Gold mining in the United States open-pit heap leach mines in the state of Nevada. The US is a net exporter of gold. Gold was discovered in Alabama about 1830, shortly following the Georgia Gold Rush. The principal districts were the Arbacoochee district in Cleburne County, mostly from placer deposits, and the Hog Mountain district in Tallapoosa County, which produced from veins in schist. Russian explorers discovered placer gold in the Kenai River in 1848, but no gold was produced. Gold mining started in 1870 from placers southeast of Juneau. Alaska produced a total of of gold from 1880 through the end of 2007. In 2015
William Barker (prospector) William Barker (prospector) William "Billy" Barker (1817–1894), was an English prospector who was famous for being one of the first to find a large amount of gold in the Cariboo of British Columbia. He also founded Barkerville which is preserved as a historic town. Barker was born in 1817 in March, Cambridgeshire, England and was baptised on 7 June 1817 in St Wendreda's Church, March. As a child he worked as a waterman on the waterways of England. He married Jane Lavender in Earith, Cambridgeshire in 1839 and had one daughter named Emma Eliza. Jane died in the workhouse in