The Greenwood gold mine operated in

Prince William County Prince William County is located on the Potomac River in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 482,204, making it Virginia's second-most populous county. Its county seat is the independent city of Manassas ...

, Virginia, United States, near the town of Independent Hill for a few years before closing in 1885.NPS History - Greenwood Gold Mine
Retrieved February 15, 2010 It was one of two known gold mines in Prince William County, the other being the Crawford placer prospect on

Neabsco Creek Neabsco Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the lower tidal segment of the Potomac River in eastern Prince William County, Virginia. T ...

, near

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

, though small amounts of gold were occasionally found at the Cabin Branch Pyrite Mine in nearby

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

. The Greenwood site was situated at the head of the North branch of

Quantico Creek Quantico Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 partially tidal tributary of the Potomac River in eastern Prince William County, Virginia. Quantico Cr ...

on what is now part of

Prince William Forest Park Prince William Forest Park is protected forest in the U.S. state of Virginia within Prince William County (and very partially Stafford County), located adjacent to the Marine Corps Base Quantico near the town of Dumfries. Established as Chopawa ...

near the intersection of Aden and Bristow Roads in the far northwestern area of the park. The site is situated along the Virginia Gold-Pyrite belt, which runs from northeast to southwest primarily through the counties of Fairfax, Prince William, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Buckingham, Culpeper, Cumberland, Fauquier, Floyd, Fluvanna, Goochland, Halifax, Louisa, Orange, and Patrick. Mining operations consisted of at least one shaft, a

stamp mill A stamp mill (or stamp battery or stamping mill) is a type of mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking material down is a type of unit operatio ...

, and some form of

mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

amalgamation Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan am ...

recovery. The mine was a significant source of mercury pollution on Quantico Creek, and has since undergone complete reclamation including the sealing of mine shaft(s), soil removal and/or decontamination, and removal of obvious tailings. As of 2010, the only visible evidence of the mine are a few depressions in the soil. No structures or equipment remain. The

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

charges a fee for entry into the park and does not allow collecting of rocks or minerals.Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)
36 CFR §2.1, Retrieved July 8, 2021

References

"A Ground Electromagnetic Survey Used to Map Sulfides and Acid Sulfate Ground Waters at the Abandoned Cabin Branch Mine, Prince William Forest Park, Northern Virginia Gold-Pyrite Belt"
by Jeff Wynn, ''U.S. Geological Survey'', Reston, VA 20192, retrieved April 7, 2006

Notes

{{coord, 38, 37, 48, N, 77, 25, 51, W, type:landmark_scale:2000, display=title Gold mines in the United States Mines in Virginia Geography of Prince William County, Virginia Underground mines in the United States Stamp mills

See also

References

Notes