Comments on: Emerald Hollow Mine, Hiddenite, NC

By: Ellan Olver

Ellan Olver — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 16:48:33 +0000

My husand and I went to Emerald Hollow Mine for our 28th wedding anniversary.We were there on the weekend.We did the sluicing both days.On Sunday went got there before they opened. We sluiced for a few hours. When we were ready to leave we went to the lapidary.We showed them some of our rocks.The lapidary told us we had two stones that were gemstone quality. I had a ring.

By: Jon Mimms

Jon Mimms — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:07:21 +0000

My grandparents are residents of Statesville and while visiting them during my summer vaction, they took to the mine. I found a variety of stones in the buckets and in the creek which are being cut into gems! They also have the best Hotdogs in the south at the concession stand.

By: Kellie Ater

Kellie Ater — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:30:30 +0000

We have went to emerald hollow mine twice this year,and are very pleased. Last trip we found a 186.4 carat amethyst,also a 40 carat aquamarine and many emeralds and sapphires, also found some garnets and rubies and many kinds of citrine. We have had 13 gemstones cut from our first trip including 4 emeralds ranging from 3.8 carat to 1.75 carat cut also a 5 carat cut aquamarine and my favorite is the 3 carat pink sapphire.
My husband and I found everyone to be more than pleasant and very helpful at emerald hollow mine. To people planning a mining trip to there I suggest the $ 50.00 cutters buckets and the $ 25.00 emerald and the $ 25.00 sapphire and ruby buckets. Just remember you are going to get muddy and dirty however you will have a great time.

By: Teressa Conley

Teressa Conley — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 13:41:40 +0000

I had afriend who went to Hiddenite NC she and her girls did the creeking. I lieve in WV and would like to take my kids on a small vacation and I believe they would enjoy this. My daughter has be a rock fanitic since she was old enough to walk. My friend did the creeking and said the best bet was to stay in one spot and the deeper you dig the better stones you come out with. I am not sure this is the same mines that ya’ll are talking about on here, Emerald Mine, she said there were several mines in NC. This will be our first time and my kids are 9 and 11. If this is a salted mine should I do the creeking for their first experience or should I go to an unsalted mines? I know my daughter will get frustrated if she does not find a stone. Any of our friends or coworkers that go to different places or states brings her back rocks, she has one from Italy,Greece, and Mexico. Not counting the plain gravel from when she was just walking that had to be kept in the refrigerator. I thought this would be a good way to get her into finding the stones and possilbe making her own things out of them. My son he just likes to be in nature. If this is not a good experience for her then I am afraid it will discourage her she is 9. Any feed back would be most helpful!!!! Thanks to all of ya’ll experienced miners!!

By: John Pezzano

John Pezzano — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:40:42 +0000

I am a volunteer with the Mineral Museum in Hendersonville, NC. We have a beautiful piece of Hiddenite from Hiddenite, NC. Even though it is only about 2″ long, it is one of the more expensive items on display in our free museum.

I strongly recommend gem-hunting visitors to WNC stop by, see out little museum and talk to the docents or members of the local Gem & Mineral Society for ideas on where to go looking. The museum also stocks the book of one of the volunteers that describes the locations, directions, costs and lots of good collecting information on many of the former real mines open to the public but not “touristy”.

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 31 May 2010 15:18:11 +0000

Thanks for the info on Emerald Hollow. My family and I spent the weekend with Bill Mitcham at the Hogg Mine in LaGrange and had a great time. He warned us about going to commercialized “salted” mines. I remember going to Ruby Falls as a kid and obviously not knowing the difference between mining/scavenging and being handed a staged bucket. For anyone interested in rose quartz (facet grade), I suggest getting hold of Bill at Kudzu Minerals for a dig. $35/adult gets you an all-day pass to the entire mine and the ability to haul out a 5-gallon bucket per person. Really family-friendly and safety-conscious.

