Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
May 15, 2008 issue
Thar’s Gold In Them Hills, And Other Valuable Stuff!
Come on Up and Get it!
By Charles Heatherly
If you see a kid coming from Mystery Hill these days with a “I’ve-got-a-frog-in-my-pocket grin,” it might just be that he’s got something to grin about.
That actually happened to a 15-year-old from Durham earlier this year who visited the newly opened gem mine at Mystery Hill and left with a ruby worth enough, experts say, to fund his college education.
To set the record straight, it really isn’t a gem mine, but it’s the next best thing and in some ways better.
Wayne Underwood, the proprietor of Mystery Hill for the past 40 years, is always looking for something to attract more visitors. He may have found a diamond in the rough with the addition of Docs Rocks gem mine and shop.
Randy McCoy, the driving force behind Docs Rocks, a native of Kingsport, Tenn., is no stranger to the area but he was gone for a while. First for 13 years in the U.S. Army as a medic with the Special Forces, and then a stint at Duke University’s Medical School. That’s why they call him Doc.
“Business is up already as a result of the new gem operation and people are happy,” Underwood said.
For $10, people can buy a bucket of ore and begin prospecting. McCoy guarantees that everyone will find a stone worth at least $10 or they will get more ore until they do. At that rate, McCoy doesn’t make much money on selling the ore. It is in his vested interest to make sure people find a valuable stone because he is a qualified gem cutter—lapidarist—and offers to cut your discovery into a fine piece of jewelry.
In addition to running the new gem shop at Mystery Hill, McCoy is going back to school at ASU. He has much to show for his interest in this avocation. Ask him what precious stones he has found in these nearby hills and among several specimens he will show you is a seven-ounce chunk of pure gold.
The ore at Docs Rocks comes from three gem mines in the Spruce Pine and Franklin areas and are thoroughly mixed, which he says increases the likelihood of finding something worthwhile.
“We do not salt the ore nor tamper with it in anyway,” McCoy said.
Several visitors, in addition to the Durham kid, have made valuable discoveries.
Whenever a customer finds a rose quartz crystal, the official Breast Cancer Gemstone, and has McCoy cut and set it, a portion of the proceeds are donated to cancer research in tribute to McCoy’s late sister Rotina, a victim of breast cancer.
North Carolina has long been known as the gem capital of the world. Just 40 miles to the west of Mystery Hill is Spruce Pine, home to dozens of mines featuring significant discoveries of valuable minerals for more than a century. Hiddenite, just 40 miles to the east, has recorded some of the largest garnets and emeralds ever found in North America. The largest single emerald crystal, weighing 1,438 carats, was found in Hiddenite in 1969.
The Grand Daddy mineral discovery in North Carolina occurred in 1799 when the son of Cabarrus County farmer John Reed found a 17-pound gold rock in Little Meadow Creek on his farm. Not realizing its potential value, the family used the bright yellow stone as a doorstop at the Reed House for three years, until a guest mentioned that it might be gold. In 1802, a Fayetteville jeweler identified the stone as pure gold and purchased it from Reed for exactly what he asked for it—$3.50.
Buoyed by this success, Reed returned to the farm and began the Reed Gold mine, now a North Carolina State Park. Using only crude pans to wash the gravel, miners found gold worth an estimated one hundred thousand dollars during the next two decades. Gold mining continued to be an important activity in North Carolina until the gold discovery in California in 1848.
North Carolina has important deposits of some sixty different types of naturally occurring gems and minerals including feldspar, lithium, mica, olivine and prophyllite. Many of these are very rare, including ruby, emerald, aquamarine, sapphire, garnet, topaz, amethyst, citrine, rutile and tourmaline. There seems to be an abundance of world-class smoky and clear quarts crystals in the mountains.