In Search of the Sheffield Mine

May 06, 2007

We started out our second day to find the Sheffield Mine, but that proved to be harder than we thought. Only having watched the Travel Channel Show - The Best Places to Find Cash and Treasures, we really didn't know where we were going. We followed the signs from Franklin, but lost trail of them along the way. It goes to show that a little planning can go a long way. Not to beat the dead horse, but having a guide book would have saved us a lot of time.

While searching for the mine, we happened across a cool little stream in someone's front yard. It's one of those things that you couldn't have planned and are so happy to find. It makes you feel like you discovered a little treasure that no one else knows about. Well, there was to be more of those discoveries through out the trip.


We searched high and low looking for the Sheffield Mine, but couldn't find it to save our life. We must have driven through the back hills outside of Franklin for an hour looking, but to no avail. It was a gorgeous day, blue sky, light puffy clouds and in the 80s with a light breeze and almost no humidity. I was happy enough driving around seeing the great country side in near perfect weather. You couldn't ask for nicer conditions on vacation. Anyway, back to looking for Sheffield's...well, we gave up. While looking, I saw the sign for the Cherokee Ruby Mine, which I remember was another place to hit, so we decided to stop there for the day.

Cherokee Ruby & Sapphire Mine

Once we saw the sign for Cherokee, we quickly pulled off to the left into the entrance past the sign. The entrance is a dirt road that heads down to the Cherokee Mine Office, a little wood building. You pay at the office and get your screen, seat pad (highly recommended), and a little extra for an umbrella. The new owner, as of 2006, is one of the nicest women you'll ever meet, Maria. If you pull up and no one's in the office, just wait because she's on the flume line looking for treasures like every one else. Her rates are very reasonable and she also sells water and snacks at the office. There are facilities near the office in case nature calls.

In Western North Carolina, you will see plenty of "mine" where you can try your luck at finding pretty stones. Almost all of them "salt" their ore with rocks native and non-native to guarentee a find. Some of the places are more obvious than others with how they salt. If you come across polished or cut stone in the raw ore, it's pretty evident. The two mines which are clearly NOT salted are Cherokee Ruby Mine and Sheffield Mine. If you have kids, or are just interested in finding something neat, I would recommend one of the salted places. It takes less time and you'll find something, but won't be worth much. True rockhounds go to places like Cherokee to find only native gems and minerals.


Once you pay and grab your gear, you walk down to the flume line where you can start looking for your treasure. The buckets are located near the flume to make it easier to grab additional ones through out the day. You can find Ruby, Sapphire, Garnet, Moonstone, Rhodolite, Rutile and Sillimanite. The rubies and sapphires are pink and gem quality. This is by far the best place we found for gem quality rubies and sapphires in North Carolina.



We staked out a spot one the flume line, setup the screen, got our buckets, then realized that we didn't have a clue what we were doing. Good thing that Maria is so nice. She walked us through the whole process and showed us examples of what we were looking for. It really helped to have her show us, because at first everything looks like a rock. She walked us through cleaning the raw ore in the water, then cleaning it some more, then cleaning it again. We quickly realized that the cleaning part is critical. Once everything is good and clean, then you start to pick through what's left. First you get rid of all the big rocks and obviously non-valuable rocks, like quartz and sandstone. Then we looked diligently through the remaining rocks looking for something good. It takes a lot longer than we thought to go through a bucket. At first, we were constantly asking Maria if we had something good. She could always point out the good stuff. Once we were done with our first screen, she came over and looked through it again. Invariably, she could find a couple things we had overlooked. It was a good learning experience. After going through a couple screens of ore, you get the hang of it and get into a rythm.



We found a couple things that made all the difference in the world while at the flume line. First and foremost a good set of gloves will make or break your day. The water is pretty cold and the rocks are very hard. Given the amount of cleaning you need to do, gloves are a life saver. We found that having a pair of surgical gloves, then rubberized knit gardening gloves was the perfect combo. The surgical gloves, either latex or nitrile, keep your hands dry and in turn warmer than if you have cold water running over them all day. The problem is that they won't stand up alone to the rocks, they'll rip in about 3 seconds on their own. Putting the gardening gloves over them keeps the surgical gloves and your hands from getting ripped up on the rocks. Since the gardening gloves are knit, the water drains from them fairly well. The rubberized palms provide more protection and some padding from the rocks. Dish washing gloves will work also, but they don't provide any padding and any water that gets into the gloves doesn't drain.