By: RJ

RJ — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:11:28 +0000

I looked forward to hearing about your experiences! I am looking forward to going back down there again.

By: Tammy

Tammy — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:06:39 +0000

Thanks for everyone that put in thier experiences, it helped me plan a family trip! All of your input was great, I will post an update after our family trip!

By: Dwight

Dwight — Thu, 20 May 2010 04:06:39 +0000

Nice to see some input on Emerald Hollow. I was thinking of giving it a shot for emeralds as my adventure to Franklin, NC last summer was great. We did two mining days in a week and a half. Rose Creek, salted but fun for the kids. Mason Mountain Ruby and Saphire Mine, the bomb. I went with two fifteen yr olds who insisted on doing the real deal for $20 each for a half day. They were friendly and the gentleman tried talking the girls out of it, because he didn’t think they would find anything. We where rewarded for our efforts. Largest single ruby was 180 carats found by my daughters friend. I found 100 carat ruby and about 6 rubies in total. The largest Sapphire was about 90 carats. Total Sapphires about 60 each. Total Sapphire carats? I have no idea, enough to fill one hand at least and maybe a little more. Tons of tiny round garnets, I even stopped picking those up after hitting the sapphires. I had one 10 carat ruby cut in a faceted oval that yielded about a 3.5 carat finished ruby, two mid to small size blue sapphires cab cut to yield about 7.5 and 4 carats each, one hendenite(sp?) cab cut at 1.5 carats. Hendenite(sp) is a cool looking stone, to bad it was a small sample. After reading the other posts, I now understand why everyone and their brother was coming over to check out what we doing different. The biggest key is to wash the rocks till you think they dont need to be scrubbed anymore, then scrub them again. Look for the gray among the red clay colored rocks. You will find them. Some guy was digging around the pile and not even using the sluice and showed me at least two sapphires that were in excess of 300 carats. He travels the country going to mines apparently. Good luck.

By: Victoria Ness

Victoria Ness — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:06:20 +0000

My husband and I went to Marion County NC this April to try our hands at mining. We went to the Gem Mountain Mine for sluicing and to take the trip to their aquamarine mine to dig stones. We were disapointed that we didn’t get to go mining because they needed 6 people to blast a new site and we were the only ones signed up. But we did do sluicing and found several nice stones. We paid 120.00 for the bucket we shared and are geting 2 stones cut. Next day we went to Rio Doce Mine owned by Jerry Call.The buckets are salted with stones from his Brazil mine and also NC mine. I had 3 stones cut. The largest is approx 11ct.canary citrine. It is absolutely beautiful. I can’t wait to go back. Jerry also occassionally imports diamond buckets from a mine in Brazil.Thanks for the tip about Arkansas. That was our next trip.

By: Heidi Dingman

Heidi Dingman — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:02:35 +0000

Emarld Hallow Gem mine rocks! Our family enjoyed our trip there. We will be going back.

By: Darlyn McKleroy

Darlyn McKleroy — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:15:38 +0000

We have been to the Franklin area (N.C.) and had great finds, and very helpful mine staff.Went to 3 small mines and had a blast.Garnets,rubies,emerals,and sapphires.
But on our trip to Arkansas we were very dissapointed.At the State Park,the field hadn’t been plowed for 5 weeks.Bent my shovel,and 2 days of searching produced 5 or 6 quartz crystals.With 4 people looking.Staff was lazy to surly. Will never go back.
We are going to Hiddenite this year.

By: NavyDad4

NavyDad4 — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:53:23 +0000

My adult son & I tried Mason’s Ruby & Sapphire Mine on Dec 29(chilly!). Nothing to write home about though the drive to it is beautiful & long. We found a total of 6+ carats of sapphire & no rubies. Sapphires found were small to very small. Look closely at all the little rocks after you’ve screened them. The staff was helpful and their equipment(buckets, shovels, screens, & gloves) was sufficient to mine with. Follow staff suggestions to find the sapphires. One person reportedly found 20+ carats of sapphire that day. Their website has many findings & customer comments. After being asked, one staff considered mining at Mason’s may not work well for Scout groups or other youth-related groups. I agree. It took patience and becoming resigned to ‘small’ success before we found our sapphires.

