HISTORY

In 1829 gold was discovered nearly simultaneously in the Nacoochee Valley region of White county and near Dahlonega in Lumpkin county.1 Many of the placer deposits of these two regions, occurring along small branches and creeks, were ex-ceedingly rich and easily worked, and active mining followed the discovery. From these two centers mining operations gradually spread to other localities.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF DEPOSITS

The three principal types of gold deposits recognized in Georgia are:

(1) vein deposits;

(2) placer deposits-consist-ing of beds of auriferous stream gravel, both ancient and modern, which include as a sub-class, gulch and hillside de-posits consisting of soil and decomposed rock brought from higher levels by rain-wash and the action of gravity and hav-ing usually a more or less irregularily occurring sub-stratum of angular or slightly sub-angular gravel ;1

(3) auriferous sap-rolites or decomposed rock in place. Partially disintegrated quartz veins and nUmerous tiny stringers of quartz are usually present, and in many of these saprolite deposits there are found distinct zones of more or less parallel veins or stringers of gold bearing quartz intercalated with the rotten rock which at depth in undecomposed material would be classed and mined as a vein deposits.

GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE DEPOSITS

The gold deposits of Georgia are found in a portion of a broad zone of country stretching from near the centre of .Alabama northeastward into Maryland, and lying principally southeast of the Blue Ridge mountains.

In Georgia, this zone -takes in the greater portion of the Piedmont Plateau and a part of the physiographic provinces of the Appalachian moun–tains. Auriferous areas in which are found gold bearing ·quartz veins and other forms of deposits occur throughout this region, generally as more or less parallel belts of rela–tively narrow lateral dimensions, but they are found at some localities as small isolated areas or patches.

In Georgia, the· larger portion, by far, of the auriferous :areas occur in narrow well defined belts, and show, as will be seen by reference to the map accompanying, as bands of vary-ing width running nearly parallel in a northeast and south-west direction. In addition to the belts a few isolated areas .are found in the same section in which the belts occur. It will be seen from the map that all the deposits are north of -the Fall Line, a line formed by the junction of the Piedmont region and the Coastal Plain. In Georgia, this line passes ap–proximately through the cities of Columbus, Macon and .Augusta. The belts parallel in a general way the axis of the 13lue Ridge mountains and the larger portion of them lie south–east of this axis. These individual belts are here described.

1 THE DAHLONEGA BELT.-The Dahlonega belt enters Geor-gia from Alabama and passes through Haralson and Pauld-ing counties, the northwest corner of Cobb and the southeast corner of Bartow counties, traverses Cherokee county and the extreme northwest corner of Forsyth ~ounty and from thence passes through Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Habersham and Rabun counties into Macon county, North Carolina

2 THE HALL· CouNTY BELT.-The Hall county belt commences in the northern part of Fulton county, runs northeast through Milton county, the extreme southeast corner of Forsyth, the northwestern part of Gwinnett, and from thence through Hall, Habersham and Rabun counties into North Carolina.

3 THE McDuFFIE CouNTY BELT.-The McDuffie county belt commences in the northeast corner of Warren county, runs northeast through the northern portion of McDuffie county, the extreme southeast corner of Wilkes county, and from thence through Lincoln county to the Savannah River.

4 THE CARROLL CouNTY BELT.-The Carroll county belt com-mences in the western part of Carroll county and, running northeast, passes through a corner of Douglas and thence traversing a portion of Paulding and Cobb counties joins the Dahlonega belt at the northern edge of t.hA last named county.

5 THE OGLETHORPE CouNTY BELT.-The Oglethorpe county belt runs northeast through the eastern part of Oglethorpe county. Its length is something like twenty-five miles and its width is about the same as that of the Carroll county belt.

6 THE MADISON CouNTY BELT.-The Madison county belt oc-curs in Madison and Elbert counties, and extends from a point a few miles northeast of Comer in Madison county to a point about three miles northeast of Bowman in Elbert county.

7 THE GuMLOG BELT.-The Gumlog belt runs from a point a little south of the Gumlog mine in the northern part of Union ()Ounty northeast through the northwest corner of Towns ()Ounty to the Warne mine immediately beyond the State line in North Carolina.

8 THE CoosA CREEK BELT.-The Coosa Creek belt runs from near the headwaters of Coosa Creek in Union county north-east to a point in the neighborhood of the town of Young Harris in Towns county.

9 THE HraHTOW~R CREEK BELT.-The Hightower Creek belt runs from near Mountain Scene on the headwaters of Hia-wassee River in Towns county northeast to within a few miles of the Georgia-North Carolina line.

