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Treasure hunting in Western NC
Is there any good places to go in Western NC?
Posted:
Mar 1 2008, 8:28 PM EST by
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vacation in Franlin NC
I cant wait we are gingh to franklin NC for 4 days then head to TN. have some places in mind for the area. any must see places there. We have a map that we got off here to the area someone did and checked out their website all look good anyone wanna chip in on their exp there? any input would be great. mining/food/ and just down right fun places
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Posted:
Jul 24 2008, 9:00 PM EDT by
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Bearfoot Gold In central NC
We do a lot of weekend prospecting and have been to Spruce Pines. Our favorite place to go is Bearfoot Gold in Robbins. It is a lovely place, with primitive camping, dredging and panning on the creek and superbly knowledgeable hosts. They have a fantastic website - http://www.bearfootgold.com/. They schedule family outings, are very kid friendly and offer day passes. This is a private site so you have to make reservations and pay for the priveleges. There is even the chance of one of the famous cookout/potlucks!
We have come home with nice nuggets and recovered satisfying amounts of fine gold. It is privately owned, again, so be prepared to observe the reasonable rules and guidelines. Not to be missed! Mention where you heard about their place and check out their website and forum! Loads of pics
There is a nice campground with r.v. hookups in Carthage NC and a family friendly motel in Biscoe. Both only about 15 minutes from Bearfoot.
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Posted:
Jan 10 2009, 10:46 PM EST by
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Franklin, N.C. Gem Mining
I uploaded some videos from our mining trips and our finds to YouTube, and put 'em on the N.C. page, for any interested. :-) Sorry for the low quality of them, though!
Posted:
Aug 7 2008, 11:48 PM EDT by
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Our Western NC Gem Huntin' Trip!
Right now, I'll just post a little teaser message. Stayed four nights last week in Spruce Pine, NC. We went "sluicing" at a salted "mine" shop and couldn't have been happier. Then I went to a genuine dig site and in a little over an hour's time, came up with two nice emerald samples. I'll be getting photos up tonight (or soon) of our finds.
Let me whet your appetite by saying that we patronized the Rio Doce mine operation run by Jerry Call, Inc. and had an absolute blast. Jerry is part owner in a Brazilian mine operation and gets a lot, if not all, of his stuff from down there. Not sure how much stuff may be native, but some sure looked like it could have been native. Jerry has a home in Brazil but also in NC, and he is a master gemologist and has cut stones for Elizabeth Taylor and the Smithsonian Institute among others. We bought the $110 bucket, which includes the price of faceting or cabbing two stones from your finds. Faceting is normally valued at $50, and cabs at $40 at his shop, so basically pay $100 to get two cut gemstones and another $10 for a big bunch of very pretty rocks. And quite a few of those pretty rocks can be made into pretty things. So much so that in our bucket, my wife and her mother found five stones they wanted cut...a tourmaline, a garnet, a smoky quartz, a praisolite (green amethyst), and a star ruby. We paid the extra cash for the extra stone cuts and left happy. When we got back to our cabin, I thought "we should have just bought another bucket and gotten two of the stones cut for "free"". So we went back the next day and asked them if it was all the same to them, could we just buy the second bucket and pay the difference...and they were happy to do so. We actually found a bigger tourmaline in the second bucket than we had in the first (and the first one rough is over 11 carats). Can't thank Rio Doce enough!! Will post pics soon!
Posted:
Apr 2 2008, 1:54 PM EDT by
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Franklin, North carolina
Thought you'd enjoy video from the Gem and Mineral Museum in Franklin.
I tried to post to Travel Channel site, but the video was to long.
Here is the link
Rock Your World
http://tinyurl.com/az9u4h
Posted:
Jan 27 2009, 10:51 AM EST by
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Where is this at ?
I just watched a first season show with Becky Worley. In it she said she was in the Blue Ridge Mnts.,in NC. Does anyone know what towns she was in. She was digging for aquamarine and emeralds.
