my super friend, shannon, took the day off from work and drove up from atlanta to spend the day with us. she brought her beautiful son, ollie, and her cute niece maddy. we would see shannon and her husband, earl, at the wedding tomorrow, but this was our only chance to visit with ollie.
today, we took them with us to pan for gold and gem stones. i hadn't really realized that georgia had such a large gold mining operation at one time. we were able to go down about 200 feet into an old mine and learn all about the different mining methods (this mine had just under 5 miles of tunnels - cleared about 5 feet at a time).
this hole is where they extracted a large quartz vein filled with gold, i think it was like 57 pounds of gold in a single day.
mason was chosen to demonstrate how they worked as a team with the hammer and pick.
we learned about dynamite too.
the mine was closed and flooded for many decades before they drained it. the price of gold dropped again before they got the mine operating so they opened it for tours. there are lots of rusted equipment down there, some even still operates!
madelyn was able to demonstrate one way children were used in the mines..
the gate behind maddux is from an old jail in london.
after our tour, the kids all panned for gold. you have to be slow and gentle while panning so it was a little stressful trying to keep them from sloshing out what little gold there was in the pans. thankfully, shannon took some pictures for me!
showing off their gold flakes from panning.
our church has "flat staffers" for the summer and we are supposed to post pictures from family activities - one being family vacations.
and then we switched to gem stones. they had a much easier time with this one.
raccoon cap in the gift store
once we finished up with our treasures, it was lunch time. we drove back to town to meet papa, nana and their friends to eat.
and then we explored downtown helen, ga. it is a really cute german-like town with shops, restaurants and a river tubing operation. it was pretty hot for us 'northerners' so we didn't last too long.
the candy store was a big hit!
back at the house, maddy begged to check out the creek out back. i am so glad she did! the kids waded around (well, manning and maddux slipped and soaked themselves) and skipped rocks. i even found a piece of quartz with gold in it!
me and sweet ollie
i failed to get a picture with shannon! i hate when i get home and realize that i didn't take a picture with our friends. i guess we'll just have to go visit again! love.
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