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Dahlonega plans to dedicate diving bell pavilion
Device from 1800s allowed divers more time underwater searching for gold
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The Chestatee Diving Bell is revealed at the Cottrell Circle C Ranch on July 31, 2010, during a fundraising event for the bell’s final resting place, the Chestatee River Diving Bell Pavilion, which will be dedicated today. - photo by Scott Rogers | The Times
North Georgia history will be unveiled today at Hancock Park in downtown Dahlonega.At 11 a.m., the Chestatee River Diving Bell Committee, along with other special guests, will be dedicating the Chestatee River Diving Bell Pavilion that has been in the works since 2009. The pavilion will provide a permanent, protective outdoor space for the 1875 Chestatee River diving bell.The diving bell served as one of the most advanced types of American diving technology in the 1800s and allowed Dahlonega gold miners to remain underwater for longer periods in their search for gold. Although initially thought to be a smokestack from a sunken mining boat, local gold prospector John Weingard convinced Owens Farm, which owned the land, to extract the stack from the Chestatee River.