About the Emerald Mine
e started our family gemstone business in 1966, by working to install a railcar and Austrian timbering system for emerald ore removal from
the Crabtree Emerald Mine of Little Switzerland, NC formerly owned by Tiffany and Co.
Jewelers, but at that time owned by Bill Collins. Luscious dark green specimens and gem
rough were mined.
Then our family started selling faceting rough to people who wanted to cut their own gems
across the United States of America.
During the 1970's and 80's the large dump at Crabtree was gleaned by tourists for chunks of
pegmatite with specks of green emerald mainly suitable for cabuchons, spheres and boxes.
Ownership of the mine changed, government mining safety regulations increased, the excavation tunnel was flooded, the "dump" was entirely sold off for commercial purposes, and the property has been "posted" to protect the absentee owners from vandalism and lawsuits by unwary tourists who might have accidents such as snake bites, falls or drowning.
In view of these conditions, we decided to open "The Emerald Mine" at a safe, supervised and accessible location.
We haul dump truck loads of mine "muck" or "mine run" material from various mines throughout the county so that our miners have a chance to find not only emeralds, but also aquamarine, golden beryl, tourmaline, smoky quartz, garnet, moonstone and many other North Carolina gemstones.
We do not guarantee you will find anything at our real gem mining dig site, but check the Amazing Finds posted on this web site. We guarantee you will have fun and learn a lot about rough gems. This is the real thing.
If you would rather be sure you find some gems that you can have beautiful jewelry made out of, we have a large selection of buckets from $5.00 to $250.00 in which we guarantee you will find all kinds of beautiful gemstones.
