SOUTHERN USA GOLD RUSH HISTORY

Gold is so dense that a cube 14.2 inches on each side weighs a ton.

Contrary to popular belief, the Southern US had the first gold rush. In 1799 near a little meadow creek located just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, ignited the first US gold rush. A young boy was playing hooky from school when down by the creek he saw something shining in the water. This drew his attention so he went over and picked up the extremely shiny and heavy rock. He took it home, but nobody recognized that it was gold, so the family used it more like a doorstop for several years. Someone suggested that the father find out what it was or even make sure it could be gold.

A local jeweler identified the rock as a gold nugget. The father not knowing the value was given $3.50 for which he was happy, but the jeweler got away with this 17 pound nugget of gold that at that time was worth $15 an ounce and valued at $3600. The word got out about this gold nugget so people came running from all over flooding the Charlotte area causing a gold rush.
In less than 10 years the people of Charlotte spoke 7 different languages. In the 1820’s there were approximately 300 gold mines in North Carolina and at that time miner’s used a form of mining call “placer” mining which is basically allowing mother nature to do the heavy lifting using streams of river flow to bringing the gold from the mountains and deposit it in the riverbeds. The miners basically extracted the gold from the riverbed removing clay, sand, and gravel from the gold. They found plenty of 1 pound nuggets using this method and then they turned to underground mining. This is evident through the Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina (CCUNC – established in 1946) that was saved from being shut down by the state in 1949 when the Charlotte Center became Charlotte College. Due to this “49er (Miner’s) spirit” of university supporters, referring to the settlers that endured many hardships in traveling across the United States to seek fortune in the California Gold Rush, students of the fledgling UNC Charlotte chose “49ers (Miners)” as the school’s mascot. The fact is that the site of the US’s first major gold discovery was in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The miner’s lack of knowledge often led to cave in’s and soon after the gold rush of North Carolina gold was discovered in 1829 in Georgia. (Though the Native Americans had already found and used gold, Charlotte, North Carolina would be credited.) The gold discovery of Dahlonega, Georgia, would go to Alabama, and then South Carolina. There were more than 1000 mines throughout the South and at that time Georgia was home to the great Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee Indians did not want to give the land up. Georgia then decided to raffle (lottery) the land, but would not allow the Indians to participate in the raffle. The Cherokee Nations won the land dispute in a Supreme Court battle to keep their land, but President Andrew Jackson a well-known Indian fighter, would not enforce the decision ruling of the Supreme Court. Instead the US Army forcible uprooted the Cherokee Nation sending them 800 miles west across the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.

Though the California Gold Rush is the gold rush we know, it came 10 years after the South. The reason the South’s gold is not discussed is because the migration to California was enormous. People uprooted leaving jobs, farms, family, lands and some areas an entire town was vacated. The miners came from Australia, China, Russia, Brazil, France, etc. In some of the camps even ex/run-aways/black slaves carved out their section. Total ignorance of what mining entails was not enough because many would die in the search of gold. People had no clue what it took to get the gold from the earth, just like today. There were the Frenchmen who all made the trip with their wives with these contraptions similar to huge garden rakes to rake the gold from the river because they did not want to get wet.

There were people buying into fake body grease that you rub all over your body and just roll down the hill collecting gold. At the bottom of the hill you just scrape the grease off with the gold. Back then, just like today, people had no clue what it took or takes to mine gold profitably and safely. People did not understand the seasons, especially during the time when the rivers were full with water to wash the sand and gravel. They were not prepared for the shoveling and using pick axes or washing the gold in cold water or being bent over for 12 hours per day. Trees fell on some, some drowned, and some died from disease and illness. At the same time dealing with harsh conditions of Mother Nature would prove to be too much. A few made some money while most went broke. Fights over mining claims and scams were normal. Mining is not the work for the average man. The strongest men by the thousands fell to these conditions. More than 100,000 wanna be miners shifted into California making this move as large as the Crusades migration.

These small scale miners had to soon give way to much larger companies and hydraulic mining. Before being banned in 1884 the hydraulic systems forever changed the landscape and the future of mining. Hydraulic mining created many problems including making the water unusable downstream for drinking and farming. The want and desire for gold brought big labor and massive machinery from California. The rush shifted to gold and silver discovered in Nevada. At this time miners would improve their technology and system of mining. The mining in Nevada brought on the use of the thick wood beams (logs) use in the tunnels to keep the ceiling from caving in. This was later used worldwide (though I have personally found this system being used in ancient mines in Africa and South America pre dating the Nevada System by thousands of years.)
The problem would increase from over use of timber to deep mines producing heat of 125 degrees or hotter, creating unbearable working conditions. I will tell you to be a great miner you have to believe in the super natural and have faith at some level. The things I have seen in the jungle, the desert, and deep in the earth is sometimes not of Heaven and not of Earth.
The fumes from explosives or the removal of these explosives killed hundreds. Then came the air drills which created extremely sharp particles from the rocks that cause lung disease. The pressure from an enclosed mine could also be dangerous, especially where a mine lacked ventilation. You have to be careful of the pressure and gases that could cause an explosion or suffocate an entire crew.

The biggest fear in underground mining, other than cave in’s, is water. Often we tunnel underneath underground rivers and streams or aquifers (underground lakes). When a tunnel fills with water, I will tell you from personal experience, if you don’t believe in God when that water reaches your bottom lip, you might change your mind. By 1910 came the great Alaska gold discovery. This brought on massive processing systems (removing gold from the rock by crushing the rock and using chemicals to remove the gold). The gold in Alaska is low in gold per ton of rock, but large lands hold this gold ore. This gave way to diamond drilling and miners going deeper than 2 miles in the ground. You have to learn how to walk, crawl, give hand and body signals underground. All this is important to the underground miners. In Africa a mining operation can have workers speaking many different languages. A crew that my brother Carl managed for some years spoke 26 languages. Just imagine his first day on the job with 26 languages in the middle of the jungle.

It is said that of all the gold ever discovered, 90% of it has been found since 1848. What makes gold so important is it is18 times heavier than water and it does not corrode or oxidize. Once it’s gold it is always gold for thousands of years. So enjoy your plasma TV or cell phone thanks to the gold inside. Why you think companies want to buy your old phone. When you recycle your jewelry, they use penny weight which is not an accurate system, basically cheating you. Gold is measured in troy ounces or gram or kilograms. They sell it on a different weight system than they buy from you.

Gold has a way with people. The most evil things I have ever seen in my life never came from the love of a special person, paper cash, or even jealousy, but one person wanting another person’s gold. People ask how do I not succumb to this and I tell them that for some reason I am labeled the best, but deep in my heart I have love for what gold can do and not the gold itself. Maybe this is why the people of the desert, jungle, and Amazon cry for me to come to them to remove the gold and not me having to create anything fake or superficial.

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