About

The Mineral Museum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and is volunteer run.

The Mineral and Lapidary Museum of Henderson County was founded with the goal of providing a place where people could discover and learn about the beauty and diversity of the world beneath our feet.

The museum’s goal is to be a primary resource for education and information to the community on the earth sciences related to geology and paleontology.

The museum currently features a mix of exhibits that range from specimens of raw minerals in their natural state to polished gemstones and other finished material. The museum also hosts special exhibits of collections on loan.

Among the popular highlights of the exhibits are the displays of minerals found in Henderson County and in the state of North Carolina — which has one of the nation’s most diverse mineral deposits, the exhibit on the Hendersonville meteorite, and the fluorescent mineral display. Also popular, especially with youngsters, are the museum’s displays of fossils which are highlighted by a casting of a tyrannosaurus rex skull, a mastodon tusk and teeth, and a wooly mammoth leg bone.