History Lives On At The Pine Mountain Gold Mine

It’s not certain when gold was first discovered in Georgia by white settlers but some of the earliest date back to 1815 on the Chestatee River near Dahlonega and in 1826 in McDuffie County

Georgia’s first State Historian, Lucian Knight, writes of a discovery of gold in Carroll County near what is now Villa
Rica sometimes in 1826 but it was mostly considered folklore.

Three years later, in 1829 the north Georgia town of Dahlonega hosted the first highly publicized gold rush in the state and by the mid 1830 there was much talk about gold finds and mining activity as over 500 actually working mines sprang up making the state one of the biggest gold producers in the the nation.

Thus, what has been described as a “southern gold rush” lasted into the 1840s mostly within a “gold belt” running from Rabun County in north Georgia and southward through Cherokee County and on into Paulding and Carroll counties and over the line in Alabama.

And during the mid-1800s the “belt” was one of the richest gold formations in the USA.

It was in the mid-1820s that gold was discovered in present day Douglas County near what is now Villa Rica. But, a little known law was passed in 1825 giving the mineral rights to the state so it was not until 1829, after the law was repealed, that commercial mining operations began to flourish in the area.

According to the Pine Mountain Gold Museum website, “there were as many as nineteen commercial gold mining operations in and around Villa Rica. By the turn of the 20th century, most lie in ruins or were plowed under to make room for cotton fields. Of the original nineteen, only the Pine Mountain Gold Mine was commercially mined seriously after 1900.”

And “In 1917, T.H. Aldrich introduced cyanide gold mining, a process used to separate the gold from the ore. However, mining ceased with the start of World War II and most of the old mining equipment was sold for the war effort.”

The first mining town in the area was Hixtown which later became to be known as Villa Rica (Spanish for “City of Gold” ) and between 1830 and 1840 there were 20,000 pennyweights of gold produced in the area in the form of mostly gold dust.

According to the museum “Villa Rica gold is among the purest in the world at 98% pure from the ground. Most geologists agree that less than 20% of the gold in the area was mined.” The Pine Mountain site was commercially mined off and on for over 100 years, making it one of the longest running mining operations in the state of Georgia.

The Pine Mountain Gold Museum has a 50-seat theater with a 20-minute documentary of the history of the Villa Rica mines. Visitors will also find a covered gold and gemstone panning area where they can actually “pan” for gold and gems on the site of the actual mine.

The museum also has an authentic grist mill and water-wheel, a 27-acre park with over three miles of self-guided walking trails with interpretive signage and knowledgeable guides available for group tours of 15 or
more.

This site also has West Georgia’s only authentic 19th Century gold stamp mill. There is also a half-mile tour around the mountain via the Pine Mountain Scenic Railroad.

Most of the museum’s exhibits were found on Pine Mountain and date back to the early 1800’s and some exhibits date back to 12,000 BC!