(upbeat music) - [Jason] Buckets of ore, screens and cool flowing water provide young gem miners like Isaac all he needs to find his next treasure.

- Collecting rocks.

- [Narrator] Rhonda Phillips brought her grandsons, Jesse and Isaac to the Gem Mine at Emerald Village, continuing a family tradition.

- I started doing this with my sons when they were little boys.

It brings a lot of joy to my heart when they start picking out different colors and then we'll go home.

We'll take the card, and I'll teach 'em about all of the different minerals.

- [Alan] Emerald Village is a collection of mining related attractions, near Little Switzerland and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We have the mining museum, we have gem mining.

We have shops, walk-in trails, a whole village.

- [Jason] Ask owner Alan Schabilion how it all got started over four decades ago and he's quick to point fingers.

- Well, I can actually blame my dad on that.

He had the wild idea of coming to the mountains, finding some old abandoned mines and turning them into a museum.

We opened it in 1980.

I moved here about that time.

Did construction work on the buildings.

Been here ever since.

Some people would say, I have rocks in my head.

- [Narrator] Of course, creating a tourist attraction from an old mine required a rock solid business plan.

- Imagination and luck probably made a few mistakes but we've always been open to new ideas, new attractions, making it a little bit better each time, and making sure we have fun.

- And that plan seems to be working.

- We're actually working on the fourth generation so it's still very much a family business.

- [Narrator] For most, a visit to Emerald Village means exploring the rich mining history of Mitchell County.

- We call this, the Bon Ami mine.

If we were French, of course we'd say "bon amie" but none of us are French.

So Bon Ami it is.

Bon Ami makes a scouring powder.

Many people are familiar with it.

They made it for 125 years now using feldspar from these mines here.

Feldspar was a magic ingredient.

Actually 95% of the product was ground up feldspar, 5% was soap.

- [Narrator] Inside the mining museum, there's memorabilia related to Bon Ami, historical photos, tools, and various mineral samples.

Outside old mining equipment dots the landscape all around the property.

- All the various things the miners needed to work in these mines.

These were hard rock mines.

Drilling the holes and then packing those holes full of dynamite, blasting it down.

They used mules here to pull the railroad cars in and out of the mine.

It was hard work.

Nobody wants to be a miner.

Say we're paid 10 cents an hour, 10 hours a day, a dollar a day, six days a week, very hard, dangerous work.

- [Narrator] There are a dozen mines on the 88 acre property.

Most like the McKinney Mine though are too dangerous to enter.

But with some creative water management you can explore the Bon Ami mine.

There's old mining carts, drills, a black light room highlighting the minerals, and a lake full of trout.

But sorry folks, no fishing allowed, but you're allowed to feed them.

After exploring the mine in the museums at Emerald Village the next stop for most rock hounds, of course, the gem mine.

- We offer buckets that people can sit down at the the flume and we provide the screens, go through 'em pick out the pretty ones, keep anything you find.

For those that really want a real experience is the old mine dumps here have been open for collecting and so for a fee you can go out and spend all day on the dumps picking up whatever strikes you're fancy.

Probably won't strike it rich, but you're guaranteed to have fun.

- [Narrator] Fun, easy, and educational for the kids.

From the Avery County, 4-H. - Avery 4-H, during the summer, we have kids ages five through 12 and we take them on different field trips and so today our field trip is here to Emerald Village to let our kids explore rocks and gyms and so they've been looking forward to this and just to see their face light up when they find a a colored gem and they want to know what it is, and of course, they always think they're worth a million dollars every time they find anything cool.

- [Narrator] The real lesson for the folks visiting Emerald Village?

- [Jason] If people wanna know, am I gonna strike it rich?

Well, I tell you, but you're having fun, you're rich.

- For Carolina IMPACT, I'm Jason Terzis reporting.