There is a mystique about abandoned places. Walking past quiet buildings and spaces that once buzzed with activity, you can almost sense the people who lived there and imagine their stories. If you’re visiting the state of Georgia, there is a once-thriving U.S. gold rush town that is now abandoned and worth exploring. While you may think of California when you hear the term “gold rush,” the town of Auraria, Georgia — about 112 miles from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and around 60 miles from Athens, Georgia — took the golden crown before gold was discovered on the West Coast.
The town had other names before Auraria, but that one stuck, derived from the Latin word for “gold mine.” A man named Benjamin Parks found a nugget of gold in the area in 1828, and that discovery sparked a search that drew gold miners to what was Cherokee Nation land. The newfound gold and the profit it would bring were part of why President Andrew Jackson, at the time, wanted to move the Cherokee off the land, leaving the gold profits to settlers. There were certainly profits, with around $20 million worth of the precious metal found in the Cherokee area of Georgia between 1829 and 1839. Auraria revolved around gold mining, with nearly all of its residents living and working by this trade.
Auraria’s decline and the ruins of the town
The gold in Auraria, Georgia, began to dry up by 1840, and when gold was discovered in California in 1849, the town slid into decline, though people did still live there for some time. A few building ruins remain today, including Woody’s Store, which was abandoned in the 1980s. (You can see a decaying Coca-Cola sign and machine outside, and some other old items through its windows.)
Visitors can still spot an old red house, the dilapidated circa-1826 Graham Hotel, foundations of various buildings, and a freestanding fireplace and chimney, though some of these structures are located on private property. There is also an old cemetery with many 19th- and 20th-century graves. As with any ruins, please exercise caution when visiting the area and don’t enter the crumbling structures for your own safety…