Welcome to the Gold Mining Camp Museum

Welcome to the Gold Mining Camp Museum. The Official Gold Mining Interpretive Center for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Here at Monroe Park, you can see how many of Virginia's Depression Era gold mines operated and how miners lived. This camp is re-created based on actual 1930s mining camp layouts, so it was not an actual gold mine. Here you will see buildings where miners would have lived, ate, played, and worked. You will also see how mine workers took ore from the ground and made it into gold., Hornet Balls , Miners placed the ore inside the balls. As the balls rolled, the ore smashed apart. , Monroe Park , Power Shed , Forthcoming , Head Frame (forthcoming) , The ore, which (hopefully!) contained gold, was brought up from out of the ground using an structure that looks like a miniature Eiffel Tower. North Carolina Archives and History, Courtesy John Hairr and Joey Powell , Chilean Mill (forthcoming) , Horses pulled large wheels, crushing the ore, which separated some gold from thc rocks. , Monroe Park , Stamp Mill , Large steam or electric-powered pistons smashed the remaining ore, separating the gold the rock. , North Carolina Archives and History, Courtesy John Hairr and Joey Powell , Stream , Forthcoming , Assay Office , Chemists determined the worth of the ore mined. In the assay Office, you will learn how a gold mine operated. , Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, HAER , Mess Hall Many of the miners would have come into the mess hall for a bite to eat. In the mess hall, you will learn about life in the mining camp. , Bunk House , The bunk house would have served as living quarters for some of the camp's miners. In the bunk house, you will learn about the people who worked Virginia's gold mines., (sidebar) , Gold Mining in Virginia , Many people do not realize that the Old Dominion was once home to numerous gold mines. In fact, a vein of gold that stretches from Maryland to Alabama passes through the Commonwealth. Individuals were mining the metal in Virginia as early as 1806. Larger-scale mining followed in the 1830s., Most mines closed during the Civil War. After the war many mines were not profitable, and therefore only opened sporadically. That changed in 1934. That year, the federal government raised the price of gold to $35.00 per ounce - an increase of almost $15 per ounce! Some people reopened the old abandoned gold mines.They hoped the higher price of gold would make mining profitable again., (caption) At the 1939 World's Fair in New York, the Virginia room highlighted the state's gold production and mining history. , Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia . This historical marker is in Goldvein in Fauquier County Virginia