I located the old Glade Gold Mine about 30 years ago, and obtained permission from the Corp of Engineers to pan for gold in the Flat Creek basin just north of the Chattahoochee River in Hall County in the northern end of Lake Lanier. We panned gold there over a 2 year period, and did well with it, finding much coarse gold,, rice grain sized nuggets, with a few larger, as the drainage is so flat that the creek doesn't really tumble the gold smooth.
One of the crew took a large sample of suspected diamonds to a gemologist, and several small diamonds were discovered amongst all the suspicious quartz chips he had accumulated. They were of poor quality, but were indeed diamonds.
I have a few suspicious stones too that have triangulation lines in them, but have never gotten them checked.
The old records state that the diamonds came from Stockenator (sp) Branch, but we were never able to determine exactly which branch that was.
Lots of deer stands in this area, so if you go in there now, be careful, and wear orange. Also a lot of large cottonmouth snakes in this area.
We took a geologist up there one trip and he said the area had been part of a volcano at one time, and he located some blue clay he felt was Kimberlite.
