When we left on that Saturday, we headed up I-95 toward Jacksonville and then west on I-10 (planning to head north again on I-75 before cutting up through the center of the state to Cleveland) until we ran into the detour caused by the big fires in that area and south GA. It took us three hours to go 100 miles.
Arriving in Cleveland at the first place the next day, we found a seat at the sluice and proceeded to find several large stones which I left to have cut. My lust for gems got the better of me. The campground at this place wasn't the greatest so we went on up the road to Franklin, NC. We stopped at a "mine" along side the main highway through town and found many nice stones, none of which we left to be cut though. I had come to my senses by then. The biggest was a 60-carat blue ruby or pink sapphire (you get to decide!).
Nearby is Thermal City Gold Mine. The camping on site was cheap so we stayed over. The gold bearing dirt apparently has been worked over so many times that by the time it gets dumped in the pile that you get to pan from, not much is left. We each found only three or four tiny flakes. We did get to see what dredging in the creek bed was all about: expensive and labor intensive! A group of couples was working the big contraption where the front-end loader drops a $50 load of dirt (from the mine) into a hopper which shakes the dirt out and allows the stones to go into another section that spins the larger rocks out into a tray. These rocks are examined by someone for nuggets and gemstones. Then the smaller stones are washed and tumbled into a wheelbarrow where they are examined by someone else for gemstones. The very smallest are poured over a sluice like section which will trap the gold in filters with the slightly larger stones washing out of the contraption. Someone is also at this station to watch to see that no nuggets get washed away. Lastly someone pans the grit that drops through the several layers of filters just to make sure absolutely nothing got away.
The Emerald City mine is easy to find, has a large parking lot, and a restaurant on site. You can even walk into the mine. We were lucky that day - not very many people there. The buckets are filled with large stones and not much sand or dirt. Again we found many nice stones but did not leave them to be cut.
On the return home part of our trip, we stopped at Hiddenite Mine in NC and were surprised to find that it is in no way RV friendly. The road into the 'mine' is narrow and steep. The parking is along the side of this road. There is no parking lot. Why can't the website for this business say so? Lesson: always call ahead!
Yesterday I received my gems in the mail. They are absolutely beautiful! Now I think I was right to spend the money to get them all cut.
