Mason Mountian Mine - Franklin, NC
Posted by: 
cldisme
N 35° 14.921 W 083° 23.755
17S E 282010 N 3903252
Mason Mountain Mine offers many different opportunities to find gems.
Waymark Code: WM6745
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 04/15/2009
Views: 8
After asking few locals which mining operation I should take my youngest son to find gems this region is famous for, they all said "
Mason Mountain Mine."
Fees for gem hunting vary based on what you want to do. If you want an authenic gem hunting experience, you can dig in the pile as much as you want for $20.00 for half day or $30.00 all day. Otherwise, the fees are per bucket (which are salted with gem material to make sure you find something:
Kiddie Buckets: $5.00
$30.00 (average yield 4-6 pounds)
$50.00 (average yield 10 pounds)
$100.00 (average yield 20 pounds)
$300.00 (average yield 50 pounds)
$500.00 (average yield 80-90 pounds)
Our $30.00 bucket was nicely filled with interesting gems and minerals (
sample of smaller items) to keep my son happy we found something. Since it was cold and snowing on our visit, we did not spend a lot of time at the flume, but we were encouraged to dig in the main pile once we were done with our original bucket. I do not know if this is standard practice or just special for us since it was a light day for business.
I did take advantage of the offer by partially filling a 5-gallon bucket. I only washed off the dirt and did not spend time to sort through the rocks to see if I found anything of value because my hands were too cold. The only thing I have identified so far is a piece of petrified wood - but I have hopes for something better.
Sunday hours are 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.