Consolidated Gold Mine

An absolute blast! Our tour guide was fun and informative. The mine is easy to navigate but plenty of water and some mud. A jacket may be necessary for some. The gold panning at the end was so fun for all of us. We tried the gem bucket and had fun watching the kid react. The gift shop is full of really unique items. All the staff were friendly and helpful. This was way fun for the family.

If you’re in town, definitely stop by here. This was the best experience we had while visiting. It was very informative and such an incredible experience to be able to go down into the mines themselves. Our guide was Tyler (I hope I’m remembering that correctly, I’m attaching photos just in case), and he was really nice, had a great sense of humor, and did an excellent job highlighting the intense and often shocking working conditions of the kids who dug and blasted the mines. The gift shop also had some really cool items that felt fairly priced, so I picked up quite a few things. Highly recommend checking this place out!

This was easily one of our favorite experiences on our trip to Dahlonega! It was so cool and educational for our entire family. Our tour guide was great both informative and funny and we really enjoyed every part of the tour. Then we did some gem mining after and I highly recommend adding that as part of your experience especially if you have little ones. They get to keep their gems and my boys are already planning to put them in a cool cabinet when we get home! Everyone was super nice and they have a TON of cool stuff in the gift shop.

We highly recommend the consolidated gold mine! This experience is incredibly educational and engaging. Our guide Cam did a wonderful job bringing Georgia’s gold rush history to life. The underground mine tour is exciting and informative where you both see history and experience it! The gold-panning is a fun hands-on addition, complete with a take home souvenir. Recommending sweatshirts or jackets, it’s around 55 degrees and cool in the tunnels.

This place was so awesome! We got the $50 gem bucket and it was so worth it! We ended up with 2 full bags of gems. The tour of the mine was really amazing. I wish I could remember our tour guides name, he was a younger man. He did a great job. Full of energy and fun. My 11 year old couldn't stop talking about how awesome the tour was. Definitely recommend this place!

Very cool and educational tour. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and added some humor into the tour. My advice would be if you’re cold natured bring a long sleeve shirt or jacket to wear on the tour- it’s chilly. Also would wear close-toed shoes, it’s wet and rocky. Just about everyone had mud on the backs of their pants legs from walking down the narrow stairs, so wear some pants and shoes you wouldn’t mind getting dirty. Overall would highly recommend!

The tour guide had an amazing job. He was the great one. It was my first time exploring gold mine and it was totally worth it!!! This place is amazing. There were a lot of stories to be told and some tools still work which so surprised me. The floor is a little bit slippery, be careful. And a lot of stairs, be ready to walk a lot. They have charms in every corners inside. Worth for visit for sure.

This is a great place to visit. My wife and I stopped in and did the tour. We also did the panning for gold and gems. We found some small flakes of gold. It was a thrill to see the process of how the early miners worked and the conditions which they faced. The guys were tough!

This was my first time visiting a gold mine, and enjoyed it! The tour took us down into the mine and explained the tools and process of finding and extracting gold. It did involve a lot of walking and some steep, wet declines and stairs, so I would not recommend to anyone with mobility issues. Our tour guide was informative and entertaining! We ended the tour by panning for gold (included with the tour price, but panning for gems is an additional fee). You get to take home one gold flake which they put into a tube of water for you. Gift shop had a large variety of items. Highly recommend!

Although the price of admission is a bit steep for its size, it was worth it since I got to take home a sample of gold and got to see what the mine was like back then including the working conditions.

This place was fun and informative. It was pretty cool going down into the old mine and learning about the history of the mind. I loved that they paired the experience with gem mining and panning for gold. My entire family enjoyed the experience. This place great for families and couples!

So fun.... Not just for kids! Interesting history and a cool experience. A little pricey, but overall worth it. Try it!

