Alabama Gold

Rockford Gold

by James Mallonee

Rockford is in central Alabama and is located at the intersection of Highway 22 and Highway 231. The town is small, but has a lot of history. The jail was build out of solid granite blocks and a couple other buildings in town were as well.

Hatchet Creek, just below Rockford is suppose to have supported a large number of gold miners at one time and small quantities of gold is suppose to have been found while digging foundations for some local homes. However, it is unknown whether the amounts were enough to pay.

I have dug and panned many of the local streams in this area, where they are accessible. Unfortunately, a lot of land is under private ownership and it is hard to find the owners. I found more interesting minerals OTHER THAN GOLD than I found Gold.

Rockford does have a dealer for gold pans, metal detectors, and mining supplies. Charlie the owner of Coosa Rustics is a very interesting character. You can usually catch him playing his guitar in front of his store on 231 near the towns single stop light. Charlie will show you gold he has pulled from "someplace" on Hatchet Creek and demonstrate his metal detectors. You can also buy some of his art work (grin). Unique. He also has a home brew store and sells "fixins"

If only to visit Charlie, it is well worth dropping by to see.

I do have a few GPS locations, however I haven't checked them out yet and do not want to get anyone's hopes up.

Besides, I'd like to check them out first (grin)