On Aug. 4, 1958, a covered wagon with 43 ounces of native Georgia gold unearthed by Lumpkin County locals departed Dahlonega with six other wagons bound for Atlanta. The gold was to be hammered into paper thin leaf and used to gild the Capitol Dome for the first time, making Georgia one of only 10 Capitol buildings in the nation at the time with a golden dome.
On Aug. 4, 1958, a covered wagon with 43 ounces of native Georgia gold unearthed by Lumpkin County locals departed Dahlonega with six other wagons bound for Atlanta. The gold was to be hammered into paper thin leaf and used to gild the Capitol Dome for the first time, making Georgia one of only 10 Capitol buildings in the nation at the time with a golden dome.
The efforts gave nod to Dahlonega’s history as an 1828 gold rush town and reenacted the wagon train that moved the state’s treasury when Georgia’s capital moved from Louisville to Milledgeville in 1807. The gold-carrying wagon train, escorted by state troopers, made a 3 mph, three-day journey to the state Capitol, where the gold was presented to then-Gov. Marvin Griffin. The dome was regilded a second time in 1981 with gold coming from Dahlonega’s Crisson Gold Mine.
