Visit the Commonwealth's one-of-a-kind museum in Goldvein.
Photo courtesy Gold Mining Camp
Gold Mining Camp
Though not the site of an actual gold mine, the Gold Mining Camp is located within 5 miles of 19 gold mines.
Once upon a time, a rainbow in Virginia might have led you to an actual pot of gold. The Gold Mining Camp Museum in Goldvein is the only museum in the state dedicated to Virginia’s gold mining history. Visitors can explore a bunkhouse, mess hall, and assay office, as well as marvel at the seven-ton hornet balls that crushed ore to free the gold.
Illustration by Ed Fotheringham
what a wonderful world of museums
“Although there was not a mine on our site, within 10 miles of the site there were somewhere around 50 working gold mines in Fauquier, Stafford, Culpeper, Orange, and Spotsylvania counties,” says Todd Bonshire, Monroe Park manager and museum curator. “These mines would have been active intermittently between 1800 and 1940. The three museum buildings are recreations of some of the buildings at a gold mine from the 1930s.” Goldvein.com
