Hello everyone, I am happy to introduce to you another interesting place I discovered during my road trip through the Appalachian Mountain region of the United States. This is another new addition to the Worldmappin map, and I hope my post does this place some justice. While I was doing some hiking on the famous Appalachian Trail, I came across a cool little town called Franklin, in the state of North Carolina. This town is a popular stop for thru-hikers and is well worth a visit if you find yourself in the area. One thing this place is known for is its impressive gem and mineral reserves, which can be found in many of the surrounding mountains and riverbeds. I had the opportunity to try my hand at gold panning while I was in one of the nearby towns, but I wasn’t lucky enough to find anything of real significance. Luckily for me, I did happen to stumble upon a cool little gem museum in Franklin, called Ruby City Gems, a surprising little discovery that introduced me to many fascinating treasures.
At first glance, this place doesn’t seem like much, with a simple, albeit old school sign out front of a modestly sized building. There were many large and impressive Halloween decorations out front, which also threw me off from what was inside. When you walk in, you are immediately overwhelmed by the sheer amount of shiny objects to oggle at: rubies, diamonds, sapphires, quartz, and so much more. This, however, is just the store; the real fun is actually located in the back, where you follow a small staircase down into the museum.
The first thing to catch my eye was an impressive collection of arrowheads, which are carved pieces of flint that were used by the native American tribes for hunting and warfare.
The first small room you come to has an impressively large amethyst, originally found in Brazil, and weighing 835 lbs!
Just around the corner was a mysterious little dark room, where you flip the light switch before entering to shine a blacklight on these fascinating glow-in-the-dark rocks. Super cool!
Back in the room with the normal lighting, there was a whole wall of these cool egg-shaped rocks. These didn’t come out of the ground this way, but instead were polished into this shape with a special machine that I would see later. It is really cool just how unique the patterns all were. I would imagine many of these cool stones were relatively unassuming to look at before they were polished up.
Nearby, there were a few pictures of the founder of the museum, Ernie, as well as the current owner, “Big Al” and some of the employees over the years. I think this gave a nice personal touch to the museum.
Check out this cool petrified wood stump! This is caused by wood getting buried underground and fossilized over many, many years until it becomes stone.
World’s largest sapphire! Discovered by “Johnny Dollar” who must be a sort of local legend in North Carolina, because I went to a bar named after him in Charlotte a few days earlier.
Stalactites, like the ones you will see in caves, which are formed by dripping mineral deposits over thousands of years.
More than just rocks in here. Check out this shrunken head! I didn’t know these things were real, but I guess they are. There were even step-by-step instructions on how to make your own haha
Cool tools and other artifacts made by the native American tribes that once inhabited these lands.
I wonder how many microchips you can make with this much silicon.
“I’ve had a hard life, but I’m still smiling.” Gotta love a little rock humor! Haha
You can really find rocks in the shape of just about anything …whoever said geology didn’t have sex appeal?
They even had some fossils!
The collection also had some carved ivory pieces from China.
Rocks of all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Apologies for the photo dump, but I really found this place to be so cool, and a real hidden gem (haha) for anyone a bit interested in rocks, which I certainly am. If you found these pictures to be cool, then you should definitely try to visit someday, as I really only brushed the surface of all the cool pieces they had here.
I hope you enjoyed reading about the Ruby City Gem Museum.
All photos are my own. Have a great day!