I just love the jewelry and crafts here at Arrowhead Gallery.

You know, North Carolina has some of the most diverse geology in all of the world and a byproduct of all that diversity is gems and minerals.

Let's join Teresa Litschke as she follows a family from the Midwest having a great time at Sugar Creek Gem Mining.

[lively music] - Y'all looking at doing some gem mining?

- Yes sir.

- Absolutely.

So all of our bucket sizing and pricing's behind us here.

So the bigger buckets obviously are going to have more stones and larger stones in them.

You know, of course you can share buckets or you can do individuals.

If you have a large group, you'll definitely want to go with a larger bucket.

That way everybody gets a little bit more.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] On this day, a family from Kansas is trying their hand at mining.

- All right, so I'll give you guys a couple copies of those ID sheets.

So that's kinda what you're going to be looking for out there.

- Move them outside, we'll get them set up on the flume line, show them how to sort through the stones, show them which stones to keep, which stones they don't want to keep.

- You're going to want to set the sand down into these sifters, they'll turn and set down the water and you're just going to shake them back and forth until all the sand's been washed away.

You're looking for anything with color, like what's on those two papers I gave you guys?

- [Deborah Holt Noel] No pressure, take as much time as you like.

- We typically say 15 minutes a gallon.

So that would be about, you know, half an hour for that small one, but it really depends on the group.

Everybody's different.

- Oh my God.

- I've had groups spend a day here, especially if you get like the big wagon, that one's an hour, you know, multi-hour activity, especially if there's not many of you.

So you know, you could spend all day with us or you could spend 30 minutes with us.

However long you feel like it.

- And you hold it up to the light.

- Some people want all the little pieces to make their own jewelry.

Some people, if it's a lot more kids, they just care about the big shiny stones.

- Gah, look at it, it's green.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] Location is everything when mining for gems and Sugar Creek is sitting pretty.

- Majority of what's in the gem buckets comes from right down the road in Spruce Pine, which is one of the most geological diverse regions in the world.

- You know, mining is very common in Appalachia in general, from coal to gold, we had it all.

The quarts, the emeralds, the rubies, the felt spar.

- We're looking for garnet, peridot, ruby.

- Love getting crystals, finding crystals.

So this was a very fun activity.

I've been waiting all week to do this.

- And we have a lot more in the seven gallon bucket.

- I have four.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] You expect kids to love looking for buried treasure.

- But a lot of adults too, I would say almost more adults than kids really.

- We're looking online for things to do in the area.

And it's like, well shoot, this is what, this is something that will be fun.

Let's go, let's go do it.

- You know, it's hard to be playing in the water, playing in the dirt.

A lot of the kids just love that aspect of it.

But even the adults, you know, I think it's pretty relaxing if you've ever done it, you know, you're just sitting outside on a nice day like this, you got a bucket of sand, no time limit and you can just sit there and dig through it and just kind of wa you know, you wash the sand wash away, you find these gems.

It's very calming, very relaxing.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] And can be very worthwhile.

- That's a little piece of quartz.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] When you receive confirmation of the stones you've found.

- The people here just have a lot of knowledge on this.

- Nice little amethyst there.

- And then definitely coming inside to be able to have like those ideas clarified and like the walkthrough of what everything is and you know how they're formed and everything.

- So you've got like your clear quartzes, your citrines and your amethysts and your rose quartz up there.

- Is this.

- If I'm able to, I'm going to make a lot of them into earrings.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] That's not a problem at Sugar Creek.

- And we can cut those into a faceted stone for a piece of jewelry or something like that.

- Or they'll take it home and maybe they will display them in fish tanks, mason jars, full terrariums, anything like that.

The possibilities are endless.

- [Deborah Holt Noel] From gems you mine yourself to those on sale in the store and other great gift ideas, Sugar Creek Mining Company offers something you can't find just anywhere.

- Do we have this type of stuff in Kansas?

- No.

- No.

- You know, this kind of thing is a once in a lifetime type of deal.

- You will find Sugar Creek Gem Mine at 3045 Tynecastle Highway in Banner Elk.

They're open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM daily.

To plan your trip, give them a call at [828] 898-4367 or visit them online at sugarcreekgemmine.com.