Pay-To-Dig Gem Mines in Michigan
Dig for real gems and minerals in Michigan and keep everything you find. Browse fee-mining experiences, get pricing, and plan your visit.
Petoskey Stone Beach Hunting — Traverse City Area
Hunt for Michigan's state stone — the Petoskey stone (fossilized Devonian coral) — along the gravel beaches of Lake Michigan near Traverse City and Sleeping Bear Dunes. After storms expose fresh material, beaches like Pyramid Point and Empire Beach yield excellent specimens. No fee required on public beaches. Best in fall and spring.
Keweenaw Copper Country — Lake Superior Copper Collecting
The Keweenaw Peninsula is the only place in the world where pure native copper float boulders are found loose on the surface and in stream gravels. The ancient Lake Superior copper culture collected this copper for 5,000 years. Today, rockhounds collect native copper nuggets, prehnite, thomsonite, and epidote from the Lake Superior basalt flows. Several mine dumps allow public collecting.
Caledonia Mine
Collect native copper, silver, datolite, and quartz crystals from the Keweenaw Peninsula copper country. Michigan's historic copper mining region.