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Open Ground · Open ground

Emerald Hollow Mine

Fee dig · Brushy Mountains, Hiddenite, Alexander County, NC
ACCESSIBLE
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Emerald Hollow Mine: still unexplained.

Emeralds, hiddenite, sapphire, 60+ gem species

The law of this ground: Private fee mine, admission roughly $5, $20 by method; all finds are yours.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
Emeralds, hiddenite, sapphire, 60+ gem species
The account

The only emerald mine in the world open to public prospecting. Dig the banks, sluice the dirt, or walk the creek where the green stones wash down from veins no one has fully traced. The town is named for the gem found here and nowhere else first, and the hollow still gives up emeralds to people who paid less for admission than for lunch.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Emeralds, hiddenite, sapphire, 60+ gem species. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Hiddenite, Alexander County, NC. Private fee mine, admission roughly $5, $20 by method; all finds are yours.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Emeralds, hiddenite, sapphire, 60+ gem species. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Hiddenite, Alexander County, NC. Private fee mine, admission roughly $5, $20 by method; all finds are yours.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 35.905°, -81.087° View on the Map