Owner Freddie Welch lighted the shaft and encased it in a room that allows people to view the mysterious piece of Dahlonega history through a glass window. Workers discovered the 31-foot-deep hole in 2006 while removing the concrete floor of the 1899 home of a former Dahlonega mayor and postmaster. The Dahlonega Branch Mint building burned in 1878, providing the foundation for Price Memorial Hall, whose gleaming, gold-leafed tower rises above the town and whose rooms today house the administrative offices of North Georgia College and State University.Ī few blocks away, an abandoned mineshaft has been preserved inside The Smith House, a historic restaurant and inn. Mint, which stamped $6 million in coinage from 1838 to 1861. The Dahlonega Gold Museum, housed in the 1836 Lumpkin County Courthouse, chronicles the regions mining history and contains a complete collection of gold coins produced by the Dahlonega branch of the U.S. "Gold brought us into being and it's our gold-mining heritage that keeps us growing," says Ann Amerson, 70, author of eight history books about Dahlonega, her hometown.Įvidence of Dahlonega's gold mining past is showcased throughout the town. Today, Dahlonega is a thriving community of small shops, restaurants and inns that capitalize on the appeal of small-town Southern charm and the eternal allure of gold. Stephenson pleaded with them to stay by pointing to nearby Findley Ridge and proclaiming, "Theres millions in it," which gave rise to the expression "Thars gold in them thar hills." When many of the miners prepared to head west in 1849 with the discovery of gold in California, local assayer Matthew F. Named for a Cherokee Indian word that means yellow or golden, Dahlonega was established in 1833, five years after deer hunter Benjamin Parks stumbled upon a gold-laden rock, sparking a stampede of 15,000 miners into the foothills of northeast Georgia. "That's what dreams are made of."ĭahlonega, the site of the nation's first gold rush in 1829, long has attracted prospectors hoping to strike it rich, or at least try their luck at finding a few flakes of the precious metal. "See that?" asks Clark while leading a tour of the cool, dark mineshaft. 3,638), and shines a flashlight onto a large nugget embedded in the ceiling of the century-old mine. Mike Clark walks 200 feet underground into the Consolidated Gold Mine in Dahlonega, Ga.
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