Our Vacation – Gem Hunting Part II

We went back to Gem Mountain on day 2 and stayed there for most of the day. We took a break and had lunch at the local Burger King… and went back. We bought the biggest bucket they offer as our last purchase and it came with 2 free cuttings. Out of the first bucket we had a topaz cut into a blue emerald design. For those that are not in the know… the topaz we found looks like a milky white river stone. It has no rough or sharp edges. It is then heated or irridated to make one of three colors; clear deep blue, pink and mystic (A rainbow of colors). (See below)

A cut Topaz and the rough stone before cutting.

Out of the second bucket we had a garnet and a amethyst cut. We called it a day and headed to our next destination, Statesville. I had made reservations there for two nights, thinking that we would spend approximately two days at each location. We were wrong in so many ways…

The Hiddenite mine has long been touted as being the place to go for rock hounds. Well… it isn’t. We were expremely dissapointed and for many reasons. First and foremost, it rained while we were there and the people that own the place have not taken rain into their visitors equation. No paved or rock strewn pathways… it is all clay and downhill to the sluices. Imagine if you will what clay does when wet… then add a high traffic area, again, downhill. We slipped and slid our way to the shack to pay our fees and then slid more down to the sluices. We were given $5 buckets each that was included in the fee’s to mine there. The place was packed and we luckily found 3 spots together. We got filthy with all the mud in just a few minutes of being there. We found in all three buckets maybe enough stone, of horrible quality, to fill one hand.

We took one gander at the rain… and the stones we found and all three of us had the same idea at the same time… “Let’s go back to Gem Mountain.” We packed up and left the Hiddenite mine after only an hour of being there. Best decision we made the whole trip. We drove straight from there the 2.5 hours back up into the mountains and back to Gem Mountain. The folks there were surprised and happy to see us… and it was funny how fast our experience at Hiddenite made it through the grapevine. We were teased about it the rest of the day by the crew and by some customers that we had made friends with the day before.

We ended up having two more stones cut… one that I paid for and one we got with another $80 bucket. I paid to have a sapphire cut and put into a silver ring setting and the old man had another topaz cut in a mystic 3k oval shape with his free cutting card. We bought 2 more bags of dirt to bring home with us when we got ready to leave, 1 sapphire and 1 topaz. (When the cut stones come in the mail I will take pictures and post them.) We headed back to the motel in Statesville and decided to leave the next morning for home. I think we were all ready and besides… we had a 5 gallon bucket full of gem stones already + the two bags we had not sluiced yet.

We stopped again at his brothers house on the way back and I was so tired that I sat down in his chair and zonked for at least three hours! From his house it was only 2 more hours to home and we arrived just at sunset… that was the picture that I posted a few posts down. The mountain in the picture is where we live but on the back side of it.

Below I am posting pictures of the “haul”. We are already looking into taking lapidary lessons… and aquiring the equipment needed to cut our own stones. You may be reading those adventures real soon!

Smokey Quartz and the pinkish stuff below his hand is Raspberry Quartz

Rubies in the middle, the white pile to the left is Topaz, and the dark green at the bottom is Aventurine

Aquamarine in the larger pile towards the top of the picture… the other pile at the bottom is small pieces of everything

More pictures to come!