Auraria

The first gold rush in American history occurred in north Georgia; it preceded the mining booms in the West by almost two decades. Published in 1956, Auraria tells the story of the mining town at the center of Georgia's gold frenzy. Auraria, which reached its zenith in the 1830s, eventually faded into a ghost town by the twentieth century. E. Merton Coulter gives readers more than a local study by placing Auraria's fascinating story in the context of larger regional and national developments.

Water spirits, moon maidens, haunted pianos, headless revenants, and an invincible terrapin that lives under the mountains. None of these distract James Holtzclaw from his employer¿s mission: to turn the fading gold-rush town of Auraria, GA, into a first-class resort and drown its fortunes below a man-made lake. But when Auraria¿s peculiar people and problematic ghosts collide with his own rival ambitions, Holtzclaw must decide what he will save and what will be washed away. Taking its inspiration from a real Georgia ghost town, Auraria is steeped in the folklore of the Southern Appalachians, where the tensions of natural, supernatural and artificial are still alive.