MLA and I went to a gem mine today and had a blast. Basically you buy a bucket of ore and then sit at a water flume to wash off the dirt and find the gems.
There are several mines in this area and the Mountain Stream campground owners, Ron and Becky, recommended that we try Emerald Village first. It's relatively close by and Becky told us it would be a lot of fun.
Boy, was she right! Emerald Village has buckets ranging from $7.50 (for kids) up to $1000. MLA and I bought a 3 gallon bucket of ore for $35 and headed to find a seat at the water flume.
Simply scoop some of the ore into a wire screen sifter, dunk in the fast flowing water and look for 'color'. This being our first time we asked for some assistance. The young man's advice was "white and gray, throw it away". If you see color, throw it in your (much smaller) gem bucket. We were like kids at Christmas, ripping into each scoop of material to see what was hidden beneath the dirt and gravel.
So, what did we find? We found lots of Amethyst, Emerald, Smoky Quartz, Citrine, Ruby, Aquamarine, Garnet, Unakite (very unusual orange & green), Sapphire, Amazonite, Rose Quartz, Mica and Moonstone.
All in all we found about 10 pounds of gems. Of course, all of these would require cutting, polishing and setting to be worth anything however it was very cool to see these rough but colorful gems appear in your sifting screen.
Once you have sifted all of the ore in your bucket you take your gem bucket and sort the gems by color. Once you have them in rough piles, you take them inside to a young lady named, appropriately enough, Jewel. She identifies what you have found and, if you want, writes up instructions to have your ''diamonds in the rough' (OK, not diamonds but gems none the less) transformed from their very rough state to beautiful gems. Of course, they just happen to have jewelers on-site who can take your newly enhanced gems and mount them in a rings, ear rings, pendants, etc.
The people in front of us ordered 8 pieces of jewelry for a total of $480 (they already owned the gems). MLA and I did not order any jewelry to be made from our fabulous finds. I thought I was going to get out without spending any more money until MLA found a beautiful setting for ear rings and two large topaz stones. Turns out she wasn't willing to wait the 6-8 weeks to have the stones processed. In any case, they look great on her.
Originally MLA wanted to keep her 'finds' seperate from my 'finds'. That is, until Jewel pulled a large Emerald and two large rubies from my tray. Suddenly, MLA was all about 'one for all and all for one' and wanted to combine our efforts. You know MLA, that's just how she rolls.
We had a terrific time. The weather again was perfect, so good in fact the mountains, normally covered in a light haze, were crystal clear today. You could see at least ten ridges of mountains flowing away from you like majestic waves. Table Rock, about 35 miles away, was easily identified in the distance, including a lot of detail on it's sides.
If you ever get a chance to go to a gem mine, do it and try your hand at finding your hidden treasures. Just watch out for the 'post processing' options. It's easy to get carried away.
As much fun as we had, I now have to figure out what I'm going to do with 10 pounds of rocks. Potentially beautiful gems at some point in the future, however at this point, they are just (heavy) rocks.
Guess what MLA wants to do tomorrow?
See Ya!
There are several mines in this area and the Mountain Stream campground owners, Ron and Becky, recommended that we try Emerald Village first. It's relatively close by and Becky told us it would be a lot of fun.
Boy, was she right! Emerald Village has buckets ranging from $7.50 (for kids) up to $1000. MLA and I bought a 3 gallon bucket of ore for $35 and headed to find a seat at the water flume.
Simply scoop some of the ore into a wire screen sifter, dunk in the fast flowing water and look for 'color'. This being our first time we asked for some assistance. The young man's advice was "white and gray, throw it away". If you see color, throw it in your (much smaller) gem bucket. We were like kids at Christmas, ripping into each scoop of material to see what was hidden beneath the dirt and gravel.
So, what did we find? We found lots of Amethyst, Emerald, Smoky Quartz, Citrine, Ruby, Aquamarine, Garnet, Unakite (very unusual orange & green), Sapphire, Amazonite, Rose Quartz, Mica and Moonstone.
All in all we found about 10 pounds of gems. Of course, all of these would require cutting, polishing and setting to be worth anything however it was very cool to see these rough but colorful gems appear in your sifting screen.
Once you have sifted all of the ore in your bucket you take your gem bucket and sort the gems by color. Once you have them in rough piles, you take them inside to a young lady named, appropriately enough, Jewel. She identifies what you have found and, if you want, writes up instructions to have your ''diamonds in the rough' (OK, not diamonds but gems none the less) transformed from their very rough state to beautiful gems. Of course, they just happen to have jewelers on-site who can take your newly enhanced gems and mount them in a rings, ear rings, pendants, etc.
The people in front of us ordered 8 pieces of jewelry for a total of $480 (they already owned the gems). MLA and I did not order any jewelry to be made from our fabulous finds. I thought I was going to get out without spending any more money until MLA found a beautiful setting for ear rings and two large topaz stones. Turns out she wasn't willing to wait the 6-8 weeks to have the stones processed. In any case, they look great on her.
Originally MLA wanted to keep her 'finds' seperate from my 'finds'. That is, until Jewel pulled a large Emerald and two large rubies from my tray. Suddenly, MLA was all about 'one for all and all for one' and wanted to combine our efforts. You know MLA, that's just how she rolls.
We had a terrific time. The weather again was perfect, so good in fact the mountains, normally covered in a light haze, were crystal clear today. You could see at least ten ridges of mountains flowing away from you like majestic waves. Table Rock, about 35 miles away, was easily identified in the distance, including a lot of detail on it's sides.
If you ever get a chance to go to a gem mine, do it and try your hand at finding your hidden treasures. Just watch out for the 'post processing' options. It's easy to get carried away.
As much fun as we had, I now have to figure out what I'm going to do with 10 pounds of rocks. Potentially beautiful gems at some point in the future, however at this point, they are just (heavy) rocks.
Guess what MLA wants to do tomorrow?
See Ya!
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