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Gem Mining(NC) and Geo Cache


likeaneagle
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I know that Gem Mining has been around for a long time..but has any here done it? Do you have favorite places..My sis went on a Crystal Dig once in Arkansas..I heard on a program western NC has dozens of places for Gem mining and Emerald mining..please tell us of your adventures.

Geo cacheing is using GPS maping to find predetermined locations where someone actualy plants little treasures in woods, mtn areas..they have a nationwide forum for support and has expanded through US.

Please add..if you have ejoyed similiar activities..

sorry double post..

Edited by likeaneagle
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I've never been, but my kids have geo cached and they love it. When they go, they find the treasure, and add something to it. The "treasure" is usually just trinkets, like the stuff you can get out of a bubble gum machine. They also take something out of the box. Then there's a notebook that they can record what the took, what they left and when.

Once they left a tracker. When someone finds it, they move it closer to the intended destination. And that gets logged also.

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I'm talking to my daughter and she said this:

"well...there's other stuff too...like some boxes contain themes (one was star wars that we found). others are called microcaches...they are no bigger then a 35mm film container. some are virtual caches too...you just find the location where somebody else thought there was a great view or a great hike to get to that spot"

Sounds like fun !

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Vegan- does your daughter use the gps to locate the treasures?

how did she gt involved? My daughter is very interested.

Pond, where do they mine around you and what are they mining?

My daughter foud a link for western NC and it listed about 200 mining or digs for Emerald, Rubies, and other precious stones..we are going for my b-day next month..should be a great day out!!

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I do not think for actual jewels. more like a list of things they have find to get the next clue.

and it is like a race and timed and people are eliminated if they do not find them in time.

i never went sometimes i know they use the history of the city and it is like a question and answer thing. Where is the statue of who is who? um what food is served at what resturant exclusivly that type of thing.

no i doubt we have "gems" we had a huge foot ice berg run through here and it took all the pretty stuff in the ground down to the south.

we have fish.

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My daughter has a friend with a gps, and he was into geo cacheing. He took her with him, and she was hooked. When they were here, her friend went to an online site, and found our general area, then used his gps to locate exactly where the cache was. It amazed me how many caches were registered, just in my small area. The one they went to was within walking distance.

I'll e-mail my daughter, and see if she can tell me the site she uses.

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A bit off the topic but on the same subject, I took GIS last spring and I'm taking Remote Sensing now.

GIS is basicly a map of an area of your chosing that you can add layers of data to. For instance you could take a basemap of Georgia and slide scale the colors to show a particular income bracket as a percentage of county population and then add in all the organic farmers, restaurants, and retail shops in the state, to gain an understanding of who is doing what where.

An example can be found here: here:

Remote sensing is the science of understanding satellite images. Scientists used this in the 60's to keep an eye on Russia's agriculture output. It can identify the crop being grown as well as the health of the crop. Today folks use it to locate oil fields and mineral deposits including gems and precious metals and just about everything else you might want a *big* picture of.

HERE: is a link to a site compiled by a former NASA scientist. It's my textbook this semester and has some interesting information if yer interested in gem hunts, panning for gold or planting a new crop. It's a bit more complicated than GoogleMaps but then you get to actually define and manipulate the data to look for whatever it is yer looking for.

Edited by herbiejuan
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They did a wonderful job, it just goes to show that if you give the right people the right tools and a bit of freedom they can do a wonderful job :)

I'm a window cleaner by trade and a student of small town-rural planning/public administration.

And all along I thought you were a nude bee-keeper. :(

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Yeah David I tried but them damned bees kept stinging my privates when I raided the honey pot so I gave it up.

I am particularly proud of my friend Alice, she took somewhat refiend ideas and translated them into workable concepts and pulled together the resources needed to make it happen and is supportive of efforts closer to home. What a cool thing it would be to click on a map of your state and find the organic and sustainable farms, markets and outlets in your area.

Oh wait Local Harvest has already done it :) using GPS, GIS and and Remote Sensing technology.

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Eagle,

I'm going gem mining in western North Carolina this weekend. Too bad you couldn't push it up a bit. I've been several times in that area (Franklin, NC) and loved it! You buy a bucket of dirt for 50 cents and you find rubies and sapphires. What a bargain.

There are a number of mines in that area. I'm going to the Sheffield Mines. They are one of the few natural mines left. Most of the other mines are "salted", which means they add stones that are not native to that region for tourists to find. They are real stones and you're likely to find more than natural mines, but I'm a purist.

PM me if you'd like more info.

The coolest thing I did with rubies that I found in the area was I picked out 6 of the prettiest rubies I had at that time and just had them polished a bit, so they still had their natural shape but were very shiny. Then I had picture frames made with the verse from Proverbs 31 talking about a virtuous woman being more precious than rubies, and had a ruby set in each one. I gave those to all the women in my family.

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