First Gold Rush: Cities Dispute Each Other's Claim

The city of Dahlonega in northern Georgia banks on being known as the site of the first U-S gold rush. They draw millions of dollars a year from the tourists who flock there.

But now officials of a city just west of Atlanta Villa Rica claims it’s home to the first gold rush.

Local mine owner in Dahlonega Tammy Ray isn't buying it. "They might have been the first place that found gold, but they’re not the biggest gold rush. I mean, because they can’t prove they were the first."

While Villa Rica has street signs boasting its claim, Carl Lewis who works at the city owned gold museum is quick to downplay any rivalry with Dahlonega. "We ain’t in competition with them at all. I would rather ours be called the Georgia Forgotten Gold Rush."

The Dahlonega mine owner says she's not worried about losing tourists to Villa Rica.

Louisiana residents in GA. weighing when to return

About five hundred of the evacuees from Hurricane Gustav are waiting out the hurricane in Georgia. Some three hundred of them are being hosted at Villa Rica, not far from the Alabama state line.

Red Cross and local volunteers here are providing cots, hot meals and showers for the displaced families.

The exhausted evacuees, many of with them children and elderly family members, are taking shelter in a gym and meeting rooms at a local recreation center.

One of them is Kenner, Louisiana, resident Nolan Eugene, who arrived in a convoy with friends:

"Everybody runnin' from that hurricane, but it done now passed over now, and I'm ready to get back home (laughs). We could leave out tonight, instead of spending another night here – I don't know… six carloads of us got to make a decision."

Villa Rica is one of five shelters the Red Cross has opened statewide including Columbus, La Grange, Lawrenceville and Tift County.

Click here for more GPB News coverage or Hurricane Gustav.

Evacuees waiting out Gustav in Ga.

About five hundred of the evacuees from Hurricane Gustav have taken refuge in Georgia. Some three hundred of them are being hosted at Villa Rica, west of Atlanta.

Many of the evacuees arrived at the center, not far from the Alabama state line, in convoys after an all-night drive.

Lisa Matheson of the Red Cross says they’re sheltering them in a gym at a local recreation center:

“This is where we have approximately 250 cots set up to take in the evacuees. We were very fortunate in this shelter, that we had several ancillary rooms where we could take the overflow to accommodate the nearly 300 people who are here.”

The evacuees are being given three meals a day, recreation facilities and medical assistance is they need it.

Villa Rica is one of six shelters the Red Cross has opened statewide, including Columbus, Dalton, La Grange, Lawrenceville and Tift County.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of Hurricane Gustav, and other severe weather.

Allegedly Abducted Toddler Found Safe

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says a 3-year-old boy allegedly taken from his west Georgia home by his uncle was found safe today, and the uncle was arrested.

Robert Russell, III, was seen driving his nephew, John Jack Russell, Jr., Friday in a silver Chrysler Town & Country van with North Carolina tags, said Sergeant Marc Griffith with the Carroll County Sheriff's Office.

An updated e-mail alert sent out by the GBI around 1 p.m. Saturday said the boy and his uncle were safely in custody. The GBI says the uncle was arrested in Atlanta, though it was not immediately clear what, if anything, he was charged with.

According to the Georgia Department of Corrections Web site, the elder Russell was released from Scott State Prison in 1997 after serving two years on a robbery conviction. According to the DeKalb County's online offender database, he also has been arrested four separate times in DeKalb County from 2003 to 2007 -- once for a probation violation, twice for theft and once for failure to appear in court.

According to the Web site, Russell was last released from the DeKalb County Jail in October. Griffith said Russell's family told authorities he has a history of drug abuse.

(The Associated Press)

Alabama senator's grandson found dead in Georgia

The body of the teenage grandson of an Alabama state senator was found yesterday in west Georgia’s Carroll County. 17-year-old Benjamin Stanford was found about one-thousand feet from where his car was abandoned along Interstate-20 near Villa Rica. There were no further details about his death. Stanford had been reported missing last week. He was the grandson of Senator Jim Preuitt of Talladega.

Villa Rica soldier dies in Iraq

Another Georgia soldier has died in Iraq. The military says 21-year-old Sergeant Michael C. Hardegee of Villa Rica was among seven soldiers killed when their truck tumbled off an elevated highway pass in Baghdad.

Hardegee was the son and grandson of paratroopers. He graduated from Villa Rica High School in 2004, joined the Army and became a paratrooper himself. He served two tours of duty in Iraq.