Cherokee Mine
LAST VISITED: SPRING 2026
📍Franklin, North Carolina
There is no more authentic Carolina digging than you’ll find the Cherokee Mine. The mine is tailored to those that want the full, real experience. Nothing is added to the dirt, not even for kids. Digging at the Cherokee is a lot like fishing. There’s no guarantees besides enjoying a day outside sifting for gemstones on the flume.
GPS coordinates:
35.27287, -83.35125
Land type:
Private
Digging fee:
$30 per person, kids 6 and under are free.
Summary from my visit:
The Cherokee Mine is truly authentic, and it prides itself on that. You won’t pull up to a large gift shop or anything like that. I visited in Spring of 2026 for the first time. As soon as you arrive, you’ll see the flume line (the wooden chute where you sift the dirt you dig). Over the years, there have reportedly been many different areas where material has been dug. The mine tends to have only one zone open at a time. For us, that was a large pit behind the flumes.
What’s cool about the Cherokee relative to other mines that offer native material digging is that you’re truly doing it yourself. You’ll be digging alluvial gravels here - meaning the corundum (ruby/sapphire) has been scattered randomly throughout.
During the day, I dug in 3 different holes. I tried getting into different colors of dirt and mud, and isolating them in their own buckets to see if I could notice any patterns on what tended to be productive. This proved to be difficult, as spotting the rubies and sapphires in the daytime is tricky. What I ended up doing is concentrating the buckets of muddy dirt down to just small gravels and taking them home so I could sort through them with an ultraviolet light. Rubies and sapphires will both glow a brilliant red under a blacklight.
This mine does have some unique traits that can be found in its corundum, including asterism - which causes a star pattern to appear within the shine of the stone.
Aside from the rubies and sapphires that are the main target, visitors have a chance to also find garnets, kyanite, sillimanite, moonstone, and rutile.
A view of the flume. Some portions are covered, but most are in the sun.
The digging area. The mine asks that you dig straight holes, no overhangs, tunnels, etc.
A closer look at the type of dirt you’ll be digging through. I used a half-length shovel and a pickaxe to work around larger rocks.
I filled 13 buckets throughout the day during my visit.
Here is the flume. The classifier screens are provided by the mine.
Add in the dirt. Breaking down the clumps can be difficult. Don’t be shy to push against the screen in the water to help get it moving. Corundum is much harder than the metal screen, so you won’t scratch up your finds.
Here’s the concentrates I was left with.
Under the blacklight, you’ll likely notice lots of this material at the Cherokee Mine. This is moonstone. It has a blue/purple fluorescence.
And here’s a ruby. Under a closer look in the daylight…
…This one would be best described as a pink sapphire. It was explained to us that just about everything besides a deep red is considered sapphire. I may have some more. I save the bucket of concentrate I took home to go through with friends and family.
Seasonality:
This site is open year round, as long as the forest roads are passable and there isn’t extreme weather. Their website suggests calling ahead of time to ensure they’ll be open. Franklin can get some snow and cold temps during the Winter.
Weather by month (using the nearest town):
Road condition notes:
The mine is reachable by any standard car. The mine specifically instructs visitors not take Coon Creek Road, Flowers Gap Road, or Ruby Knoll Road. Here is a link from the mine with some driving directions that include helpful photos: https://cherokeerubymine.com/#about
Public bathrooms: Yes
Showers: No
RV hookups: No
Additional information:
Phone: (828) 349-2941
Address: 41 Cherokee Mine Rd, Franklin, NC 28734
Website: cherokeerubymine.com
Note: Rockhoundingmap.com has no partnership with the Cherokee Mine. Details such as dig fees or seasonality may change over time. If you have information you’d like to contribute, you can do so with the button below:
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