In this time, the Dwarves became very rich and amassed a large amount of gold and treasure which included the jewel known as the Arkenstone. 1999, it had become a Dwarven stronghold, where the Dwarves became a numerous and prosperous people.
The survivors under Thráin I followed him to the Lonely Mountain and the colony became the ancestral home of the King under the Mountain. The Dwarves may have lived and mined in the mountain during the Second Age, but it wasn't until the mid-Third Age that the colony had become a firmly established Kingdom of the Dwarves after the fall of the ancient Kingdom of Khazad-dûm due to the awakening of the Balrog later known as Durin's Bane in T.A. A mining colony was soon set up and the Old Forest Road was laid out to connect the Dwarves to their great cities from the Iron Hills and as far west as their realms and possessions in the Blue Mountains. The Dwarves of Durin's Folk discovered the mineral wealth of the Lonely Mountain sometime after the awakening of the first Durin.
