot of forgotten history has been rediscovered!