GOLD HILL — Vivian Hopkins says her most memorable Gold Hill Founders Day involved an outhouse race.

Think of chariot races, only this time it was men pulling other men who were sitting in an outhouse on wheels.

“That was so funny,” Hopkins says, still laughing. “Guys peeking out the door with britches around their ankles — it was hilarious. That, in my memory, was the best.”

While the outhouse race has not continued — Hopkins says those guys have long since aged out — Gold Hill Founders Day, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, has evolved into a multifaceted celebration.

It offers close to 75 vendors of arts, crafts and heritage living exhibits, not to mention six music acts, hayrides, food vendors in the park, gold nugget hunts and gold panning activities for kids, antique tractors and the traditional 10 a.m. parade through the village.

In addition, shops in Gold Hill Village are open, along with the village’s new Mama T’s restaurant, which will be offering breakfast biscuits, plus a select sandwich menu from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The restaurant’s regular dinner menu will start at 5 p.m.

The first Founders Day in 1989 was supposed to be a one-time event. Held at the Gold Hill Fire Department, it wasn’t even called Founders Day.

“I can’t believe how far it has come,” Hopkins says.

She and other organizers weren’t sure people would attend the 1989 gathering — it was the first real public event in Rowan County since Hurricane Hugo had swept through, causing significant damage and power failures.

But Hopkins had advertised the celebration of Gold Hill’s history far and wide. and people showed up.

“You couldn’t park a car anywhere near the Gold Hill Fire Department,” she says.

People were fascinated by the scores of photographs of mining from the 19th century. Hopkins also lined up two bluegrass bands, including her father’s, and her own clogging group.

Hot dogs were sold, and the dancing and music went into the evening.

The small group of people who put on that first Gold Hill celebration met later and decided they had a good thing. They immediately started pursuing the idea of establishing a foundation for preserving Gold Hill’s history.

You probably know the rest. The Historic Gold Hill and Mines Foundation Inc.’s efforts led to an attractive park, which was ignited by a donation of 16 acres from the late Billie Johnson of Johnson Concrete/Carolina Stalite.

The park is now 70 acres and features the Barnhardt and Randolph mine shafts. Those 19th-century mines still stand as having been the richest and most productive gold mines east of the Mississippi River.

The park also includes the Russell-Rufty Memorial Shelter, Gold Hill Jail, Bernhardt Family Log Barn, Assay Office Museum, Post Office Museum, Powder House, a 19th-century Chilean ore mill, outdoor amphitheater and covered stage.

In its heyday, the Gold Hill Mining District had 23 mines, and the population of the town, incorporated in 1843, grew to 3,000 people. The California Gold Rush and the Civil War caused major interruptions in mining and Gold Hill’s growth.

While there were periods of resurgence and speculation over the rest of the century, the mining industry never came back fully. By 1907, the Gold Hill mines closed.

Searches by Birmingham Mining Co. of England later in the 20th century for a new vein proved unsuccessful.

Over recent decades, Darius Hedrick bought and restored old Gold Hill properties and moved others to Gold Hill to create Gold Hill Village, which features several shops, private residences and the new Mama T’s restaurant.

The annual Founders Day parade follows St. Stephens Church Road through the village.

Vivian and her husband, Hoppy, have leased the restored E.H. Montgomery General Store from Hedrick for 18 years, and it’s the site of Friday night jam sessions for area bluegrass musicians.

Bluegrass music has become a major part of the entertainment at every Founders Day.

The celebration didn’t move from the Fire Department to Gold Hill Mines Historic Park until 1993, also the year the park was dedicated.

Hopkins isn’t sure when the morning parade started as a kickoff to the day. In fact, she notes, for a while the event moved to the spring and was called Old Miners Jubilee.

Hopkins’ research showed when time for spring planting came, farmers used to celebrate with a “jubilee day.”

“We did that for a few years,” she says.

Another memorable Founders Day came in 2001, not long after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. An especially large number of people showed up, especially for the parade, in which every fire department in the county was represented.

All the equipment ran silent in that parade, foregoing the usual blare of sirens and horns.

Hopkins says about a dozen people coordinate Founders Day, and they will have the help of other volunteers Saturday to make it happen.

“It’s a lot of work,” Hopkins says. “It doesn’t make us a lot of money. In fact, it doesn’t make us any money. But it gives the community something to look forward to.”

Even if the outhouse races have gone to pot.

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263 or mark.wineka@salisburypost.com.