Posted:
Jan 11 2008, 10:37 AM EST by
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Metal Detecting in TN
Has anyone been to either TN or eastern NC to metal detect? We'll be traveling there this fall and would like to check out some places that allow it. Thank you.
Posted:
Sep 7 2008, 12:42 PM EDT by
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Treasure around Gatenlenburg Tn.
"We will also be in Pigeon Forge, TN this fall. Did you get any responses for where to hunt for gems, etc. around there? My husband also does metal detecting, but we're not familiar with any allowed places there. I would appreciate any help you can give. Hope you had fun when you were there. Thanks." Cross the scenic road through the Smokey Mountain National Park over Klingman's Dome to Cherokee North Carolina and you will be in Rockhound Paradise. Check out the North Carolina National Directory for an extensive list of Rudy, Sapphire, Emerald, Garnet mines, Some are fee mines - other are primitive sites. Two areas of intense collecting is around Franklin NC and around Spruce Pines NC. The mines in Galinburg are salted tourist stops. You will want to take the short drive over the Smokey Mountains or you will a real treat. If you are into white water rafting there are great river runs including the river where the Olympic kayaking was held
Posted:
Sep 15 2008, 6:31 PM EDT by
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Treasure in Georgia or surrounding areas?
She was in Hiddenite,NC,on the lates issue of Cash & Treasures. I also have found some sites in Franklin,NC.
Posted:
Jan 12 2008, 7:11 AM EST by
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North Carolina Gold?
my husband & i are taking a trip to NC next week to visit family & are hoping to do some mining. we REALLLY, REALLY, REALLYY want to do some gold sluicing & panning. i have looked up a couple places & found "lucky strike gold & gem" on vein mt. has anybody been here? any reccommendations? we are interested in everything - but gold the most.
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Posted:
Jan 4 2009, 11:30 PM EST by
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North Carolina
"thanks for the response I hope the other members can help there are just so many mines there i wont have enough time to hit them all I cant wait to post when I get back " Hi cryforstan. I think to many people are out rock huntin here lately. Like me I have been busy and haven't been on here much. I don't live on the East Coast, but there are some folks who do and do get to NC often. The biggest addict is "bucfanpaka". Go to her profile and she has a ton of info there about her adventures and finds. I know she likes the Cherokee mine a lot. Also there as some links to mines on in the National directory under NC. Here is the link: http://cash-and-treasures-wiki.travelchannel.com/page/North+Carolina. You can always email Rebecca through her profile as well. You can also do generic thread searches for NC as well. I wish I could point you in the right direction with on site, in person visits, but it is 3000 miles away. I do order buckets of material from Gem Mountain which I have been very pleased with.
Hopefully others will speak up with more advice. Have a great trip and tons of success.
Paul
Posted:
May 17 2009, 2:27 PM EDT by
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Where in North Carolina will they let you dig at the mine itself?
The next gem hunt I go on I want to go to the mine myself and dig. I think it will be more exciting and more of a chance to find the good stuff and not something that has been sifted through are salted. If anybody knows of a place in N.C. are any other state close to Alabama,I sure would appreciate it.
Thanks,Brenda
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Posted:
Apr 26 2008, 11:59 AM EDT by
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Rock/Gem hunting with kids in WNC
I have two boys, 5 and 2 that loves to dig up our backyard and collect rocks and stones. My HB took us to a gem mine in Franklin NC last year and the boys loved it. I was wondering if anyone can tell us a good place to hunt for rock gems around WNC without spending too much money or even free. I'm planning og getting them a metal detector aswell sometime this year. I would really love to get them started soon, weather permitting.
Posted:
Jan 19 2008, 12:01 PM EST by
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Agate Hunting near Knoxville, TN
HI,
We lived in Cookeville for quite a few years and found rock hunting quite hard. I know of no sites that are close to you. The only agates that we know of is down by Al. Tn line. There is a rock club in Nashville you may be able to go on line and they might be able to help you more than I can.Good luck and hope you find somewhere to hunt!!! You can also go to Franklin,N.C. they have some things going there.
