New exhibit at Cook Museum lets kids mine for gemstones

May 9—The latest exhibit at Cook Museum of Natural Science in Decatur really brings out the kid in you.

It is an authentic mining experience where children and adults can sluice for their very own gemstones and minerals, which they can then learn about and take home. One couple has even gone on a date to the sluicing operation, a museum volunteer said.

On Wednesday morning, the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce celebrated the grand opening of the new exhibit in the museum courtyard. With the sound of sluice water cascading and flowing in the background, Brian Cook, president and chairman of the museum board, told the audience the Mining Company was the vision of the late Debbie Moore, museum director of retail and guest services, who died of cancer last week.

"While we wish she could be here with us today, we are grateful she was able to see it open to the public before her passing," Cook said.

Cook said the hands-on experience allows visitors of all ages to mine their own gemstones, identify the rocks and minerals they find and take home their once-hidden treasures.

Moore thought of the mining sluice with a mining tent as a way to mark the five-year anniversary of the museum in June, said museum employee Joy Harris.

"We wanted to make a big impact in north Alabama and make sure we had a great fifth-year anniversary," Harris said. "We wanted to do something extra special."

When the kids aren't sluicing, they can avail themselves of the two picnic tables, a rock and mineral identification center, a balance-beam "log," a crawl-through "log" and soon a rock-climbing playset at the site, Cook said. Inside the mining tent the museum sells colorful plastic mining helmets and lanterns, geode rocks that can be cracked open and probed as well as various other gemstones and educational trinkets, plus Dippin' Dots ice cream and sodas.

Visiting the Mining Co. is simple. Patrons can either go online or go to the museum and buy an admission ticket. Next, they go to the mining tent and gift shop on site, buy a bag of mining material and unveil its wealth by running water over the material in a box in the mining sluice. There are four different bags of mining material to choose from with prices of $6, $14, $27 or $50. Each is filled with gemstones, and the two larger bags also contain fossils, sharks teeth and arrowheads.

Betsy Shelton, a retired employee who now volunteers at the museum, was manning the sluice Wednesday before the ceremony and said one of the first days the exhibit was open it attracted a couple on a date.

"They bought one of the big bags of mining material and stood out here for an hour and had the best time," she said. "Then they spent time identifying what rocks they had ... and they went home with rocks."

The Mining Co. is currently open, weather permitting, in the courtyard of the Cook Museum at 133 Fourth Avenue NE, across from City Hall.

Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays only until May 25. The exhibit will reopen May 30 for summer hours from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays until July 27.

The site is fully accessible to people who use canes, walkers, wheelchairs or scooters, Cook said.

For more information or to get tickets, go online to https://www.cookmuseum.org/mining/ or call the museum at 256-351-4505.

— jean.cole@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2361