Cowee Mountain Ruby Mine, Franklin

Gem mining is a vacation activity our entire family enjoys and we've visited a number of mines in the NC mountains. Cowee Mountain is by far our favorite. The flume is located along the highway so it's easy to reach and NOT a muddy mess reached by a terrifying drive up a twisty dirt road like so many mines. It is also covered so mining here can be a sunny or rainy day treat. The screens are smaller than at some of the other mines we've visited and that's a major plus because they are much easier to handle when you're mining with children. There are numerous choices of native or enriched buckets to suit every budget. On a recent visit, my husband and I bought two "deluxe" native bucket ($15 each) which we were told come from a "better area of the mine." We found several dozen rubies and sapphires--many of which were "cuttable" gems, including a 200 carat sapphire and a 100 carat ruby. On a second visit with our children and grandkids--ages 3, 5 and 7--we purchased two enriched buckets ($25 each) for the kids to share. The buckets contained an astounding number of gems and the kids absolutely loved finding the brightly colored stones. Each child was also thrilled to find an arrowhead in the bucket! John at the flume was very helpful and was terrific with the kids. We highly recommend the Cowee Mountain Ruby Mine for a great gem mining experience for the entire family!