He formed a partnership with a few of his neighbors, who agreed to provide slave labor to mine the gold during times of the year when the slaves were not needed to tend crops. They could be produced by digging the creek's sediments, washing them, and separating the nuggets out by hand. The following year John Reed determined that Meadow Creek on his property contained an abundance of gold nuggets. In 1802 John Reed, who was the property owner and Conrad's father, showed it to a Fayetteville jeweler who purchased it from him for $3.50 - a very tiny fraction of what the rock was worth at that time!
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They speculated that the rock might contain gold but did not know how to confirm that. He took the rock home, where hisįamily thought that it was an interesting rock and used it as a door stop for the next few years. Seventeen pounds, but young Reed didn't know that its extreme weight was caused by its gold content. He found an interesting - and very heavy - yellow rock in Little Meadow Creek, which flowed across the farm owned by his parents in Cabarrus County. The first gold discovery in the United States was made in North Carolina in 1799 by Conrad Reed. The people who find them are willing to do hard work, risking a few blisters and brush burns. The dump still produces occasional nice specimens of emerald, black tourmaline, garnet, aquamarine, and yellow beryl. Lots of people do it, and two of the photos on this page show a piece of black and white pegmatite, with prismatic emerald and tourmaline crystals, which was picked from the Crabtree dump. Today, the deep mine is closed and flooded, but you can still visit the Crabtree Emerald Mine, and for a small fee you can prospect the rock rubble that was brought up out of the mine. This specimen is about 7 x 7 x 7 centimeters in size and contains numerous small emerald crystals that are up to several millimeters in length associated with schorl. The cabochons displayed emerald and tourmaline prisms in a white matrix of quartz and feldspar. Many fine clear emeralds were produced, but most of the emerald-bearing rock was sold as "emerald matrix" for slabbing and cabochon cutting.
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It was mined for emeralds by Tiffany and Company and a series of property owners between 1894 and the 1990s. This granitic pegmatite filled a two-meter-wide fracture which contained emerald along the walls of the fracture and yellow beryl in the center. So, plan your gem-hunting vacation to North Carolina!Ĭrabtree Emerald Mine pegmatite: A specimen of the Crabtree Pegmatite of western North Carolina. Imagine what it would be like to own a great ring or other piece of jewelry and be able to say that you found the beautiful stone?īeing totally honest, the odds are against you finding something like that on your first visit, but many people have made spectacular finds. Some local businesses have skilled gem cutters and bench jewelers who can turn a nice piece of rough that you find into a beautiful piece of jewelry. Members of the North Carolina Legislature declared emerald the state's official gemstone. Moonstone, rose quartz, ruby, sapphire, smoky quartz, staurolite, topaz, tourmaline, and many others. Gem materials found in North Carolina include aquamarine, There are more pay-to-dig mines in North Carolina than in any other state in the nation.
The mines are very popular and attract thousands of visitors during the summer months. If you want to look for gems yourself, here is a directory of pay-to-dig mines in North Carolina and other states. Some of the mines and other gem-producing localities are still open, but instead of being mined by a company, they are now mined by people like you. That article was written when some mines were in their peak of production. If you want to read a great summary of North Carolina gemstones, see Joseph Hyde Pratt's classic article titled: Gems and Gem Minerals of North Carolina in the 1933 edition of American Mineralogist. Recent reports on the Huffington Post and ABC News websites describe how some visitors have found emeralds worth over $10,000 in-the-rough. They are even more surprised when they learn that there are about a dozen locations in North Carolina where anyone can look for gemstones and keep anything that they find. Most people are surprised to hear that rubies, sapphires, and emeralds have been found in North Carolina.