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Gwinnett has a gold mining history that few people know of. Gold was mined along Richland Creek near present day Buford as early as 1830. Mines were located around Little Mill Road in Buford, Level Creek Road in Sugar Hill and other places in the area. The Piedmont mine is still there in Sugar Hill. The tunnel hasn't caved in. Work at this mine stopped when they dug below the watertable. They were using a mule and bucket to remove the water that would collect in the tunnel. Mining had to stop when the mule couldn't keep up eith the water. At this site there was a Stamp mill in the 1930's. My great grandfather Westbrook was a farmer in the 1930's near Buford but mined gold on his land in his spare time. He used to find nuggets up to an ounce. Gold can still be found in many streams around Buford and Sugar Hill. Several mines were located around E.E. Robinson Park in Sugar Hill.
Keith Humphrey
Keith
Yes, we agree! The Gwinnett mines were part of the so-called Hall County belt that ran under the Chattahoochee River. further north, crossing into northern Gwinnett County. Each of the places you mentioned would have been in the gold belt.
Most of the gold found in Gwinnett was in placers (alluvial or surface). In the Buford area there was significant mining, however even the most productive of the known mines did not produce the quantity or quality of the gold further north. Finally, a "gold rush" is defined by the numbers of people who move to the area to mine gold. The Hall County belt was under land that had been sold and developed earlier in the century so there was not the "rush" of large amounts of men and equipment as there was further north.
However, you make a valid point. I probably should include more on the mining in the Hall County belt. Taken as a whole there were significant quantities of gold taken from the ground and the river. I had always suspected that the Cherokee were mining gold as far south as present-day Duluth.
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