The Village of Gold Hill

The Village of Gold Hill. . In the 1840's and 1850's gold mining was the foundation for a stable industrial and commercial community of some 700 people, including about 60 slaves. The population fluctuated between perhaps 500 and 800 people as companies came and went. 400 to 500 people , men, women, children and slaves , depended on the mines for their living. Young white males, many of them single, were prevalent., "numerous little 'log cabins' daubed with clay, which serve as residences.... Some of these are of a real primitive order." , Carolina Watchman, May 18,1844, "there are so many young men...but few ladies in this place." , -Emily Porter, a visitor in 1850, The other residents were either farmers or members of the small group of artisans, merchants and professionals., By 1849 Gold Hill had five physicians, an attorney, a carriage maker, a shoe maker, carpenters and masons., The antebellum town in the 1850's had five stores, a hotel, a tavern and six blacksmith shops. Eventually the town grew to have more than 20 merchants, A Methodist Church was added during this time. Some of the original building still stand today near this exhibit., The Gold Hill Mining Company added several millhouses and trestles for transporting water to the industrial village about 1854-1855. (See picture at right), After the Civil War, Gold Hill became a stable farming community with occasional burst of mining led by various American and English entrepreneurs. The railroad arrived around 1892. This trail follows a former spur line of that rail line. People worked several jobs and commonly rewashed the great piles of waste ore from earlier mining activity. Workers lived in forty or fifty simple houses., In 1900 the Gold Hill District reached another brief mining peak, with about 1,000 people, nearly all miners and families. More than 40 percent of the people were adult males. More than one-third were African-American. About 100 structures, mainly cheap rental shacks, were built in 1900. Only 13 survived by 1915. Company offices and managers' homes were far more substantial., (Photo captions) , Mining professional Bill Jenkins was typical of the Cornishmen who provided the critical technical expertise at Gold Hill. , Typical miner's quarters at Gold Hill ca 1890-1900. You will find one of these restored structures today in the main village.