Findley Ridge, just south of downtown Dahlonega, bears the scars of the so‑called “Dahlonega Method”—hydraulic mining on a grand scale. After the richest stream gravels were exhausted in the 1830s and 1840s, miners turned to high‑pressure water jets to blast saprolite (soft, decomposed rock) off the hillsides and run it through sluices. The technique, supplied by miles of ditches and wooden flumes from the headwaters of Yahoola Creek, carved the ridge into steep amphitheaters still visible today. Underground work also continued as miners chased quartz “shoots,” marrying surface hydraulicking with lode mining below. Operations along Findley Ridge persisted unusually late for Georgia—well into the 1920s and 1930s—before economics and regulation curtailed hydraulic mining. A roadside historical marker along U.S. 19 notes the ridge’s distinctive landscape and its role in Dahlonega’s long gold story. Please observe only from public ways; these historic cuts and tunnels lie on private property.