Sharon
Posted:
Sep 22 2008, 10:58 PM EDT by
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mud garnets
hi, im from the raleigh area in north carolina , and i was wondering if anybody on this site knows where to find these garnets in the raleigh, durham, chapelhill area. someone told me along time ago where to hunt for them in this area,but it didnt sink in at the time. i just got back from franklin,nc and did well on rubies, garnets,and blue sapphires, plus a 3 plus caret emerald crystle we are having cut . it should be here in another week. any help would be nice. thanks,don..........
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Posted:
Nov 11 2009, 6:23 PM EST by
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Rose Creek Mine
My wife and I stopped here with my parents en route to visit her parents in Florida. We only stayed about two hours and came away with about twenty nice specimens each including ruby, sapphire, moonstone, topaz, amethyst, rhodolite garnet, and even a couple tiny emerald shards. We didn't see anyone using the salted buckets, but we came away pretty psyched.
On the way back from Florida we decided to stop again and were glad we had the chance. We didn't find as much, but a teenage girl upstream of me on the sluice got one of the "Mega" salted buckets. There was so much stuff in that bucket of hers that I was finding stuff in the sluice. I tried giving it back but she didn't want it. I might try one of those next time for amusement.
I will say that we're already planning how to get back to Franklin, NC. We did try to find the $30 a day Mason Mine which is supposedly near Rose Creek but we couldn't find it. I want to try some of the other mines, too. That said, we'll probably at least stop by Rose Creek Mine because we had a good time and it was pretty laid back and fun.
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Posted:
Jul 26 2009, 11:25 PM EDT by
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Need help identifying a Dinosaur Tooth
"I'm back!
Found a site here is the address Canoeoutpost.com/Peace/prfossil.htm
If you check out the links at the bottom they might help you out. Good luck
Sharon
P.S. Tim and I are droooooooooling great find one you can be very happy about!" THANKS! I will be researching the website next! Also wanted to pass along 2 things:
There is a potash mine in Aurora, NC that has an open day every year in October I think. It is famous for it's abundance of megalodon teeth and other excellent fossils. You have to sign up in advance and I think you must be at least 18 years old. I will post a good link in the next couple hours.
Also, I will try to recruit a paleontology club or something (if I find one while trying to ID my tooth) to join the wiki to help us with fossil id if you think that would be useful.
Thanks again all,
Robyn
Posted:
Sep 9 2009, 9:27 AM EDT by
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I'd love any info re: Holly Blue in Oregon..
Not sure this has any relevance.. But last Dec.. while of course heading to NC, we stopped at one of the VA rest stops.. and One of the maintenance workers was a native American.. approached us out of no where.. and told us about a "blue" stone in the river at the Gorge in WV.. For one we had no idea why he simply came up to us.. and let alone we were heading in the wrong direction.. So has anyone went to the gorge.. and located this Blue stone?..
Posted:
Dec 16 2008, 10:51 PM EST by
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Finds
"Where do you find your Aquamarines? We thought we would find some at Emerald Hollow, but don't think we did. My husband and I think they are nice stones, as well. Your info on faceting is very involved; we knew it wasn't an easy procedure." Hi GalAnnie, I haven't been to NC in person to mine. We purchase buckets of ore from Gem Mountain and have them shipped to us. That is what the RMM (Remote Mining Material) term came from. lol This is where the aquamarine came from. Actually I have gotten quite a bit of facetable material from Gem Mtn, but nothing very large. I have had Gem mtn facet stones for us, including aquamarine and of course I have faceted some. Faceting is fun at least for me. It is tedious and can be very frustrating trying to get things even or getting that scratch out of a facet face, but when a stone is done and it shines back at you, it is a kick.
I have also purchased some aqua rough on the internet, but you get what you pay for and don't really recommend buying rough unless you are willing to pay a fair price for it.
I wish you luck with your treasure hunts, I just wish I wasn't 3000 miles away from the gem capital of the US. I would love to go to some of the mines in person. Have fun and keep on rockin'!
Paul
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Finds
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Posted:
Nov 12 2008, 11:20 AM EST by
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