It might be because I've done mine tours before, but i did not find anything novel or outstanding about this one. For $130 for a family of four (for the tour and a mini bucket for gem mining), it was moderately fun but not something we would do over if we had the choice. Our tour guide was young and friendly, but she wasn't wildly entertaining, and we experienced a traffic jam as our group was leaving and another group was entering, all of us using the same narrow, steep passageway. I was hoping for more history of the mine and the important figures, but the tour gave minimal historical context, focusing almost exclusively on just the mining tools and procedures. The gift shop is reliably tacky and touristy, but the staff in the shop and the mining operation were enthusiastic and knowledgeable. The jewelry display cases were beautiful and interesting to peruse, though. Ultimately, if this is your first time doing anything like this, you'll probably have a 5-star experience. If not, you might want to save your money.

Hubby and I were in Dahlonega for the weekend and had originally planned to do a waterfall hike this morning. When we woke up, however, it quickly became apparent that Mother Nature would not be cooperating with our Plan A. I did some research on indoor alternatives and stumbled across the Consolidated Gold Mine. This caught our attention because in addition to the typical panning for gold experience, this place offers a tour of an underground mine. We were the first ones there at opening this morning. First, we watched a video on how to pan for gold. Then we spent about 15 minutes panning a plate of sand. When we were done, employees helped us sift the remnants of the sand to find a few flakes of gold in each plate, which were then transferred to a small plastic tube that we got to take with us. We had never done anything like this before, so it was a pretty cool experience. After we panned for gold, we hung out at the gift shop for a little bit while waiting for the tour to start. They have a wide variety of quartz and gem gifts along with geo rocks and miscellaneous items. The tour of the mine itself was by far the best part. We went down a few stairs and an incline to reach about 200 feet below, which is where the tour gets started. Hearing our guide talk about the mine and explaining the tools miners would use, the conditions they had to work under, and the amount of money they were paid for various roles was fascinating. We learned a lot and really enjoyed soaking it all in. While there are some low hanging areas where you need to watch your head and some potentially slippery spots, there were many young children in our tour group that had no trouble at all going through the whole thing. It would not be suitable, however, for people with major mobility issues due to the stairs and rather steep ramp back up when the tour is over. I normally would not opt to come to a place like this because gold mines have never really appealed to me and most of them seem like annoying tourist traps, but I am glad Mother Nature steered us in this direction today. It was a fun doing something different and learning some interesting history in the process. Our tour guide was friendly and enthusiastic, which helped make the whole experience a lot more enjoyable too.

This was well worth the money! Family of 4 - two kids 9 and 12. We all loved the experience. The mine was so much more fun than I expected. Our guide was funny and well informed. Forewarning: traveling back up could be difficult for someone with low mobility. It is steep and wet. You get a pan of dirt to mine with each ticket. We got 6 teeny tiny nuggets between our 4 pans. The staff who help sift the last handful of dirt couldn't be any nicer. We bought the extra gem bucket and that was a lot of fun for the kids.

If you're looking for something to do in North Georgia that isn't vineyards, this might be your spot. But for me, I spotted the historical marker and had other places to go. The marker is easily visible from the road and there is room to stop and read, "One mile southeast of here, from 1900 to 1906, the Dahlonega Consolidated Mining Company operated what is considered the largest gold plant ever constructed east of the Mississippi River. Capitalized at $5,000,000, the plant included a 120-stamp mill, a large chlorinator, a 550 foot tunnel and numerous small buildings. The Consolidated Mining Company furnished much of the setting for one of the earliest moving picture westerns, "The Plunderer", starring William Farnum. The film was made in Dahlonega and its environs before the First World War." This is marker number 093-4 and it was erected in 1954 by the Georgia Historical Commission. [Review 20365 overall - 694 in Georgia - 1343 of 2023.]

We went on a friend's recommendation. It was so fun. Always love a cave and our tour guide Rusty was hilarious. Besides that he engaged the smaller kids in the group. Making my daughter's experience so much better! Afterwards we did the gem mining which was set up perfectly and we found really nice rocks. The finishing touch was Mike at the end ready to appraise the rocks and make custom jewelry. Overall it was an awesome experience that even my unwilling teenagers enjoyed!

