The Verbena Connection
Alabama has a very colorful gold mining history, including its own Gold Rush of 1830. The Encyclopedia of Alabama provides a few details about the Alabama Gold Rush, it states, “The state of Alabama has produced a significant amount of gold since it was first discovered in Chilton County in the late 1830s. The year 1836 marked the beginning of the height of gold mining efforts in Alabama. One of the early gold districts, Arbacoochee, provided employment to perhaps 600 men and by 1845 was home to about 5,000 people. Goldville, another Alabama gold district, was said to have had 14 stores and a population at least 3,000. The gold rush in Alabama generally ended in 1849, when most gold miners left the state to join the California Gold Rush. Gold prospecting in Alabama revived in 1853, however, when Cornish miners migrated from Tennessee to search for copper. There was another revival of gold mining in the 1880s and 1903, but no large quantities of gold were ever produced. The total gold production is estimated to be around 50,000 ounces,” It is noteworthy to consider that a large part of the gold recovered during these early days was never reported according to Alabama’s State Geologist. Therefore, much more than 50,000 ounces were recovered
The gold rush which was under way in North Carolina and in Georgia predated 1830 and created an interest in looking for gold in Alabama. However, before there could be an Alabama Gold Rush the land had to be secured by the United States. Andrew Jackson accomplished this task, for he defeated the Creek Indians in 1814 and then he forced the Indians through treaties to surrender about 20 million acres to the United States, which is about 1/2 of current day Alabama and 1/5 of current day Georgia. As such, the Indian Treaties and the Removal Act of 1830 paved the way for fortune seekers and landowners to settle Alabama. William Wyatt and Todd Robertson made the gold discovery that started the 1830 Alabama Gold Rush. That discovery was made on a tributary of Chestnut Creek on a newly purchased 80-acre tract that they bought for $100. From the documentation concerning the location of this discovery it strongly appears that these 80 acres are located on the Verbena property.
Perhaps the best summary of what took place in the 1830s until the 1850s was described by Michael Tuomey, who was Alabama’s first State Geologist. After surveying Alabama’s mines and prospecting sites and after reviewing written records, Mr. Tuomey reported his findings in the Montgomery Advertiser on January 3, 1855, as follows:
“The deposits are generally run over in the most careless manner, and without reference to economy in the working, or regard to the future value of the mine. Acres of surface are washed in this reckless manner, till it no longer pays, or a more profitable market for labor presents itself. Nor do vein mines fare any better, they are let in small areas of 12 to 16 square yards on the vein; pits are sunk with the utmost independence of all system, and in violation of every principle of mining.”
Mr. Tuomey went on to explain that:
“When capital, directed by science and skill, is invested in the mines of the State, it is not too much to say, that the results must be profit to the stockholder, and advantage to the country. But as long as operations are conducted by numerous individuals, each working for himself, according to his own judgment, and without system or plan, the results must-ever be such as follow where the rewards of labor are uncertain, idleness, improvidence and dissipation.”
William B. Phillips was a well-known metallurgist and chemist that did some valuable work for the State of Alabama. Phillips was the first professional to complete a well-grounded study concerning the feasibility of gold mining within Alabama (completed in 1892). He published his findings in Alabama’s Geological Bulletin No. 3: “A Preliminary Report on a Part of the Lower Gold Belt of Alabama in the Counties of Chilton, Coosa and Tallapoosa”. Phillips studies included the visiting of many of the former gold mining areas known to him, the surveying of various prospecting areas, assaying samples from many of those sites and the performing of extraction work on some of the ore-samples collected. Within Bulletin No. 3 Phillips offers the following conclusions concerning his studies: I have been unable to ascertain when gold was first discovered in Alabama; probably the year 1830 will approximate the true date.”… “But of the yield of gold there is no record, or indeed of anything connecting with the matter, except that at such and such localities large number of men were engaged in the work and that at certain places it was said to be profitable.”…
“No report of the subject has ever been issued by the State and with exception to the scattered remarks in Tuomey’s report of 1858, no notice has been taken of what I sincerely believe could be developed into one of the most successful enterprises in the State – gold mining.”
