Mason Mountain Mine and Cowee Gift Shop was a wonderful mining experience. The mining advisor greeted my family and me in a warm and inviting manner to begin our day. He educated us on the long family history and tradition of the Mason Moutain Mines as well as assisted us in identifying gems in the rough. Once my family and... More

I visited with my 81 year old mother and 8 year old daughter, as well as other family. Brian was amazing at helping us identify our finds. He was also very friendly, in fact my daughter spent more time "hanging out with him" than she did mining. We found a lot of local stones as well as enjoyed our finds... More

Tom , Ginger and Brian made my family's visit a highlight of our trip. Brian spent a good deal of time helping everyone with our search and was very patient in answering questions of my 8 year old niece. Tom and Ginger were great at showing us our "finds" and helping design our new jewelry. I would highly recommend Mason... More

I have mined and shopped at this business for over 12 years. You can dig UNSALTED or SALTED! You tell them what you prefer and they will provide it. I have purchased or dug up more than 30 gem stones from them and the work and quality have never been in question. This is a wonderful family run business. More

My wife and I went for me to do a half-day of mining but stayed the whole day! I mined in the dig pile, which contrary to another reviewer who reviewed the wrong mine with a very similar name, it is not salted at all and comes directly from Tom and Ginger's family mine. People who may want to purchase... More

This place is not terrible as long as you know what you are getting into. First of all, this place has a dig pile, but everything is salted. We thought we had some great finds, only to find out from a lapidary that most of what we had was garbage and imported from other countries. For example, we were told... More

After a fun trip to Franklin and lots of mining at Mason Mountain Mine, we selected a few of our sapphires and rubies to have cut and mounted. We had a earring neckless set in lighter blue sapphires with cabracon cut in silver for our daughter. Then I had the darkest sapphires faceted in yellow gold and watermelon ruby in... More

We went to Mason Mountain Mine & Cowee Gift Shop for two days and on the third day we thought it would be smart to at least try another mine, so we started at Mason's Ruby & Sapphire Mine and that was so BAD we left after two hours and went back to Mason Mountain Mine & Cowee Gift Shop!... More

We went to three mines in the area. At this mine, we shared a salted bucket. We were very happy with the amount and variety of stones in the bucket. In the store, they were happy to identify everything and showed us how to tell the differences. This would be great for kids or anyone not wanting to do a... More