Bo's Mine Tours Email:  bo_smith@bellsouth.net Cell Phone: (904) 708-9186 Last Updated: February 13th, 2012 Tour Availability   Tours will begin again May 25th , 2012 (Memorial Day weekend)

Personally guided tours to real mines. Dig in mine tailings. Keep what you find.  Absolutely safe for family groups. Nothing underground. (Except for Abernathy/McBee Mica Mine Tour) Learn how to identify minerals and the geology and history of the Spruce Pine Mining District! Equipment provided: rock hammers. buckets, trowels, shovels, sieve trays. Gloves and eye protection strongly recommended but not provided! Group Rates- $25 per person (minimum $75) for a 3 hour tour plus owner fees for all mine tours except Abernathy/McBee Mica Mine Tour which is $30/hr (min $150) for tour groups up to 6 people. See individual mines for owner fees.

Learn about mineral identification, history, and basic geology of the Spruce Pine Mining District	See old mine equipment, shafts, and mine works (We do not go in to any shafts or tunnels except McBee Mine)
Excellent activity for family and home school groups	Individual tours are also available

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How to Sign Up for a Mine Tour

If you would like to  reserve a date for a mine tour, call or text (904) 708-9186 or send an email to bo_smith@bellsouth.net  and include your name, the desired date, and the number of adults/young adults (16 or older) and children (15 and under) in your party.  To confirm a date for a tour, you will need to send a check (non-refundable deposit ) made out to Bo's Mine Tours for $50.  The first party to send a deposit will have the choice of mine and meet up place and time.  If a second party would like a mine tour on the same day, I will add on the second group for the mine selected by the first group; not to exceed 10 total people for both groups.

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Select from These Mines
Click on these links for details

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Crabtree Emerald Mine
The Crabtree Emerald Mine is the only mine site in this area which offers the public the opportunity to find specimens of Emerald that are naturally occuring at the mine site.  Golden Beryl is also found along with some nice black tourmaline crystals. 

The Mine Entrance is covered by a Small Pond

Collecting is From Tailings Next to the Pond

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Sinkhole Mica Mine
The Sinkhole MIca Mine is one of our most popular tours because it offers an excellent mineral collecting experience at one of the area's most historic mines. The Sinkhole Mine offers a consistent opportunity to find small "gemmy" Garnets in the mica/feldspar/smokey quartz matrix of the "Spruce Pine Pegmatite". If combined with the Kona/Silver History tour is an outstanding tour for family and school groups.

Sinkhole Mine Upper Mine Shaft

Sinkhole Mine Lower Tailings

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Silver Family/Kona History Tour
I am offering a side tour which is convenient for either the Sinkhole Mine or Abernathy/McBee Mica Mine tours. Located a few miles south on Rte 80 from both the Marble Mine and the Sinkhole Mines, it exemplifies how one of the first families to settle the area farmed and mined the area resulting in numerous stories and legends such as the Frankie Silver Legend. The tour is based on numerous trips to the area, attending the 10th Anniversary showing of the DVD, "The Legend of Frankie Silver" at the Burnsville Theater, research conducted at the Ruth Wray Museum in Burnsville, and interviews with several Silver family members.

This the beautiful community of Kona. It was first settled by George Silver Jr. and his family in the late 1700s.

This log home was built by Jacob Silver (one of George Silver's sons) between 1805 1nd 1809.

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Ray Mica Mine
The Ray Mine offers a good opportunity to find good quality Aquamarine and Kyanite.
I am working on receiving a permit from the Pisgah National Park Service to lead tours to the Ray Mica Mine.
  In the meantime, feel free to contact me about Ray Mine and receive directions to the mine.  There are numerous restrictions concerning collecting at the Ray Mine! Click on the Ray Mica Mine link above for more information about the mine and minerals you can find there.

The parking area at the Ray Mica Mine trailhead

Directions to the parking area at the Ray Mica Mine trailhead: From Burnsville take Rt 197 South (The Pensacola Road) for .7 miles Turn Left on Bolens Creek Road for 1.4 miles Turn Left on Ray Mine Road to the top of the hill GPS Coordinates: N 35 deg. 53.241 min. W 082 deg. 16.733 min. The Pisgah National Forest land begins at the post with the yellow and black poster on the right in the picture.  The land in front of the post is private land. The land surface at the initial portion of the federal land is very rough and needs to be improved.  The parking area at the trailhead is small.

Size of mine entrance before mine entrance work.	Water draining from new mine entrance after recent work and before the cave-in..
Collecting area is tailings from Abernathy and McBee mines located between the railroad tracks down to the river.	Image of McBee tunnel from just inside the opening. See more pictures from inside the tunnel by clicking on the link above.
Resting at the Marble Mine traihead before and after the one mile hike along the railroad tracks to and from the McBee Mine	Swimming in the N.Toe Riverjust above the McBee rapids provides a pleasant break from the hard work at the mine site.