By: Tom Krauter

Tom Krauter — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:14:00 +0000

Hi Thanks for the heads up.I’m planning a trip there in August,2010 with my two boys 9 and 10 yrs old. I would really like to know the web site or how to get hold of the Mason’s mine and the Gem Mountain Mine.Both my boys and i are rock hounds.If you ever make it out to California you will have to try the Pala mine in Pala California about 1hour NE of San Diego

By: Joanne Lehner

Joanne Lehner — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:17:07 +0000

Wow! thanks for the heads up everyone. I came across Emerald Hollow and was planning a trip there from NJ with my daughter next month. After reading Kris’s comment I will check out the two mines you mentioned instead. We enjoy rock hunting and often go SHARKTOOTH HUNTING here in NJ as well as going to The Franklin Mineral Mine in Ogdensburg NJ to find fluorescent rocks.

By: Kris

Kris — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:21:10 +0000

We just got back from a mining trip through North Carolina and Emerald Hollow was a bit of a joke compared to the other two mines we visited. Emerald Hollow is basically a low-tech “Ed-venture” park for kids too young to realize that they are being bamboozled. The creek is salted…DAILY. The special areas for digging are salted, too. No one who works there has actually ever seen any hiddenite come out of that mine (O.K., I’ll give them that it’s the 4th rarest gem in the world). And I found the staff to be reluctant to share any information about where to dig/how deep/what kind of stones people were finding, etc. . Really, it was like pulling teeth to get any information out of them. Finally (after a lot of pushing) an employee finally admitted that they were required by law to salt the creek. They also salted the educational areas because the groups that came didn’t have time to dig…and dig…and dig for gems that are rarely found. Seriously, if you are looking for a real mining experienc, DO NOT go to Emerald Hollow. (unless you just happen to LOVE quartz — we did find a lot of that…yawn.) Try Gem Mountain Mine or Mason’s Mine. At both places we found the staff to be enthusiastic, very helpful, well-informed and honest. We went to areas where we were promised “no salting”, BUT if you have kids and can’t go out to the mines, they do have salted buckets that you can go through and get gem quality stones. Out at the mine, I personally found golden beryl, aquamarine, large garnet, goshenite and morganite — some large and worthy of cutting. At Mason’s Mine, I found a 9.5 carat sapphire plus several smaller stones. It’s hard work, but I’d rather dig for hours and find something real than to sift around in a creek only to find stones that aren’t even naturally occuring in the region. Emerald Hollow was not a great mining experience for us and we won’t go there again.

By: RJ

RJ — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:51:14 +0000

Amanda, have fun, and I would love to hear how goes!

By: Amanda in VB

Amanda in VB — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:15:44 +0000

Patti W. I believe you were probably in Spruce Pine, NC. It is also the home of the largest aquamarine find (I believe) in N. America.

RJ-Visiting my parents just north of the Charlotte area from Virginia Beach (how funny you were either going to visit my parents’ area or mine!) we plan on going ‘mining’ tomorrow. Thanks for the great tips. I hear that creeking is the best bet, so we’ll give it a shot and let you know the results!

By: Patti W.

