the greater foscoe mining co.

Since it rained for the first two days of our trip we were limited on what to do so we did a lot of gem grubbing. Most if not all of these places have a covered flume where you wash your "ore" and pick out your stones. We grubbed for gems in 5 different places and this place was by far the best. The "ore" was loaded with a great variety of real gems and the quality was top notch. After we were done the guys at the sorting area took the time to rewash my daughter's finds and separate them all into piles. If that wasn't enough they then took the time to affix them to a chart so she could identify each of them later. Don't be put off by these guys tough appearances. They were polite and very good with the kids they were helping. Drive by the other places and go here.

While on our honeymoon we thought we would enjoy a little relaxing activity as we had been hiking, riding the motorcylce and whitewater rafting. After looking at the reviews we choose this mining company. We were welcomed by a young gentleman who was very helpful in helping us decided between the different buckets. We ended up purchasing the 14oz ($54) bucket - as he said there were better gems in it, a geod and we thought it would take us a little longer.He walked us up the trail, warning watch your step - they husband wasnt paying attention and about face planted. We then found a seat at the sifting area and began to sort. We quickly noticed there were two size strainers!!! I had a fine mesh one and my husband had a bigger one that small stones could easily slip through. We were able to pick out the big and medium size stones, and set the small rocks to the side as there were some gems that were worth sorting through. The husband also placed the larger sifter over the finer sifter so I could go through the small rocks while he did the big one. Wear clothes you dont mind getting a little dirty as the water may splash or your arms may end up covered in mud. (at least ours did)We found a ton of large gems and were able to take it to the facetor. He was able to cut two beautiful pieces from blue sapphire. Absolute day of fun and cannot wait to come back!

Stopped here back in June while on vacation and had a great time. Will try some of the other gem mines in the area next time but can't say anything bad about this place.

Disclaimer: I've never been to another gem mine besides Foscoe to compare it to. We discovered this place in 1998, and have gone back every 5 years or so since. I have to attribute this to the fact that we always have a great time at Foscoe, and never get tempted to try another place! The people are nice, even the hourly/seasonal help... if you are nice to them. :) Four of us (age 9, 23, 26, 38) split a $53 bucket this time, and we all found a good amount of gems. Every one of us had a blast! We like the open layout of the mining area. After collecting all your gems, the nice hourly/seasonal fella will identify all your findings and tape them onto a collection sheet that identifies each. This process is un-changed in 15 years and works well. There is a shop where you can purchase rocks as well (pretty decent prices I thought). Next, you can take your rocks over to the jewelry store onsite and the gemologist owner will identify which ones are best to cut. The prices are clearly printed on your identification sheet that is how holding all your rocks. The price to cut is based on the stone (not the size of the stone). I've had 2 cut there over the years, and 1 or 2 cut back home. They were all lovely. The jewelry store has some AMAZING geodes - at least go have a look. They are as tall as I am! Speaking of geodes, we found one in our bucket about the size of a softball. We paid $20 to have it cut open (risky-- could have been a dud) but it was beautiful and a very precious keepsake of our mountain trip. Give it another few years, I'm sure we'll be back to Foscoe... the memories keep piling up and they are all good ones!

This place was awesome and interesting I found the workers very polite and helpful they showed us where to go and when we where done told us all about the gem stones we found and acuatly put them on colorful charts not a bag like other places I recommend this to everyone fun for the whole family !

My family & I went based on the price and we were staying close. First we went to pay for our bucket. The young man behind the counter did not feel the need to wait on us until he finished sending his text. He looked up briefly, saw us standing there and continued texting. After finally paying, we went up to get the bucket. The same guy brought us out a bucket of 90% clay dirt. It was ridiculous. This was not what we were use to. We went through a gallon bucket in 5 minutes between 3 of us. My 5 year old gave up after getting clay all over himself. We went down and another young man helped sort out our few rocks, which was nice. The other guy continued texting on his cell phone the entire time. We asked where we could wash up. Instructed to go next door. We went and the place was closed up like Fort Knox. It was well before the closing time of 5. Next time we will stick with our usual place.

Me and the wife and kids Do a lot of the gem mines in Western Carolina/East Tennessee, we have pretty much been to them all, and this place sits at the bottom of our list, For many reasons, when we arrived, we stood in the main part of the shop for almost a half an hour waiting on someone to help us, this in itself was very aggravating, once we where finally waited on, they took us up to the flume, handed us a couple of buckets and a shovel and walked off, did'nt bother to talk to us, ask us if we needed any instruction, nothing.. Of course we needed no instructions, but just very Unprofessional , the buckets yielded a some pretty good finds, and of course when we were through, we didn't have a clue where to go, again, no customer interaction, finally we had to ask, when we got to the counter and sit down, they grabbed our rocks, taped them all to a piece of poster board, and handed them to us, and smiled and went on about their business, no gem education, no discussion, again, nothing what-so-ever... the only thing we could figure was maybe their was a language barrier or something, because these guys didn't talk very plain English. This was a very bad experience, and we haven't went back, we are in the area frequently, and always pass this place up now... The place did look nice though, and appealing , but the service was terrible.

