Georgia Gold Rush Research Paper

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Gold – one of the most valuable of all metals is found in only a few places in sufficient abundance to be of economic importance. During the 1800s, Georgia was just a place. The most widely accepted claim to the discovery that started the Georgia Gold rush is attributed to Benjamin Parks. According to an interview conducted by the Atlanta Constitution in 1894, Benjamin Parks first descended on Georgia, creating Americans first major gold rush. The influx of thousands of people into the Cherokee Nation during the gold rush caused the state government to become impatient, and on June 1, 1830, Georgia assumed ownership of the Cherokee Nation, calling it Cherokee county. Cherokee county was divided into ten smaller counties in 1831. The next…show more content…
It is not certain how much gold was taken from Georgia because much of it was marketed in non- government mints and assay offices, or used in private commerce. However from 1828 to 1857, And 1.7 million of Georgia gold reached the Philadelphia mint. Georgia’s gold deposits were formed metallic gases and solution in hot waters that rose from deep within the earth. Minerals were forced upwards by tremendous pressures into cracks where they cooled and hardened. Some gold has since washed from its primary source to secondary sources called “placers”. Gold in veins and placers has been found and mined from Virginia to…show more content…
Stamps weighed 250 to 1,000 pounds. The rock was rendered into a fine powder and mercury-coated plates recovered the gold. Water cannon, hydraulic mining was the water under pressure to wash away the land, so that gold deposits can be find. Miners melted their sponge gold in asbestos cups or crucibles at a forge of a furnace. Impurities floated to the top when gold melted at 1945 degree Fahrenheit (1063 degree Celsius) and then were skimmed off. Many mining companies including the Franklin or Creighton mining company in Cherokee county used the chlorination process to refine gold. In this process some gold is recovered by amalgamation but the remaining gold ore is done through a complicated process in which it is mixed with calcium chloride sulfuric acid. This forms gold chloride, which is then treated with soda to yield pure gold. In cyanide process, gold containing iron sulfides will not stick to mercury coated and plates. In 1888, the cyanide process was developed to refine such one. The gold ore is dissolved in a cyanide electrolytic solution. The solution is drawn to a negatively charged zinc electrode- plate. The gold from the plates is 99% pure. The furnace was used to melt the gold. Other metals were mixed with gold to improve the wearing qualities of the gold coins. Three steam-powered machines were the heart of the Mint. The roller rolled ingots into long bars. The planchet
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