So friendly and funny! A cool outing to learn some history and fun facts. Good for adults and kids. Our mining guide was exceptional. Make sure you wear good outdoor shoes!

What a wonderful attraction for all ages. I had never been and talked my wife into going. No appointment needed. Walked in paid for our ticket, our gold panning tokens and our gem bucket card. We went back, panned for gold, got our tubes with our findings and then got to sift for gel stones. I don't think we found the Hope Diamond or Star of India, but we brought home two bags of pretty rocks to look at. The mine tour is a blast! WEAR GOOD WALKING SHOES WITH GOOD SOLES. It's a little slick down there. The guide was very nice and entertaining. The education part was fun- I had no idea what our forefathers went through to earn a buck. It's easy to find (especially in today's gps world). The price wasn't bad and I look forward to taking my grandkids when they are old enough.

Awesome tour experience and everyone there is super friendly and helpful. Thank you for making our stay in Dahlonega special!

Such an amazing hidden "gem". Haha- get it? When everyone else is driving up this way to go apple picking, head here instead. We paid for the tour into the gold mine and it was so worth it. We found out so much about the mine. I even had 2 preteens with me and they loved the hands on tour. The tour guide definitely knew how to keep the crowd's attention. Afterwards, you got to pan for gold and then if you would like, do some gem mining. I would lie, the gem Mining is pricey, but we left with some epic pieces to tumble. There is also a store with of these great souvenirs. They also have jewelers there in case you want to buy some jewelry. Parking is free and it's super close to downtown where you can go get some yummy treats after.

Miner Matt is awesome. Well here's the backstory - I have two kids and we were looking for a something fun to do that's fairly COVID friendly (still) and more of an adventure than a pool day or whatnot. We met our "pod" at Consolidated Gold Mine in Dahlonega. We were interested in this mine because of it's your + panning activity. You can take a 30 minute tour of a gold mine with a "miner". Super interesting. Full of interesting facts and tidbits about the miner life. Consolidated closed in 1906 but it's quite interesting to see some of the tools and learn some of the facts. Right now they're at 20 persons per tour. Their signs say "we suggest masks and social distancing". They did well. My group wore masks but that is because that is what we're trying to establish with the kids. No one said anything. Inside was about 1/2 masked and the staff was not at all, but we're in the stage of the pandemic when it might be ok if someone is unmasked. It's really how you feel. Anyway. The tour was great. My 3 year old was able to walk/climb stairs the whole time. They turned on one of the drills ... it was super cool. Afterwards we were able to pan for gold and gemstones. One gold pan per ticket is available. The kids had a blast but I think it's because of the flowing water. We found a total of 5 flecks of gold and a lot of pretty colorful rocks/gems. Recommend. (Even if it's off the Walmart Parking lot. Don't let that deter you.) Total cost : $89.64 for 2 adults, 2 kids, and 1 $15 GEM bucket.

We had the most formative tour with the greatest tour guide and staff They can creative jewelry out of your treasure you pan for how cool is that I would give them 10 stars out of 10

We panned for gold after the tour. How does gold turn brown Never been opened either. The tour was fun and would recommend it but I want to hear the explanation as to why one turned brown and the other is fine?

We had so much fun on this tour! I'd highly recommend it if you're in the area or if you're planning a day trip in the North Georgia area. It's great for all ages and groups. We planned the visit for the children in our group whose ages ranged from 3 to 15 but the adults had a great time too. It really was the highlight of our time in North Georgia! Our tour guide was very captivating and was full of knowledge and humor. The history behind the mine was interesting and it was just a really cool experience to walk through one! At the end of the tour you pan for gold and at an additional fee, you can purchase a gem mining bucket. If you have kids in your group, you definitely want to add the gem mining package. Of all the gem mining experiences my kids have done in the area, this one had the best gems by far!

