It is not well known that for many years, NC was the major source of gold in the US until the California Gold Rush. Rutherford County was the main source of gold in the region. Today, people still search the creeks of Rutherford County for gold.

Christopher Bechtler came from the Grand Duchy of Baden in what is now Germany. He was a metallurgist by trade. He was said to be the first man in the US to coin gold dollars. Bechtler arrived in NC in 1830 with his two sons and nephew. He opened the only privately operated mint in the US in Rutherford County. Bechtler obtained a government sanction to coin gold in three amounts: $1, $2.50 and $5.00.

Prized Coins

He was said to have coined $2,241 worth of gold dollars. They are said to be among the most prized coins by collectors in the US. In 1965, one gold coin of Bechtler’s was sold at an auction for $5,000. At the time, a new Chevy was only $3,000. The press that Bechtler used is on display at the Museum of the American Numismatic Society in New York City.

It has been said that the gold mined in the mountains of WNC was a dull color, while the gold from the lower elevations was bright yellow.

Bechtler also made jewelry and sold watches. His son, August, and his nephew, also named Christopher, worked in Bechtler’s mint. During the Civil War, when the Confederacy bought supplies, they were often required to pay with Bechtler’s gold coins.

A toll road was built from Rutherfordton through what is now Lake Lure, Chimney Rock, Bat Cave, over Hickory Nut Gap, into Fairview and on into Asheville. Bechtler would travel this road to conduct business in Asheville. After he had made a good sum of money from his mint and decided to move back to Germany, he got in his buggy and headed for Asheville to take care of some business. He would often stop and talk to the people he met along the way.

No Asheville Arrival

Late in the afternoon, he stopped at the toll gate in Henderson County operated by Joe Williams. After talking to Williams and paying the toll, he drove on. But Bechtler never arrived in Asheville or returned home. His family went to hunt for him. Several days later, his buggy was found a short distance past the tollgate at the bottom of a high cliff. Bechtler’s body was never found. He was carrying a considerable amount of money, and people believe that someone robbed and killed him. You can ask people in Gerton and Bat Cave who might have robbed and killed Bechtler, and they will say they do not know. Many think they do know and just won’t say.

In the 1870s, there was a goldmine in Forge Mountain between Mills River and Boylston Baptist Church. My great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Davis (1856–1946), worked at the mine. There he met my great-grandmother, Ellen Augusta Nicholson (1860-1901), and they married on March 21, 1878. I do not know how long the mine operated. My guess is around 10 years.

Golden Opportunity

Around 1969, when I was attending Owen High School in Swannanoa, a man from Grove Stone and Gravel Company came to speak to my economic class. He said that if a person was willing to work hard enough, they could make around $20 dollars a day hunting gold in the Swannanoa Valley. He said there were not any large deposits of gold in the valley, just a lot of small amounts.

I started looking as soon as I got home from school. I did find a little here and there, but not enough to be of much value. The best place to find a little gold was where the railroad or highway cut through a bank, exposing land that had not been uncovered before.

In a previous article on my great-great-great grandfather William Whitaker Sr. (1772–1860), I mentioned that he knew where to find some gold in Fairview. When he was getting low on money, he would go off without telling anyone and come home with a bag of gold. They said he even had a large chunk of gold he used to prop his door open in the summer. He would never tell anyone where he got it. People would try to follow him, but he would lead them all over Fairview and not go to his source of gold.

Unfound Treasure

In his will, he left his gold scale to his son Joshua Whitaker. He died without revealing the gold’s location to anyone. That makes me think it was not on his property or he would have told his kids where it was and mined all of it at one time. A few people thought it was around Indian Rock, which are the long, high cliffs on the left going up Log Gap Road. My father, my cousin and I went up there and looked around one time, but is was so steep and the ledges so narrow we were afraid of getting killed if we looked around too much.

Bruce Whitaker documents Fairview-area genealogy. To get in touch with him, contact the Crier at [email protected] or
828-771-6983 (call/text).