History

Crisson Gold Mine

          Gold was first discovered at this mining site in 1847, and has been run by the Crisson family for four generations. Crisson Mine was the first mining operation in Dahlonega to open their doors to the public and allow the visitors to have their own opportunity to strike it rich, which was the year 1969.

This gold mine, as well as other mines in this particular area, started out as a tunnel mining operation. Hydraulic mining was also another form of mining conducted on this property. As time progressed, and mining techniques became more modern, the original tunnels were all dug out, which resulted in a new open pit operation. Open pit mining is the most successful way to remove the gold bearing quartz. We are still an actual operating gold mine to this day. This means we are still digging the quartz out of our mine to make the material for our customers to pan through themselves, but this mine was last operated commercially in 1982.

The Crisson Gold Mine has twenty-two different gold bearing veins of quartz in the open pit. That is not including the entire property itself. Some of the veins produce up to one quarter of an ounce of gold per ton of rock.

          What makes Dahlonega gold so different from other gold found around the world is the purity. Dahlonega has the purest gold in the world, which is 98.7 percent pure. This makes our gold over 23KT gold.

          Since we are still in operation today we do not allow any tours of the mine itself due to insurance purposes.

          We hope you enjoy your visit to our mine, and we also hope you strike it rich because…

“There is still gold in them thar hills!”

The Crisson Mine was open to the public in 1969, making it the oldest gold panning establishment in Georgia.

When you come to visit the Crisson Gold Mine we will teach you the exciting art of Gold Panning.  Once you start panning your own Gold ore there will be Expert instructors there to help you find that precious yellow metal.

The Crisson Mine has several different exhibits set up for you to see when you visit our mine. The most popular one is the Stampmill.          

 The stampmill is over 130 years old, and it is still used today to crush the Gold Bearing Quartz. Part of the Gold on the Georgia State Capitol Dome came out of the Crisson Mine, and we used the Stampmill to find it. Other exhibits you will be able to see is the Rod mill, shaker tables, and other methods of processing the quartz to extract the gold.  Once you have taken the self guided tour then you can try to strike it rich yourself. You can purchase our ore by the pan, bucket, wheel barrel, or even a tractor scoop.

For our more serious miners we offer the use of Highbankers and Trommels you can run our crushed ore through. Come spend an hour or even the whole day.

Come see us here at Crisson Gold Mine!!! We are rich in History and Knowledge of how to find that precious Georgia Gold!!!