Post Date: Oct 2, 2011Trip Date: August 2011

Ruby and Sapphire Hunting in Franklin, North Carolina


This story is a continuation of our two week long rock collecting trip during the summer of 2011. My family and I traveled from Pittsburgh, Pa. south to North Carolina then headed westward to our final destination of Murfreesboro, Arkansas. In Arkansas our goal was the Crater of Diamonds National Park. It was a journey of 1200 miles one way according to Google Maps. Franklin was the second of two stops in North Carolina. Our first stop was a small town named Hiddenite. Should you be interested and wish to follow my story please read my other two articles titled “Emerald Hollow Mine” to be followed later with my article from the Crater of Diamonds. Thank you.

The town of Franklin and surrounding countryside is located in the Cowee Valley of North Carolina. The Cowee Valley is noted for it’s many “placer deposits” of precious and semi-precious gems and minerals.

A placer deposit is a collection of rock, mineral, sand, dirt, gravel left behind eons and eons ago from glaciers or through the flow of water. The unique thing about a placer deposit is that only the heavier material is deposited here. Lighter material continues to erode and wash away. The material can collect in one or several spots over a short distance or could in fact be deposited across an entire valley. These placer deposits contain the precious and semi-precious gems and minerals we search for. Since the placer deposit material here is more sedimentary by nature containing various amounts of debris, it is collected and washed in a screen. A sluice is usually employed for this process. Washing removes the sand, dirt, unwanted material exposing any gem material.

After an in depth geologic study of the Cowee Valley and Internet searches for collecting sites I had gathered a fairly large amount of information. My objectives were to find rubies and sapphires. Franklin is the home of numerous ruby and sapphire mines. Several of which are open to the public on a “pay to dig” basis. From my Internet research including actual mine site websites, YouTube shorts, blogs, reading a large number of rockhound reviews I decided we would visit only the “pay to dig” sites as they offered the most potential for the short amount of time we had. I selected “Mason’s Ruby and Sapphire Mine” and “Cherokee Ruby Mine”.

Why choose these two??? I spend an enormous amount of time researching. And in my opinion, to be a successful rock hound collecting starts at home or the library with books and digital information.

I am in no way promoting these two sites by any means. I just determined these two offered me the greatest amount of success. There are other sites, many other sites in the Cowee Valley. You decide where you will visit.







I visited the chamber of commerce website for the area and downloaded a beautiful map pinpointing all the sites here. Looking at the map and from the location of the cottage where we were staying it seems there was a mine site just a mile or two away named “Rose Creek Mine” which is a “pay to dig” site also. From their website, it states they have been operating since 1952 and are one of only three state licensed gem mines. It goes on to say they offer Ruby, Sapphire, Garnet, Amethyst, Quartz and others. I decided we would go here first just to look it over and get a “feel” for it. Upon arrival we were the fifth car in the parking lot. It is a very short walk from your car to the “mining area”.

The site offers gem mining, sluicing and a rock shop. If you refer to my photos before continuing to read it will make it very easy to visualize my comments. First and foremost, I saw no mine of any type that would fit my definition of mine. They do however have a fairly large wooden shed type structure on the far side of a small pond that does contains dirt. They say the dirt is from the mine. For a small fee you can “mine”, dig a bucket full of this dirt from the shed, carry it back to the sluice and wash it hoping to find a treasure contained within. I did see people actively involved in mining.






If you feel mining may be too strenuous for you, you can simply purchase a bucketful of “native soil” or “enriched soil” and just sit at the sluice and do your thing. We walked along the sluice line, over to the “mine” and back into the rock shop. The rock shop had a nice selection of minerals at all different price ranges. My eye fell upon a beautiful hunk of Amazonite. It probably weighed ten pounds and after looking at the price I had to turn and look at other items instead. In the rock shop, or right next to it is where they store the soil buckets for sluicing.

The sluicing buckets were you’re basic everyday buckets full of hand placed treasures mixed with sand and soil. What really caught my attention were the “enriched soil” buckets. Wow…………these buckets were unbelievable. And the management had no qualms about hiding the contents under a layer of sand and dirt. These buckets were beautiful. They looked like giant fruit filled baskets you might get from a florist. In them, I spotted very large pieces of Sodalite, Amethyst, Garnet, and a big Quartz Crystal adorned the top of the heap. Probably mixed in there somewhere was a ruby and sapphire too. I didn’t both to ask how much the buckets cost. So their Internet advertising was plainly true.

We spent about an hour here browsing around. I did buy a bottle of water.






The close proximity of all these sites makes it hard not to want to stop at each one. Even if nothing else just to stop and look around. Since we were on vacation and shopping and sight seeing are part of vacationing we did stop at two other sites. I’ll not give an account of those or even mention their names but I will say they are all pretty much the same.

The day was passing to quickly and I did want to do some actual ruby mining. We had to drive past still another site on our way to Mason’s Ruby and Sapphire Mine. One of two sights I did want to visit. Mason’s was opened in 1942. They pride themselves as being an all-natural, non-enriched mine.






