Crabtree Emerald Mine

Jim W

Found some Beryl crystals. And a few other minerals of interest after 2 days of hitting it hard. My son found a pretty emerald crystal with nice color but it was tiny like 1/32" in diameter and 1/8" long. It was clear and pretty but not big enough to do anything with. Still will look good in the rock collection.

Brenton Fipps

Gotta love this place. This was found at the real Crabtree emerald mine. Not the salted tourist trap.

Tina Lively

What is the best way to get the emeralds out of the matrix rock?

Ralph Ralpherson (Third Emperor of Jupiter)

Hey just FYI this is not the actual Crabtree emerald mine. This appears to be the tourist mine "Emerald Village" which is on the way to the actual historic Crabtree emerald mine and is situated on the site of an old Feldspar mine. Just so everyone knows. This is a 'salted' mine. If you want to try your hand at finding "native" emeralds you gotta research the real mine. The tourist mine is nice, but anything you find there is likely from another locality and salted there so you can find it. There are no covered flumes and definitely no gold at the actual Crabtree Emerald Mine. The real mine is a flooded mine tunnel down the road hidden in the woods and marked by a sign. You need to contact the management for permission to dig there as it can be dangerous, especially alone in the NC mountains