I was doing some Internet research on North Carolina mines trying to figure out what kind of treasure hunting I was going to do this past weekend and came across a mine I wasn't familiar with called the Old Pressley Sapphire Mine.Here's what they say on their site:
Located in Haywood County, near Canton North Carolina, the Old Pressley Sapphire Mine is one of the oldest operating mines in western North Carolina. Made famous by the discovery of the 1445 carat "Star of the Carolinas," the mine contains abundant quantities of Sapphires, moonstones, and other precious minerals in sufficient quantity to make rock collecting both pleasurable and profitable.
Being the Treasureholic that I am, I had a friend come into town and convinced her to go with me to Canton to check out the mine and see what we could find.
When we arrived, there were several people there and one person was already "in the hole" searching for sapphires.
We grabbed our buckets and spades and headed over to the mine area to find a spot that looked promising and introduced ourselves to Treasure Joe who was knee deep in dirt searching away.
The owners of the mine George and Brenda McCannon were wonderful hosts and they gave us a tour of the collection of some of the stones that have been found at the mine. The sapphires at Old Pressley are generally embedded in feldspar and are mostly blue in color. Some of the found stones that I saw had top corn flower blue hues and some crystal clarity!
Hospitality was high at the mine and Treasure Joe (one of the repeat guests) was so kind! Before I knew it, he shared his foam pad and his umbrella with me so that I could search in cool comfort!
If you're ever close to Asheville, North Carolina, make sure to check out the mine and see if you can find a Carolina Star to take back home!
Thanks to George and Brenda for the use of the Star Sapphire photo!
