Auraria, Georgia¶
Auraria, Georgia is an abandoned gold-rush ghost town in the mountains near Dahlonega, taken over about ten years before the arc by the religious community known as the Covenant.
| Type | Location, ghost town |
| Aliases | Auraria; the Covenant site |
| Region | North Georgia, a 15 to 20 minute drive from Dahlonega |
| Occupants | The Covenant |
| First appearance | Appalachia 01 (mentioned) |
Description¶
Auraria ("gold in Latin") is a gold-rush ghost town. Its pre-Civil War church is the only good building, lightly modernized, and white tents glow around it. A sign reads "Welcome to the Covenant. Try our peaches," and closed-up morning glories grow everywhere (Appalachia 02).
By the time of Appalachia 04 the party had walked the town. The Covenant has no electricity or phones. Members live in tents, the old church and the community center, and the site has handmade rough-wood outhouses, many stills, a stand selling preserves and quilts, and a farm truck. Members bathe in the river. As Kurt walked through, he judged the community to be on the edge of economic viability, with frantic canning and quilting in hot tents.
The Smith Hotel desk clerk described the residents' long dresses, tents and end-of-the-world talk, and said he would not stay there after dark (Appalachia 01).
Notable places within¶
- The pre-Civil War church.
- The community center, the only other building in town, used for the party's interviews with River and Mother Dahlia Riversand (Appalachia 04).
- The preparation tent and the river, used for red-clay baptisms. A Covenant member said runoff from the Spud Hut plant ran into the river.
- A hiking trail about ten minutes from town that leads to the Circle Chasers' footprint site and the rabbit-snatch site; see the woods trail and The Field and Bent Tree.
History of events there¶
Appalachia 01. The missing Willow Greengrass was a Covenant member who vanished near Auraria; the team's dossier mentioned Auraria, which was not on their map, and included an article about religious vision ceremonies. Older Bigfoot sightings clustered near the town (Appalachia 01).
Appalachia 02. The party drove to Auraria and pulled up at dusk to find robed members paying them little mind, then took the trail toward the Chasers' circle without approaching them (Appalachia 02).
Appalachia 04. The party interviewed Covenant members. Clover said Willow had been sent by Elijah Ray to scout peach orchards and had fought with her sister. River and Mother Dahlia Riversand explained a land dispute: "corporate goons" had arrived about a year earlier with paperwork threatening eviction, and the Covenant was selling preserves to pay a lawyer. See The Land Dispute. Dahlia produced copies of eviction letters naming only a law firm, Jackson and Lee's. Rita's Andrew spoke with the door-to-door salesman Jeremy through a tent wall, and the team left without meeting the Reverend (Appalachia 04).
Appalachia 06. Frotter Comstock's property lies outside Auraria; see Comstock's Property. The Gold Bug, the town's official newspaper, has its shop front here, and a staff member told the party it would be "hard to keep a Bigfoot costume secret in this town" (Appalachia 06).
Inhabitants¶
The Covenant, led by Elijah Ray, with Mother Dahlia Riversand as elder. Their beliefs are covered on Covenant Beliefs, and they make Covenant Peach Preserves.