Camellia spotlight from Gold Hill, N.C.

This camellia bloom was recently photographed in Gold Hill, N.C., this past Thursday. The bush was nestled near a white picket fence. The website https://historicgoldhill.org states, “Gold Hill, North Carolina was a well established gold mining boom town by the early 1840’s. This was almost a decade before the gold strike at Sutter’s Mill in California. Gold Hill had a bustling main street that spanned a mile in its day. The town boasted of at least sixteen merchants, twenty-three saloons and about six brothels. The town had two hotels, a boarding house and a two-story mining office. It was a town of which, even the mayor of Charlotte, NC was envious. He made newspaper headlines when he commented that he had hopes that “Charlotte will one day be as big and prosperous as Gold Hill.”” (Bruce Branum | The Standard)