Miners posed at 'Roll-Call' at the beginning of their shift at the Gold Hill Mines c. 1890

Mail Carriers waiting for the daily mail c. 1900. William Vance Eller (far right)

Looking north from the intersection of Main Street(St. Stephens Church Road) and Old Beatty Ford Road.

Another photo of the mail carriers and post master, second from left, waiting for the mail to be delivered.

Huge imposing structure was located on St. Stephens Church Road across from the rock wall. The structure burned to the ground in 1970. Wall Street Tycoon, Walter George Newman is in the white suit on the porch.

One of the fanciest hotels in the region.

The mill dates to the 1840's and is thought to be the only Chilean Mill with all of the original gears intact, remaining in the United States. It's original location was behind Montgomery Store on the site which now the location of Southern Belles and Pearls and Key Cabin.

The mill still in operation around 1900.

Women and children worked alongside the men on small family owned mining operations on their farms.

The store once sat beside E.H. Montgomery General Store. The store was a major supplier of farm tools and hardware as well as mining supplies, dry goods and other staples needed for day to day living in a rural community.

Montgomery Store in a 1960 photo.

The knowledge of mining technology of the Cornish tin miners from Cornwall, England was critical to the success of gold mining industry in North Carolina.

The pumps ran continuous 24/7 to keep the mines free of water. This pump was pumping over 200 gallons per minute from the 850ft Randolph Shaft.

Benny Martin washing dirt and rock debris from the mercury covered copper plates at the Stamp Mill. The gold was captured in the mercury on the plates. When the plates had a significant buildup of mercury/gold amalgam, the plates were removed and taken to the Smelter where this coating would then be scraped off and refined by evaporation to get rid of the mercury, leaving the gold to be poured off into a gold bar. No other metal does this. Just copper.

Smelter Building at the Randolph Gold Mine

A winter snow coats the ground at the Barnhardt Shaft. The small building in the foreground was called "The Calaboose".

In 1960 the three man team of Glenn Isenhour, William (Bill) Russell and Hayden Moose collected over 250 photos from families having ties to the nineteenth century gold mining industry. They further documented through photos the historic sites, structures and original homes still standing in 1960. A set of the photos was donated to the Archives of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. In 1970 photos from the collection were used to create exhibits at Reed Gold Mine NC State Historic Site Museum in Midland, NC.