Dahlonega

About an easy hour north of Atlanta, its 4 lane highway all the way.

The story: All of the North Georgia mountains belonged to the Cherokee, well after they took it away from the Creek; and then the Creek took it away from the Mound builders.  Oh, and they took it from the Woodlands Indians.  But never mind- we're picking up the European story here.  Cherokee were hanging out here for a while.  DeSoto and his boy scouts waved hello to them in 1540.  But then the white guys just didn't stop coming.  Squished into a smaller, undesirable corner of mountains, something earth shattering happened.  The white guys found gold (the Indians and even DeSoto's boys knew it was there already).  That was 1828.  The nation's first gold rush.  On Cherokee land.  Cherokee weren't too happy 'bout that.  No matter.  Like a two-year-old, the white guys yelled "mine!" and they took it.  Cherokee shouted "foul" and the Supereme Court of the US agreed.  "No matter", says President Andy Jackson Indian-Hater, "mine!", and they took the land away from the Cherokee.  And they shipped them out west on the Trail of Tears.


Free to mine the crap outta the gold veins, they did just that.  When panning gold took too long, they dug mines. When mining too too long, they took giant fire hoses and blasted the sides of the mountains with high pressure water.  One working gold mine remains in Dahlonega.  The town has become a hub for mountain music, mountain livin', mountain eatin' and mountain wineries.
 


The sites:







The town square has an old courthouse that is transformed into a gold museum, run by the state parks service.  There was a pretty, short film upstairs- perfect for short attention spans.  

Gold Museum- Moonshine exhibit

Gold Museum- Cherokee exhibit

  

           Outside the courthouse/museum they have a mountain jam every Saturday.  
                                                                             Yee-Haw.




The stores facing the town square were cute, but you know- same old schlock.  The restaurants were cute too.  These two story covered fronts reminded us of Roswell.

We got to visit two wineries- sort of.  We arrived at Monteluce 5 minutes after the closed for lunch.  we arrived at Wolf Mountain five minutes before they closed.  Yeah.  Note to self: check closing times before heading out.

Monteluce entrance

One review described it as 'Olive Garden on steroids'

Monteluce vineyard

Wolf Mountain

AMAZING view from Wolf Mountain- wedding pavilion 

Honestly, both vineyards were nice in their own way,  but we'd go back to Wolf Mountain again. Both places have tastings and places to eat, but alas, we did neither.

We did stop at Consolidated Mine and they had an underground tour of the old mine, but I'm claustrophobic (ask me about the caves in Orvieto) and Deb talked me out of it.  They had a shite gift shop too.  So, we went on to Crisson's Gold Mine- the last working gold mine.

The expression 'here's gold in them thar hills' was coined here in Dahlonega.

Entrance fee allows you to tour the grounds

Panning for real gold (and eating an ice cream)

Can you see those little flecks of gold?  Deb found 8 flecks!

  

More moonshine

You know we had to find an old graveyard, and we did.  Cavender Creek Baptist Church was nearby, and we drove all the way to the back 40 to see the really old graves.

There were lots of stone markers with no writing.

Old Dowdy grave.  It looks like both Mary and George Dowdy died on the same day in 1884.

 The Dowdy and Brady families came to North Georgia with the gold rush land lottery. They came from North Carolina.  Many fought in the Civil War.  Not all returned.

Deb started picking up some negative vibes here.  She heard/felt someone telling her to get off the land- that it was desecrated.  We went home to research any history in Cavendar Creek, but could find nothing.


The food:  Well this is one trip where many of the food choices didn't pan out (get it? gold panning joke).  We expected to eat at Monteluce and Wolf Mountain, but missed the lunch hours.

First stop: Corkscrew Cafe (http://thecorkscrewcafe.com/).  Service- eh.  New waitress deserved a little slack, but in a wine-crazy town like Dahlonega, you'd think her orientation training would include some wine education.  Food actually made up for the strange service.  

 Next stop: Crimson Moon (http://www.thecrimsonmoon.com/).  Coffee shop, restaurant, live music venue.  We just got coffees cuz we had our sights set on German food for dinner in Cumming.

And last stop on the way home: Gasthaus in Cumming (http://www.gasthaus-cumming.com/).  German food!

Deb got the wurst plate and I got the chicken paprika with a Warstiener on tap.

Day's end recommendations:

• Check the hours of the wineries- sometimes they close for weddings when you least expect it
• Gold Museum, Crisson Mine, Wolf Mountain and Gasthaus got 2 thumbs up from 2 old ladies
• Corkscrew Cafe might be worth a second visit
• Most shops around the square were not worth the look-see