Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Dahlonega, GA

Dahlonega is a small mountain city and the county seat of Lumpkin County, set in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains roughly 70 miles north of Atlanta.

Dahlonega was the site of the first major gold rush in the United States: gold was discovered in the area in 1828, two decades before the California Gold Rush, after deer hunter Benjamin Parks reportedly stumbled over a gold-bearing rock.

The name Dahlonega comes from a Cherokee word meaning "yellow" or "yellow money," a reference to the gold found in the surrounding hills.

Dahlonega was incorporated on December 21, 1833, a few years after the discovery of gold, and was chosen as the Lumpkin County seat the same year.

From 1838 to 1861 a United States Branch Mint operated in Dahlonega, striking gold coins — including Half Eagles, Quarter Eagles, gold dollars, and three-dollar pieces — that carry the distinctive "D" mint mark.

The Dahlonega Gold Museum Historic Site stands in the middle of the town square inside the 1836 Lumpkin County Courthouse, one of the oldest courthouse buildings in Georgia.

From the courthouse steps in 1849, mint assayer Dr. M. F. Stephenson famously tried to talk local miners out of leaving for California, giving rise to the saying "There's gold in them thar hills."

The University of North Georgia was founded in 1873 in the abandoned mint building as North Georgia Agricultural College; it is the Senior Military College of Georgia, one of only six senior military colleges in the United States, and was the first state-supported college in Georgia to grant a degree to a woman.

The 2020 census counted 7,537 people in Dahlonega in 1,651 households, and the city's median age of just 21.1 years reflects the large student population of the University of North Georgia.

Gold leaf from Lumpkin County famously covers the dome of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, and Dahlonega's own Price Memorial Hall at the university is topped with a gold-leaf dome.