Murphy to Manteo: Finding new adventures, historic detours, and the soul of North Carolina on the state’s longest highway: U.S. Route 64. Read the series.

At the bottom of a big hole in the middle of the woods in the foothills of the Brushy Mountains, the only sounds are the scrape-crunch of a steel shovel and the muffled thump of soil and rocks hitting the ground. Suddenly, a sparkling glint flashes, catching my eye in the mess of red dirt. “There!” I yell, and Alex freezes. He leans down, sifting through to find the shine, then places it in the center of his flattened palm. Quartz, its edge coated with glittery mica. “Finally,” Alex says. “I think we’re in the right place.”

I should clarify a few things: 1. It’s not my shovel doing the digging — it’s my husband’s. I don’t even have a shovel. I’m monitoring the situation. 2. This hole is deeper than I am tall, and it was here before we trekked through these woods, surrounded by dozens — maybe hundreds — of other holes of various sizes and depths. 3. We have a permit to be here. That is to say that all this excavating is perfectly legal — encouraged, even! I’ll come back to that. Because despite the fact that my only job is to stand here and hope, I’ve wondered several times over the past hour of fruitless digging if we should just give up.

But this shard of quartz and mica is a little nudge from the earth to keep going. What if? One more strategic scoop and — clang. The shovel scrapes against something even more solid than the tight-packed dirt, and several more chunks tumble out. Even though they’re largely concealed beneath layers of clay, there’s no mistaking their shine. Now we know we’re definitely in the right place. We’ve hit upon a vein of quartz and mica, and the high heat that was required to form these minerals millions of years ago indicates that — at least in this particular part of North Carolina — an even more tantalizing possibility may lie hidden in the dirt: emeralds.

• • •

A rolling drive along U.S. Highway 64 in Alexander County brought us here to Hiddenite. We’ve come to test our luck at Emerald Hollow Mine, which opened in 1986 and is the only emerald mine in the world where the public can prospect. Emerald Hollow is a mecca for many rock hounds, who flock there for the chance to uncover more than 60 types of naturally occurring gems and minerals. They come to look for rare emeralds, sapphires, and yes, hiddenite — the mineral whose 1879 discovery nearby is credited to mineralogist William Earl Hidden — in one of the most unique geological areas of North America.

Until recently, North Carolina was the only state where emeralds had been discovered, and North America’s only significant emerald deposits are found in Alexander, Mitchell, and Cleveland counties. In fact, the largest cut emerald on the continent was found on an Alexander County farm just 16 years ago. The location was fitting, considering that it was in the same county back in 1875 that J.A.D. Stephenson, a self-taught mineralogist, first realized that the green rocks that farmers were finding in fields were actually gems. You can now see the massive 64.83-carat Carolina Emperor at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.

And while Alex and I aren’t foolish enough to think we’ll stumble across a gem that spectacular, it’s easy to get sucked into the what if of it all.

• • •

Back In our hole, Alex scoops up the quartz and mica, as well as the surrounding dirt, filling two five-gallon buckets. We don’t know if they contain any gemstones. But we do know that the vein of mica and quartz we’ve exposed indicates potential conditions for gems like emeralds to have formed, too. Now, we’ll scoop the contents of our buckets into a sluice and hope some more.

There’s no doubt Alex and I are amateurs when it comes to rocks and minerals. We grew up looking for shark teeth on our coast, a hobby that similarly demands a sharp eye (and also a strong back). But compared to the labor of prospecting, fossils seem like easy pickin’s. I share this observation as Alex hauls our now-50-pound dirt buckets and stops to wipe his brow. “Hmph,” he says, eyeing my pristine clothes and blister-free hands. But nobody stays clean at the sluice — which is half the fun.

Rock hounds flock to Hiddenite for the chance to uncover 60 types of gems and minerals.

We use spades to scoop our dirt into screens, which we shake as the water rushes past, feeling like kids on a treasure hunt. Many who come to Emerald Hollow bypass the holes and the creek just to sift through buckets of “salted” dirt at the sluice. And even without buckets that are guaranteed to be filled with gemstones, I can see why. With each screenful, as the red dirt washes away, there’s a moment when I’m convinced that something magnificent and sparkling and green will be revealed — but alas. Just ordinary rocks, mostly. We brush at them cluelessly, thankful for the knowledgeable staff at Emerald Hollow who — with a quick glance — tell us what we’ve found. Which, in the end, does not include emeralds, or sapphires, or hiddenite.

Still, our chunks of quartz flecked with mica sparkle and shine even more brightly now. It’s not the mineral we’d hoped for, but it’s a treasure formed and found in North Carolina’s soil nonetheless — and a reminder of the real thrill: the what if. A reminder that whether we’re searching for fossilized shark teeth on the shore or rare gemstones in the Foothills, our state glimmers with possibility.

Emerald Hollow Mine
484 Emerald Hollow Mine Drive
Hiddenite, NC 28636
(828) 632-3394
emeraldhollowmine.com

More to Explore: Read our guide to seven gemstones you can find in North Carolina at ourstate.com/precious-stones.