Luke did a great job teaching me and my son Paul how to pan for gold the first time. We had lots of fun and Paul wanted to stay longer to find more gold. read more

Crisson Gold Mine - Gold panning area - Kids Activities Near Me - Dahlonega, Georgia

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So fun! Panning for gold ain't easy lol. But the gem stone bucket was easier and more fun. Kids loved it. read more

So much fun and worth every penny! We found gemstones and a few flakes of gold! We will be back!

Our first time in Dahlonega! This place is so much fun! Worth the drive over from Chattanooga. They teach you how to pan for gold and we came home with some! A real working gold mine. Get Luke to show you how it's done! He did a great job helping us. We enjoyed it immensely and will come back soon! Great gift shop as well. read more

Luke was very knowledgeable and was a pleasure to have as our guide. He personally explained the entire process of the mine.

Brianna lied to my face today abt Glover POS Systems that they have to chg a 3% service chg for using a card! Glover doesn't say they have too as the daughter Brianna (owner)told me! First off it's only suppose to be 2.3-2.6% so not only it isn't required they chg above the percentage rate 3%! Debit cards shouldn't even be charged a fee, only credit cards! They don't even tell you they charge a fee, they ask cash or card but don't inform you of the extra charge! This is a way they take unnecessary money from you so they can make more money! Brianna was completely deceitful! It's actually against the laws! It would have been a nice experience but when the owner lies to your face it changed Everything plus ripping people off! When you're in business these overage fees you want to charge should be included in the price you charge for admission then, this is all part of owning a business that becomes part of your expenses! read more

Luke was an amazing help. We had a great time with the sample pan and gem bucket! We found gold and Luke helped us finish up our pans.

Looking for a fun family outing? Spend the day at Crisson Gold Mine in Dahlonega, Georgia! Luke was absolutely amazing--always ready with a smile and encouragement no matter how many times we asked, "What gem is this?" or "Can you help me find gold?" He patiently explained which stones would make beautiful jewelry, and Brianna helped us select the perfect gems to take home. It's a fantastic experience all around, and we can't wait to return with more friends and family! read more

Luke was definitely a smart ass, in a good way though. I really enjoyed him and his humor. 10/10 for real. We bantered him he bantered us in fun, we found gold, 0 complaints read more

Had a great time! Luke was so kind, patient, knowledgeable and helpful! Our 5 year old loved sifting for gems. Would recommend!

Excellent family place! Took our 6 and three year olds and they had a blast. Staff is very helpful and patient. Plenty of help to give everyone the attention they need. The shop is cool and well organized. The mini-museum/ old mining equipment you walk through it interesting. Will go again and suggest to others! read more

Crisson Gold Mine - Searching for gems! A wide variety in each bucket. The kids were very impressed and the guys working helped us ID gems. - Kids Activities Near Me - Dahlonega, Georgia

The people were very nice. Their products were fairly priced. We panned gold and was happy with our findings. They have some one there to help out and teach you to pan. We had fun and bought a bag of gold and a bag of gems and stones. read more

Did not get the help others have talking about. The young man directed us to our pans, gave us five second instructions then said, let me know when you get down to a small amount, and then walked off. Luckily, it was a regular customer that helped, HE was actually the one who made it fun. If it wasn't for him, I don't know if I would have found any gold. It was just a few specs, but I wasn't expecting anything big, I just wanted a souvenir. The gym buckets yielded several rocks. That was fun. Did not buy any jewelry. It would be a fun family activity. read more

The store at this place was similar to the other gold mining place in the area. Filled with gold, gems, trinkets, etc. They also offer to cut your gems for you, if you'd like... I'm not too sure of Consolidated does, but don't quote me on that. The tour here is self-guided and outside. They have a hydraulic pump, two stamp mills that still work today. You can take your time here, as you dont have to follow a group. We did the gold panning and the gem mining... my wife and I would both agree that the gem mining was more fun. We actually got a bunch of cool and interesting gems here. They offer small buckets to wheel barrow-sized fun so you can get more gems or gold. Since we hadn't mined for gems before, the guy there was very helpful in showing us how to do it. You definitely keep everything you find... gold and gems. Fun times for the entire family. read more