Vicki found a very pretty 4 carat pink ruby the first day we were at the mine. It was incredibly obvious it was a ruby when you saw it. It was hexagonal with two flat size and a nice dark pink color. I found a few small rubies a bit bigger than coarse sand, but nothing too interesting. We went back to Cherokee on our last day and found some really nice rubies and sapphires. Vicki found a 14 carat, 9 carat, and a couple 4 carat rubies. I found a 12 carat and 6 carat ruby.

We had them cut and polished into cabochons, which turned out nicely. When cut down, the polished gems will be about 1/3 of the original weight. Two of the stone were done by Cowee Valley Lapidary just down the road from the Cherokee Mine. The other stones were done by Ruby City Gems in downtown Franklin, NC. All the stone came out and we would recommend either place.

Cherokee Ruby & Sapphire Mine
41 Cherokee Mine Road
Franklin, NC
828.349.2941
Google Map / Directions

Latitude: 35.2727
Longitude: -83.3504
Hours: 9-4 p.m
April 1 to October 31
$7.00 /person to enter and $1.00 per bucket of dirt.

Other sites about Cherokee Ruby & Sapphire Mine

Mountain Area Gem and Mineral Association, (M.A.G.M.A.)

Little Pine Garnet Mine

May 05, 2007

The Little Pine Garnet Mine is a great place for collecting almandine garnets.  You will find many garnet, some the size of baseballs, if you go into the back of the mine. The crystals are well formed and embedded in a soft matrix. You'll need a head lamp, rock hammer, chisel, ear plugs, and sturdy shoes. There's not much light in the back of the adit, so you need the head lamp.

We made our way down from Virginia towards Smokey Mountain National Park. This was a stop we made on our way. It took us a hour or so to find the place.  There was a really nice local couple that pointed us in the right direction and contacted Jackie Ball for us. We found out about the book Rock, Gem, and Mineral Collecting Sites in Western North Carolina By Richard James Jacquot, Jr. during our trip.  This is one of the best rock collecting guide books for Western North Carolina.  It would have saved us hours of time if we had it before our trip. We met Richard at the rock show in Franklin at the tail end of our trip.  He is the founder of Mountain Area Gem and Mineral Association, (M.A.G.M.A.), a true rockhound, and very nice guy.

The mine, actually an adit, is located up the hill from the parking area.  It's a easy walk up a gravel road, maybe 5 minutes at the most. There is a picnic table and port-a-john near the entrance to the site. There's a small creek running next to the road leading to the mine. There's a spoils pile that can be searched for kids and those not wishing to venture into the mine.The mine entrance is large and easy to find. The mine goes directly into the hillside with a slight upward grade. The pocket layer is a about a 45 degree angle from the from of the mine. Most of the good digging is at or near the back of the mine, again head lamps required unless you can see in the dark. Since the mine floor is sloped at 45 degrees and covered with tailings and dust, sturdy shoes and careful walking is necessary. I was wearing L.L.Bean Costal Clogs (aka Crocs), which was not the appropriate attire. I almost took a couple good spills walking through the mine.

There are support pillars located through the mine as you go in which have material. Please DO NOT mine the support pillars. It is tempting since they're located in the light, but this undermines the support and saftey of the mine. At the back of the mine there is a lot of material readily accessible. There is a tremendous amount of garnet in the mine that can be extracted with a bit of work.

Given it took us a while to find the mine, we only had about an hour to dig. We brought hammers and chisels, but no head lamp. I had a small flashlight that made it very difficult to work much deep in the mine. We brought ear plugs which proved to be invaluable while hammering and chiseling. The bull point chisel was the most effective at removing the matrix to get the garnet crystals out. Having the hand guard was really nice when you miss the end of the chisel. The matrix is soft enough that chiseling is fairly easy and could be done by children. The garnets are fairly easy to spot in the matrix and range in size from a die to softball. We didn't make it to the back of the mine, since we didn't have head lamps, so we found mostly golf ball sized garnets.


Little Pine Garnet Mine
Marshal, NC
828-649-3464 - Jackie Ball
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
$25 /person
Google Map / Directions

Note: To coordinate a trip, call Jackie Ball ahead of time. You need to stop at his office at the Sandy Bottom Trail Rides, which is about a mile from the mine. They also do trail rides.

Other sites about Little Pine Garnet Mine

• Mountain Area Gem and Mineral Association, (M.A.G.M.A.)
• Georgia MineralSociety