A couple of days ago, I was on Tiktok when I came across The Consolidated Gold Mine. I wanted to plan our next family outing since The Husband had planned such a great one the weekend prior. Tiktok always has such great ideas. The other day my friend showed me this site irwinspaydirt.com, which was something related to buying gold pay dirt and it spiked my interest also. And, when I saw this also on TikTok, I knew I had to give it a try. So, I immediately went to look it up and see what it was all about. When I headed to the website I found out that you can tour the mine and it only costs $20 per person for our family of four. It’s $20 for people 13 and older and $14 for 12 and under. What really caught my eye was that we got to go 200ft underground to see the mine. That’s what sold me. I wanted to see what this was all about. It certainly puts ideas in your mind about getting your own gold, it’s no wonder that all these years later people still covet these precious metals and will look into things like gold ira reviews, and gold investment opportunities, for example, to see how they can invest in gold for their retirement. It’s quite intriguing.
We got up to make hour one and a half hour trip at 8:15am. We got there a little early so we paid our admission and just walked around the store that is in the building. It was a really nice store it had some products you really can’t find anywhere else. Things like souvenirs, jellies, and miner’s chow chow. It was really interesting. When you buy your admission ticket you also get a ticket to pan for gold and you can mine for precious gems. We found out that you can get jewelry out of the gems you find for different prices and they will mail it to you. After walking around for a bit we went to the loading area where we waited for our tour guide Miner Sam. Once he arrived we took the forty minute tour. We learned so much about the mine like that it was created in 1895. We also learned that miners who mined got paid as much as a dollar a day for working in the minds. There is a guy who checks for live dynamite who gets paid the most. He got paid up to $3 a day. He showed us different types of equipment that was used to mine like two different kinds of drills. It was a great learning experience. Although, given the priceless value of the precious metal, I’d say the miners still got paid less than what they deserved. After all, mining in these cramped up mines isn’t easy at all, and for what? Just $1 a day. I am not sure if they even had access to legal recourse (just like how a worker can get in touch with Columbus workers comp attorneys in case of any mishap in recent times) back then! Tough times, I tell you! I think there’s probably some reasoning for it, but it’s always the ones with the power who get to hoard the precious materials of the world.
Do you know about the gold in Fort Knox? It’s the largest and most guarded gold depository in the world, and the US Govt. holds all of it. While that sounds like good news for us Americans, it’s also startling if you know the total value of that gold! And visiting this mine just made me think of the collective effort it would’ve taken the miners to dig up that much of it. After we did the tour we got to mine for gold and gems. Gold panning is included in your ticket but panning for gems is a separate price. We shared a bucket for $30. The only one who found any gold was Tyler. I found a blue quartz fleck. After we panned for gold we panned for gems and had more success there. We found some really nice gems.
We had a really fun experience. It was really different than what we normally do. You can learn a great deal from this tour. This is another place where you might want to wear tennis shoes. It is really wet underground and can be very slippery. They do have handrails and rocks you can grab on to but you can learn a lot. I think it is a great outing for young kids and adults alike. I think my favorite part was panning for gold and gems. I felt like a kid again playing in dirt. The Consolidated Gold Mine is located in Dahlonega, Georgia right next to a Walmart. It is most certainly worth the trip.
