Historic mines
Historic Virginia gold mines worth knowing by name: Whitehall, Booker, Vaucluse, Goodwin, Tellurium, Monroe, Grasty, Walton. Research history and open each site on the VaGoldMaps prospecting map.
Open mapWhitehall is the name Virginia historians tie to the first documented lode gold find (1806), with Mint-recorded production through the mid-1800s on the Brokenburg quad between Norton Prong and Whitehall Creek.
First-wave Buckingham commercial gold on Bernard Gaines Booker's plantation (early 1830s). Later Garnett & Moseley, then Morrow. Documented open cuts, underground work, and a major mid-century stamp mill northwest of Willis Mountain.
Vaucluse (also called Grimes / Grymes) is among Virginia's most productive historic gold mines: long 1800s run, steep gold-quartz veins, and a notable 1935-1938 revival near Wilderness Run.
Gold Hill beside Pigeon Run, now inside Lake Anna State Park. Local histories call Goodwin a major 1830-1849 producer. You can walk the old mining country on park trails, including the AllTrails Goodwin Gold Mine Loop.
Tellurium is a classic early Virginia gold name on the Fluvanna / Goochland line near Columbia, with multiple inventory shafts and a long paper trail from the 1830s onward.
Monroe is a named Stafford County gold camp near Goldvein with a caved shaft cluster on the inventory layer (MRVID 183D-101). Sweet's road log and MRDS W000417 describe the site; do not confuse it with Monroe Park museum or statewide 1947 production summaries.
Grasty Tract (Grasty, Chancellorsville, Chicago-Virginia) on Mine Run was the first incorporated Virginia gold mining company ground (1831). Inventory quarry pins and Sweet's road log mark the camp west of the Wilderness district.
Walton is a named Louisa County lode camp on the Mineral quadrangle, with a confirmed Virginia Energy inventory pin (MRVID 171C-917) in a tight cluster with Cooper and other Mineral quad mines.