Pine Mountain Gold Mine

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Pine Mountain Gold Mine
(Stockmar Gold Mine)
National Register of Historic Places
Historic District
Cyanide dissolving storage boiler

Cyanide dissolving storage boiler

Pine Mountain Gold Mine, Georgia
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
location Villa Rica , Douglas County , Georgia
Coordinates 33 ° 45 '13.3 "  N , 84 ° 53' 8.9"  W Coordinates: 33 ° 45 '13.3 "  N , 84 ° 53' 8.9"  W.
NRHP number 08000834
The NRHP added August 28, 2008

The Pine Mountain Gold Mine (older name: Stockmar Gold Mine ) is a show mine , located in the northeast of the city of Villa Rica in Douglas County in the east of the American state Georgia . From 1826 to 1936 gold was mined with a few interruptions. Since 2001, the former mining area, embedded in a wooded local recreation area, has been an open-air museum .

In 2008 the Pine Mountain Gold Mine was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District .

Villa Rica

The city of Villa Rica, which stretches from Carroll County into Douglas County , emerged in 1883 from the amalgamation of two small gold mining settlements. When the railroad tracks of the Georgia-Pacific Railroad were laid in 1882, Hixtown and the small town of Cheevestown, 1.6 km south, merged to form the newly founded town of Villa Rica. Hixtown's origins date back to 1826 when the first prospectors came to the region. The name goes back to a William Hix, a former tavern and general store owner.

The urban development of the historic western town of Villa Rica was closely linked to the technical development of gold mining and the associated influx of miners. At the height of the gold rush there were almost 20 gold mines in the vicinity. Only the Pine Mountain Gold Mine could operate commercially until the 20th century. After the mine was closed, the population concentrated on agriculture until 1940, as well as buying and selling imported cotton and processing it.

Geographical location of the gold mine

The mining site is within the Carroll County's Gold Belt, approximately 380 meters above sea level on a small wooded mountain above Stockmar Road. The mine is located 3 miles northeast of the town of Villa Rica, not far from Douglasville . Today's area only covers approx. 12 km 2 .

History of industrial gold mining at the Pine Mountain Gold Mine

First gold rush in Georgia

There is no historical record of where or when the first gold was found in Georgia. Like several other places, Villa Rica claims that the first great gold rush started here, according to information about a find in 1826.

The first mining activities could be dated to 1829. In 1830 newspaper reports appeared that reported gold discoveries in the region. As a result of this and the simultaneous redistribution of land in Georgia that had become free after the expropriation and displacement of the Muskogee , thousands of settlers migrated to the region and founded the small town of Hixtown. The mining activities initially consisted of simple gold prospecting and panning, which was mainly carried out manually in narrow trenches.

Between 1830 and 1840 the mine was divided among 26 prospectors who later founded different companies. The farmer Robert A. Fleming was the first legal owner of the mine, which at the time comprised 820 hectares. From 1832 onwards, an annual output of up to 25,000 pennyweights gold (approx. 38.9 kg) were mined in two large pits in the opencast mine over several years . Mining activity declined in the 1840s. The first easy-to-develop gold veins were exhausted and many miners migrated to California and Colorado because of large gold discoveries.

Jane W. Stone bought the mine in 1869 and owned it until 1914. During this time an approx. 18 m long trench ( glory hole ) was created through the hilltop , which was used to transport the ores. However, the delivery rates remained very low.

Revitalization of gold mining from 1915 to 1936 through cyanide leaching

It was only when the mine changed hands again in 1914 that cyanide leaching was established under AH Stockmar in the period from 1915 to 1936 , a then new industrial process with which the gold yield could be increased. With this method, the second important phase in the history of gold mining in the USA began. The use of this hydrometallurgical extraction process, developed independently by Mac Arthur and Forrest and by Siemens and Halske in 1887, was the only economical method to commercially extract gold from low-gold ores (of approx. 0.001%) by alkaline precipitation with dilute potassium cyanide solution. The raw gold could then be reduced and concentrated from the seepage water using zinc powder. The mine closed for good in 1936.

