RALEIGH, N.C.RALEIGH, N.C. — An emerald so large it’s being compared with the crown jewels of Russian empress Catherine the Great was pulled from a pit near corn rows at a North Carolina farm. The ...

From diamonds to emeralds, the United States is full of buried bling Jennifer Nalewicki Travel Correspondent A man fills up buckets with dirt while hunting for diamonds at Crater Diamonds State Park ...

Rockhounding is not a hobby you hear about every day. Loosely defined as the practice of recreationally hunting for gems and semi-precious stones in their natural habitats, it's primarily seen as a ...

Feb. 5 -- Jamie Hill's friends thought that he was nuts the first time he went into debt searching for emeralds in North Carolina, but he's proven them wrong — again. Hill made headlines when he found ...

HIDDENITE, N.C. -- Jamie Hill, excavator of the noted Carolina Queen and Carolina Prince emeralds, finally may have found what he's sought since he dug up his first quartz crystal at age 6. Last week, ...

An emerald so large it’s being compared with the crown jewels of Russian empress Catherine the Great was pulled from a pit near corn rows at a North Carolina farm. The nearly 65-carat emerald its ...