The largest gold nugget discovered east of the Mississippi River was found by John Phillip Thurmond on April 14, 1889, at the Hamby Mines in northern White County. It weighed 504 pennyweights and four grams, about 25.5 ounces, and was once in a museum in London, England. In 1952, Jere Chambers found a large nugget near his home four miles north of Cleveland; it weighed 89.2 pennyweights and was worth about $156.00 at the time. Georgia’s first gold discovery occurred on Alabama Branch, a tributary of Dukes Creek in Nacoochee Valley, in 1828 in what is now White County. At about the same time, John Withrow made a similar discovery on the old Lovelady property in Habersham County. Shortly afterward, gold was discovered in Indian Territory between the Etowah and Chestatee Rivers, setting off the rush, and gold was mined commercially in this part of the state for over 100 years.