Bechtler mine entrance.
History Feature
By John Ross
Step aside California: a 12-year-old boy’s discovery of a 17-pound nugget in the foothills of the Blue Ridge triggered America’s first gold rush, a stampede of prospectors whose lust for riches ultimately drove the Cherokee from their homeland.
One summer day in 1799, Conrad Reed went fishing in Little Meadow Creek on his family’s farm in Cabarrus County on the eastern edge of the Piedmont. He stumbled upon a shiny rock of unusual yellow color and took it home. His parents must have found it pretty, too, for they used the small but heavy boulder as a doorstop for the next three years.
Finally, curiosity got the best of Conrad’s father, John, and he took it to a local silversmith in nearby Concord. The silversmith wasn’t sure, but thinking it might be gold, he delivered it to a jeweler in Fayetteville who confirmed that it was. Smelted, it produced a bar about six inches long which John, not knowing its value, sold to the jeweler for $3.05 or about $70 in today’s dollars.
John soon realized his mistake. With friends and slaves, he prospected his and surrounding farms. As Little Meadow Creek withered in summer drought in 1803, they discovered a 28-pound nugget and enough other deposits in its sand and gravel to open the first documented gold mine in the United States.
When the news spread, thousands left cities along the coast and headed to counties in the Piedmont stretching from Charlotte to south of Greensboro. Like a storm tide, gold fever flooded every watershed in the Blue Ridge. A second swath of gold-bearing formations was discovered running from north of Morganton down to Columbus along the eastern front of the Blue Ridge.
At first, gold was found among creek gravels. Soon ore was discovered in rock outcrops and shafts were driven nearly 1,000 feet down into gold-bearing formations. Although North Carolina produced more gold than any other state until the strike at Sutter’s Mill in California in 1848, Tar Heel miners had little means of converting their finds into cash.
Evidently, Christian Bechtler, a metalsmith who immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1829, heard about their plight. With his son and nephew, he moved to Rutherfordton, opened a jewelry shop in 1830 and, a year later, established a private mint, striking gold coins in $1, $2.50 and $5 denominations. Today, a $5 Bechtler gold piece will bring $50,000.
Gold discoveries in 1828 on Cherokee lands in northern Georgia were far richer than those in North Carolina and triggered America’s second great gold rush. So intense was demand for this land, that despite a Supreme Court ruling that gave the Cherokee property rights, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, triggering the infamous Trail of Tears.
Gold is still mined at North Carolina’s Vein Mountain on US- 221 at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains just south of Marion. The North Carolina Gold Trail, still under development, is a heritage destination trail that spans the state. Pick up the Gold Trail at the Bechtler House Heritage Center in Rutherfordton and drive north four miles to the Bechtler Mint Historic Site. There you can stand in front of the gate barring entrance to the mine and speculate on what riches lie beyond.
The Bechtler House Heritage Center is located at 130 West 6th Street in Rutherfordton and is open Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more on the North Carolina Gold Trail, see VisitNCGold.com.
