Blue Diamond Gemstone Panning reopens in Cary; offers new experience where kids can 'mine' in a cave
New editions include a cave that kids can walk inside and "mine" for treasures.
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Owner Phil Hathcock would ship in bags of dirt filled with gems and minerals from western North Carolina and others with fossils from the Aurora area in eastern North Carolina. As water ran down two sluices, kids dumped some of the bag into a pan and placed it in the sluice. The water washes away the dirt and reveals the citrine, shark's teeth and other finds.
After the 2015 season, Hathcock closed Blue Diamond for a few years. But, this month, he reopened the sluices and added more activities for kids!
Among the new editions is a cave that he's filling with finds for children to "mine" in. Check it out!
Other new activities include:
- A break-your-own geode station. "Kids pick a geode, then get a hammer and safety glasses and go break it open," he tells me.
- Preserved bugs for kids to check out with a microscope
- A play structure, which will be installed soon
- A paint-your-own rocks station
- And ... soon ... an excavation station where kids can break open plasters to reveal gems and fossils
Blue Diamond offers packages for birthdays, private parties and field trips. He also plans to launch a day camp soon.
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