Before digging deep into my East Coast Gold pages, take a moment to familiarize yourself with early US Gold History, as it relates to the East Coast. As everyone has heard, "Gold is where you find it..." You can go back to the "Prospecing Info" page to get more information about each state.

1782: One of the earliest printed reference to gold in the US was in 1782, when Thomas Jefferson reported on a gold-bearing rock, weighing four pounds, that was found in Virginia on the north side of the Rappahannock River.
1799: A 17-pound gold nugget is found in Cabarrus County, NC, and is the first documented gold discovery in the US. The Reed Gold Mine is the site of the first documented gold find in the United States. From this discovery, gold mining spread gradually to nearby counties and eventually into other southern states. During its peak years gold mining was second only to farming in the number of North Carolinians it employed. The estimated value of gold recovered reached over a million dollars a year. North Carolina led the nation in gold production until 1848, when it was eclipsed by the great rush to California.
1802: Gold was discovered in the Greenville SC district. The state's first recorded shipment of gold to the US mint was from a Lancaster Placer Mine in 1829.
1803: Gold is discovered at Little Meadow Creek, NC, sparking the first US gold rush.
1804: Placer gold mining started in Virginia about 1804.
1804-1828: NC supplies all the domestic gold coined by the US Mint in Philadelphia for currency.
1828-1829: GA settlers find gold in Dukes Creek, Habersham County.
1830: There is no way to confirm the exact year of discovery of gold in Alabama; however, it is accepted to have been about 1830.
1849: Maryland gold was first reported on Samuel Ellicott's farm near Brookville, Montgomery County.


Little Meadow Creek, North Carolina.

Despite what most folks think, there is great gold to be found on the east coast. There are thousands of gold bearing streams scattered throughout eastern states. The Carolina Slate Belt Gold Deposits in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia has been an important region of mineral production. This region is thought to have major potential for containing large undiscovered deposits of gold and silver, as well as copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, and tin. Gold production from the major mines (Haile, Brewer, Ridgeway, and Barite Hill) in South Carolina ranked sixth in the Nation in 1992. Despite the closing of all but one mine in 1997, the region continues to attract intense scrutiny by the mining industry.


The Carolina slate belt and major SC gold mines (modified from Hatcher and Butler, 1979).