It is important to note that washing and searching each bucket takes from 30 minutes to one hour (or more) to properly and thoroughly process. Filling their screen box with about 1/4 of the gem ore from their buckets, miners then place their screens into the clear, cold creek water flowing through our flume line or ‘sluice’, and hand wash the gravel against the bottom of the screen box until all of the loose dirt has been removed, and the gem gravel is “clean”. Miners then proceed to the flume line, where they rest their screen boxes across the flume so that they can fill it with dirt from their selected buckets. To search for gemstones miners select One (1) 2-gallon bucket of gem ore from our staging and seating area. Proper attire, especially proper footwear, is required. PLEASE NOTE: Mining is physically demanding and time-consuming. Next, miners will park their cars down by the flume line and get started looking for gems.
CHEROKEE RUBY MINE REVIEWS HOW TO
Do not take Coon Creek Road, Flowers Gap Road, or Ruby Knoll Road.Įach miner is shown samples of our gemstones as they appear “in the rough” and provided with tips on how to identify the gemstones they might be lucky enough to find. Snacks and bottled water are also available for purchase at our mine shack. For a modest daily rental fee of $3.00, shade umbrellas are available to afford you some protection from the sun. Each miner is provided with a screen box and a seat cushion to use at our flume line. Please, DO NOT BLOCK THE ROAD! The Mine Office is where you will pay your entrance fee, read your Safety Orientation and sign your Liability Waiver, learn the appearances of our gems, and collect the supplies you’ll need to search for our gems. Now they are extended family.Upon arriving at the mine, park temporarily to the right of our Mine Office, in the indicated Parking Area. Tom, Ginger, and Brad as well as Benji’s and Brandon’s families became friends as we visited yearly. The gift shop has a wide variety of single stones or beautiful jewelry already made and ready to wear. We know the settings are good quality and the workmanship top quality. We know the stones are real! We mined them. Each year we add to our beautiful collection of jewelry. Large stones or small, cabochon or faceted, silver or gold, the jewelry comes out looking amazing. Ginger has an eye for design and Tom cuts and finishes the stone to perfection. Tom and Ginger always have knowledgeable employees at the mine to help you know what to look for! They sort your rocks and tell you what’s good, pretty or just leaverite (leave it right on the ground). When we first started mining, we checked out several mines. In addition to Rhodolite garnets, named for the native Rhododendron that grows across the mountains, the property has six other minerals – Corundum, which is Ruby and Sapphire, Kyanite, Moonstone, Smokey Quartz, Garnet, and Cordierite (a form of Iolite).Īt Mason Mountain Mine customers become friends and friends become family! The family mining tradition has remained making the mine a popular gathering site for families and miners from all over the world who come to Macon County still searching for gems.
Today, the mine is still in the family with Tom and his wife, Ginger, continuing the family’s legacy of opening the mine, now known as Cowee Gift Shop and Mason Mountain Mine. The mine was a well-known treasure to the county’s earliest inhabitants and in 1965, when Tom Johnson was just six months old, his father purchased the mine. In the late 1800’s, a mine was discovered in northern Macon County that was rich in Rhodolite garnets and six other minerals.
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