While staying in our luxury Blue Ridge vacation cabin rentals just an hour from Dahlonega, plan a visit to the largest hard rock gold mine east of the Mississippi! Founded in 1896, this gold mine focused on removing gold trapped in quartz veins throughout the property. Experience what it was like over 100 years ago, 200 feet underground as a turn-of-the-century gold miner. Your tour guide will demonstrate how miners blasted quartz veins to uncover huge deposits of gold. After your underground tour, miners will teach you how to pan for gold as we offer gold panning, gem mining, and gem cutting.
The Consolidated Mine was a gold mine in Dahlonega, Georgia; like most of the area around Dahlonega, the placer mining on the land on which the mine is located probably started during the Georgia Gold Rush. By 1880, the placer deposits were exhausted and the land was down to hard rock. Gold was soon discovered in a huge quartz vein system and mined. "The richest acre" was mined deep into the ground - and the resulting shaft became known as the "Glory Hole."
After an interruption of operations at the mine, a group of investors purchased about 7,000 acres of land around the discovery sight and formed the Dahlonega Consolidated Gold Mining Co. in 1895. After constructing the largest stamp mill east of the Mississippi River at the Consolidated Mine property, the Mining Co. folded in 1906. The mine's lower workings became flooded and lay dormant until seventy-five years later when the site came under new ownership....
While staying in our luxury Blue Ridge vacation cabin rentals just an hour from Dahlonega, plan a visit to the largest hard rock gold mine east of the Mississippi! Founded in 1896, this gold mine focused on removing gold trapped in quartz veins throughout the property. Experience what it was like over 100 years ago, 200 feet underground as a turn-of-the-century gold miner. Your tour guide will demonstrate how miners blasted quartz veins to uncover huge deposits of gold. After your underground tour, miners will teach you how to pan for gold as we offer gold panning, gem mining, and gem cutting.
The Consolidated Mine was a gold mine in Dahlonega, Georgia; like most of the area around Dahlonega, the placer mining on the land on which the mine is located probably started during the Georgia Gold Rush. By 1880, the placer deposits were exhausted and the land was down to hard rock. Gold was soon discovered in a huge quartz vein system and mined. "The richest acre" was mined deep into the ground - and the resulting shaft became known as the "Glory Hole."
After an interruption of operations at the mine, a group of investors purchased about 7,000 acres of land around the discovery sight and formed the Dahlonega Consolidated Gold Mining Co. in 1895. After constructing the largest stamp mill east of the Mississippi River at the Consolidated Mine property, the Mining Co. folded in 1906. The mine's lower workings became flooded and lay dormant until seventy-five years later when the site came under new ownership.
There is still gold to be mined - but the cost of extracting the gold from the mine exceeds the value of the gold, at least for the time being. Today, a part of the upper level of the mine remains open for tourists, who can tour portions of the "Glory Hole" underground and pan for gold. Original cart rails, electrical lines, and even an operational pneumatic drill recovered from the mine may be viewed. This mine and Crisson Mine are the two mines in the Dahlonega area that remain open for tourists. The Consolidated Mine remains the only mine in the area safe enough to take tourists into.
You and your family will enjoy a 40-minute Underground Adventure of the mine with one of their friendly and knowledgeable staff members. As you descend the stairs, you will hear tales of miner's struggles to uncover gold deep within large Quartz veins. Your tour guide welcomes interaction from the group as you experience life as a miner at the turn of the century.
