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Gem Mining in Franklin, NC area

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debbie35

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kimberton,pa
Hi, We want to take our two kids (8 and 7 yr old) gem mining in Franklin,NC area. I was wondering if anyone has done this and could recommend a place
to stay. Do we stay in Franklin or more central in Dillsboro,NC or Cherokee.
Would also like to take them to the Cherokee Indian reservation any info would be great! We are going for a long weekend when school is out in June.

Thanx,
Debbie
 
There are two types of gem mines, salted and natural. Your kids would have more fun at the salted ones because "gems" have been added to the dirt and they'll find more. You don't really "mine" to find the gems, you buy buckets of dirt and rock and seive the dirt and mud away in a sluice to find the gems. The cost of the buckets varies and can be as high as $50.00 or more. Supposedly, the costlier the bucket, the better your chance of getting a jewelry quality stone. But don't go there expecting to find one worth a fortune because it probably isn't going to happen. You're best bet for a stone to have cut and polished would be white or yellow topaz, various hues of quartz, amethyst, and blue topaz. Garnets and emeralds are usually too small and/or shattered and fused back together. Rubies and saphires (usually African) are usually too layered to be polished and neither of them look like anything you see in the jewelry stores. The whole idea of gem mining is to have fun finding them. Our family went in '90 and I and a friend took a side trip on our way to a week long seminar in Atlanta seven or eight years later.
Most of the mines are north of Franklin. This last trip, we went to Gold (or maybe named Gem) City. It was on the bypass east of Franklin. They have a store on premises and bathroom facilities. You might even want to splurge and spend a few extra bucks for a grab bag stone which has already been cut and polished.
 
Fun time

We went to one of the mining places in Gatlinburg, TN last year. My sons, ages 6 and 8, had fun sifting through the mud and saving gems. Be sure to ask for assistance as a lot of what we thought were rocks were actually gems. After, the salesperson helped them to sort the gems with a reference card. We selected one gem for each of them (emerald and ruby) and had a cross made for each of them. The jewelry is a nice souvenir of our vacation and the fun we had. The kids also brought the gems into school for a project. It wasn't exactly cheap but I think it is money well-spent (I would rather they have a piece of jewelry than toys!).
 
Good time had by all!

debbie35 said:
Hi, We want to take our two kids (8 and 7 yr old) gem mining in Franklin,NC area. I was wondering if anyone has done this and could recommend a place
to stay. Do we stay in Franklin or more central in Dillsboro,NC or Cherokee.
Would also like to take them to the Cherokee Indian reservation any info would be great! We are going for a long weekend when school is out in June.

Thanx,
Debbie
Click to expand...


Hi Debbie,
I took my family to the Sheffield Mine in Franklin, NC
this past August. You can stay in Franklin if you wish as there are many places to stay. Franklin is actually a good size town. I think that they have a mall there as well as all the chain restaurants. After our full day at the mine we drove over to Greenville, SC so my son could tour Bob Jones University. Thats the only reason that we didn't stay in Franklin.

The day before we visited the Sheffield mine in Franklin, we went to the emerald mine in Hiddenite, NC. That was fun as well. In Hiddenite we found a super nice amethyst which we had ground up and set into a silver ring for my son, and I found a 5 carat silver topaz which I had ground and then i brought it home and my wife had it set into a large 18c gold ring for me at Christmas.

We didn't find any emeralds in Hiddenite but the people running the place weren't very helpful there. But I would still go back there. Hiddenite NC is about 20 mins from Statesville. Lots of places to stay there.

The Sheffield folks were super in helping you get going. And yes we did find some rubies, the largest of which was a 6.5 c that I found in my last screen before we left. None of which were large enough to have ground up.

All in all a fun experience, we will go again sometime. Wear old clothes, you will get dirty and you can't get the red soil out, at least we couldn't.


http://www.sheffieldmine.com/

http://www.hiddenitegems.com/


We decided to do something different then Disney or Universal for a Change.


Joel:)
 
Thank you so much for the responses from everyone. We are excited to do
something different with the kids and will check out the websites that were
posted. I'll let you all know if we strike it rich!! HaHa!

Debbie:)
 
Check out this site It's part of Franklin's Chamber of Commerce web site and it tells you how to mine, what to bring with you, and describes the mines in the area.
 
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