Rockhounding in North Carolina

Gem Mountain Gemstone Mine

Private fee dig · Gem Mountain Gemstone Mine (private)

A family-run mine on Highway 226 South near Spruce Pine in Mitchell County, open since 1987. Visitors search buckets at a flume line, or join four-hour mine trips, and keep what they find; the mine can turn finds into jewelry.

Access: Fee; bucket sales end 30 minutes before closing. Per the operator, open March 1 to December 31, Monday to Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm (to 6 pm from Memorial Day to Labor Day), closed January and February.

Operator's site →

Access and fees can change. Verify on the manager's official page before you go.

National Forests in North Carolina

The Forest Service allows limited collecting of rocks and minerals for personal, hobby and noncommercial use without a permit on most National Forest System land, but in these forests removal is limited to surface collection only. Digging is not permitted, and large tools such as shovels, picks, rock boxes, sluice boxes and motorized equipment such as suction dredges are prohibited. Gold panning is allowed only in a stream bed, with a standard pan and a hand trowel at most.

• A reasonable amount is generally up to 10 pounds; more requires a permit.
• Metal detecting is allowed only on the sand area of certain designated locations.

Source: Recreational Mineral Collection

National Forest land

Forest Service mining rules list collecting mineral specimens with hand tools, gold panning, metal detecting and non-motorized hand sluicing among activities that need no notice of intent when they cause no significant surface disturbance. Forest Service rules also prohibit damaging or removing any natural feature, and individual forests set their own closures, so ask the ranger district before you collect.

Source: 36 CFR § 228.4, Plan of operations and notice of intent (National Forest mining rules); 36 CFR § 261.9, Property (National Forest prohibitions)

National parks and other NPS units

National Park Service rules prohibit possessing, removing or disturbing minerals, rocks, cave formations and fossils in park areas. Possessing or using a metal detector is prohibited too, unless it is broken down and packed away.

Source: 36 CFR § 2.1, Preservation of natural, cultural and archeological resources (National Park Service)

Fossils on BLM and National Forest land

Casual collecting covers common invertebrate and plant fossils only: a reasonable amount for personal, noncommercial use, picked from the surface or dug with non-powered hand tools, with negligible disturbance. It is allowed on BLM land and National Forest land that is not closed to it. National monuments within the National Forest System are closed. Fossils outside that definition, such as vertebrate bones and teeth, need a permit.

• BLM: up to 25 pounds of common invertebrate and plant fossils per person per day; a larger slab may be taken with hand tools to keep an embedded fossil intact.
• Fossils from National Forest land may not be sold, including casually collected ones.
• No casual collecting of any fossil on National Park Service or Fish and Wildlife Service land.

Source: 43 CFR §§ 49.800–49.810, Casual collecting of paleontological resources; 36 CFR §§ 291.11–291.12, Casual collecting on National Forest System lands

Artifacts and historic sites

Removing or disturbing archaeological, historic or cultural resources is prohibited on BLM, National Forest and National Park land. Leave arrowheads, tools and old structures where they are.

Source: 43 CFR § 8365.1-5, Property and resources; 36 CFR § 261.9, Property (National Forest prohibitions); 36 CFR § 2.1, Preservation of natural, cultural and archeological resources (National Park Service)