Little Pine Garnet Mine
📍Marshall, North Carolina
One of the country’s best example of almandine garnets awaits visitors who book a trail ride horseback tour. Sandy Bottom Trail Rides has been leading short adventures to it’s garnet mine for many years and appears to be fully reopened following Hurricane Helene.
GPS coordinates:
35.76274, -82.72431
Land type:
Private
Digging fee:
$140 - 3 hour tour, there are shorter tours available but they don’t appear to stop at the garnet mine.
What can you find?
Once upon a time, visitors to Sandy Bottom were able to dig in the tunnel for garnets. As time has gone on, the service now offers a 1-hour stop to the tailings pile of the mine. The garnets can still be found in good supply outside of the mineshafts. It’s unclear why the mineshaft itself is closed or if there are future plans to reopen it.
The garnets at Little Pine actually can get quite large. They are almandine garnets and have a unique origin relative to other garnet deposits. The matrix is a green schist and some of the garnets that have come from Little Pine have been up to 6 inches wide. The garnets here have interesting characteristics as well, with many having a strange distorted, stretched out shape.
The mine will provide tools to those on the horseback tours to help with picking through the tailings.
Seasonality:
The ranch is open Monday–Saturday, 8:30am–4pm year round .
(Closed Sundays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter). Reservations are required for rides.
Weather by month (using the nearest town):
Road condition notes:
The ranch can be reached with any standard car.
Public bathrooms: Yes
Showers: No
RV hookups: No
Additional information:
Phone: (828) 649-3464 / (800) 959-3513
Website: sandybottomtrailrides.net
Address: 1459 Caney Fork Rd, Marshall, NC 28753
Note: rockhoundingmap.com is a free resource created using public online information and has no partnership with Sandy Bottom Trail Rides.
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