Places To Pan For Gold in Alabama
Places To Pan For Gold in Alabama
Significant amounts of gold have come from Alabama, making it one of the better gold producing states east of the Mississippi River. Gold has been found in both lode and placer deposits with the majority coming from areas in the east central part of the state up next to the Georgia border. Alabama’s gold fields occur in a northeast trending belt about 100 miles long and 60 miles wide, in a region known as the Piedmont Uplift. The Piedmont Uplift covers about 3,500 square miles in Chilton, Clay, Cleburne, Coosa, Elmore, Randolph, Talladega and Tallapoosa Counties.
Anyone who pans for gold hopes to find the glitter of colors in the bottom of the pan. The would-be prospector hoping for financial gain, however, should carefully consider all the pertinent facts before deciding on a gold prospecting venture. Herein are the pertinent historical facts of gold in Alabama.
Prospectors turned their attention to Alabama when it was discovered in the year 1830 at Blue Creek (32.81263,-86.45775) and Chestnut Creek (32.76291,-86.52581) in Chilton County. Gold was found in the igneous and metamorphic rocks of Alabama’s Piedmont physiographic section in the southwest-northest area that lined up with the states’s Appalachian Mountains.
Significant gold discoveries continued throughout the following years in the following counties:
- Talladega County – Placer gold was taken from the branches of the Talladega River. Quartz veins in the Riddles Mill district as well as the Story Mine eight miles south of Talladega Creek produced lode gold.
- Tallapoosa County – Gold was taken from four areas of Tallapoosa County: Devil’s Backbone, Eagle Creek, Goldville and Hog Mountain.
- Chambers County –
- Cleburne County – The Chulafinnee district creek and tributaries and The Arbacoochee Placer find had vast areas yielding placer gold. The Arbacoochee Placer alone was well over 600 acres of gold yielding territory.
- Coosa County – Weogufka Creek and Hatchett Creek as well as areas of Flint Hill offered placer gold in many areas. Lode gold was produced from the Gold Ridge Mine and Flint Hill.
- Clay County
- Chilton County – Gold nuggets up to four ounces have been recovered from Blue Creek, a tributary of the Coosa River in the southeastern part of the county.
- Elmore County
- Cleburne County
- Randolph County – Streams a d creeks near Wedowee and the Tallapoosa River produced placer gold. Lode gold was obtained from the Pinetucky Gold Mine and the Tallapoosa River area.