Franklin, North Carolina

This morning we got up early and went to a ruby and sapphire mine. The problem was the mine was closed today. We have found that pretty often out here, businesses run on their chosen hours and days and not according to what is published on Google.

A nice camper near that mine gave us some advice and we headed over to another mine, called Mason’s Mountain. There are lots of mines in the Franklin area. Some give you prefilled buckets and some allow you to dig your own pay dirt. We were glad this one let you dig your own.

This one also had a covered flume which is important when it’s 90 degrees and sunny. I was worried we would be really hot but the water going down the flume is nice and cold and you keep cool just by sifting and the splashing that naturally happens.

The guy working at Mason’s was really nice and only charged us for two diggers for a half a day. It cost $60 total. We got there at about 9:30am and mined until about 2pm. The girls gave up at about 11:30am and Cal stopped around 12:30pm. Asa and I both kept going and ended up finding a HUGE ruby on our second to last bucket of pay dirt!

Rubies and sapphires glow under blacklight. I brought a blacklight from home and we used to to check the rocks we found. You find A LOT of regular rocks. It’s hard to spot the gems at first but after a little bit you get good at it.

Those three pictures are actually the only ones I took when we were mining. It was pretty busy work especially when I was helping the girls dig dirt, carry their buckets, and check their rocks before they tossed them.

There was an older couple there mining as well and they made a couple of comments about how hard it was to dig/move the buckets. Asa, being a Scout, said he wanted to help them so he and I dug them a couple of buckets before we left. I hope we dug them some lucky dirt! The title of this post is the Scout slogan.

The kids bought some jewelry in the shop next to the mine and then we drove south towards our next destination, Daytona Beach. It’s a 10 hour drive so we stopped in Cordele, Georgia to rest and sleep.

We got an amazingly huge room here with a kitchen so we washed and sorted out gems.

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Kyanite. The man at Mason’s said most people throw this away but we liked it and kept it.

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If you visit Mason’s Mountain, here are my tips:

• Buy a cheap blacklight on Amazon and bring it.
• Pack a picnic lunch and lots of drinks.
• Bring something for younger kids to do when they get tired of mining. Our kids had their tablets and a blanket to sit on in the shade.
• Stay local and arrive at the mine early–at open or just before. A weekday is probably better than a weekend if you want to avoid a crowd.
• Dress for mess. You do get a bit dirty and the clay doesn’t wash out easily.
• Bring a towel to dry your hands on and some sand buckets or dish pans. The dish pans we brought were awesome for putting our gems and rocks in while we sifted.
• Adults and older kids might want to mine for multiple days. The man working today said one couple was there every day last week. I definitely could have done it all day but the kids had enough in half a day. If you are there for multiple days, it may be worth checking out other mines since different mines have different gems. I suggest looking at the pictures on Google to see if their flume is shaded/covered if it’s summer, finding out if they let you dig your own, and confirming they will be open the day you want to visit.