Show mine, gold museum and local recreation area

In 2001 the entire area was handed over to the city of Villa Rica. After a large lake had been created in the former mining site, the city built a local recreation area with additional infrastructure, a nature deposit and animal enclosures. In addition to various historical devices from the time of cyanide leaching, cyanide dissolving tanks, infiltration basins, various tanks for the production of cyanide liquor, laboratory equipment, ore bunkers, stamp mills and building ruins can now be viewed on the former mine site. Piles of rubble and collapsed tunnels point to the historical beginnings of gold mining. Guided tours through the old gold mine, tourist gold prospecting and a visit to the gold museum opened in 2007 with an extensive collection of historical tools give the visitor a comprehensive insight into the technical development of gold mining. In addition to nature trails, the park area offers a number of other leisure activities.

literature

  • Keith S. Hébert: Pine Mountain Gold Mine (PDF), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta 2008.
  • H. David Williams: Origins of the North Georgia Gold Rush , in: Proceedings of the Georgia Association of Historians 9, 1988, pp. 161-168.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ James C. Bonner: Georgia's Last Frontier, the Development of Carroll County . University of Georgia Press 2010, ISBN 9780820335254 , p. 50 (limited preview: Google Bookshttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3DAiQQLTdjPv0C~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3DPA50~ double sided%3D~LT%3DGoogle%20Books~PUR%3D ; accessed July 24, 2019).
  2. ^ Keith S. Hébert: Pine Mountain Gold Mine , National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta 2008; accessed June 13, 2019.
  3. ^ Myron W. House: Carroll County , New Georgia Encyclopedia, Oct. 31, 2018; accessed July 24, 2019.
  4. ^ Carroll County Historical Society: Historical Villa Rica ; accessed July 24, 2019.
  5. ↑ James C. Bonner: Georgia's Last Frontier, the Development of Carroll County . University of Georgia Press 2010, ISBN 9780820335254 , p. 50 (limited preview: Google Bookshttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3DAiQQLTdjPv0C~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3DPA50~ double sided%3D~LT%3DGoogle%20Books~PUR%3D ; accessed July 24, 2019).
  6. ^ Keith S. Hébert: Pine Mountain Gold Mine , National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta 2008; accessed June 13, 2019.
  7. ^ H. David Williams: Origin of the North Georgia Gold Rush ; accessed June 13, 2019.
  8. ^ Keith S. Hébert: Pine Mountain Gold Mine , National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta 2008; accessed June 13, 2019.
  9. ^ Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma: Muscogee (Creek) History ( Memento of March 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) ; accessed July 24, 2019.
  10. ↑ James C. Bonner: Georgia's Last Frontier, the Development of Carroll County . University of Georgia Press 2010, ISBN 978-0-8203-3525-4 , p. 50 (limited preview: Google Bookshttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3DAiQQLTdjPv0C~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3DPA50~ double sided%3D~LT%3DGoogle%20Books~PUR%3D ; accessed July 24, 2019).
  11. ^ Keith S. Hébert: Pine Mountain Gold Mine , National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta 2008; accessed June 13, 2019.
  12. ↑ Hippolyt Köhler: The industry of the cyano compounds, their development and their current status . Vieweg, Braunschweig 1914, p. 22 ( onlinehttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D~IA%3Ddieindustrieder00khgoog~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3Dn40~ double-sided%3D~LT%3DOnline~PUR%3D at the Internet Archive ; accessed July 24, 2019).
  13. ^ Keith S. Hébert: Pine Mountain Gold Mine , National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta 2008; accessed June 13, 2019.
  14. ^ Carroll County Georgia: Pine Mountain Gold Museum ; accessed July 24, 2019.
  15. ^ Keith S. Hébert: Pine Mountain Gold Mine , National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta 2008; accessed June 13, 2019.
  16. ^ Villa Rica: Pine Mountain Gold Museum ; accessed July 24, 2019.