what year did john reed sell the first gold nugget

'And they were bow and arrow fishing in the water. They had actually skipped church, the story goes,' Kepley says. 'Right here on top of Little Meadow Creek, in 1799 a 12-year-old boy named Conrad Reed was fishing with his brother and sister. Reed Gold Mine is a state historic site and nationally recognized landmark in Midland, just 20 miles outside Charlotte – the first documented discovery of gold in the U.S. His great-great-great-great-grandfather is John Reed, the man the gold mine is named after. Mint in Charlotte are on display at the Reed Gold Mine's visitor center.īut if anything we should be talking about the 99ers, because gold was discovered in neighboring Cabarrus County in 1799, fifty years BEFORE the California Gold Rush.Īnd the best person to tell the story might be Aaron Kepley, he's a historic interpreter at Reed Gold Mine and has a personal connection to the gold mine. And it produced 5 million dollars worth of gold coins. Mint outside Philadelphia was established here in Charlotte in 1836.

In fact so much gold was being mined that the first branch of the U.S. But Charlotte actually does have a rich gold mining history. Whitestone says it's convenient that the 49ers remind people of the 'pioneering spirit' of the California Gold Rush. But you can't call yourself the 49ers AND have a gold miner as a mascot AND a prominently placed gold miner statue on campus AND use gold as your accent color on the school logo and uniforms and say it doesn't really have to do with gold. And that led to Charlotte College, which has led on to University of North Carolina at Charlotte.'

In 1949, Bonnie Cone, who is our unofficial founder and several other community leaders, pushed to make the University permanent. But it was planned to be a temporary institution. 'It was a center that was built to take care of servicemen returning from the war. 'This institution UNC Charlotte, got its beginnings in 1946 as a Charlotte center of the University of North Carolina,' Whitestone says. He says the school's nickname is the 49ers because of the importance of the year 1949. Before Norm, the University's mascot was an owl because college students attended classes in the evening in places like Charlotte’s Central High School (after the high school students left for the day) for the first few years of its existence. Credit UNC Charlotte Norm the Niner, the 49ers mascot, catches the University shuttle.

What year did john reed sell the first gold nugget