Patti W. — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:23:34 +0000

Hi Guys,

I have never hunted for emerald and found your article very interesting. I have hunted for quartz crystals and found some nice ones here in Arizona. We also have an opal mine that I would like to visit. My friend in NC told me that you guys have a lot of gold and black sand near some of the old mining areas in NC. He was getting some good gold and quartz specimens where he lives.
I have often wondered if you guys ever find any Herkimer diamonds as far south as you are. I have been to one area in NC were I have found some nice big garnets and some uranium samples but it was a long time ago and I am having a hard time remembering the name of the place. The name ended in Pines that’s all that I can recall. If any of you come out to Arizona there are beautiful quartz crystals out on the back road North of Lake Pleasant. You have to stop and look down slope on some of the twisty winding roads on the way to Crown King but the trip is worth it

By: Mathew

Mathew — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:23:03 +0000

My wife and I visited the mine on Tuesday. Prices were reasonable, and everything was decidedly low tech, though the plain air approach to things was somewhat refreshing. The staff were super friendly, as were some of the other visitors. The had a charming little gift shop with many types of rocks, mostly uncut, with a few tumbled. Their main trade is in cash (the rental prices are all in cash) They had a section with vending machines, but we brought our own refreshments. The facilities are in one section, and are the outhouse variety. They have a gem cutter onsite, but we didn’t visit him.

There are three main activities one may do:

Digging – $18 total (includes all activities) plus $10 deposit (get $8 back when you return the equipment). Having tried this, I would personally not advise going with this activity, unless you know your geology. You get a long handled shovel, and 5 Gallon bucket and given some simple instructions to get to the start of the dig sites. It’s about 400 – 600 yards from the main area which seemed pretty close….with an empty bucket and high spirits. Once in the area, you have your choice of spots. It seems ideal for you to be able to dig up “the big one”, but there are no staff in that section that I could see, so you’re really on your own. I approached a fellow that looked quite minerly (read he had a pickaxe and miner hat, suspenders, and dirt from head to foot), and he muttered that he has been in the area quite some time, but was pretty vague about advice. My thought – go really deep into the brush, and find an unclaimed spot, so I walked another 1/2 to 3/4 miles. Once there I began to dig through the clay soil. My initial approach was to sift through the dirt and just put in rocks (both large and small), but after spending a laborious half hour without filling even the bottom, I gave that plan up. I settled for filling with loose dirt….. great plan, except for the walk back . A very tired, dirty, sweaty, exhaustive mess later, and I’m back to the general area. As I’m turning my shovel back in, 2 or three equally tired, dirty, sweaty, exhaustive gentlemen said that they found 1 small stone in the 3 buckets they had brought back, and wished me luck.

Creek walking – $13 (includes sluicing) – $5 equipment rental, $4 back when you return the equipment. Get to walk about the creek bed. Didn’t do this, as I was drained by my “mining” efforts. Talked to a couple of people that said they had some success on some smaller stones.

Sluicing – $5 – The main event. They have three sets of benches in behind covered water tables with box sieves. You get a complimentary bucket filled with dirt (1 Gallon) and potential for gems. My big chances from mining? Nothing . My wife and I got started on the compliemntary buckets. We were rewarded with few pieces of jade, and quartz, and other smaller stones!! Very much encouraged, we had the option to buy extra buckets:
$2 – The complimentary bucket
$5 – Ruby’s and Sapphires
$10 – Super Bucket
and up through $100 Gem Cutter special.

The wife and I spent an extra $24 (2 complimentary, 2 Ruby, 1 Super bucket), and had a tremendous amount of luck! We had an excellent time sifting through sand, getting really muddy, and finding pretty rocks. Many various gems, which we’re still trying to identify, but a ruby the size of a large olive pit!! A very friendly retired couple from Michigan were beside us, and were rock hounds. They had a bit more disposable income than we, and were finding more success than we were with the $50 buckets. As we’re chatting and splashing around, the Gentleman found a ruby almost the size of a golf ball!!

All in all, I would absolutely recommend this activity for all ages. We will be going back, but now that I’ve had my “experience” as a miner, I’m good to go. We will definitely bring more cash, they obviously want you to spend more money and there are more gems in the higher priced buckets. From our observations the best value for money spent was the $50 buckets but we were happy with the gems we brought back. Well worth the trip for a unique experience!!