January 25, 1843

Its boom time didn’t last long, but Goldville owes its existence to the precious metal that was found nearby in the hills of north-central Tallapoosa County in the early 1840s. The town was founded by gold seekers in 1842 and officially incorporated on Jan. 25 the following year. At one point, the town boasted between 3,000 and 5,000 residents, depending on the source, with a hotel, numerous saloons, a race track and even a Masonic lodge. By the late 1840s, however, the gold was gone, and many miners headed west to new hot spots discovered in California. Goldville began a quick decline, with a few cotton farmers remaining. According to the 2010 Census, Goldville now has a population of 55.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

During Alabama’s gold rush, most of the gold was found in the form of small grains in rock. Miners used mercury and cyanide to dissolve the rock around the gold, which would then bind with the mercury and cyanide. This method of mining caused high levels of toxicity in groundwater around gold mines. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of George P. Garner)

A man stands at the entrance to an abandoned gold mine near Goldville, in Tallapoosa County. The town was incorporated in 1843 at the height of Alabama’s gold rush. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of The Birmingham News, photograph by Charles Nesbitt)

Goldville marker, 2011. (SaveRivers, Wikipedia)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.