Page 3 - Villa Rica Brochure

Amazed!

Amazing

History

Gold was discovered near present-day There’s more than gold in Villa
Villa Rica in the 1820s. In its heyday, Rica’s history, however. Check out
19 commercial gold mines operated the historical markers in downtown
in and around Villa Rica. Most of the Villa Rica. One marks the birthplace
miners moved on to California in 1849, of Thomas A. Dorsey, the Father
and only the Pine Mountain Gold Mine of Gospel Music. Another marker
was commercially mined seriously describes the ancestral home of
after 1900. the Tyson family, among the oldest
families in Villa Rica. A third marker
commemorates the 1957 Villa Rica
Explosion, caused by a gas leak in
Berry’s Pharmacy that completely
destroyed that building and three
neighboring buildings, killed 12 people
and injured 20 others. The tragedy
highlighted the need for both an
organized local emergency response
unit and the use of odor in the natural
gas supply.
Today, the Pine Mountain Gold
Museum, on the National Register of
Historic Places, is a one-of-a-kind site
with a museum, actual mining sites,
and gold panning, all within Villa
Rica’s Stockmar Park.