travel

Dahlonega Gem Panning

September 4, 2019 /

We live about 1 hour and a half from Dahlonega in the North Georgia Mountains. Dahlonega is an old gold mining town which features a gold museum in the town square as well as a gold mine, the Consolidated Gold mine. The mine is the largest hard rock gold mine east of the Mississippi.  The mine was founded in 1896, and focused on removing gold trapped in quartz veins throughout the property.

Gold mining

They offer a 40 min tour of the mine followed by a short video showing you how to pan for gold which you try your hand at. This actually is quite difficult and since we were on a time schedule at that point of our visit, we had one of the gentlemen do it for us. It took him less than a minute while it would have taken my son at least 15 to 20 minutes.

We went to Dahlonega to celebrate my son’s 13th birthday which was on Monday to go gem panning. Since he had never done the gold mine tour, he and his friend took the tour. I think the price of the tour is very appropriate and since they were not 13 yet, they were able to go in for the child’s price which was 12 dollars.

Gem panning

The real reason we went to Dahlonega was for the gem panning! It is very easy and children of all ages can do it. You purchase a bucket: there are different sizes starting at 30 dollars which we usually share among the 3 boys but since we had an extra child with us we got a larger bucket and then still got the $30 one too. The boys were trying to make sure they had a lot of gems so they were going really fast. Thankfully, apart from the fun experience there, they also like to categorize their gems at home and exchange them every so often so they will get more fun out of them!

Consolidated Gold Mine added some tv screens that show you the gems in their rough and cut stages so that you can try to  identify them on your own while you are panning for them.

We then had some gentlemen working there identify the gems and separate the precious gems from the other minerals. They have a little case next to that station that shows you what the gems look like when they are cut.

You can also choose to have one of your gems cut and polished and made into a piece of jewelry. They will mail the finished product to you.

The first time my oldest was here he was about a year old and I am pretty sure this is the same gentleman who gave us our first mine tour. So we had to take a picture with him. This is Mike! He actually looks like my father in law so my husband always asks if we saw “uncle”.

We walked around the downtown area, had lunch, went into a antique shop and got some icecream. I was unable to take a lot of pictures since I had to corral my almost 2 year old who would rather walk and ride in his stroller nowadays.

Dahlonega is a great place to spend the day or a long weekend. There are wineries to visit in the area, state parks to visit in the area, restaurants to enjoy and many spots to explore. If you are ever in the area, I would encourage you to plan a visit!

A bientôt!

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