Unique, "EB on Breast"1787 Brasher Doubloon from
The Gold Rush Collection
"BARNACLES OF GOLD"
THE STORY OF DAHLONEGA'S FAMED FINDLEY MINE
The Findley Chute: Lost - Found - Lost Again
In 1880, R. B. King leased the property. He located the Findley Chute almost immediately and mined it with great success. Just before his year’s lease expired, he “lost” the Chute intentionally! He reportedly made enough from the vein in twelve months to start a bank in Denver, Colorado.The Findley Gold Mining Company continued to own but not work the Findley property until it was sold at sheriff’s sale in 1885. In 1890, it was purchased by the Trefoil Gold Mining Company of St. Louis, Missouri. This company repaired the mill and put in a set of concentrators, which proved a fruitless expense.
At the time of State Geologist Yeates’ visit to the Findley Mine in 1895, the property was owned by Christian Wahl, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and managed by Capt. H. D. Ingersoll. Yeates noted that “while no extensive work seems to have been done, yet the work on it has been constant;.....and the property is one of the best developed in the county.”
Yeates
described the mill house as containing 40 stamps, each weighing
450 pounds, 20 of which were “practically new.” “When
last rebuilt,” Yeates wrote, “the mill-house was planned,
so as to admit of the introduction of a concentrating plant, for
handling the sulphide ores.”
The mill was driven by water contained behind a 17-foot-high dam across Yahoola Creek. A 32-inch Leffel turbine wheel furnished 60 H. P. The large pump in the pump house had been installed in 1895 by the current owner of the property, C. Wahl, and was used to pump water to the reservoir on top of the ridge. The water was taken from the Findley ditch, which ran about halfway up the ridge.
Note: This
was one of numerous adueducts which conveyed water
from higher elevations with enough pressure to operate
hydraulic cannons. What was a slow and laborious
process for a man with a pick and shovel was
accomplished in a mere fraction of the time by a great
jet of water tearing away the earth with as much
pressure as 135 lbs. per square inch. It was common
to estimate the work of a water cannon as equal to the
labor of ten men.
A booklet entitled, "Announcement of the Dahlonega Consolidated Gold Mining Company" of Dahlonega, Georgia, published in 1899, described the Findley Mine and Mill as “unquestionably one of the most desirable properties in the South.” It went on to say, “The high, steep hill, rising abruptly above the mill, has always been considered as the heart of the Georgia gold belt. On the hill is situated the celebrated “Findley Shute,’ a wonderfully prolific pocket vein from which alone at least $2000,000.00 have been taken out and which does not appear to be exhausted.”
The booklet continued with a glowing detailed description of the property, noting the “40-stamp mill in excellent repair, and another piece of machinery which is a novelty....a pump....which is the only machine of its kind in existence, a Duplex water motor, made by Filer & Stowell, of Milwaukee. It operates, from the canal water, under a head of 283 feet and lifts 176,000 cubic feet of water to the vertical height of 435 feet daily.”
“BARNACLES OF GOLD”
An article appeared in the April 27, 1901, Atlanta Journal Dahlonega, the Center of Yellow Metal Enterprises” and “Excitement Over the Rediscovery of a Long Lost Mine.”After describing how the “dull, sleepy town of four years ago” had been transformed into a “busy, bustling little city” as a result of the magnitude of the developments (including electric lights) made by the Consolidated Mining Company, McNelley told of “the latest and by far the richest discovery ever made in the mines here.” He went on to relate the history of the Findley Chute and tell how “two practical miners of this place” named Witt & Campbell had set out with determination to locate the “long-lost treasure.”
Campbell got discouraged and quit, and Witt was almost at the point of giving it up as a fruitless search when he instructed his workmen to put in “one more shot.” If that didn’t break into the gold, they were to “pull out their tools and give it up as a bad job.” The hole was drilled, the dynamite put in, the fuse ignited, and the men hurried out of the hole. After the explosion when the smoke had cleared, the miners went back inside “with bated breath to discover the result.” There, to their astonishment, they saw “exposed to the naked eye an almost solid mass of gold nuggets sticking out like warts on the face of the quartz.” They had struck the famed Findley Chute!
According to McNelley, the discovery had taken place “about two weeks ago.” “Captain” Witt had kept his men constantly working to extract the ore and had already mined 326 pounds of the rich ore. He was obviously eager to get as much gold as possible before his lease expired on June 1, at which time the property would be taken over by the Consolidated Company.
The Journal correspondent described the “chute or ore in the mine as zig-zag in shape” with”cones” projecting right and left, each weighted down with “barnacles of pure gold.” He wrote enthusiastically, “The seams in the rock are full of nuggets and in many cases the quartz is held together with pure gold.” He quoted an old miner as saying, “The Findley is a-goin’ to run to Chiney, and the deeper you git on the vein, the better and richer it will be.”
According to McNelly, the Chute was excavated to “about 350 feet” at the time. He noted that Consolidated Company planned to “drive a tunnel in at the base of the hill and intersect the chute some hundred feet below” in order to work the entire vein.
The
Consolidated Company also proposed to increase the number of stamps
on the Findley property from 40 to 100 to give it a 200-ton capacity.
At an estimated average value of $3 per ton of ore, the expanded
Findley was expected to earn $600 per day. However, the company’s
grandiose dreams never came to fruition, and it was bankrupt by
1906. Some mining probably took place on the property in subsequent
years but on a minor scale.