Gold country
Shiny Rock Hunt
Wade up a Piedmont creek turning over ordinary rocks before the daylight goes. Almost all of them are just rocks — which is exactly how the first documented gold find in the United States happened: a twelve-year-old, a creek, and a rock nobody recognized.
Shiny Rock Hunt
Wade the creek — drag, or use the arrow keys — and watch the glint sharpen as you near something worth turning. Press TURN to roll a rock over before the daylight goes. Almost every rock is just a rock; that's what makes the heavy one count.
Glint: Cold
Controls: drag the creek or use the arrow keys to wade; Space/Enter or the TURN button turns the rock under you.
The true story under the game
In 1799, Conrad Reed — the 12-year-old son of German immigrant John Reed — found a 17-pound gold nugget while fishing in Little Meadow Creek on his family's farm. The family didn't recognize it as gold and used it as a doorstop for three years, until a Fayetteville jeweler identified it in 1802. In 1804 an enslaved boy named Peter, working the Reed mine's placer operation, unearthed a 28-pound nugget — described as the largest documented gold nugget found in the United States.
The gold era, year by yearWant more arcade action? Back to the arcade.