Welcome to Great South Gems & Minerals
About Us
Great South Gems and Minerals was started in 1985 by owner, Ray Hill, who simply wanted to get rid of some excess items from his collection of minerals and fossils. Ray started doing some local Gem & Mineral shows and also local Arts and Crafts festivals. Shortly thereafter, Ray started going to the wholesale Gem and Mineral shows (Orlando, Franklin, Quartzite, Tucson, Denver, Asheville, etc.) acquiring items both for his personal collection and inventory for sale in his small business.
Over the years, Ray has gotten to know many wholesale dealers in the Gem, Mineral and Fossil business and now has direct access to material from all over the world, and, has accumulated nearly 1,000 flats of minerals, fossils, crystals, onyx and soapstone carvings, and other rock shop items.
In 1995, Great South started advertising in national publications such as LAPIDARY JOURNAL, and ROCK & GEM doing some mail order sales.
Great South Gems and Minerals got a toll free order line in spring of 1998, got set up to accept credit cards, and got our web site set up all about the same time, and had pictures of most items on our web site by mid-summer.
Our site keeps growing. On 11/1/99, Great South was incorporated in the State of Georgia, and, at the same time began using a secure shopping cart program for the convenience and security of our customers ordering on-line.
Ray keeps going to wholesale shows, buying more beautiful material, and we're making more pictures and more web pages to add to the site! You ought to see the place... flats of minerals and fossils everywhere!
Here's a shot of Ray on a collecting trip to Graves Mountain, Lincoln County, Georgia. He found a bunch of large rocks that had Pyrite, Lazulite & Kyanite in them... he's sittin' here making little rocks out of big rocks!
Ray says this is one of his favorite collecting sites. Rutile crystals, Kyanite, Lazulite, Iridescent Hematite, Pyrophyllite, Pyrite, Ilmenite, Muscovite, Fuchsite, Barite, Sulfur, Blue quartz, Quartz crystals with Hematite coating, and a host of other minerals can be found at this location. (He does clean the place up after he's through!)
Graves Mountain is located about 125 miles Northeast of Atlanta, Georgia.
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