Highlands has always been a place where natural wonders lie just around the bend—waterfalls that tumble through gorges, rhododendrons that burst into bloom each spring, and, hidden in the very soil beneath our feet, a treasury of gemstones. Macon County, home to Highlands, has been dubbed the Gem Capital of the World, and for good reason. For well over a century, locals and visitors alike have sifted through creeks and gravels, chasing flashes of color that tie Highlands to its sparkling reputation.
The fascination with gems began in earnest in the 1870s, when farmers in nearby Cowee Valley turned up strange, glittering stones in their fields. They had stumbled upon corundum, a mineral second only to diamond in hardness and the parent of both rubies and sapphires. Add chromium to the mix, and the crystal blazes red. Infuse it with iron and titanium, and you get sapphires in blues, yellows, and pinks. Word of these discoveries spread quickly, drawing in prospectors and eventually the attention of Tiffany & Company.
By the 1890s, Tiffany purchased land and invested in large-scale mining operations, hoping to locate the great vein of corundum that had scattered gems across the valleys. But the “mother lode” proved elusive. After years of effort, Tiffany left empty-handed. That lingering mystery—that somewhere under these ridges may still lie the seam that seeded all the rubies and sapphires of western North Carolina—still sparks the imagination of geologists and rockhounds today.
The stones themselves, however, kept Highlands on the map. In 1951, Archie and Hazel Jellen of Miami opened the Highlands Gem Cutting and Mineral Shop on 4th Street, moving into the abandoned Jackson County Bank building. It was the first gem shop in Macon County and quickly became a landmark. Archie was an accomplished gemologist, having helped open the mining section of Cowee Creek, and his Mineralogy Handbook mapped local mines and chronicled Carolina’s gem history. His shop dazzled visitors with cases of emeralds, rubies, and sapphires—the rarest and finest the region could offer. Children could count on leaving with a free sample, often garnets plucked from Highlands’ rocky roads, where they were once as common as marbles. For nearly three-quarters of a century, the shop stood as the second-oldest retail business in Highlands. When it closed in 2025, locals felt the loss keenly. As one longtime customer reflected, it was more than a store; it was a place where generations first felt the thrill of holding a stone born deep in the earth, and where the culture of gem discovery lived at the heart of downtown.
That culture continues at the Franklin Gem and Mineral Museum, housed in the old county jail. Its collection tells the story of the region’s geological diversity, from moonstones that shimmer in pearly whites to smoky quartz the color of mountain mist. There is a 2.5-pound ruby discovered in the Cowee Valley, garnets glowing like embers, and even emeralds from the Spruce Pine region further north. Museum manager Carl Williams explains the fascination of these stones in simple terms: rubies always glow red under a black light, and both rubies and sapphires reveal a six-sided crystal form, nature’s own mark of authenticity. Beyond the glass cases, Williams shares stories of remarkable local finds—a visitor who unearthed an aquamarine later cut and appraised at $8,000, another who turned up a nine-carat emerald that became a pendant set with diamonds valued between $18,000 and $20,000, and couples who celebrated anniversaries by finding rubies on their special day. Those moments, he says, capture what keeps people searching: the thrill of discovery, whether it’s a child shrieking over the flash of sapphire or a seasoned rockhound surprised by a garnet glinting red in the light.
For those who want to do more than admire, the real adventure begins at the flume. Just nine miles from downtown Highlands, perched above the roaring Cullasaja Gorge, Jackson Hole Gem Mine has been turning ordinary afternoons into sparkling discoveries for decades. Originally Skywater restaurant (1949), then a general store and later a restaurant again, the property became a gem mine in the 1980s. In 1997, Jane and Chuck Green purchased it, and today their granddaughter Tiffany Mungern carries on the tradition with the help of four generations of family members.
Jackson Hole’s flume is covered, so the search continues rain or shine, and the use of river sand rather than heavy red clay makes it cleaner and more comfortable. “Everything we offer comes from right here,” Tiffany explains. “We want people to leave knowing the geology of the area. It’s part of what makes Highlands and Macon County the gem capital of the world.”
Learning to see as miners once did is part of the fun. Rubies and sapphires appear in six-sided crystals; garnets gleam glassy red or brown; moonstones catch the light with a mysterious glow. Even the common quartz tells a story, its amethyst purples and citrine golds shaped by geologic conditions eons ago. Every stone in the sieve is a fragment of the earth’s history, and finding one connects you to forces that worked invisibly for millions of years.
Gem mining in Highlands is more than a pastime—it is the story of a community that grew up around the treasures hidden in its soil. From Tiffany & Company’s fruitless search for the mother lode, to Archie and Hazel Jellen’s shop on 4th Street, to the museum’s ruby the size of a loaf of bread, to the children leaning over the flumes at Jackson Hole today, it is a story still unfolding. Each garnet, sapphire, or emerald pulled from the sand carries with it the wonder of the mountains themselves, and the reminder that the true riches of Highlands are found not only in its sweeping views, but in the hidden beauty waiting to be discovered beneath our feet.