Mining

During one of our family vacations we visited Franklin, North Carolina.  We stayed at this wonderful bed and breakfast.  It was a beautiful old antebellum home and was the very first time I had stayed in a bed and breakfast.  Our parents stayed in one room and we girls stayed in a room directly across the hall at the top of these beautiful wide mahogany stairs.  There was only one bathroom for the entire upstairs bedrooms so it was quite an interesting adventure.  We found it rather cool to be in a room without our parents as well, this was a unique experience.  After having a wonderful huge breakfast home cooked by the owner we set out to what I guess you could call the mine. 

The place was called “Ruby City” and you would pay a certain price to “pan” for stones for a certain amount of time.  My entire family signed up and paid to pan.  We received what looked like pie tins with screens in the bottom of them then if I remember correctly we would dig some of the dirt or mud from the side and take it over to the trough to let the water run through the tin as we shook it and sorted through the debris left behind.   They had posters showing what each raw stone could look like so you were less likely to throw out a good stone.     We panned for several hours and I found many stones, my parents and sisters found quite a few stones as well.  I have kept my stones all these years.  My parents had some of the stones “cut” and set way back when we originally panned them from of the mine. 

In the picture above you will notice a ring, it is set with a pink Sapphire of over a carat in size.  There is also another pink Sapphire and a blue one, lastly you will see a small cut Ruby, the other stones in the photo are all uncut but have so much sentimental value if not monetary. 

My sister Kathy and her husband went back to Franklin this past Fall and found out that the mine we mined closed down many years ago as the stones ran dry but there are other mines in the area.  I may have to find a way to try my hand at mining again as it was great fun!