Cherokee ruby mine nc free#

We mined for a couple hours, going through six buckets of dirt, after which we didn't have much to show for it. Here, you can find garnet, sapphires, rubies, rutile, moonstone and silimanite. Cherokee Ruby Mine isВ only native, non-enriched dirt, which was an instant draw.

Cherokee ruby mine nc free#

They charged $15 a person to mine, which included 2 free buckets of dirt, then $2.50 per bucket after that.

Our first stop in North Carolina was the Cherokee Ruby Mine, north of Franklin. They also sell buckets of dirt online, and I will be buying one soon just for fun. I would recommend this attraction if you want to find some stuff and get your moneys worth, even though we just kind of sat there while all the work except picking the gems out of the gravel was done for us. The big picture: We found a good amount of stuff for the value, basically like we paid for the cut gem and got everything else as a bonus. The woman inside identified our finds and told us a little about them. The staff here were very nice, although the guy helping us with our bucket ended up taking the screens from my girlfriend and I and basically doing the work for us, which was slightly disappointing. For the cut gem, they let us pick a random plastic easter egg, and the gem ended up being a very nice oval cut amethyst. The quality was pretty good, and we also got a free cut gem. We found emerald, sapphire, ruby, citrine, a ton of moonstone, black tourmaline, amethyst, crystal quartz, aquamarine, smoky quartz, turquoise, pyrite, and some other tumbling rocks. The buckets were salted with a variety of minerals, and we found alot of them. The bucket of dirt we bought here was $25. The third stop on our gem mining adventure was Gold City Gem Mine, just north of Franklin, NC. While you don't really have the chance to find an amazingly valuable gem, the quality and amount of stuff you find here is great. I would highly recommend if you want to find a bunch of stuff to make this your stop. The big picture: This was far and away our best stop on our vacation as far as finds for our value is concerned, and also the personality of the staff was fantastic. My girlfriend got the amethyst that she had picked at Gold City set in a necklace here as well. The woman inside identified our finds and showed us which ones had good potential for cutting. The staff here was fantastic, the guy in charge of the buckets was very friendly and talkative. Here too, we found alot, and it also came with a free cut gem, an oval cut lavender amethyst. Finally, as we intended this to be our final stop for our vacation, we did a $25 bucket which was salted with a bunch of different minerals. We found a ton, some of which was good material. First I did a $15 emerald bucket while my girlfriend did a $15 ruby and sapphire bucket. What needs to be in stock? Made me wonder if they really use our gems or just ship pendants they order in the different sizes and shapes they offer.Our fourth stop was the Cowee Mountain Ruby Mine, also just north of Franklin, NC,В and just a few miles down the road from the Gold City Gem Mine.

The lady said they would ship in less than a week as long as everything was in stock. We were only going to be in town 2 more days so they were going to ship our pendants (no chain). But after we left I got to thinking about something the lady said. We choose to have pendants made from a couple of our gems which I was really excited about.

Not sure we had any but seeing what they looked like afterwards in the store, we wouldn't have realized they were gems. Some of the gems are easy to identify, and they showed us what a garnet was (or we never would have kept it), but a chart or board above the mining boxes showing rubies or sapphires would be helpful. A little more assistance when we started would have been better. Kids had a fun time and enjoyed afterwards seeing what the different things were we mined. The attached picture is what we found.not even that was worth the $50 we spent I feel like they showcase the big buckets with the chunks of gems sitting on top of them to get you to buy. Third the вЂњgemsвЂќ we found were smaller than my pinky nail and the big ones we did find were the polished rocks from inside the store. It totally killed it for me right there as I hate if I tell someone I know what IвЂ™m doing and donвЂ™t want any help and they donвЂ™t listen. Second we told the miner we knew what we were doing and didnвЂ™t need help and he still dumped half of my husbands and almost all of my bucket into the sifters and started sifting the dirt to show us. First the buckets were 90% dirt and hard clumps of red clay you would spend 20 minutes breaking them apart for absolutely nothing. My husband and I love going to gem mines and this is definitely a вЂњyou get what you pay forвЂќ place. ItвЂ™s okay for kids to get the вЂњexperienceвЂќ but i donвЂ™t recommend for adults who like doing this kinda thing.