There's GREEN in them there hills!!!
For those of you who don't know, North Carolina has been producing some of the world's top emeralds in recent years.
If you watch the Travel Channel's Best Places to Find Cash & Treasures
http://travel.discovery.com/tv/cash-treasures/cash-treasures.html there's an episode that originally aired several years ago about Jamie Hill AKA The Emerald Man.
Jamie's my hero! I've met a lot of people in my life who have the Treasureholic gene but this guy's DNA is loaded with it! I had the pleasure of having dinner with Jamie and his Mother shortly after the segment aired and I was shown some of incredible faceted gems that were coming out of the mine.
What I admire most about Jamie is his tenacity. He had a hunch, felt it in his gut and never gave up on his dream of finding emeralds. He kept on digging, following his passion and he's found the mother load of world class, top gem quality emeralds in Hiddenite, North Carolina.
Jamie's company, North American Emerald Mines, Inc. has a very interesting website http://www.northcarolinaemeralds.info/HiddeniteDistrict/NAEMMine/NAEM.htm which shows great pictures of both the operation and the emeralds that are currently coming out of the ground.
The latest find at the mine is the emerald that I have pictured on the blog. This GEMMY MONSTER weighs in at a whopping 972 carats!!! Not only is it large, but the color is fantastic and the clarity is incredible!
The crystals that are coming out of the mine are considered to be some of the finest and largest in the world!
If you've caught Emerald Fever and you would like to try your luck in North Carolina you can! Jamie's mine is not open to the public but the Emerald Hollow Mine at Hiddenite is!
Emerald Hollow Mine is currently the only emerald mine in the United States that is open to the public for mineral collecting--if interested, check out their web site at: http://www.hiddenitegems.com/and go for the GREEN!
Please email me and let me hear about your trip! treasureholic@gmail.com
Happy Hunting!
No comments:
Post a Comment