My daughter and 2 granddaughters and I decided to give gem mining a try. We had a great time. My husband and I had tried gem mining once before with the granddaughters and what I liked about The Greater Foscoe Mining Co was that they not only tell you what the stones are, they tape them to a identification sheet. This way the girls can remember what the stones are. I think the price we paid for the buckets of dirt was reasonable.

Went here one morning it took 15 min and calling the phone number on the site to get service. They set us up and left not to be seen again. Of the three gem places we went through we found the rarest gems here but was lied to by the gem cutter. He told us a emerald we found was a $1000 a caret. Latter we found out emerald is more like $35 a caret. Glad we didn't have them cut it.

We bought a larger bucket not biggest but next size down. Daughters found some very large gems emeralds, aquamarine, and many others. Quite a few big enough to make rings necklaces earrings and the like. Also found a large round ball that needed cut to have to halves. Can't recall name but it's pretty.

My son had fun but saw one of the employees pocket a gem. Not sure which kind but I caught it out of the corner of my eye. I didnt want to make a stink in front of my son because I figured it couldnt have been THAT valuable but still. We warn anyone that asks.

We asked at the person at the Craft Guild in Blowing Rock where she would recommend we go to mine, and this was her recommendation. She also advised us to buy a large bucket. When we got there, we purchased one $53 bucket which we were allowed to share. Now, the dirt is salted, so while not entirely "natural", you are going to get gems. As at all gem mines (as we found out) the more expensive the bucket, the more gems you will find. The young men working at the mine were very polite and helpful, and the jeweler next door was also very kind and informative (and is making us emerald rings to commemorate our 40th anniversary).

This was our second trip to the GFMC and last year our son found an emerald which once cut ended up being 2 carats emerald cut and rather nice.This year we got the $106 bucket and found a ton of really nice stuff.We only got a small portion of it cut and in the end we are very happy with our gems:One 5 carat London Blue Topaz (perfect clarity) in oval brilliant cut- more stunning than anything we have seen in jewelry stores.Two 2 carat sapphires cut in emerald cut which we will be having made into cuff links.One 2 carat emerald cut in oval brilliant which my hubby has not decided yet how to use.One 2 carat Iolite cut in oval brilliant which I will be having made into a ringOne 10 carat smoky quartz which had perfect clarity and we had cut in an oval brilliant to be made into a pendant.Those were probably 1/15 of the gems that we found.We also found a geode the size of a large baseball, which we had cut and we polished- very cool hands on geology experience!We'll be back again!

Had a blast! Being from Florida it was fun to be a tourist for once. Wife and I bought the $53 bucket and I happened to mention to one of the employees that we had no idea what we were looking for. They told us to scrape each piece on the mesh and if it didn't scratch to keep it . We did as told and came in with a whole screen full of gems. A huge amythest,blue sapphires,several nice topaz, imperial topaz, citrine, about a dozen garnets, dozen rubies and several emeralds of which we had two cut a one and a half carat and a two carat. Plus all the chips and broken gems you could shake a stick at. Be a tourist for once and give it a try.

After reading both reviews about this place, we (family of 12) decided to try it out..with some hesitation. We walked up to the place and were a bit weary. We bought a $53 bucket, which was rated 3 stars (they ranged from $6-$212 per bucket). The entire family shared the bucket and it took us about 20 minutes to shovel through it. As in the other reviews, sifting through the bucket and dipping it into the mucky water is a bit gross, but the kids loved it. When the bucket was gone, we went down to the bottom of the hill and met up with the guys that sift through the GOOD vs. BAD gemstones. If you get a chance to have the tall blond guy sift through your bucket, he knows a lot about gemstones...choose him.Out of this bucket, we found several Garnets, Emeralds, Sapphires (pink/blue), Aquamarines, etc. One of us even found 2 of the most rarest gemstones that is you can find (Imperial Topaz). Since we were so excited about our finds we headed over to the jewelry place right next door. Kenny (the owner and jeweler), was AMAZING!!!! He taught us about each gemstones we found and the value of each one. Kenny truly enjoys what he does, he is extremely patient, and has several ideas if you want to make your gemstones into jewelry. We loved this place so much we came back a couple of days later and bought a $212 bucket. Keep in mind the bigger the bucket the more gemstones you will find. OH BOY! We found 10 times more this time, then we did at the first visit. Huge Sapphires, Rubies, Emeralds, and etc. Again, we went over to Kenny and he helped us out again. The entire family was so happy with our day (s) at Foscoe Mining Co. that we will absolutely come back again!!