Core Scientific Marble 1 data center, Marble, North Carolina

Core Scientific converted its cryptocurrency mine in Marble, Cherokee County, North Carolina, into a data center for artificial intelligence, inside a former American Thread Company mill that closed in 2015, taking hundreds of jobs and hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual taxes with it. The facility spans 250,000 square feet on about seven acres and uses as much electricity as a medium-sized town. Cherokee County commissioners and a public records request by Commissioner Ben Adams show the company's site plan included more than 170 diesel generators, most meant to provide backup power.

C.B. McKinnon, president of the Marble Community Water System board, said the site draws a small amount of water from the rural utility and most of its supply from wells on site, which the state limits to 12 hours of pumping a day. Andrews Mayor James Reid said the town refused to connect the facility to its wastewater system because the company lacked an environmental plan, so it runs on septic tanks instead. "I wouldn't wish this on any county or entity, ever," Reid said. "It's absolutely destroyed Marble."

The county received $268,000 in taxes from the Marble facility in 2024, its last full year of crypto mining, with revenue falling sharply last year during data center construction. Adams, who ran on an anti-crypto platform in 2022 and did not seek reelection, asked colleagues in January 2026 to renew an expired crypto-mining moratorium and extend it to AI data centers: "If we don't do something, our little peaceful town's going to turn into something else and people are going to come here looking to put stuff in our town." Commissioners took no action that night, and Adams has since reconvened the county planning board to look for ways to limit new data centers without adopting countywide zoning.

Since January 2026, neighboring communities including Boone, Clyde, Swain County, Clay County and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have adopted temporary bans on new data centers, and a state bill introduced in April 2026 would scale back data center tax incentives and require companies to pay the full cost of their energy use. Decisions on further local limits rest with the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners, which Adams is pressing to take up a new ordinance.