PATRON + There is gold in the hills of Alabama, at least there was once
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Chilian?
Your first sentence states: Gold ores has been found in various sections of Cleburne, Clay, Talladega, Coosa, Chilian, Elmore, Tallapoosa, and Randolph Counties.
FYI… there is no Chilian County!
This is a transcribed article, mistakes and all, from 1920s. There are often misspelled works in old article of this era. It was much harder to correct for them with their printing processes and they didn’t have spell check. I’m assuming it stands for Chilton but did not correct the transcription on purpose. Thanks for writing though.
Some of these old mines are now under the waters of lake Martin. You can see the shafts with a good fish finder.
I used to explore the woods of lake martin before all the development. I went into many shafts. I cruised the shorelines and found places I believe to have been mine pits.. I am curious. Where are the shafts be located that are under water and able to seen with a good depth finder. Thanks, Bill in Auburn.
Bill the ones I know of are scattered on the north end of the lake. If you have down and side imaging it’s hard to miss.
Hello Thomas. I wished you could give me a clue at where to view these underwater mines. I have seen pits in the blue creek area. Also, there was lots of activity in the Camp Alamisco area. I love seeing and documenting these areas.
It probably is Chilton. This is a transcribed article which includes mistakes. It was printed in 1920s and there are often misspelled words in printing at this time. It was much harder for them to correct and our ancestors didn’t have spell check. 🙂
That’s what I figured.
It is Chilton. I have done some panning in some of the creeks there.
Thomas Warren did you find anything just curious
© I am holding the purple hex pan http://alabamapioneers.com/ap2/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/GOLD.jpg
Miner mike do you work the public in cleborne?
Is it your photo, would it be ok to credit you in the article? and link your site?
Sorry,,missed you last night,,Yes it is a older © on that photo and no problem with the credit back to me here on fb. I am the Alabama state Director for the Gold Prospectors of Association America.
Done and thanks for following us.
I was a member of gpaa. I have a very nice pan from them.
© The largest producer of Au, in Alabama was the Hog Mountain mine in Tallapoosa County . Arbacoochee was the largest town in the state with 5000 people that were mining or mining related jobs in Cleburne Co.
There is place in clay co one can pay to pan, in cragford
Any luck Thomas?
Daniel Robinson yes. No you will not get rich. Probably won’t even get your gas money back but it’s there. We would get maybe 1to 3 small colors per pan. Most the gold in Alabama is in quartz and has to be pulverized out. Most any creek coming off the east side of the Appalachians in Alabama had trace gold. There is a pay streak along the east side as the article indicates.
Scott Freeman see my comment above.
John Robert Johnson 🙂
You forgot the little community north of Brilliant called Gold Mine because of the small gold mine there.
My brother, Ellis Sanderson, loved to go panning for gold in Alabama.
Who ever heard of “Chilean” as a county?
.
I’ve been in Colorado many years, but I grew up in Anniston, and lived a while in Heflin before moving away. In Heflin I worked a while for a man who owned a chunk of land to the Southeast of there. Once we went and drove through it in a four wheel drive, this about 1971. He pointed out a number of very old open pits, generally 30 to 100 feet across, and maybe 5 to 10 feet deep, which he said were the old gold mines operated before gold was discovered in California. He was himself a mining engineer and had several other unrelated extraction operations going on at the time, and had visions of someday attempting to reopen that area. I assume that never took place.
Don’t tell every body
Irby McCollough
I use to spend the weekends along the Blue Creek just west of Mitchell Dam….I saw friends and relatives pull nice nuggets from the shallow stream there and have maybe 1/2 oz. of fine gold from that area….I met people who showed me nuggets the size of silver dollars…but they were very secretive of where they were on that creek…Me and my brother-in-law made 3 or 4 trips and finally the owner sold the land and we lost a great place to pan and explore the area…what great memories !
Where was the gold at in Elmore County ?!?
All the information I have is in the article. Perhaps a reader can help you with the location.
Donna
I had heard there was a mine on the dirt road behind lake Martin dam. This should be Elmore county. I heard you drive to the dam and on the west side, there is a dirt road that runs parallel to the river. Drive down river slowly. I was told there is a large “cut out area” on the hill side a little way down the road. There is supposed to be a mine that could be entered I was told many years ago. I believe it can been seen up the hillside in a red clay bank. Use much caution. This is private land. Hunters are in the woods. The mines are unsafe. But, they are awesome to view and see. Pure Alabama history!
Butch Samson
Check this out……Russ Cranford
For more info on Alabama gold see my article I wrote a few years ago. It can be found on the Clay County, Alabama Chamber of Commerce website under History.
