Consolidated Gold Mines

Glory Hole

Useful Information

Location:	Dahlonega.
Open:	Summer Mon-Fri 10-17. Winter daily 10-16. [2005]
Fee:	Adults USD 11, Children (4-14) USD 7, Children (0-3) free. Groups (20+): Adults USD 9, Children USD 6. [2005]
Classification:	Gold Mine
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	T=15 °C.
Guided tours:	D=45 min.
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Consolidated Gold Mines, 125 Consolidated Gold Mine Rd., Dahlonega GA 30533, Tel: +1-706-864-8473. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1828	first gold discovered.
1845	Nathan Hand developed mining by a water cannon.
1895	Dahlonega Consolidated Gold Mining Co formed, underground mining at the Glory Hole started.
1906	mine out of business.
1991	opened to the public as a show mine.

Description

Consolidated Gold Mines at Dahlonega is the site of America's first gold rush. The first gold was discovered in 1828 by the deer hunter Benjamin Parks, who stumbled over a rock which was full of gold. Within one year the gold attracted 15,000 miners to the area. At first the miners picked up the gold up by hand or washed it from gravel with gold pans. The gold was eroded from the gold bearing rocks over millennia. It accumulated in pockets on the ground of streams.

The next development of the gold mining was introduced by Nathan Hand. He deveeloped a series of pipes and ditches to shoot water through a 16cm nozzle. With this water cannon he shot up at the mountainside to create a mud-slide. The gold-bearing material was washed down into the socalled sluice boxes lined up at the bottom, which separated the gold from the mud.

When the solid rock was reached, it was determined that there were thin gold bearing quartz veins, which released the gold when they were eroded. But the veins were very thin and it was not profitable to mine them, except at Dahlonega, where several extremely large veins were running together, forming one giant vein. One of the largest veins of quartz in the world containing gold was found, 6.70m thick. A group of northern investors bought 7,000 acres of land around the vein and formed the Dahlonega Consolidated Gold Mining Co. It was mining underground in the Glory Hole from 1895 to 1906, when it went out of business.

The old mine was reopened as a show mine by a coal mining family from Kentucky "...wishing to change occupations after several generations". We understood, they did not change from coal to gold, but from mining to tourism business.