In 1799, when a boy of 12 years old, named Conrad Reed was playing in Little Meadow Creek, located within Cabarrus County, North Carolina, he unearthed a heavy golden stone weighing 17 pounds and brought it home to show his father, John Reed, who was a farmer. Neither John nor his son knew the value of the stone, and the two spent the following three years living with it without realizing its importance and how important it would prove to be for their lives. The heavy stone served as a doorstop in their family house. Once the stone was identified as gold, it became part of a discovery that made North Carolina the country's leading gold producer for nearly 50 years, until the start of the California gold rush.
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