First Gold in the U.S.

The first authenticated gold discovery in the United States happened in North Carolina, not California. John Reed had been born in Germany and likely Anglicized his name when he came to America as a Hessian soldier during the Revolutionary War. He married and settled on a farm in Piedmont North Carolina, not too far from Charlotte.

Replica of rock

In spring of 1799, his twelve-year-old son, Conrad, went fishing in Little Meadow Creek, which ran through their property. He saw something shining in the water and waded in to get it. It turned out to be a pretty, shiny rock that was big enough to use as a doorstop. It held back a door at the farmhouse for three years before John carried it along on his annual trip to market in Fayetteville and took it to a jeweler. The man told him it was gold and asked him how much he wanted for the seventeen-pound piece. Reed told him $3.50, and the jeweler quickly bought it. Even at that time, the huge nugget was worth $3,600.

Little Meadow Creek often dries up in arid summers

When the Reed family later learned of the value of gold, they began looking for more. In partnership with three other men, they found it, and Reed began to accumulate some wealth and obtained more land and slaves. He died in 1845. A gold mine  operated on and off until 1912, when it closed for good. Today it is a State Historic Site.

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