Culpeper's Gold Rush

On March 10, 1832 the General Assembly chartered the state’s first gold-mining company “The Virginia” a New York financed operation with three associates, Najah Taylor, Nathaniel Richards & William K. Smith. They were given permission to mine for gold in Culpeper, Orange, Stafford and Spotsylvania Counties. Over the next three years’ petitions were sent to the assembly asking for additional companies to be granted permission to mine these areas to assist with maintenance of the mines and the mining work itself. Through 1837 the assembly chartered thirteen corporations with licenses to mine in Culpeper, Virginia.

The mining companies advertised in local newspapers hinting at another gold rush to come, but in the end it never did. From 1829 to 1836 some $375,000 worth of Virginia gold (about 18,142 ounces) had been delivered to the U.S. Mint at Philadelphia, which at the time was the only repository keeping records. About one-twentieth of that was from Culpeper, Virginia. Most gold at that time did not make it to the mint to be recorded, the majority was taken to Europe where the value of gold was higher than the national standard.

Once the 1848 gold rush in California began there was a short lived renewed interest in mining in the Commonwealth. Always coming in behind California, Virginia reached it’s high in 1849 with $129,382 worth of gold logged in the U.S. mints. By 1854 Virginia only logged $23,347 making it clear that the best miners had moved west to California. By 1908 the mines had closed.

Source: Culpeper: A Virginia County’s History Through 1920 (pages 126 – 130)