Panning season is open at Reed Gold Mine

MIDLAND, N.C. — Did you know you can pan for gold at the same site where it was first discovered in America, and it’s less than an hour’s drive from Charlotte?

Reed Gold Mine in Midland, North Carolina, is open for panning season and Your704′s Elsa Gillis visited the site to learn more about its rich history.

“This is the first documented discovery of gold in America,” site manager Larry Neal explained. “We were actually 50 years before California. And it all happened because a 12-year-old boy fishing in Little Meadow Creek stumbled upon an interesting rock that he took home to show his parents.”

Neal said the rock sat on the family’s front porch for three years until the boy’s father, farmer John Reed, took it with him to Fayetteville on a supply run. A local jeweler identified the gold nugget, which reportedly weighed 17 pounds.

Reed began a mining operation the following year.

“They were finding gold nuggets from anywhere from a half a pound to about six pounds,” Neal said. “In 1803, an enslaved man named Peter who was working on the property, found a 28-pound gold nugget. That became and is still considered to be the largest gold nugget east of the Mississippi River.”

During its peak years, gold mining was second only to farming in the number of North Carolinians it employed.

“That became one of the largest industries in North Carolina at one time,” Neal said. “Back in the 1830s and 1840s, North Carolina was actually known as the Golden State. Well before California, we were the true original Golden State.”

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These days, visitors to the site will find indoor and outdoor exhibits, a gift shop and trails in addition to the underground mine and panning stations.

Reed Gold Mine is in Midland at 9621 Reed Mine Road. The site is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It is closed on Sunday, Monday, and most major holidays. Admission and self-guided tours are free, but there is a fee for underground guided tours of the mine.

Panning is available Tuesday through Saturday between April and October 31. Tickets cost $3 plus tax for ages 8 and older.

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