"Alabama Gold: A History of the South’s Last Mother Lode" by Peggy Walls
"Alabama Gold: A History of the South’s Last Mother Lode" by Peggy Walls
When gold was first discovered in Alabama in the 1830s, years before California’s famous gold rush, thousands of miners
and prospectors flocked to places like Arbacoochee in Cleburne County and Goldville in Tallapoosa County. In the early twentieth century, Hog Mountain, located in northwest Tallapoosa County, became one of the top gold producers in the Appalachian states. This month, author and Hog Mountain native Peggy Walls will trace a century of gold mining in Alabama. Peggy Jackson Walls earned her bachelors degree in secondary education at Auburn University in Montgomery and her masters in liberal arts, with a minor in Southern history, at Auburn University. She has taught at Auburn University and the University of Phoenix online, among others. Walls is co-author of Alexander City: Images of America. Her book
Alabama Gold: A History of the South’s Last Mother Lode was published by Arcadia Publishing and the History Press in
2016. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the presentation.
Admission to Food for Thought presentations is always FREE! The public is invited to bring a brown bag lunch. Complimentary beverages are provided. For additional information, call (334) 353-4689. Food for Thought 2017 is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Alabama Archives and the Alabama Humanities Foundation,
a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Alabama Department of Archives and History is the state’s government records repository, special collections library
and research facility, and is home to the Museum of Alabama, the state history museum. It is located in downtown Montgomery, directly across the street from the State Capitol. The Archives and Museum are open Monday through Saturday, 8:30 to 4:30. The EBSCO Research Room is open Tuesday through Friday and the second Saturday of the month from 8:30 to 4:30. To learn more, visit www.archives.alabama.gov or call (334) 242-4364.