Crisson Gold Mine - Old stamp mill - Kids Activities Near Me - Dahlonega, Georgia

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We had an absolutely great time at Crisson Gold Mine! Jim at Bavarian Mountain Mini Golf in Helen told us to come here. He said it was his families favorite place to mine for gold and we can see why. Around since 1847, they were the first gold mine in Dahlonega to open their doors to the public. One of the employees (owner maybe) said she had been doing this for over 30 years. All of the staff was so nice. They allowed us to mine inside because it was around 45 degrees and windy that day. We bought the $45.00 deal for gold mining, which had plenty of dirt for three of us to mine multiple times. They would periodically come around and ask if we needed help. I think we accepted every single time because they obviously know how to do it better than us. All three of us found several flakes of gold. They give you a little vile of water to bring them home in. We had such a good time that we decided to do the gem mining too. For $30.00 we got a bucket full of dirt and found so many gems. And these aren't small little pieces, they are huge chunks. It was a lot of fun finding out which ones you were going to get and identifying them on the chart after. If you find one you really like they will cut it down and make it into a piece of jewelry for you. The gift shop had a huge variety of gold and gem related merchandise. I picked up an amethyst necklace that I love for under $15.00. If you're looking for a place to do a little gold digging (or gem) definitely go to Crisson Gold Mine. read more

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Nice lady greeted us and explained options. I was expecting this experience to be in a "mine," but it's just a walk down a hill with some older equipment scattered about. Nothing was operating and you just guessed what it was all about. Got down to mining area and found your typical gem mining setup - just a bit longer troughs. One for panning gold and one for gem mining. The large encased samples chart was super helpful to identify gems as opposed to those small paper charts. Very pricey but did get a lot of "dirt" for the experience. Gold panning was thoroughly disappointing. Guess I envisioned something different for this. Found a few flecks of gold and all of us were much happier to hand our pans over for someone else to swirl and dump the dirt away. 3 of 4 buckets of dirt were decently filled with gems. 4th bucket was pretty much all dirt with no gems. Went to lunch and daughter picked her favorite gem. Went back for a ring and earrings. Yikes on price. Hoping they come back and look great. Very clean (including restrooms) and kind staff. 1.5 hour drive to location from our Blue Ridge location was not really worth it. Would go if I was closer, but kind of like all other gem mining experiences. read more

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We had a great time panning for gold and gemstones last Thursday. The staff is very friendly and informative. The gentleman helped with the panning for gold and also told us what kinds of gems we found. We definitely recommend going there if you're looking for something different to experience on vacation. We will definitely go again!!! read more

Stopped by this place a number of times when passing through the are. Always spend time having fun panning and I always take dirt home to pan later. read more

Had another wonderful adventure. Hunter is a very good instructor and it was great seeing Tammy and Tony again after 30 years

Always a great experience. Repeat customer. And will make it a point to visit whenever I'm in the area. Super friendly, positive energy, family owned feeling, and overall fantastic place to visit. From the wide selection of items for purchase, to the panning activities out back, to the take-home bags of gem dirt. Even had a single rough ruby cut and polished into 2 beautiful gemstones to have set as pendants. Five stars. read more

We brought my son here for his 8th birthday and every single part of our trip was fantastic! This is a family owned business and you can tell. Everyone there was so friendly and explained things to the kids. Hunter helped us use the pans to find gold and stones. The family knew it was my son's birthday and I suspect they put a few extra stones in his bucket of sand for him to find. They also gave him a piece of a geode as a gift and he was so excited he was speechless. We came at the end of January and they had an indoor section so we could pan for gold inside as it was raining and a little cold. We were able to walk around outside and look at the museum of mining equipment and machinery and it was fascinating. If I could have, I would have stayed much longer and looked around. We will undoubtedly go back. Do not miss this treasure in Dahlonega! read more

We had a wonderful time panning for gold. Got some nice chunks! But, the highlight of our visit was having the pleasure of working with Raven to settle on how to use the ruby and emerald gems we found. She was so patient and knowledgeable! Can't wait to get my emerald ring and earrings plus a ruby pendant and earrings! read more

So. Much. Fun! Please please please try this at least once in your life. I found gold and all types of gems. I loved the staff and their awesome dogs! It was an amazing experience altogether. read more

We always have. Fun at Crisson. The kids love doing the gem sluicing and walking the property.