Mark Williams where are you from if you don’t mind me asking? Would like to tag along have always wanted to try panning. Me and my son live in Blount county.
there’s supposed to be an old mine in Chilton county off lake Jordan
Don’t tell anyone Randolph county creek’s are full of it
I have ran a high banker in Randolph Co. And found a little over 1/4 ounce in just two of my buckets of concentrate. It is very fine gold for the most part but while panning it out my pan lit up like a gold colored Christmas tree.
Thanks June Wesley Perez and Maritza Lesser for posting this as Larry Ford has been interested on gold than he has me . HA ! HA ! This is his wk-end with his mama so I just called to tell him about this and he couldn’t wait to get me off the phone so he could look this up . We have been to The Gold Mining Camp in Cragford but only found flakes . Every time the UPS/Fedex came to our house, guess what each time he had ordered this and that and pretty soon he had all it took to go gold prospecting. LOL. I enjoy it too though so if I don’t hear from him for a while well I’ve got y’all to thank . LOL.
My grandparents lived near Goldville and Hog Mountain area. My grandfather, Charles Austin Britton, who I think immigrated from Wales, was killed in the gold mines n that area in the early 1900s. Anybody have any more information about this?
Somewhere close to chucks marina on lake martin. …I hear
Hmmm let’s go Mining:)
Yes, there is!
We have a small “mountain” here in Louisiana (really just a large hill) and I read they used to advertise back east that there was gold in it to persuade people to settle here.
Wonder if thats why alot of them places are now state parks
Yea right better make sure it’s not fools gold ha ha
Study Alabama history we had a baby rush before 1849rs
I know gold was found in Chilton County in Verbena at the Graffight mine.
I used to go gold hunting with Jack Guido of Guido’s Pizza fame in the 1970s in Arbacoochee in Cleburne County. It was bigger than Atlanta or Birmingham with streetcars. Here is the Wikipedia entry for it: Arbacoochee was named after the old Creek Indian village of “Abihkuchi”, which translates to “a pile at the base.” [1] Gold was discovered here in 1832, and the local mines produced over $5,000,000 worth of gold. In 1845, Arbacoochee had a population of over 5,000 people and was home to twenty general stores, five saloons, a school, two churches, two hotels, two mining supply stores, a fire department, race track, and over 100 homes.[2] Most of the residents departed when news of the California Gold Rush reached Alabama, and only a few families remained.[3]
A post office was operated in Arbacoochee from 1842 to 1904. It is now just trees and kudzu in the Talladega National Forest.
I now live in Dahlonega, site of the first gold rush in the United States. Have panned in local creeks and the river in the front yard.
Thank you for the additional information!
I got to see the Hog Mountain mines in the early 1980’s near Goldville. A lot of work went into this mine. I didn’t go into the mines. I wasn’t sure the stability of the holes and what reptiles and animals occupied them
I am the proud owner of my grandfather’s most valuable stock certificates in the Hog Mountain Gold Mine Company! 🙂
I have located most of the old mine areas around Verbena and Maplesville. However the land is private and the owners won’t let anyone on their land. I did work one mine site near Verbena , found a litle gold but it has been worked numerous times since the 1830’s. The old diggins and rock piles are interesti ng, since most of it was hand dug. The Blue Creek area near Verbena was very lucrative . I have talked to decendents of a man who raised 8 kids by working this creek and selling his gold on the black market when the price was set at $35.00 and ounce, but they won’t even allow anyone to walk the land let alone prospect!! I have a spot in Chambers County that I can get a few hundred dollars a day of gold by dredging when the water conditions are right. So there is still gold in Alabama. But the easy pickins were gone lomg ago!!
Where are the mines located in Maplesville?
Page Ivey
Douglas Podany
Richard Cumbie- gold in Elmore county
Marion county had some. There is a area called goldmine just outside of Brilliant Al. I was told that is how it fits its name.
Very interesting article. I live out west now gold mining is rampant.
I never knew about the AL mines.
thanx
Tallapoosa County is full of geologic finds. There are garnets the diameter of nickels to be found in and near Lake Martin near the high water mark, near the Windermere subdivision. Be careful trying to go to the old above-the-waterline mines, they are on private property. But you can find them in the lake! (I guess that’s probably private property, too, really!).
How can I find out where u can pann for gold in the creeks of clay and coosa co
My brother, now deceased had a farm in Rockford, it had a creek on it & he panned for gold for the fun of it. He showed me what he had found. No big nuggets. He had his gold in a tiny vial. I was surprised, I expected more. Most of it looked like small shavings. Not enough to sell! I always wanted to pan for gold just for the fun of it. Never did get too because my brother developed lung cancer & the creek was a good long way from his house.
I currently live on Lake Martin and will try panning some creeks, There sure is a lot of quartz and stuff on my property. Just for fun as I am not trying to strike it rich. Ya never know!