Thermal City Gold Mine, NC comments and reviews

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:42 pm

Post your comments and reviews here.

One thing I found out "after" my 2 night trip here was that:
1) Everybody recommends this place to their friends and
2) Nobody tells their friends about the 3 AM surprise.
3) Scared the hell out of us. Thought the world was coming to an end there for a minute.
I had a great time. We stayed in the cabin with the screened-in porch ten feet from the creek. I used a A51 Keene sluice and worked the bottom part of a pile of dirt someone had left. I got enough pickers to fill a locket I bought at the store which my wife still shows off. Would I go again? In a heart beat.

What others have had to say about their visit:
http://www.google.com/#bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&fp=23cf473b3da08d1d&q=thermal+city+gold+mine+reviews&lrd=lrd

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/panning-gold/349175-north-carolina-gold-mines.html

Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 7:08 am

Good bunch of people.

Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 10:20 am

I like Thermal City. I usually camp on the LDMA property on Vein Mountain, but I always end at Thermal City every evening to socialize with a few friends. The cabins are a great deal. The cabins are decent, and if you split one with someone, it doesn't cost too much more than putting up a tent. I have found decent gold in the river earlier this year.

Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:20 pm

Train?

Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:27 pm

Train doesn't bother me at all and I happen to get a kick out of Crystal Jim.
I haven't tried all the pay to play places but I'm working at it, but I think TC is the best so far. I will say that I haven't had a bad experience anywhere that I've been to yet.
dickb

Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 10:06 pm

The train does not bother me at all and Crystal Jim has peach flavored sipping water LOL.

It is a great place for newbies and to socialize, not to mention my last visit produced a few nice pickers.

Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 9:05 am

I've rented a camping cabin there several times and usually buy pre-screened soil. Some loads are better than others, just like one would expect in the wild. They dig their own soil and sell it either as is or pre-screened to what they claim is 1/4". My last 2 loads on my most recent trip had lots of stones a little larger than 1/4" but much less than 1/2". All employees have been very friendly and accommodating.
If someone has never tried a trammel this is a good spot to do so. A load of soil is not much more than if you ran it yourself thru a highbanker. You get a full yard in either case. One has 3.5 hours to run the soil thru the trammel, which is plenty of time. They do the cleanup of the trammel and give them to you. one needs a 5 gallon bucket so they can wash the cons into. There is not nearly as much black sand as I was getting in my highbanker.- (I just installed gold hog matting which should eliminate some of this.)
Everyone else I've met there has also been friendly and usually helpful if asked, as they're all there for the same thing.

Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 9:26 am

Great place have been many times over the years, Betty's smile is always a warm welcome, loyd has always been more then helpful took me on the tour of his property showed me where he was digging the old river verses the new,always will to shoot the breeze when I'm there, You don't get that at other places the prices are fair I always dredge more gold in dollar value then being charged 15.00 to dredge ( now to work on the gas getting there ha ha)

Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 1:56 pm

Sounds like a great place. I have heard a lot about it in the past. I'll have to put this one on the list.

Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 6:52 am

The train rumbling up and down mountain was expected but when they came down the mountain around 3:00 am with the brakes on and engines running hard was like being in a horror movie! WOW!

I found out that the RR did that on purpose and not all engineers do it. They lock brakes and run engine hard to speck time so they hit next set of tracks on time just down from TC.

Bunch of nice people there. Go deep with dredges. Gold can be found from pickers to specks. With all the rain, I bet that creek has been replenished with its deposits. Great family fun and good “for the money” pay dirt around comer at LS.

Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:52 am

I was there this last Mothers Day. did ok in the panning area, got some nice size flakes for the little amount of time I spent at it. I then went in the river same side and just down from the panning area and ran material from in and around the river coble. got quite a bit of black sand and a lot of specks. with a properly tuned small dredge setup for flour you could do pretty good just taking the top 8in and working side to side upriver. given the amount of black sand, I would NOT recommend carpet though.... I was running one of my drop riffle boxes which does not clog up with that kind of black sand quantity.

Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 6:22 pm

I have been to TC and I enjoyed it. Nice camp sites with a good atmosphere. I bought a $60.00 bag of paydirt and got about a 1/2 gram out of her. I did good at the troughs too. I would go back.

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 8:18 am

What is the pricing if you have your own equipment?

Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 10:50 pm

Ten bucks to sluice/pan in the river or pan at the flumes. 10 bucks to hibank or dredge with up to a 2 1/2 inch I think in the river. I usually just dredge with my 2 1/2 combo I built.

3 inch I think is 15 dollars. 4 inch maybe 20. I cant remeber those offhand as I dont use em, but they have the pricing up at their website.

If you want to maximize profits there from working the river, you find a good spot from panning 1st, then bring in the bigger recovery equipment and clean house.

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 5:13 am

So you dont have to pay for a load to run dirt, right?

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 6:52 am

Not sure what your asking here, can you rephrase your question? Loads of dirt are not free.

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 9:14 am

Ok,

For a day of highbanking (own)

Would be 10$ (astros reply)

Would that included dirt? Or, would you have to buy the dirt as well
($10 + whatever a load costs)?

Sorry - trying to plan a trip -

Thanks

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 9:38 am

http://www.thermalcitygoldmine.com/article.php?table=article&mode=search&article=7

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 10:02 am

I swear I searched that site up and down and did not see that page...???!!! Confused

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 6:45 pm

I bought one of those concentrate bags one time and it was loaded with gold.

Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 7:50 pm

My reply was about playing in the river only. Its ten bucks to hibank in the river with your own hibanker or dredge with up to a 2 1/2 dredge. Or at least it was last year, I dont see any prices now which means they might be raising/changing the rates.

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:05 pm

A load of dirt is $50, or $55 if you get it pre-screened to 1/4". I've found about the same amount of gold in both regular or pre-screened, but some swear they get more in the soil with rocks included. It's all placer soil. They are allowed to dig up a certain amount of soil from the stream flood plain each year. I personally use my highbanker and get the pre-screened soil. I get more than those who get it pre-screened since they lose volume due to quite a few rock that take up space in each load. Some loads have more gold than others but it's just like any other gold hunting, much is due to the luck of the draw or what part of the floodplain the load of soil came from.
You can also get the same size load of soil and run it thru one of their trommels for either $60 or $65. It take bout 3-3.5 hours to run a load.
One person can do it but 2 are suggested.
One can also rent the hi-bankers hey have on site but I'm not sure if dirt is included or not. I think one pays an amount and can run as much dirt as they can in a set time period.
I just looked at their web site and they don't have prices listed at this time. The prices I quoted were from 2013. Panning just went up from $5 in 2012 to $10 in 2013. I have a feeling the pre-screend will go up this year. They had originally planned to sell it mostly to those who use a river sluice but many highbakers also bought it.