This was a lot of fun. Crisson Gold Mine is an actual, old gold mine from the mid 1800's which was a functioning, commercial gold mine until the 1980's. Currently, it is the oldest gold mining establishment in North Georgia that remains open to the public. They have a stamp mill there which is something like 130 years old, and they still run it to this day! I have memories of making a school "field trip" into Dahlonega as a fourth grader. We panned for gold on that trip, and it may have been this very same "gold mine." Now, as an adult, it is still just as much fun. And the general process hasn't changed. First, you go in and admire all the cool and shiny rocks and gems they have all over the place. Then you say, "Hey, I want to do some panning." And they'll sell you quantities of aggregate which you get to take to the covered sections in the back to do the sluicing thing and wash out all the stuff you don't want to keep. There is plenty of help on hand to teach you proper panning techniques. Gold flakes and nuggets are sold in a different can of aggregate than the gem mining materials. The gems are not sourced locally, but it is still fun to discover what you've got in the can. I think the gold is sourced locally, but don't quote me on that. Any gold you find you'll be able to take home in a small vial. If you find gems that you want cut or polished, they can do that for you here, too. Definitely worth a quick visit. Good for people of all ages. read more

Had a great time mining for gold.. Cohen was a tremendous help and made the experience much better. Helped my little girl with her pan. A+++

We had an absolute blast visiting Crissons. Terry, Tony, their daughter and staff are wonderful, friendly and there make sure you enjoy your visit. We're counting our days until our next visit. While there my husband bought more gold mining equipment and myself I bout me a pretty. read more

Crisson Gold Mine - Gold in quartz with diamonds - Kids Activities Near Me - Dahlonega, Georgia

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We had a blast! They allowed friendly dog on a leash as long as they don't go in the building. Owners are super nice and their daughter made some of our stones into a gorgeous mother's set. They over charged me on accident and called to correct the mistake. I had no idea and was very impressed with their integrity. read more

Crisson Gold Mine - Emerald and amethyst mother's set. - Kids Activities Near Me - Dahlonega, Georgia

Great place to take the family, lots of mining history there and the staff was super friendly

Crisson is a really cool place to visit! You can sit outdoors (and under cover) and pan for gold and gemstones for hours. It's well worth a stop in Dahlonega. Feel free to check out my blog for more information about the Gold Museum: https://practicallystacy.com/?p=356. read more

Crisson Gold Mine - Kids Activities Near Me - Dahlonega, Georgia

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Great time by all.. we took our 4 grand kids to Crisson. From the time we entered we were greeted by Melissa Ridley in sales who made our entire experience very good..she explained all there was to do, see in the museum and gold mining and gem mining experience. Even all the guys working the gold panning and gem area were also very friendly, accommodating and helpful to the kids making there experience a great one! It made everyone's time at this gold mine enjoyable ... The kids all left with something to cherish and take home .. Thanks everyone thats what customer service is about! One note.. be careful of GPS settings as once you get near Dahlonega some GPS settings are wrong or intermittent.. just remember its beyond the Walmart".. everyone knows where that is ! read more

Upon entering the gift shop, you can purchase tickets at the counter to "pan" for gold and gems. This gold mine is not open for touring. However, you may enter and see the big tools that were used in the late 1800s to mine for gold. This is family-run. Someone gave us a brief demo as to how to pan for gold. Luckily I saw a video and had some experience earlier in the day to understand the concept behind this. There were 2 others who were doing the same and we did not get supervision. However, they were open to questions and eventually one of them helped me identify gold. I suspect my technique was not correct. Well, that is what I like to believe since I did not get much gold flakes. The best part of this experience was looking for gems. We each got a bucket of sand. Using shovels, we scooped them into our pans and dunked them into the water trough. The smaller sand particles went through the net and after a few repetitions, we were left with big stones. We were advised by another patron to get the $30 bucket next time. We watched as she found more and bigger stones including rubies! This was a great experience. Definitely worth trying once. Support the local family as well! read more

