The Battle Branch Mine, sometimes referred to as the Battle Creek Mine, was located near the town of Auraria in

Lumpkin County Lumpkin County is a county in the Northeast region of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,488. Its county seat is Dahlonega. Lumpkin County is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Georgia metropo ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. Specifically it is located on land lots 457 & 524 of the 12th district. Gold was first discovered there in 1831. Although placer mining was the first method of mining, the mine expanded during its long history to incorporate deep- tunnel 'vein' mining . Miners from several Southern states worked the mine in its early years. During the

Georgia Gold Rush The Georgia Gold Rush was the second significant gold rush in the United States and the first in Georgia, and overshadowed the previous rush in North Carolina. It started in 1829 in present-day Lumpkin County near the county seat, Dahlonega, ...

, before the

Gold Lottery of 1832 The Gold Lottery of 1832 was the seventh lottery of the Georgia Land Lotteries, a lottery system used by the State of Georgia between the years 1805 and 1833 to redistribute annexed Cherokee land. It was authorized by the Georgia General Assembly ...

, men from Georgia and Tennessee were working in the same stream when a dispute over the possession of the property ended in a fight in which a number of men were seriously wounded, providing the name for the mine ultimately located there. Soon afterwards, in 1843, Major John Hockenhull and John Pasco struck a beautiful pocket of gold weighing some 2,200 pennyweights (120 ounces). After the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, William John Turner Hutcheson, who served with the Blue Ridge Rifles, a

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

fighting unit from

Dahlonega, Georgia Dahlonega ( ) is the county seat of Lumpkin County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,242, and in 2018 the population was estimated to be 6,884. Dahlonega is located at t ...

, became superintendent of the Battle Branch gold mine. Later, from 1878 through 1882 the mine changed ownership and operated as the "Dahlonega Mine". Under the supervision of J.P. Imboden many more thousands of ounces were taken from the property. Afterwards. various individuals and companies took over the mine operations and continued producing gold well into the 1900s, producing 661.28 ounces (20.568 kg) of gold in 1935. There is some confusion as to the actual location of the mine. The

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

lists two mines named Battle Branch Mine. Both are to the west of Auraria, but one is on the west side of the

Etowah River The Etowah River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 27, 2011 waterway that rises northwest of Dahlonega, Georgia, Dahlonega, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, ...

and the other is on the east side of the Etowah River.USGS MRDS record 10083766
(accessed October 27, 2006)

References

External links

TopoQuest Map showing west location of Battle Branch MineTopoQuest Map showing east location of Battle Branch Mine

References

External links

Suggested reading