The Martin Mine Trail is an Easy Family Hike

The Martin Mine Trail is Along the Beautiful S. Toe  River

Spruce Pine Pegmatite  (smokey quartz, alkaline feldspar, and mica)

Geologic History: The Spruce Pine Pegmatite formed as the result of the intrusion of granitic magma which was injected into the existing Precambrian (greater than 1 billion years old) metamorphosed sedimentary rocks during the Devonian Period of the Paleozoic Era (about 350 million years ago). The cooling rate of the magma deep inside the Earth was very slow resulting very large sized pieces of the primary minerals in the granite rocks. This was a time in geologic history where the North American Plate collided with other plates of the Earth's crust resulting in the formation of The Appalachian Mountains. This mountain range was very high; higher than the American Rockies and perhaps even higher than the Himalayas. Subsequent cycles of metamorphism produced additional minerals in the pegmatite body. Cycles of weathering and erosion of the moutains over 300 million years removed tens of thousands of feet of rock material creating the piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain and reducing the present Blue Ridge Mountains exposing the Spruce Pine Pegmatite.

Economic Uses:  The Spruce Mine Pegmatite has been a major factor in the economic development in the area which is currently the world's primary producer of high quality silica (quartz) for use in critical computer hardware (ie: silica wafers for computer chips). The feldspar was used in china and glass making in the past but is currently primarily used in the United States for building material products such as sheet rock.  The mica was used by Native Americans in the area for thousands of years for ornamental purposes. The Cherokees traded mica with other Native Americans east of the Mississippi River for materials such as flint which was used to make tools. Mica was an important mineral resource in the first half of the 20th century. Inventors of the first electrical equipment such as telephones, telegraph transmitters, and other electrical equipment used mica as an insulator. Due to its transparency and high heat resistance, it was used for furnace windows. Due to its flexibility, it was used for windows and curtain material for coaches. During World War II, Mica was considered a strategic material and the price was supported by the federal government. Mica mining boomed until the mica was removed from the strategic materials list in 1958.  Other minerals associated with the pegmatite; such as emerald, aquamarine, golden beryl,and garnet are of high interest to gem dealers and mineral collectors.

Minerals found in the Spruce Pine Pegmatite Mining District: The primary minerals of the pegmatite are feldspar, quartz, and mica.   These three minerals are the most commercially important Spruce Pine pegmatite minerals because of the purity and abundance of the minerals and because they occur in large crystalline masses (due to the very slow cooling of the magma).  Several types of feldspar can be found in the pegmatites in the area; three types of alkali feldspar, two types of potash feldspar (Orthoclase and Microcline: potassium aluminunum silicate) and soda feldspar (Albite: sodium aluminum silicate). Two types of plagioclase feldspar; Oligoclase (mostly sodium with some calcium alumunum silicate) and Labordorite (with more calcium and less sodium than oligoclase) are also found in the area. Amazonite, a relatively rare green variety of microcline feldsapr and Moonstone, a gemstone variety of orthoclase is also found here. The quartz, SiO2, is sometimes clear and colorless (var. rock crystal). But normally, it is translucent and usually has a gray color (var. smoky quartz) or white (milky quartz). Muscovite mica is which is the most valuable variety for commercial uses is normally a silver to light brown color but is sometimes green and even a rum or ruby color. Also, commonly found are a dark brown variety of mica called phlogopite and a black variety which is known as biotite. There are numerous other minerals found in association with the pegmatite which are of interest to mineral collectors and in some cases have been commercially mined.  The most common of these minerals is garnet which is usually found as almandine, which has been mined and used as an abrasive due to its hardness (7 on the Mohs’ Hardness Scale).  Another variety of garnet, rhodolite, is less common but is a pale rose to red gemmy garnet which is sought by gem and mineral collectors.  Tourmaline, a complex silicate rock forming mineral is normally found as crystalline masses and often as crystals of the black variety (Schorl) but is occasionally found in the dark green variety highly prized by collectors.  Kyanite, a blue bladed mineral is sometimes found associated with tourmaline.   Beryllium minerals, Beryl, and the mineral apatite are commonly found as accessory minerals in the more alkaline pegmatite rocks.  Beryl (hardness 71/2-8) is sought by collectors as a gemstone in several varieties; aquamarine (pale green to blue), goshenite (colorless), heliodore (yellow/gold color), and emerald (dark green).  Apatite occurs as a pale beige to green color.  The green variety of apatite can distinguished from varieties of beryl (although both occur as hexagonal crystals) due to its lesser harness (5) and because it produces an orange color under short wave fluorescent light.  Zoisite, the pink gemmy variety called Thulite, also occurs in the pagmatite and can be confused with garnet.  Other accessory minerals found with the feldspar are blue and green Hyalite Opal, and Autunite as well as other uranium minerals.    Several metallic minerals occur within or near the pegmatite. The Titanium minerals ilmenite and rutile and molybdenite (MoS2) have been found in association with quartz veins in the Spruce Pine Area.  An iron mineral, magnetite was mined in the Cranberry area of Avery County from the Civil War days (used for rifle barrels) and during the early days of automobile manufacturing until the mines were closed in the 1930s .  Sulfide metallic minerals; galena (lead sulfide), pyrite (iron sulfide), chalcopyrite (copper iron sulfide) and possibly argentite (silver sulfide) can be found in Avery and Caldwell counties. There are also stories of gold and platinum being found associated with these minerals.  Early Spanish explorers came to the Spruce Pine area in the early 1600s and spent over a hundred years in the area looking for gold and gem minerals. The first American gold rush took place in the 1830s-1850s in North Carolina.