From 1831 to 1840, Christopher Bechtler operated on this site the nation's most successful private mint, turning raw gold into nearly $3 million in coins and ingots. A talented inventor, gunsmith, and jeweler, the German immigrant arrived in Rutherford County in 1830 at the height of the North Carolina Gold Rush. He soon purchased this land in the foothills' gold-mining region and resumed his lifelong search for gold. When local gold miners persuaded him to open a private mint, a new chapter in North Carolina history was written.