John Reed, or Johannes Rieth as he…

 

Reed had deserted, as had many other Hessians.

 

He had traveled from Georgia to North Carolina, where he settled in an ethnic German community sometime around 1787 and began farming. 

 

After his son discovered a large gold nugget in a nearby creek in 1799, Reed had first developed placer mining on his property, then underground mining, and has become wealthy from the gold.

 

His facility has become known as Reed's Gold Mine.

 

The Reed Gold Mine will be designated a National Historic Landmark, as it is the first gold mine in the country.

 

Gold will be mined in North Carolina into the early twentieth century.

 

Today visitors at the site can explore some of the mine's reconstructed tunnels.