10 The counties. in which are to be found the more important deposits of the class just described· are: :B,annin, Gilmer, Lincoln, Hall~ Cherokee, Meriwether, Forsyth, Wilkes and Murray. A little gold has also been mined in Hart, Walton, Coweta, Campbell and Newton counties. It has also been found in very small amounts in Henry, Clarke, and one or two other counties.

RIVERS

Etowah River

Little River

MINES :

WARREN MINE .-This mine is located in the northeastern part of the county in the neighborhood of Ca<l,ley and close to the McDuffie county line.

HAMILTON MINE.-This mine is situated about a half a mile northeast of the Thomson public road and a few hundred yards southwest of the Columbia mine, described in succeed-ing pages.

CoLUMBIA MINE.-The Columbia :r:dine is situated on a tract of land known as the Forty-acre Lot, lying immediately north-east of the Hamilton mine. The locality is about eleven miles northwest of Thomson, the county seat, on the Georgia rail-road.

MoTEs TRACT.-About a half of a mile northwest of the Columbia mine some mining operations have been conducted on auriferous quartz veins.

PARKS MINE.-The Parks mine is something less than a mile northeast of the Columbia mine.

PoRTER MINE.-The Porter mine is situated about three-fourths of a mile north of the Parks mine.

TATHAM MINE.-The Tatham mine is situated approxi-mately a mile and a half northeast from the Parks mine and close to a road that branches to the north from the Washing-ton-Augusta public road near Raysville.

WooDALL MINE.-This mine is about a half a mile north-east of the Tatham mine and close to Flint Hill church on a branch of the Washington and Augusta public road

GRIFFIN MINE.-The Griffin mine is situated about a mile and a half northeast of the Woodall mine and close to Little River.

RAYSVILLE BRIDGE VEIN.-One or two hundred yards above the public bridge across Little River at Raysville a quartz vein of considerable magnitude outcrops strongly in the bed of the river forming a slight shoal at that point.

WILKES COUNTY

EDMUNDS MINE.-This mme is about a mile and a half from Amity, in Lincoln county, and immediately adjacent to the Wilkes-Lincoln county line.

HILLY MINE.-This mine is situated in the southeast corner of the county about a mile and a half south of the Washington-Augusta public road.

LINCOLN COUNTY

PAsCHAL MrNE.-This mine is situated on Hickory-nut Hill, a short distance to the east of the Ramsey property.

JuLIA, oR PHELPs, MINE.-This mine is located near the S. K. Dill property and about a half a mile north of Little River.

OGLETHORPE COUNTY

BRISCOE MINE.-This mine· is situated about three and a half miles northeast of Bairdstown, a station on the Athens branch of the Georgia Railroad.

DRAKE MINE.-The Drake mine is situated about a fourth of a mile northeast of the Briscoe mine.

BuFFALo, OR HowARD, MINE.-The Buffalo mine is situated about five miles n-ortheast of the Drake mine and six and a half miles east of Stephens, a station on the Athens Division of the Georgia Railroad.

GuARANTEE MrNE.-This mine is situated immediately northeast of the Fluker-Story prospect.

MoRGAN MrNE.-The Morgan mine is situated about two miles northeast of the Guarantee mine and six and a half miles southeast of Lexington, the county seat of Oglethorpe county.

WILKES COUNTY

LATIMER MINE.-This mine is situated in the northwestern part of the county on the Danielsville public road.

MADISON COUNTY

HALL COUNTY

McCLESKY MINE.-The McClesky mine is about three miles west of Gainesville in the northern part of lot 5, 8th district.

GLADE MINE.-The Glade mine is situated eleven miles northeast of Gainesville and about a mile aD:d a half northwest of the Chattahoochee River.

CARROLL COUNTY

BoNNER MINE.-This mine, on lots 94 and 99, 11th district, is situated about seven miles southwest of Carrollton and close to Buffalo Creek.

HART MINE.-This mine, on lot 165, 6th district, is about a fourth of a mile northeast of the Hixon property.

CHAMBERS MINE.-This mine, on lot 195, 6th district, ad-joins the Jones tract and is about a mile northwest of Villa Rica.

HARALSON COUNTY

RoYAL MrNE.-This property is the only one on which any extensive mining for gold has been prosecuted in Haralson county.

PAULDING COUNTY

YoRKVILLE MINE.-This mine is on lot 331, 19th dis-trict, and is about two and a half miles east of Yorkville.

DAWSON COUNTY

LUMPKIN COUNTY

WHITE COUNTY

HABERSHAM COUNTY

RABUN COUNTY

TOWNS COUNTY

UNION COUNTY