The Gold Museum

Built in 1836, this building is the oldest surviving courthouse in Georgia; it served as the Lumpkin County Courthouse for over a century before becoming the Dahlonega Gold Museum. Staff have nicknamed its resident ghost "Tommy": a tall figure in a hooded robe reported in the windows and on the balcony after hours, blamed for knocking inside the walls and for switching on the museum's stamp-press model overnight. Visitors and staff also describe faint pickaxe sounds and shadowy figures moving through the halls, echoes some attribute to the county's rough mining-era history of public hangings.