Highly recommend this tour if you're visiting the Helen/ Dahlonega area. We'll worth the price. Our tour guide, Liam, was informative and humorous. Definitely gave us an appreciation for the mining trade. The gold panning and gem mining after was fun. I now will look at rocks differently. We found garnets, ruby's, an emerald, and lots of other gems. Mary was helpful as we chose rocks to get some finished and polished.

This is an amazing opportunity to go into a gold mine and sample some of the history that made this region. Don't miss this stop if you are in the area. Taylor was an excellent historian and guide for the day! Thank you!

A very educational and fun attraction. The staff are very pleasant and the tour, panning and shop was very well done.

Miner Rusty is the man! His style of tour is worth the trip. The mine is a sigh to behold. The trip down is educational and fun! It's good for kids as they participate in the tour. The end let's you mine your own pan and you can add on the gem mining too. They can design your own way to display your funds. The price is reasonable and worth it. It was a great history lesson in mining.

The mine tour and gold panning were excellent. The tour guide was both informative and had a good sense of humor that entertained the kids. If you visit Dahlonega, do not miss this attraction.

My wife and I booked two gold mining experiences while in Dahlanoga and this was one of them. We've never done such a thing, so we decided it would be an interesting experience. The store itself was filled all kinds of gold, gems, jewelry, and toys for kids... with the random stuff that would attract any child. Oh, there was A LOT of children there. The tour runs every 15 minutes and the wait wont seem that long because of all the things they have to look at in the store. The tour itself was fun, educational, and our guide was entertaining the whole 35-40 minutes. No one hit their head in our group, but remind yourself that you are underground and some of the clearance paths are low... however, they do provide some hard hats. The gold panning was a little fun, a little boring. Basically you're sifting through dirt to find gold. Dont expect to hit it rich. We did, however, find a tiny gold nugget. Overall, a great experience if you've never done it before. Definitely fun for kids.

I would give them NO STARS.... It's DECEITFUL and GREEDY BUSINESS! DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY...one needs a magnifying glass to see the sand one gets in the pie plate of sand given to you when panning. At almost $25 for adult pricing and almost $17 for a CHILD and what you give SHAME ON YOUR BUSINESS. You could at least give them the SUPPOSED GOLD SHAVINGS (FULL SEEABLE VIAL) that you sell in the gift shop to each paying customer. GREED WILL GET YOU NOWHERE!

What an awesome experience for our family! Recommend to all that want to experience true gold mining! Our tour guide AJ was great and very informative and funny.

The tour is absolutely fascinating both in terms of what you get to see and what you learn from the guide. Good for kids and adults. And after the tour, you get to mine gold (included in the tour) and gems (buy separate). The gemstone mining is best for younger kids.

On our way from Helen, GA I insisted we stop by this mine. It was a long drive and my hubs was hesitant but it was so worth it!!!! A hidden gem with a ton of family fun! The staff is beyond nice, friendly, fun and knowledgeable!!! We ordered the mine tour and there is gold panning included in the price. Oh what fun the gold panning was. The kids were in awe to find actual gold in their sand. The tour was beyond fun and educational. Our tour guy was the best!!!! Their gift shop is also amazing, one can spend a lot of time and money in there.

Fun experience, kid friendly and staff was informative and fun. Downfall is, it's not really cheap. But the history you get and the mining experience is cool!! Also they do big groups but I guess they have to when they have so many people interested in it. So you sometimes have to wait for people who aren't listening to keep up but that's really not their fault. They do have a lot of times for tours tho. So it does make up for the big groups. Would recommend to anyone looking for something cool todo.