Our family loves this place! Our 2nd year taking the kids mining here on 4th of July and never anything less than a great time for all! read more

Crisson Gold Mine - Crisson Mine 7/4/2018 - Kids Activities Near Me - Dahlonega, Georgia

Had a wonderful experience. When I had some time to explore north Georgia I stopped by Dahlonega, GA . The visitors center told me about two local gold mines to visits, I had to visit this one which is still and active mine. It has been in the family for four generations and the employees were very helpful when I was panning for gold , which I did get some gold flakes, and sifting through dirt to find gems, which I had a decent turnout. Great for families and explorers! read more

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Fun experience. Staff were super friendly and helpful. Great price. Pan for gold then gem searching. Fun experience for all. Afterwards you can have a gem made into jewelry for a decent price. Would highly recommend for anyone. read more

BUYERS BEWARE! I bought a $100 bag of "High quality gemstones". Took the rubies i got out of the bag to a lapidary today... their fake. I could tell when I saw them because they were cut into a perfect hexagon. Just too good to be true type of look... all I gotta say. Their fraud everything about them is probably fraud as well I mean who puts fake rocks in a bag? read more

The kids love it. There is a certain excitement in sifting through a bucket of mud and finding a gemstone or a speck of gold. I know it's salted. When I pay $50 for a bucket of mud I am anticipating finding the kissing cousin to the hope diamond. If not that perhaps a portion of the lost confederate gold. I've yet to buy the second bucket. Some do I suppose but Cletus's cousin what is out front barking up all this excitement has got them drinking the kool side when that happens. I think the deal is that if you don't find anything in your $50 bucket of mud they'll give you another one of a $5 off coupon to use on your next visit. As I said the kids love it and it provides hours of entertainment for them. They do not, however, rent golf clubs or sell beer. read more

We were an Christmas break and went here for fun. We really enjoyed it the gold panning and gems were fun. Our helper did a great job helping us making sure we were doing everything correctly. I would recommend. read more

This appears to be a serious mining store with a tourist trap as its centerpiece. Of course, we were there to pan for gold with our daughters, so I guess a tourist trap was exactly what we wanted. The store area was a 50/50 split between a tourist gift shop and what appeared to be serious mining equipment. The lady behind the counter was busy talking with someone who I guess was a serious gold mining enthusiast. As a result she had little time for us. We stood there for several minutes waiting for her to acknowledge us. We were about to leave when another employee arrived with his lunch in hand. He didn't really want to deal with us either, so he began eating his lunch. Finally, he came over (I guess he got tired of us staring at the back of his head) and told us how the place works. For $10 per person, you get to go into a room behind the gift shop with several troughs of water. There they give you a pan with sand already in it. You get a brief instruction on how to sift the sand using the water. You can also get a bucket of sand that you can use to sift for gems. Ten minutes and thirty dollars later, you come out with a small vial of gold flakes and a bag of miscellaneous gem stones. I knew going into this that it was a tourist trap, but even in a situation like this I expect a certain level of customer service. Our first clue should have been the website. The site doesn't have the address on it and the map is completely inaccurate. There are a couple of other mining operations like this in the area. I'd try them before I came here. read more

For roughly $10, this is a decent attraction if you're visiting with children. You get as much time as you like when panning for gold, so adults can spend a lot of time here finding gold flakes. Young kids might lose interest in about 5-10 minutes. The 2-gallon buckets with gemstones are a bigger hit with toddlers and young children, and it does take about 10 minutes to carefully get through it all. Finally, the new wagon ride pulled behind a tractor was a hit. $3/person. All in all, a decent value for about 90 minutes of entertainment. read more