Woody's Store
All that's left of Auraria, Georgia.
The first Gold rush town.
Unlikely as it may seem, the first gold rush town in America was a little place called Auraria, near Dahlonega in Lumpkin County, Georgia.
Gold has been a factor in North Georgia history from earliest times. Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto came in the 1540s looking for it and the Cherokees panned for it along the Chattahoochee River. In 1829, commercial mining began in Lumpkin, Union, and Cherokee Counties, drawing large numbers of people into the area. By 1833, Auraria, which means “city of gold” in Latin, had become a boom town, with a hundred houses, twenty stores, a newspaper, a post office, fifteen law offices, and a hotel owned by John C. Calhoun.
The Lumpkin County seat was moved to Dahlonega in 1833 because of a land dispute. The courthouse was built in 1836 and is now the Gold Museum.
The Old Dahlonega
Courthouse is now the Gold Museum.
The boom collapsed after gold was discovered in California and most of the miners went west in the first wave of “Forty-Niners.” The words "There's gold in them thar hills" were supposedly spoken by the assayer, Dr. Matthew Fleming Stephenson, who sought to dissuade the miners from going to California.
Today nothing is left of Auraria except one of the taverns where the miners drank. Now known as Woody’s Store, it, like the rest of Auraria, is out of business.
Auraria, the first boom town, also became the first ghost town.
Robbie and Jennifer panning for gold.
Did you know you can still pan for gold around Dahlonega? The Crisson gold mine near Dahlonega has been in operation since 1847. We took our oldest two grandchildren to pan for gold some years ago. Didn’t find much gold, but a good time was had by all.
Text and photographs from my limited-edition book Georgia: A Backroads Portrait.
Photographs and text copyright 2021, David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week unless life gets in the way.
Soli Gloria Deo
For the glory of God alone
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