Coleman's Rock Shop & Crystal Mines - Terri & Jim — Local services in Hot Springs Village

Do not make the same mistake we did! We arrive and there are You break it; you buy it signs! Mistakes happen – get insurance. We entered and the two ladies working – one appeared to be a manager and the other an employee – are arguing and only stopped when I walked up to the counter to purchase tickets. We have never done this, so we had a few questions, very basic – what are we looking for, how do we do this and what is out there to find. They did not know the answers to anything we asked. We paid and left to hunt. The location is about 30 miles away and the road into the site is awful, it is dirt with huge holes, and ruts. A tree had fallen, and they only cleared the way so a small car could easily fit though. We drive a large 2500 truck, so it took some maneuvering. Some of the hills are steep making it difficult to see over the hood of the truck. We know our top speed was 13 mph because we were discussing the condition of the road. We came to an opening, and it was the parking lot. We were traveling no more than 8 mph and the man out at the site comes out and lights up a cigarette and stands at our corner bumper. The minute we open the driver’s door he starts chewing on us about how fast we came into the parking lot and there are dogs around. He is crazy. He continued to chew on us and then tells us the area we can go to and blew cigarette smoke in our face and went inside. We do not see any notifications about dogs but if this is a place of business it should be under control. The only dog we see is hiding under a car that looks extremely hot. We did not see food or water and appeared to be injured walking with a limp. We felt sorry for the dog. You are totally alone during the hunt. No one is watching, helping, answering questions, He is inside a rundown trailer with sheets over all the windows. If you were to get injured, you are out of luck. We did the hunt and came down the hill. A car came into the parking lot at a higher rate of speed. He came out and saw it was two ladies in the car and began flirting. He was creepy and very inappropriate for being a work. He was making small talk and when she turned around to put her shoes on, he kept moving and tilting his head to get a better view. It was very uncomfortable to watch. She kept trying to walk away but he followed. He said nothing to us. Not thank you or have a nice day. He is creepy and I would not want to be up there alone with him. This location is cheaper than the other major site, but it was not worth dealing with the...

The shop is wonderful but if you want to dig for actual crystals do NOT waste your money in either of the Coleman brothers mines! It’s a tourist trap that harvests the good stuff then leaves their “tailings” which is a nice word for trash bi product from mining you can dig through. They find the good stuff and sell it to you at the shop then lie to you & say you can dig items if that size at their mines for a fee. We wasted over 6 hours driving from Ft. Worth to be lied to by the lady working there and found out we were going through their trash piles! We ended up driving an extra hour to MT. Ida to the Wegner Crystal mine and actually found solid clusters in a pocket they recently opened up. Yes it costs more to dig a fresh virgin pocket but you know you’re not going through trash and will find museum quality pieces. Also I hear twin creeks mine offers massive deposits for the public to enjoy by HWY 270 further down the road by the Avanti mine.

Avoid Coleman mines at all cost is you are a serious rock lover looking to pull specimens worth displaying at home! If you want your kids to have fun then take them to Coleman but serious men and women looking for legitimate crystal mining…. This is a major rip off!

I am adding to this review an edit as the business has replied: They stated they had no women working at the mine, that is true for the location/raw material extraction (digging rock, clay, tailings). I paid a few ladies at the Coleman shop location working behind the counters for access & directions to their mine ($10/person)I have a receipt and bank information to prove it! They should even have surveillance proving my attendance considering their surveillance security measures clearly posted at the door and through the premises. Their response may be correct to my original language in the first post, I am clarifying the order of events that preceded my review for others to thoroughly consider before spending/investing their money. I personally know I would more than be ecstatic to know the entire truth on how an “attraction” truly operates before spending money on it especially in...

3 stars because we did find a few good crystals. We are first time crystal hunters, New to the area. Trying to find the Ron Coleman crystal mine, when we saw the sign, and a shop with the Coleman name. Figured this was the place! Looked around the shop, chatted with the ladies. Good experience so far. Asked if the shop closed at 5, they informed us they close at 6. Cool! Asked how late the mining site was open till, owner said we just had to be out by dusk, so about 8. Also good news, as we got there kinda late. Permit prices were also much cheaper than we expected, $10 instead of $25. One of the staff handed us the permit with a crude map to the mine. I asked to have it shown to me on my GPS, where I already had the ron Coleman address entered. She told me that wasn't the mine, and tried to find their mine site on the GPS. She was unable to find the site on the GPS, and told me to turn in 8.5 miles, then left in 1.5 miles, and so on. NO mention about the steep dirt hill we have to drive up, lucky I had our truck! I don't think a car will easily get there. We arrived at the mining site, and quickly greeted by a man. Seemed direct to the point, gave us the ground rules of the mine. I double checked when the mine closed, he said 7pm. I mentioned that the lady at the shop said it closed at sundown and he snaps back yeah nice try. He goes back inside and we go to the big pile to start looking. Watch for dog poo while mining! I dug in one spot, found a few clusters and several points. Largest point was an inch thick. My wife did more surface hunting and found lots of small points. The guy there was more friendly as we were leaving, chatted for a bit. Overall, we got what we paid for. Happy with what we found. Unhappy that we went to the wrong Coleman mine. Unhappy with the inconsistent information.

Ultimately, we should have been informed we were at the wrong Coleman business when she saw them on my Google maps. Probably would have bought a smokey crystal my wife loved and...