In 1782 a 0.85-ounce gold nugget was discovered on the north side of the Rappahannock River near Little Falls plantation in Stafford County.

Thomas Jefferson wrote of this in his Notes on Virginia, “I know a single instance of gold found in this state. It was interspersed in small specks in a lump of ore, of about four pounds weight, which yielded seventeen pennyweight of gold, of extraordinary ductility.”

The principal mining boom in Virginia ran from about 1827-1861.