Georgia Gold Rush
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The Georgia Gold Rush was the first significant gold rush in the United States. It started in 1829 in the present day Lumpkin County and soon spread through the North Georgia mountains, following the Georgia Gold Belt. In the early 1840s, gold became harder to find, and when gold was discovered in California in 1848 to start the California Gold Rush, many Georgia miners moved west.
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[edit] Discovery
[edit] Prior to 1828
Although the discovery of gold in Georgia in 1828 was the event that lead to the Georgia Gold Rush, there appears to have been knowledge of gold in the North Georgia mountains much earlier. Spanish gold miners first came to the area in the mid-16th century and probably mined gold until they were forced to leave in the early 18th century. In 1799, gold was discovered in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, which lead to specualtion that there was probably gold in Georgia. There is also evidence of a gold mine in operation at or near the Sixes Mine in Cherokee County, Georgia, in 1819. There were other documented gold finds in Georgia and Tennessee before 1828, such as the discovery of gold in Villa Rica in Carroll County, but none of these finds lead to a significant gold rush.
[edit] 1828 discovery
Two factors connected with the Georgia gold discovery created the conditions that lead to the Georgia Gold Rush in 1829. First, the placer deposits found in Georgia almost literally meant that gold was just laying on the ground, waiting to be collected. Second, word of Georgia’s gold deposits spread rapidly with stories that captured the imagination. No one really knows which of the several anecdotes is true:
- One of the most popular stories is that of Benjamin Parks finding a gold-filled rock while deer hunting on the Chestatee River in Lumpkin County, Georgia in 1828.
- Other anecdotes have either have Frank Logan or his slave making the find in White County, Georgia in Dukes Creek.
- Another version of the White County find has John Witheroods finding a three-ounce nugget along Dukes Creek.
- Still another version of the 1828 discovery is that a North Carolina prospector named Jesse Hogan found gold near Dahlonega, Georgia at Ward's Creek .
These stories and others spread rapidly and “gold fever” soon took hold.
[edit] Rush
No matter who made the gold discovery in 1828, the gold rush started in 1829 in Lumpkin County and began spreading rapidly. One of the first public records of the find and the resulting gold rush occurred in August 1, 1829, when the Georgia Journal (a Milledgeville newspaper), ran the following notice.
GOLD.—A gentleman of the first respectability in Habersham county, writes us thus under date of 22d July: "Two gold mines have just been discovered in this county, and preparations are making to bring these hidden treasures of the earth to use." So it appears that what we long anticipated has come to pass at last, namely, that the gold region of North and South Carolina, would be found to extend into Georgia.[1]
This notice shows both that the gold rush had spread to Habersham County and that the people of Georgia were certainly aware of the other gold finds in the southern Appalachian Mountains.
Although much of the land on which the gold was found was under the control of the Cherokee Indians, mining operations quickly sprang up in Lumpkin, White, Union and Cherokee counties. In the early stages of the gold rush, the majority of the mining was placer mining. By 1830, it is estimated that there were 4,000 miners working on just the Yahoola Creek in Lumpkin County and over 300 ounces (8.5 kg) of gold per day was being produced in an area from north of Blairsville to the southeast corner of Cherokee County. Other estimates were that there were 6,000 to 10,000 miners between the Chestatee River and the Etowah River in 1831. Boom towns like Auraria and Dahlonega began to appear and Dahlonega was said to have supported 15,000 miners at the height of the gold rush. During this rapid influx of prospectors and settlers, tensions with the Cherokee began to rise. Before long, gold mines appeared in most counties in the North Georgia mountains, including Georgia's northeastern-most county, Rabun.
In 1832, Georgia held the Gold Lottery of 1832, which awarded land that had been owned by the Cherokee to the winners of the lottery in 40 acre (16 ha) tracts. In 1838, the Dahlonega Mint was established in Dahlonega by the United States Congress as a branch mint of the United States Mint, which is a testimony to the amount of gold being produced in the Georgia Gold Rush. The establishment of the Dahlonega Mint also seemed to validate the actions that Georgia had taken in the early part of the century to seize Cherokee lands. The culmination of tensions between the Cherokee and various states, including Georgia, led to the forced migration later known as the Trail of Tears.
[edit] Aftermath
By the early 1840’s, most of the “easy” gold had been found, and efforts began to shift to working the known deposits. Thus, when news of the California Gold Rush found its way to Georgia, many miners moved west in search of more gold, despite an effort by the assayer of the Dahlonega Mint to convince them to stay. However, even with the departure of many miners, the mines in the Georgia Gold Belt continued to produce gold for years. Ultimately, there were some 500 mines spread through 37 different counties. It is estimated that Georgia produced between 1 and 1.5 million ounces (28,000-42,000 kg) of gold between 1828 and the mid-20th Century, when commercial gold production ceased.
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- North Georgia’s Gold Rush, About North Georgia
- Gold Rush, The New Georgia Encyclopedia
- Dahlonega Gold Museum, Roadside Georgia
- Mineral Resources of the Blue Ridge & Piedmont
- History of Georgia's Gold, Georgia Gold Prospectors Association
- The Georgia Gold Rush, Gold Rush Gallery
- Georgia Gold Mines, Etc., Goldmaps.com
[edit] Further Reading
- Williams, David (1993). The Georgia Gold Rush: Twenty-Niners, Cherokees, and Gold Fever. Columbia, South Carolina: Univeristy of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1-57003-052-9.
- "Gold-Mining in Georgia." Harper's New Monthly Magazine 59, Issue 352 (September 1879): 517-519. Available here
