Sketches of Georgia

DAHLONEGAP, Sept. 18.

The Cherokees called gold tahlonega, from which this place derived its name as the centre of the gold region. It is the county-town of Lumpkin, and situated on a high hill, with others overlooking it, very similar in appearance to the convent of Valambrosa, in the Appenines; from which, it is thought, Milton drew his description of Paradise.

"Where Eden crowns with her inclosure green,
As with a rural mound, the champaign head
Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,
Access denied; and over-head up grew
Insuperable height of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A sylvan scene; and, as the ranks ascend
Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view."

The surrounding country exhibits the appearance of "Ocean rising like the clouds of a into tempest tost" and suddenly congealed; and notwithgathering storm and the sterility of the soil, a heavy growth of wood covers the steep acclivity and throws its dark shadow over the deep glen below but scarcely a foot of tillable land can be found; and were it not for the hidden treasures of the mine, no human habitation would have intruded on the haunt of the wild-deer and wolf: but "nature abhors a vacuum," and supplies the deficiencies of every portion with an equivalent for what it has not -- the rice-field and the sea island supply provision and clothing for mankind and the mountains supply him with mineral wealth and hygeian fountains.

This country, you know, was recovered from the Cherokees but a few years since; and that portion supposed to have gold, was divided by the state into forty acre lots, and disposed of by lottery to the people - each man and woman having one chance. As you may suppose, there was much variation in the value of these lots; but No. 52 was considered the El Dorado of the whole-and happy would that man he to whom it might fall. The day came, and it was announced the portion of a poor man in Green County. Away went the speculators, Gilpin-like, to gain the prize, and found the man ploughing in his field. He heard the glad tidings without emotion, and continued his ploughing; but when the offer rose to $30,000 cash, he sold it. In a few days $100,000 was offered, but the infatuated purchaser held on and only awoke from his Utopian dream, by the ruinous discovery, that No. 52 was one of the poorest lots in the region of Dahlonega.

About three years since, the government established a branch mint here which coins about $120,000 annually, and probably as much more is sent away in bullion. The whole population is engaged in digging for gold; and the face of the country for many miles presents the appearance of new made graves, or like Perk la Chaise after the three days revolution in Paris. The gold is found in deposit on a slate foundation: and sometimes the slate itself is rich with gold. These are called deposit mines, and are covered with a bed of pebbles or large stones, worn smooth by attrition, which must have been deposited there before the existence of any vegetable substance, for none is found below; but above them, is an accumulation of alluvial many feet thick. The appearance of the gold when found, is as if it had been dropped in a melted state; but it is very probable it has been washed out of the fissures in the rock, and worn smooth by the continual action of water.

It is found in the greatest abundance in the bed of the Chliestatee river, by turning the current-sometimes in large pieces weighing several hundred pennyweights; yet it is never found in such pieces, in the quartz veins. There, it is seldom visible to the eye: but when ground, yields from five to twenty dollars per day per hand. Whether these mines are to grow more productive, or work out, is a problem only to be solved by time; but if we are to judge from the experience of other mineral regions, the true wealth of this country is but indicated by what has been done. This is the opinion of an experienced English miner here, to whom I narrated the disappointed hopes of the "Walton Company," and he assured me that it could not have been an entire deception, and that he has no doubt of there being a rich vein in that place.

Sketches of Georgia by, Cooke, George:
Title: Southern literary messenger; devoted to every department of literature and the fine arts., vol. 6, iss. 10
Publication Date: Nov 1840
City: Richmond, Virginia
Publisher: T.W. White

 

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