A Golden Opportunity Once in Fauquier County

A Golden Opportunity Once in Fauquier County

By John T. Toler

Lying beneath the soil of the Virginia Piedmont is the Gold-Pyrite Belt, extending from Maryland to Alabama. As early as 1782, it was known that gold could be found in the Commonwealth, and in 1818, the Union Mining Company Inc. leased 133 acres in Fauquier County near present-day Goldvein and began operations.

Between 1830 and 1940, nineteen gold mines existed in Southern Fauquier, including the Liberty Mine (1834) off present-day Sumerduck Road, and the Wyckoff Gold Mine (1853) north of Morrisville. They were among the larger operations that invested in heavy machinery, built workshops and infrastructure, and hired immigrant miners, usually from Cornwall and Wales.

Miners prepare to leave the main level shaft at the Franklin Mine near Morrisville in August, 1933.

Courtesy of Fauquier County Parks and Recreation Department

The most successful gold mine in Fauquier was the Franklin Mine on Deep Run near Morrisville. It opened in 1825 as an “open cut” or strip mine, recovering gold near the surface. Later, shafts were dug to reach the veins of gold found in quartz stone.

The Franklin Mine was sold in 1841 to settle debts – including back pay to 50 miners. But by 1850, the new owners were turning a profit and invested in a steam engine and boiler, ore crushers and mining equipment. But a disastrous fire in 1851 destroyed two new buildings that housed engines and machinery.

Gold mining in Virginia ceased during the Civil War, but some mines reopened after the conflict. In 1868-69, two new gold veins were discovered at the Franklin Mine, and shafts were dug to reach the ore. In one 40-foot shaft, a pocket of gold was found yielding a record $700 in gold in three days.

In order to get the most use from their steam engine, the owners added a sawmill capable of finishing 5,000 feet of lumber per day. However, by 1876, business had slowed, and in 1877, nearby Deep Run overflowed, flooding and caving-in the shafts.

Still, there was more gold to be found. Between 1901 and 1913, new shafts were dug, but from 1914 until July 1933 – when the property was leased to the Interstate Service Corporation of Harrisonburg – only prospecting was done at the site. By November, 1933, the new Franklin Mining and Milling Corporation was underway.

The new corporation was professionally managed, with standardized working conditions, and workmen’s compensation insurance. A bunk house and dining house were built. These were the years of the Great Depression, and an average miners’ pay was 40 cents per hour for an eighthour shift. Even so, 50-75 men were on a waiting list to work in the mine.

In 1934, the original lease was canceled, and a 99-year lease on the property was signed with Amos Pankey of Goldvein. Many improvements were made, including a new bunkhouse, a “mine hotel” for visitors, a commissary, offices and mess halls. Electric lines were installed, as well as a narrow-gauge railroad and engine.

One of the unique displays at the Gold Mine Interpretive Center in Goldvein are the two large ‘hornet ball’ rock crushers once used at the Liberty Gold Mine.

Courtesy of Fauquier County Parks and Recreation Department.

In 1935, M. Louise Evans, a writer for the Fauquier Democrat newspaper, visited the Franklin Mine with her friend, Mrs. Will McCarthy.

“We set out for Morrisville, and finally arrived at what looked like a miniature settlement,” she wrote. “It was the nearest I have been to any kind of mining operations and I was all ears and eyes.

“I recall the stillness of the woods, quiet but for the immediate sounds such as whistles… which seemed to echo and re-echo. We were there when the men returned to the depths or levels below ground. I was nothing less than spell-bound.”

Not profitable, the Franklin Mine was closed in 1936. A new business, the Grace Mining Corporation, was formed and took over the operation. But by 1940, the corporate charter was revoked due to failure to make required payments.

In 1950, Louise Evans returned to the site of the Franklin Mine. “It seems impossible to grasp that the busy little village we saw that day is now a deserted village, with the equipment standing as sentinels, stilled… a typical ghost town. Presumably the project did not pan out.”

The story of the Franklin Mine was not quite over. Fauquier native J. Brewster Helm (1892-1969) had worked in gold mines in Virginia as a young man, and was the foreman at the Franklin Mine when it finally closed.

“In 1964, Mr. Helm tried to reactivate the mine by means of strip mining with a bulldozer,” wrote Bob A. Barron in Gold Mines of Fauquier County, Virginia (1977). “In an interview with his widow, Mrs. Helm said it wasn’t worth it because it was costing them more money than they were earning. At that time, she said gold was only $35 an ounce. It’s now about $1,880 an ounce.

There no longer is gold mining in Fauquier County, but the village of Goldvein just off U.S. 17 is the home of the official Gold Mine Interpretive Center for the Commonwealth of Virginia. It’s located in Monroe Park at 14421 Gold Dust Parkway.

Three museum buildings on the site – a bunkhouse, mess hall and assay office – replicate those found at a 1930s gold mine. In addition there are exhibits, displays and vintage signage. Of particular interest are the two massive concrete “hornet ball” rock crushers recovered from the Liberty Mine site and brought to the museum.

In addition to Barron’s definitive book on Fauquier’s gold mines, visitors can purchase pre-packaged bags of gems, minerals and fossils; t-shirts and other items at the museum store.

The museum is open Wednesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from Noon-4 p.m. A gold panning demonstration is given Wednesday-Sunday at 2 p.m. There is no admission charge.