Planning a vacation to Franklin

[Tony66]

My wife and I are planning to visit Franklin NC in October. We have a few questions and I figured who better to ask than everyone who lives in NC. We're headed that way about mid October, the 17th-24th and we want to get an idea of what's ahead. We intend to see the town (and some neighboring ones), do a little hiking, drive thru some beautiful countryside and, of course, hit a couple gem mines. I've been up in the Smokies once before about 15 yrs ago in June and my wife has never been there. If it's half as nice now as it was then, she's going to love it. I was hoping the forum could tell me what to expect weather wise for that time of the year up in Franklin. I've heard that ticks and fleas can be pretty fierce in the woods during the summer, is it something I need to be worried about in mid October?

 

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[CanUDigIt]

That was my first stop on our mining trip. I sat around rubbing my hands raw in muddy water all day for nothing at Sheffield mine. My wife got one purple ruby which is the color of most rubies there, not red like you really want. Not many others were found by a packed house... maybe 4 or 5 all day. I'll never go back. I did hear good things about Cherokee though. It is close by. Google Franklin Chamber of Commerce for a map of the local mines. If you don't mind a little drive, try Emerald Hollow and you won't regret the ride. There are emeralds, rubies and sapphires in different priced buckets. We left with pounds of each. You can sluice, mine your own dirt on the mountain or screen in the creek. Bring disposible clothes and shoes due to the iron content of the soil. You will never get the orange out. Invest in some of the Platex thick yellow rubber gloves for dishwashing to save the skin on your hands. Have fun!

 

[abearzzz]

My wife and i did he Cherokee mine and we were real disappointed......

 

[Curious The George]

Never heard of anyone getting fleas in the mountains here nor any place else in NC. Ticks for sure. In October, in the mountain areas you may have a little light frost on some mornings. Mid October not so much. You'll likely find it in the 40's in the morning and up around 70° in the day.

I have been to Sheffield Mine and been quite successful. My wife wears a ruby ring, the stone came from there. You are going at the best time of the year for finding stuff. Unless they have changed the way they do things, they dig a great big pile of material at the start of Spring and put it in a big pile by the sluices. Star sapphires come from that mine also. The stones you want are heavy compared to other stuff so they tend to sink down in the pile of dirt over the summer. As the end of the season goes down so do the heavy stones.

You will be digging material from a concentrated pile of dirt, your chances are better in October than any other time of the year. Go to the Sheffield web site and look it over, find out when they stop visitors.

It is the only mine I go to. They don't "enhance" the dirt. You find something you will have a native stone, not something dug up in Brazil or India by the barrel full and sold to the mines to salt the dirt.

It's fun, have a ball and let us know how you come out.

 

[Tony66]

Sorry about the late response. We haven't decided which mines we want to hit. We've looked at the Sheffield mine and a couple by Cherokee plus a few others. Wow, we didn't realize there were so many. I haven't had to chance to look up Emerald Hollow yet Dig It but I'm going to, you can bet on that. I've kinda gotten the same thing from other people I've talked to about the mines, seems everyones split on it. Oh, before I forget, thanks for the heads up MAC bout the orange clay, you're the first one who warned of it, i checked it out with a friend that has some relatives in NC and the only thing they said was "oh yeah, forgot about that", I owe you on that one MAC. We mostly want to go and just have a great time and if we find something, well, even better. if i find a big gem I'll post a pic but it'll be our secret..LOL The weather sounds perfect for vacation. We're here in FL and it's going to be hot still. Thanks for the tips folks and don't be surprised if I post some more questions before we go, hope the forum doesn't mind.

One more thing, MAC, where can I find out about the dirt you were talking about. If I remember right, Sheffield is open to the end of October and shuts down the 31st. Do I want to be looking for a fresh pile of dirt or the end of the pile?

 

[Curious The George]

Tony,
They dig a big pile of dirt out of the mine site at the start of the season and pile it up near the sluice. It is the only pile of dirt that you will see. They fill buckets with it, you don't dig. The thing is that big pile of dirt sits there all through the summer rains and gradually the heavy rocks, the ones you want, sink in the pile. The closer to the bottom of the pile the more stuff that is found. They are usually near the bottom of the pile by the end of the season. What you need to hope for is that they didn't run out of dirt in September and brought in another load from the mine area.

The reason that you see so many "mines" is that most of them have a pile of dirt hauled in, start filling 5 gal. buckets with dirt, throw in a few pretty stones that they buy in from other countries and then let you wash them back out of the dirt. All one needs is a water source near a tourist area and you have a so called "mine". You are not getting native stones, you are getting discards from large scale mining operations in places like Brazil and India. I don't go to them and frankly hate to see anyone else go to them. Yes, if you go to the few mines that really only give you ore dirt from their mine with no "enhancement" you won't get a pocket full of pretty rocks. But when you do find something you will have a good old USA gem stone.

Depending on your travels you might also look into the emerald mine at Hidenite, NC. It is near Hickory, NC. There have been some beautiful emeralds taken out of there. The mine offers both native dirt and enhanced dirt. They get a lot of school trips and the enhanced dirt gives all the children a thrill. Do a search for "hidenite emeralds" and you will find the site. You can also find the very rare stone, hidenite, there.

If you want to pan for gold, track down the Reed Gold Mine. They don't enhance the panning material with gold.

 

[Santo10]

My wife is from Franklin, and I have been "mining" several times. Here's what the locals say--- Sheffield Mine is the only legitimate real mine left. All the other mines "salt" their buckets with Burma Rubies, etc. Even at Sheffield you can buy salted or unsalted buckets. The truth is you usually have more fun with the salted buckets. If you have kids or an wife who gets bored easily this is the way to go for them. They will find alot of stuff, but only a small amount will be cuttable and most will cost about as much to cut as its worth. The natural bucket you will find a lot less....but you may find a real NC gem stone that can be worth alot more. Odds are against you though.

As far as weather goes in October.....October can be either hot or cold. Most likely 70s or possibly 60s during the day....40s...maybe even 30s or 50s in the evening. In the Mountains, the temperature drops more in the evenings than in the flatlands. In other words, carry all types of clothing. It typically rains alot in the mountains (but not so much the last few years) but October is one of the drier months.

Cherokee is close by if you want to gamble....Plenty of places to hike...Blue Ridge Parkway not far away....great place to visit.

 

[Tony66]

Thanks for the heads up there Santo 10. We've done our homework and what we've found is pretty much the same thing you just said, it's just more believable coming someone like yourself that has first hand experience or knowledge of the area. Our plans were to really just have fun doing the mining thing and if we found something it would've been icing on the cake. unfortunately, we've received some rather bad news from the family recently that's forced us to change our plans. We were so looking forward to this that we had most of it paid off already including the cottage we reserved. We are however planning to take our big mining trip next year instead. Who knows, maybe we weren't supposed to go this year because our early retirement was dug up yet and it will be there waiting on us next year.