| I have estimated that when I am working the | | | | being cut away by the stream. |
| streams in North Georgia for gold, I can earn | | | | I started panning for gold on the corner of the lot |
| about $0.50 an hour at the current price of gold. I | | | | at the down stream end and planned to work my |
| understand completely how hard it was for | | | | way up the stream and clean out all the gold I |
| prospectors to make a living looking for gold. | | | | could find. On one of our trips to Colorado for a |
| However, there is something exciting about finding | | | | caving convention, my friend and I left a week |
| that shiny speck of metal in the ground. The gold | | | | early to pan for gold and bought a small 2 inch |
| of North Georgia has a deep golden color and is | | | | dredge. I set up the dredge in the creek and |
| the purest found anywhere. The thrill of that gold | | | | worked the sand all the way down to bed rock. |
| appearing in the bottom of a pan of black sand | | | | The gold was very rough and beautiful. Nothing |
| can be addictive. Don't expect to get rich looking | | | | large just small pickers and flakes. I did fill a small |
| for gold, but you can easily collect some color for | | | | locket with gold for a neckless that my wife |
| you home collection and maybe even a bragging | | | | wears and a small amount for a display case. |
| nugget or two. | | | | I have not yet worked the creek up to the |
| You may have heard the story about the man in | | | | quartz vein where I suspect the gold is coming |
| Africa who went off looking for diamonds only to | | | | from. It has not moved far in the water or the |
| return home after many years to find a large | | | | edges would be more rounded off. I guess I am |
| diamond in his own back yard. My wife kept telling | | | | saving the rest of the creek for the future. |
| to check out the creek behind the house for gold, | | | | We used to have gold panning parties when |
| but I kept looking in the gold fields more to the | | | | family or out of town friends would visit. They |
| north and even tried to find some out west. My | | | | could not believe they could find real gold right |
| best success was from buying dirt from a mine in | | | | there in our own back yard. |
| Dahlonega which resulted in paying about what the | | | | Subdivisions have taken over some of the old |
| gold was worth after panning it out. | | | | mines in the area. Sixes Mine in south Cherokee |
| Most of the gold in Georgia can be found along a | | | | County produced $200,000 worth of gold in 1849 |
| line from Clayton in the northeast to Buchanan | | | | and now is part of Lake Altoona and a large |
| near the Alabama line. Along this line is Dahlonega, | | | | subdivision. The Hadaway Mine near Acworth is |
| Canton, Allatoona, and Acworth. The gold belt is | | | | also believed to have produced a sizeable amount. |
| not well defined and spread out in places. We live | | | | Ore samples from the Kemp property showed |
| just north of Marietta along a ridge that divides | | | | $2.50 to $7.50 worth of gold per ton of ore. |
| the waters of the Chattahoochee and the Etowah | | | | I will never get rich form panning gold, but it is |
| rivers. I like to think of it as our little continental | | | | nice to know that you can find gold in your own |
| divide. Behind our home we have a stream that | | | | back yard. So when I get bored again I will drag |
| flows toward the Etowah. The rock formations | | | | out the dredge and dredge up sand for a few |
| here are turned up on edge and at about midpoint | | | | hours adding a few more specks of gold to my |
| along the back of our lot is a quartz vein that is | | | | collection. |
