Hope springs eternal in the rush for fabulous riches, and that was no less true in the 19th and early 20th centuries than it is today.

Around 1829, a gold rush began in Georgia, following the discovery of ore deposits in what later became White County (then part of Habersham County). The largest deposits were in Lumpkin County near Dahlonega, and the discovery triggered an intrusion onto Cherokee land that contributed to the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation during the infamous Trail of Tears.

The search for gold rapidly spread across north Georgia, including Cobb County.

The closest successful mine to Cobb County was the Franklin-Creighton Mine in Cherokee County.

The Georgia Historical Society website has the following description of gold mines in Cherokee County:

Cherokee County was home to many mines during the gold rush of the 1830s and 40s. The most successful mine was the Franklin-Creighton Mine, operated along the Etowah River near Ball Ground, Georgia. Mary Franklin, a widow from Athens, Georgia, drew a 40-acre lot in the Georgia Gold Lottery of 1832, which distributed 35,000 lots of land previously owned by the Cherokees. After the discovery of gold, Mrs. Franklin received offers to buy the land, but she chose to continue operating the mine under the supervision of her family. Within a few years, the Franklin Mine was successful enough to expand to 500 acres and purchase updated mining equipment and enslaved persons to work the mines. Mining operations slowed and upon Mary’s death her son took over the mine but found little success.

It was widely recognized that gold in Georgia was becoming increasingly difficult to extract profitably by the early 1840s.

Despite this, speculators continued to look for new gold veins throughout the remainder of the 19th Century.

The August 25, 1898, issue of the Marietta Journal (one of the past names of what later became today’s Marietta Daily Journal) ran this story about a mining operation in west Cobb:

Gold mining in Cobb County is attracting a good deal of attention, and capitalists with faith in the deposits are coming in to develop and utilize them. One of the recent movements of this kind is the organization of the Kennesaw Mining Company by a group of gentlemen from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who have associated with them several of our citizens.

They have begun operations and are now developing a gold mine west of Lost Mountain. Extensive gold-saving machinery of modern patents is being erected, and they expect to achieve the best results. The company is capitalized at one million dollars, and they are approaching the project with determination to accomplish something significant.

They appear to have a very extensive body of ore and the proper machinery to crush, treat, and save the valuable particles it contains. Success to these enterprising gentlemen, and may they be richly rewarded.

The January 23, 1908, issue of the News and Farmer ran an article on a man named Austyn Granville’s request for an electric railway franchise that would run from the Etowah area, through Acworth, Marietta, and Kennesaw. He was attempting to mine for gold two miles from Acworth.

This news brief must have come from a wire service, because in addition to running in the News and Farmer, it also ran in the Atlanta Georgian and the Danielsville Monitor:

Electric Road Seeks Franchise

Austyn Granville of New York, who is engaged in gold mining two miles from Acworth, has petitioned the Acworth City Council for a franchise to run an electric railway through the streets of Acworth. Mr. Granville and his associates, all New York capitalists, propose to build the electric railway from Acworth to Kennesaw, Lena, Noonday, and Elizabeth, then to Marietta, before continuing north to connect with Allatoona, Bartow, Hugo, and Emerson to Cartersville. Part of the track has already been laid, and a large amount of the machinery has been ordered. Work will be pushed forward at once.

One interesting thing to mention in epilogue is that the December 27, 1906 issue of the Marietta Journal, ran a public notice on the sale of about 215 acres near Acworth owned by a firm called the Hamilton Gold Mining, about two years before gold mining entrepreneur Austyn Granville applied for his electric railway franchise.

About Georgia Historic Newspapers

Georgia Historic Newspapers is a part of the GALILEO project and is housed at the University of Georgia. It’s an amazing resource for anyone with an interest in the history of Georgia and its regions.

According to the “About” page on its website:

The Georgia Historic Newspapers Archive is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG), a part of Georgia’s Virtual Library GALILEO and is based at the University of Georgia Libraries. Since 2007, the DLG has partnered with universities, archives, public libraries, historical societies, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions to digitize historical newspapers from around the state. The archive is free and open for public use and includes over two million Georgia newspaper pages between 1763 and 2021.

Newspaper titles are regularly digitized and added to the archive. If you are interested in including a particular title, you can visit our participation page. A majority of the newspapers on this site were digitized from the microfilm produced by the Georgia Newspaper Project (GNP). For more information about the microfilm available through the GNP, please visit their website.