Dahlonega Gold Mine

 We started our Science curriculum with rocks and minerals.  Since the Georgian mountains are known for their gold mines, and gem stone mining, we decided to go and do our own mining.  That led us to Dahlonega Gold mines.

First we mined for gems.

The best part of our day was spent with this ol' southern miner.  His accent was as thick as his beard.  I think Rob decided, right there, what his 'golden years' goals were.  He went through all of our gem stones and let us know which stones were precious and which ones were semi-precious.  He offered to cut a few up so we could set them, but we decided to just hold on to the raw stones.  

Next we did the mine tour, which was a lot of fun.

I caught this little moment, just by luck.  Emmett sure loves his Daddy.

After the tour was over, we did a little more mining, but this time for gold flecks.  The most interesting part was that the sand they used to sift through for the gold was just picked up from the river down the road.  The river is still full of flecks of gold, just like it was during the gold rush, only now the majority of the gold veins have been excavated.