Smoky Mountain Gold & Ruby Mine

We stopped for my 4 year old and it was a success. The only problem was they were having trouble with their water flow but made up for it by turning on a separate hose and giving my girl a very large colorful stone.

Stopped in for our son to have a fun experience. The $ 8 bucket (he got to keep also) had a bag full of gems for him to pan for. Some gems we were not even aware of and the gentleman helping us got them out for us after we thought we were done. Took our gems inside to be identified by Nikki. She was very pleasant and helpful as to educating us and not forcing any sell. We did opt to have one cut and polished ($ 20) as a keepsake along with the remaining raw gems he gets to keep.

Went and got my ruby appraised and sure enough its filled with glass. They basically bought a ruby whole sale and convinced me that they cut it but its only worth $ 20. I called Ruby and Gold Mine in Cherokee and told them that I had it looked at and its filled with glass and I got a ear full. They said send them the paperwork on the appraisal to prove it (thats gonna cost me another $ 100 and they expect that you wont do it). I told them if I do that then I will have to proceed legally to try and get everything I put in it back and then I heard nothing but shouting that they dont take threats. on and on. So i will apparently need to find a lawyer and see if I have any grounds to get my money back. They lied to me that they cut it in house. not possible with glass in it. then they lied that its worth $ 1200 both before I paid for it to be cut and after. then they lied that «they are cutting the rock that i found» for $ 85 per carat. So their business is based on lies. Found out they just chuck the rock back in the bucket of dirt for the next sucker. How can this business be open after all this time? My foundation of proceeding with the deal was that no business could be open that long if they are just scam artist. Wrong.

If you go there just to dig for rocks in a bucket of dirt, then this could be a 5-​star experience.
The jewelry side is just a mess. From my own experience, the sales people are VERY high pressure sales people. The lady tried to buy sympathy with me because she’d «been yelled at already a couple times today.» The rocks are obviously of WAY inferior quality than you’ll get at your local Wal-​Mart and sterling silver jewelry is the cheapest thing around. The emeralds are a HUGE mistake. Go look on ebay for the cut & quality that you’ll get from this place. The rocks that they claim cost them $ 80 per carat to cut you can buy online for $ 10 or less, not a problem. The emeralds come from Brazil, and I’m not so sure the one that you actually «find» is the one that they’ll mount for you. They do it in 24 hours, so the odds that they have a stash in the back just cut & waiting to mount is high. How would we know? The other quote that kills me was that «If you take this ring to a jeweler, it’ll appraise for 3 – 5 times as much as we’re charging you for.» Ummm, if you go online again and look up sterling silver jewelry with the cuts of rock they’re putting in there, you can get the same thing for ¹⁄₃ to ¹⁄₅ or lower.
Have fun digging out rocks from loaded buckets. DON’T BUY THE JEWELRY!