Get Back to the Past - Gem Mining at the Runaway Mountain Coaster

Neil Sawford • June 28, 2024

Get Back to the Past - Gem Mining at the Runaway Mountain Coaster

Get Back To The Past – Gem Mining at the Runaway Mountain Coaster


If you have plans to experience gem mining, and if you're in Branson, you don't need to go far because you can enjoy it at Branson Mountain Mining.


As the longest gem mine in the Ozarks, it sits near the banks of Fall Creek. What you need to do is to choose the kind of gems you would like to mine. Fossils, gems, and much more are available at Branson Mountain Mining. This is one of the best activities in the area to experience after enjoying a thrilling ride on the Branson roller coaster.


Once you are ready for gem mining, head into the gift shop and get the bag of paydirt right. This is your chance to see fossils and gemstones. We have options for you! After you've purchased the paydirt, head out to our custom-built sluice, where you can sift for treasures from your bag. 


Everything you find in the bag is yours to keep! Or buy the paydirt bags and take them home to sift through at your leisure. Either way, you are in for a treasure every time at Branson Mountain Mining.


Hunting for exciting gems and crystals at Branson Mountain Mining can be rewarding, even if you don't find a precious gem. Many recreational gem hunters enjoy spending time outdoors, learning about geology, and socializing with other gem hunters.


Others are more goal-oriented; they look for their own birthstones or attractive gems to make into jewelry. Some collectors want to find as many types of gems and rocks as possible to catalog and display.

There are many ways to get involved in gem mining, from fee digs to staking your mining claim. You must first learn more about geology before you can achieve geologic glory. You can't just go outside and start poking around in the rocks, hoping to find specific types of gems and crystals.


Minerals formed in the Earth's mantle can reach the surface over millions of years due to massive geologic effects like tectonic plate upheaval. Deep rocks can be brought to the surface by earthquakes and volcanoes. At the same time, wind and water erosion gradually wear down surface soils to reveal buried bedrock. Humans can also reveal bedrock, so looking for gems near tunnels, railroads, or construction sites can be rewarding.

There is a different way to find each gem in the world. Australian sapphires are found in a specific area with alluvial deposits. They're scattered across the ground of gravel under the soil. Gem hunters dig through the gravel ground and filter the rocks by shaking them in water in a pan. Sapphires settle to the bottom of the pan because they are heavier than most rocks. Any sapphires on top will be visible when the pan is flipped over and emptied.


After you have enjoyed the thrilling ride on the Branson roller coaster, don't miss visiting Branson Mountain Mining. There, you will find tens of thousands of different types of minerals. Even though the varieties of gems are fewer, they are created under conditions so diverse as to be nearly infinite.


The hardness, clarity, crystalline structure, and color of gems and minerals are all affected by pressure, heat, location, other minerals and impurities, water, and later geologic forces. That is why they are so uncommon.

At Branson Mountain Mining, we carefully select and create our unique blend of gemstones, crystals, and fossils from around the world, which we combine into unique concentrations of mining dirt to represent each "theme" they offer. These beautiful earth elements come in various sizes and shapes, natural and enhanced, just like our options.


Even within the same theme, no two mixes are identical. Your treasure may include natural and enhanced semi-precious gems such as amethyst, quartz, rose quartz, citrine, emeralds, obsidian, crystal points, jaspers, agates, calcites, arrowheads, shells, fossils, and many more not listed!


Your mining adventure begins with a bag of gem mining dirt and a screened wooden box at Branson Mountain Mining's custom running water trough. Scoop the mixture onto the screen, then lower your screen box into the water, shaking the tray to separate the mining dirt from the gems. As the gems appear, you will be amazed.


When you're done panning at the water trough, take your gems to a table to sort and continue identifying your gemstones with the specimen identification chart that comes with the package. Then, you can take your finds home to add to your collection, start a new one, or simply admire them for years.



Go gem panning at Branson Mountain Mining Adventure Park after an enjoyable ride with the Branson roller coaster. You will surely bring home good memories from this unique adventure, especially if you find many semi-precious stones, even if you think they are of little value.

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The Science Behind Roller Coasters Because of technological advancements, roller coasters are becoming more prominent, faster, and scarier. The gravity-propelled Branson mountain coaster , for example, provides a modern sort of entertainment. Unlike the first roller coasters, which were built in the mid-1880s, they were used to transport coal from the mountains to the town of Pennsylvania. Those coasters were rented out on weekends by fare-paying riders who rode just for amusement. Theme parks are thriving nowadays. But, with waits as long as eight hours for an average ride of lesser than two minutes – not to mention accounts of riders suffering strokes, brain deformity, and catastrophic injury as a result of crashes — how can we put up with it? What is it about roller coasters that some people adore, and is it an experience we get tired of as we get older? The desire to enjoy various innovative and intense physical experiences such as rock climbing and parachute jumping is linked to roller coaster enjoyment. But what is it about roller coasters that make them so appealing? At first look, it may appear to be due to speed experience. However, the evidence for a relationship between sensation seeking and speed is weak. For example, driving at speeds beyond the legal limit is something many individuals do, not only thrill-seekers. Perhaps the attraction of the Branson roller coaster is the visceral experience of terror itself, similar to viewing a horror movie. The "fight or flight reaction" refers to physical indications of fear such as a racing heart, quicker breathing, and an energy surge generated by the release of glucose. Researchers who recorded riders' pulse rates on the double-corkscrew Coca Cola Roller in 1980s Glasgow discovered that a roller coaster ride is likely to elicit this response. Heartbeats per minute more than doubled from an average of 70 before the ride to 153 shortly after it began. Some senior motorcyclists came dangerously near to what would be considered medically risky given their age. In another adrenaline-pumping activity, beginner bungee jumpers not only reported heightened sensations of well-being, wakefulness, and happiness immediately after completing a jump. They also had higher amounts of endorphins in their blood, which are widely known to cause emotions of tremendous pleasure. Surprisingly, the higher the endorphin levels, the more blissful the jumper reported feeling. In this case, there is clear evidence that people appreciate the sensations associated with the fight or flight response in a non-threatening situation. Pleasure vs stress Bungee jumpers also had higher amounts of cortisol, which is known to rise when people are stressed. So, how can a person feel both worry and pleasure simultaneously? 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This shows that thrill-seekers who ride roller coasters regard the experience as stress-free. The role of dopamine However, roller coasters are not for everyone. Could variations in brain chemistry explain sensation-seeking behavior? The bungee jumper experiment suggests that those with higher endorphins experience higher degrees of euphoria. However, no evidence resting endorphin levels may explain sensation seeking; they are more likely a reaction to the thrill than a predictor of whether we love it. On the other hand, a recent analysis looked at the role of dopamine, another chemical messenger component in the brain that is essential for the proper functioning of neurological reward circuits. According to the study, people who have higher amounts of dopamine also do better on tests of sensation-seeking behavior. 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