We took our son here for his 8th birthday. We panned for gems and gold. We had an absolutely great experience. The staff were welcoming and announced my son's birthday over the intercom. That was quite the surprise and he loved it. There is a large amount of seating, allowing them to accomodate small and large groups. There is a video you will watch that explains how to pan for gold. Our youngest had a little trouble but the staff helped him. Once they got their gold flakes they were placed in a small tube for them to keep. We were educated on our gems and the "keepers" were separated from the "fish tank fillers." The staff are FUN, kid friendly, knowledgeable and kind. There is a gift shop as well. Gems can be cut on site. Our son is heading there for a field trip soon and is looking forward to returning.

The good mine is in town near the Walmart. We went down into the mine and took a tour. The guide did an excellent job*. Our 6 yr grand son went and he asked the guide lots of questions. His questions were answered. Walking is difficult. Would no recommend for a child that had to be toted or people with difficulty walking. Some areas are also damp. There is also an area for panning gold. This is overrated. I wish someone would have spent more time actually helping rathe than just watching a video. Also gift shop. Can spend some big bucks there.

It was fun to come up for a quick one day trip! For 2 people it was around $40 to do the tour (includes gold panning) and then an added $30 to do a gem bucket. Overall had a great time! Staff was super friendly and so interactive with the guests. For just a $30 gem bucket, we managed to get enough stones to where we considered having them made into jewelry in the end. The mine tour was very educational yet entertaining, so it didn't feel like a school lecture or anything! Will say, the mine tour is similar every time you come so since I haven't come here in over 10yrs we just opted to go through it again. Definitely will be back!

Miner Rusty is outstanding. Going into and actual gold mine and see everything was truly awesome. I figured it was some lame tourist trap, but was blown away (not literally, lol) by the uniqueness and fun of this place. Panning for gold and gems was great. Everyone there was having a great time. Gift shop had unique items as well. This is a must see!!

I took our grands here recently and they had a blast! Our guide was wonderful and made it so fun! Afterwards we panned for gold and gems! Can't wait to return soon!

What a great experience. You get a guided tour of an 19th century gold mine, which was very well done and quite interesting. Learned a lot! At the end of the tour, you have an opportunity to "pan" for gold and we got a few flakes. The whole experience is about 2 hours.

Good experience and Saturday field trip. Educational and fun. Went on the tour and then did the gold search and gem search. I liked the gem activities better. Cost was pretty good. Check it out

Great place to bring the family! We really enjoyed the tour. This was our second time and the information was new so you can tell each guide makes it their own. Staff was incredibly nice. They asked my boys multiple times if they had any questions about the gems they were finding. Recommend the gem sifting and would say two kids could share a $30 bucket and still have lots of fun. It's about 55 degrees in the mine so bring a jacket no matter the time of year.

This was so much fun! I had a literary festival to go to the same day and we were looking to get in some family fun while in Dahlonega. I've been gold panning before, but it wasn't at this place. Since my daughter is four and a huge fan of playing in water and collecting rocks, I figured the gemstone panning would be a good idea. I was 100% right. She had an absolute blast! From the moment we walked in, the staff were friendly and personable. The cashier even offered to take a family photo of us, which is usually difficult with two little ones. The gemstone panning was a far better value to me than any gold panning. We only spent $15 on a bucket and my daughter found a ridiculous amount of stones. It took about 20 minutes to finish the bucket and it was worth it. The facilities are clean and not overcrowded. I was interested in the mine tour but the price was a little steep for me. I think children 5 and under should be free, but that's just me. We didn't get to use the jewelry making studio, but I would love to have something made from our finds in the future. We will definitely be back here!

We visited on our way home from Tennessee. It was $16 to tour the mine and do the gold panning. We started off by gold panning waiting for our time to tour the mine. We didn't strike it rich but we did get a few pieces of gold. It was fun trying to pan for gold. I do have to admit I prefer gemming which you can do here. The mine that you tour was a actual mine that was used by real miners during the gold rush . The mine was filled up with water for 85 years I believe they said . Part of the mine is actually still flooded to this day. Our guide was very informative he showed us some of the different tools the miners used and a couple machines. It was fun to actually go down into the mine and see what the miners actually had to do to make ends meet. The guide also cut the lights off at one point so we could see what it looked like back when there was a very limited supply of electricity. He lit a lighter and explained that if a miners candle went out they had to wait for someone to come get them . The track for the mine carts was still there. The guide also turned on one of the machines to show us how loud it was working in the mines. We definitely enjoyed the tour and the gold panning . The gift shop was filled with all types of goodies. There are no strollers or wheel chairs allowed due to all the stairs.

