Experts say hole under Charlotte couple’s home likely old mine shaft to gold

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - The city skyline view from Ashley Weidner’s Seversville back porch is her dream.

“To have a house with a view of the city, or to be close to the city,” she says.

But now, inside its basement, nearly at the center, sits what’s become somewhat of a nightmare.

“It’s shocking to everyone,” she says.

She was digging out Christmas decorations when she found a five-foot hole in the basement’s dirt floor. It had swallowed up one of her home’s brick pillars, supporting several rooms.

Since then, experts have been passing through to take a look. None think it’s an ordinary sinkhole.

“As soon as she had told me what happened, I knew that wasn’t the case,” Dr. Andy Bobyarchick, geologist and associate professor at UNCC, says.

He says it’s likely an old entry to what was a goldmine, back in the 1800s.

“Right downtown, where there were several gold mines in Charlotte,” Bobyarchick says.

“Everyone we’ve talked to has said that’s highly likely what it is,” Weidner says.

But the excitement over the historic find didn’t last long.

“We’re now trying to struggle with, okay what do we do,” she says.

Weidner and her fiance had to make a temporary fix – a beam supporting the home, instead.

“For a while there, every time I heard the house creak, I would brace myself,” she says, laughing. “Because this is it, this is the moment, the house is falling.”

For now, the couple has a sense of humor about the problem, but it could soon get serious.

The couple has started looking into a permanent fix to this problem, but things are looking pricey, and insurance just won’t cover it. They say they may end up moving from the dream home.

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