After Phillips wrote this report, he suggested that Alabama spend the State’s money developing its iron ore instead of its gold reserves. The reason given was that mining iron ore and making iron would put more of the State’s citizens to work. After that Phillips became instrumental in developing the Iron Industry in Alabama.
As a result of Phillips’ suggestion Alabama did not spend any resources developing Alabama’s Gold Region. In time the state forgot about Alabama’s gold mining history to the point almost all Alabamans have no idea about this history. In fact, when 1027 dug up the works of Phillips in Alabama’s Archives it was kept in a special place because of the report’s age and fragility.It should be noted that with studying, prospecting work, assay work, the involvement of consultants and time, 1027 reasoned that with the proper development of gold mining technology and with the use of that technology Alabama’s economy could be greatly enriched by gold mining.
1027 believed the words of Michael Tuomey and William Phillips to be true not because they were professionals hired by the State with published reports, but because the assays and mapping, laboratory work, hired consultants and 1027’s own pilot plant work confirmed that what they had reported was indeed correct. The Removal Act of 1830 forced the removal of the Creek Indians from much of Alabama and this enabled William Wyatt and Todd Robertson to begin purchasing tracts of land in this territory. That same year they purchased an 80-acre tract in the northern part of what was then known as old Autauga County (currently Chilton County).
This land was impossible to farm, but the creek banks showed veins of gold bearing quartz. Wyatt and Robertson were interested in that gold. This 80-acre track appears, in 1027’s professional judgement, to be a part of what is today known as the Verbena Project.Wyatt and Robertson collected their first gold from this property and their discovery was reported one year later (May 9, 1831) by the Mobile Commercial Register which wrote, “We have been shown a specimen of pure virgin gold found in Autauga County, a short distance from the Coosa River, by a gentlemen who is engaged in collecting it, and from whom we have learned that the experiments already made afford satisfactory that the mines are equal in value to those in North Carolina…”
This discovery kicked off a major gold rush in Alabama that lasted until the California Gold Rush of 1849. Now, it cannot be established for 100% certainty that Wyatt’s and Robertson’s first gold was taken from property that is now a part of the Verbena Project, because the old court house burned along with the official record of this first land purchase. However, the evidence strongly supports that the physical gold that started Alabama’s 1830 Gold Rush was taken from what is now known as the Verbena Project. The location that matched the description of Wyatt’s and Robertson’s discovery are the ruins of an old gold mine and processing operation found on the Verbena property.
The operation dates back to the 1830s. The ruins here include the remnants of brick pilings, and stone and mortar foundations to a sizable gold-mill and to a long sluicing run paralleling the creek. The ruins are located on the western side of the creek across from the main mining tunnel. A dam in the creek with a pipe outlet, remains from the water system that once carried water to a waterwheel downstream to power the stamp-mill-crusher. There are vestiges of mining pits on the west side of the creek still showing old tailing piles and two mining tunnels located on either side of the creek
The ore would be hand dug from the mines and that material was hauled by horse cart to an unloading ramp where men would then shovel it into a mill. The footings found suggest that there was a mechanical stamp mill that was controlled by the water flow from the upstream dam. The ore was then crushed in the stamp mill until it was fine enough to flow out with a current of water into the troughs. The sluice trough probably was used not only as an alluvial gold concentrator but also as a waste material conveyor. The troughs were about two feet wide and hundreds of feet long and likely were equipped with a great number of removable riffles and carried a sizeable stream of swift water. The gold was collected in the riffles and the waste material carried hundreds of feet away from the diggings. Gold here was extracted from both underground mines and placer mining, where gold nuggets were retrieved from stream beds by running the material through sluices. However, most of the gold in Alabama occurs as small grains that are difficult to extract directly from the rock. The old timers typically used a process called amalgamation, in which liquid mercury was poured into the substrate, causing the gold particles to dissolve and join with the mercury to form amalgam. Some waste rocks in the dumps show evidence that mercury likely was part of the 1830’s operation.