Had a fun afternoon at the mine 1- we did the mine visit, we learned a lot your l last around 30-45 min You actually go underground and can experience the whole thing 2- we pay extra so the boys can actually get G.E.M. from a big bucket of sand It is a lot of fun and would highly recommend it !

It was a great tour! Thanks Miner Mason for all your knee slappers! We learned a lot and I even got a small piece of gold! The gem panning got me an amethyst and rose quartz amongst other great gems and stones!

My family and I were not quite sure what to expect. We loved it! It was fun and educational. Rusty our tour guide was the best!

We went on a misty afternoon. Had lunch at Subway Walmart which is in the same parking lot before going in. They don't have a cafe although they do sell chips. I brought my 4 year old and he had a blast. The gem bucket is a must. The cave tour puts things in context for him. Gold panning is meh. It was too tiny for him and he quickly got impatient. He did say he wants to go back the next day and search for a gold nugget..... We stayed for almost 3 hours. Wish we wrote down which rock is which. They have someone go over the gemstones you find and talk to you about it. You can even turn it into jewelry if you want on site.

Had a great experience with my wife there. Looking forward to another visit when we have our grandson. We had Jessie as our guide and he has great and funny. Well worth the time

Miner Lisa was a fantastic guide! She told incredible jokes, detailed so much of the history of the mine, and obviously loves her job! The panning for gold prior to the tour was fun and we will cherish the memories forever. If we lived closer, we would absolutely come back when another section of the mine opens. Thank you so much!

This was our 2nd trip to this gold mine, my daughter wanted to go back for her birthday. It was great, everyone is beyond friendly and helpful and always willing to answer questions. Our tour guide this time Cam, even managed to keep the tour interesting even though we had already taken it previously and also added new info we hadn't heard before. He also made the tour much more...."interactive" I guess you could say. We are also all about the gold panning and gem mining, we spend hours doing that! It's a 3 hour drive for us but definitely worth it. Highly recommended!

A random choice to spend a day doing something different. It was a great time. The guide was fabulous and it's totally worth the money. $20 is cheap for some family fun. I was traveling with adult kids and the had a ball. Do a gem bucket, it's fun.

We were pleasantly surprised at how nice this attraction was. The mine was impressive and our guide did a great job and was entertaining.

First off I want to say that if you're gonna go on a tour, ASK FOR ELI!!!!!! He's hands down the funniest tour guide ever. He made the whole experience THAT much better and he's super knowledgeable. It was so cool learning about this little town that I live in! Even cooler that we got to go under Walmart! LOL! We went back and got our gems cut and had an absolute blast. Thank you all for such a wonderful experience!

One of the last, if not THE last, gold mines in the area that gives tours. We started off panning for gold. A short instructional video was helpful but did not prepare me for the "physical" labor that would entail. I do not know how the miners did this 100+ years ago all day, without chairs and A/C! It was a fun and interesting experience. We finished in time to tour around the facility, seeing the area for "gem mining" with posters of different precious rocks and information about them. We later were called on the intercom to meet in the patio. Our small group of about 6-8 people were perfect to go the tour in the mines. Helmets were offered as there were several locations where the ceiling was low and people could potentially hit their heads. Our tour guide was informative. Although he started working here in October (about 7 months ago), he was knowledgeable and fielded questions well. I like that the tour brought us to different locations with different props. That helped me visualize life in the 1800s. Notice upon exit that there are picnic tables (mostly shaded) for large (and small) groups.