We arrived at Mason’s around two in the afternoon. The parking lot here contained more vehicles than all the other sites we visited so far combined. This was a good sign. We parked next to a car from Montana. I have a habit of looking at vehicle license plates. Walking past the ice cream stand, we saw what appeared to be the office next to a picnic table with two ladies seated. Upon seeing us one of the ladies, the owner or manager greeted us with a hello and a big smile. I introduced myself and asked about doing some mining.










The deposit here at Mason’s is across a small creek on a steep hillside. The deposit is composed of beautiful red clay soil. Herein lies the precious ruby. The lady showed us several display boxes of some really nice rubies found here. I started to salivate just wanting to find a few for myself. She explained to us the pricing system, which was based on “all day” For one price you could dig soil from the hillside, carry your soil across the bridge over the creek, sit at the sluice and wash your soil all day long. That means from when they open, which I think was eight in the morning till five in the afternoon. Surely in that amount of time a ruby or two would pop up in your screen. Don’t you think? There is no guarantee you will find a ruby but you are digging “native soil” directly from the placer deposit. The lady said the price for all day was $30 per person.







Well, here it is two in the afternoon. The place closes in three hours. What do I do? For three of us it would cost $90. I wanted to jump right in, all I need is an hour. The wife being a little less enthusiastic and less inclined to make hasty decisions told me we should think about this. We walked out of the office and straight to the ice cream stand. Each of us got an ice cream cone. We sat at a picnic table near the sluicing area discussing our options. I could see here point about the time being short. What if we returned tomorrow first thing in the morning? This is a good option. But, I was here now and “why put off till tomorrow what you can do today”. Again the wife being the thrifty little person she is suggested why don’t just my son and I go ahead and mine. She would just sit at the sluice and watch. Now that’s a suggestion I can live with. I walked back over to the lady and explained to her what we had decided we would do. The lady said that’s a fine decision but…………Why does there always have to be a but? She explained their policy is no one but paid customers can sit at the sluice. She even showed me their sign (see my photo).







I honestly do understand their policy. Paying customers should have a right to a seat at the sluice. And I tried to explain to the lady, it’s two in the afternoon, you’ll be closing in three hours. The sluice has lots of empty seats right at this time and should in the next three hours a bus full of customers arrive my wife will be happy to leave her seat at the sluice. Sorry it wasn’t going to happen. Rules are rules. Yes, I whole-heartedly have to agree. But………there I interjected my but. In some cases and this being one of those cases couldn’t we just bend the rules a little? Well, we didn’t mine for rubies to say the very least.







We left Mason’s with no plans to return any time soon. Driving along we agreed it was probably to late to even go to the Cherokee Ruby Mine. We wasted too much time at the three other sites, which were not even on my list. I guess I should have stuck to the plan. We now headed back to town to look around, shop, and have dinner later. As it turned out things went from bad but got a little better.








After a few hours of sight seeing and shopping in town, I spied a rock shop. I forget the name of the place but their selection was great. I did buy a few items for pennies. I started a conversation with the sales clerk who turned out to be the owner and a rock collector himself. I explained to him our whole rock collecting trip, on and on and on. The man relayed several stories of his own. A customer in the store over heard me when I was talking about heading to the Crater of Diamonds. She told us she was just there last month and had a wonderful time. No diamonds but a fine day. I couldn’t believe it. What were the chances? The man showed me a local collecting guide he had for sale in the shop. He said he was at most of the sites listed in the book. The book is called “Rock, Gem and Mineral Collecting Sites in Western North Carolina” by Rick James Jacquot. This is the kind of stuff I like…information. This book is a wealth of information listing both “pay to dig” sites and other collecting sites where no fees are involved. The man pointed out a few sites we should try. He especially suggested one site in particular where Blue Sapphire Corundum could be found. I bought the book and thanked him greatly. I must admit my excitement level was now on high. Across the street was a restaurant, so we went for dinner.

I have collected Corundum specimens from several Canadian sites. None of which was blue or gemmy. On a return trip to my favorite Canadian locations, I do have information as to where Blue Corundum may be located.











The next day, on this mans recommendations we located the Blue Sapphire Corundum site. Taking the better part of the day to explore, I was very happy with what we found there. By now, it was now to late to dig for rubies. In exchange though we had dug up some nice Blue Sapphire Corundum specimens. I was exceedingly happy. Plus, I had a local guidebook for next time.









Unfortunately, I have no site photos for the Blue Sapphire Corundum. Ya, I left my camera at the cottage on the porch railing.








I have added a few photos from the Franklin Gem and Mineral Museum which may be of interest. The Franklin Gem and Mineral Museum is located in Macon County, downtown Franklin. Built in 1850 as the county jailhouse it was in use up to 1972. In 1974 the Gem and Mineral Society of Franklin, N.C. along with the county commissioners and local businesses reopened the building as a public museum. It houses a beautiful collection of locally collected specimens as well as from around the world. See their website.












Thank you

Franko