Dahlonega...TV's destroying small town USA society !

Dahlonega, GA ... a small town that must be visited if you are touring the Smoky Mtns. OK, here comes the definitive word from a Canadian's perspective. In short, Dahlonega is a college town which is deserted in the summer, and rolls up its carpets totally by 8pm on any summer Sunday night. It's a gold ghost town; summer time, a college ghost town!

Dahlonega, Georgia, rose to prominence in 1830's when gold was discovered by Benjamin Parks while deer hunting in the Georgian forests. He struck gold instead of a buck!!!  So the first American gold rush was on and support services like bankers, lawyers, dentists, doctors, and others came to start up businesses. Soon, banks, hotels, restaurants and laundries sprang up. Soon after, court houses and even one of the first federal branch mints. The courthouse is made of gold bricks. Well, OK, there are traces of gold in the bricks which were formed from the local clay. It paid to be a bricklayer here ! (Babbo, you might have been rich!)

Soon after, the federal government claimed all the land which was held by the Cherokee Indians and through a statewide lottery, land distribution was opened to new settlers. The Cherokee Indians were eventually rounded up by the federal government troops and force marched to Oklahoma on the infamous Trail of Tears. We civilized people do have a way with aboriginals!

The gold claims expanded the gold rush; immigrants kept pouring into the region until the new gold rush in California occurred in 1848. Now I know how the San Francisco 49ers of NFL glory got their name. Dahlonega's heyday passed now. The branch mint operation continued until the Civil War when the building and surrounding lands were donated to the newly created North Georgia Agricultural College (today's North Georgia College and State University...with Lance, the registration desk receptionist of my hotel, the Smith House, being one of their medical students...nice young man!).

Mark Twain's paraphrasing of "There's gold in them thar hills," was based on Matthew F. Stephenson's plea to the Dahlonega miners to not abandon Dahlonega for the California rush. He pointed to the Findley Ridge hills saying, "There's millions in it !" The plea fell on deaf ears as California was the "newer green grass."

Now back to the TV of my headline. Today, on any summer Sunday night, the quaint town square with its replication of the old 19th century buildings stands empty, totally devoid of people, and everything's closed. Hungry? Thirsty? Forget about it till morning. Maybe in the gold mining days, the town square might have had people walking about, sitting on benches, going into the saloons, but not today. Perhaps if the Italians had immigrated here, or the French or Spanish, all great piazza sitters in the summer evenings, things would be different in the town square. So where are all the Americans? At home watching TV, or else canoodling with their spouses, mates, girlfriends and/or boyfriends. But even with summer time temps of mid 70's, no one is about in the town square...except this lone Canadian who doesnt have a home to watch TV or a mate here to canoodle !

Visit back again !