Support and Training
Yes
Every great business starts with someone willing to get their hands dirty. Ours started on the banks of Dukes Creek.
Outpost Gold & Gems invites guests of every age to pan for real gold, dig for gems and fossils, and walk away with a treasure they found themselves, all just steps from a full jewelry and retail shop.
In 1976, prospector Del Jackson founded Nacoochee Sand & Gravel on Dukes Creek, the very site where America’s first gold rush began, decades before California’s. By 1981, he’d opened the mine to the public so everyone could share in the discovery. His son, Chad Jackson, carried the story forward, opening a second Helen, Georgia location in 2015 and adding custom jewelry and repair services in 2017.
That kind of story doesn’t come along often, and now you can bring it to your own market. You’ll be stepping into a business that’s already proven, on real ground, with real revenue streams built right in.
THIS ISN’T A THEME. IT’S A LEGACY, AND IT’S READY TO BE YOURS.
Most mining attractions give guests one experience and hope they come back. Outpost gives them five reasons to.
From mining and retail to custom jewelry, repair, and preciousmetal buying, every guest who walks through your door is a chance to earn more than once.
Your guests aren’t panning a manufactured experience. They’re panning the actual Dukes Creek gold belt, one of the earliest documented gold discovery sites in America.
Jewelry repair and buying services keep your doors busy with local customers long after the tourist season winds down.
Population-based exclusivity means no other Outpost location competes for your guests.
This year’s new Stone Swap and on-site wire-wrapping services show a franchisor that’s always finding new ways to keep guests coming back.
We’re not looking for gemologists or geologists. We’re looking for people who love working with people.
You’ll spend your days teaching first-time miners how to pan, celebrating their finds, and turning strangers into regulars.
Between staff, inventory, and a busy retail floor, you’ll need to keep a lot of plates spinning, and enjoy doing it.
This is an owner-operator business, built for someone who wants to be in it every day, not managing it from a distance.
Reputation is everything here. Guests remember how they were treated as much as what they found.
Former managers, salespeople, retail operators, and parents re-entering the workforce all fit the profile we’re looking for.
YOU DON’T NEED MINING OR JEWELRY EXPERIENCE TO SUCCEED HERE.
YOU NEED THE DRIVE TO BUILD SOMETHING GUESTS LOVE RETURNING TO.
Opening a business is exciting, and it shouldn’t feel like you’re doing it alone.
Your training starts at our Helen, Georgia headquarters, where you’ll learn the operations, sales, and hands-on mining and retail skills that make Outpost work, then we’ll be on-site with you as you open your doors.
A dedicated national marketing fund and local advertising guidelines help keep your grand opening, and every season after it, full of guests.
As you grow, regular check-ins and coaching on your numbers shift from hands-on guidance to a true partnership.
We’re always adding to the experience, like this year’s new Stone Swap and wirewrapping stations, so your business keeps giving guests a reason to come back.
Del Jackson panned one creek and turned it into a business. Chad Jackson turned that business into a brand. Now the next chapter is yours to write.
Territories are exclusive, sized to population, and once yours is claimed, it’s off the map for good. The right market for you won’t wait long.
This is the part of the story where the Jacksons hand you the pan.
FIND YOUR MARKET. STAKE YOUR CLAIM. OWN THE OUTPOST.
To get started, fill out the franchise form.
This is not a franchise offering. A franchise offering can be made by us only in a state if we are first registered, excluded, exempted or otherwise qualified to offer franchises in that state, and only if we provide you with an appropriate franchise disclosure document. Follow-up or individualized responses to you that involve either effecting or attempting to effect the sale of a franchise will be made only if we are first in compliance with state registration requirements, or are covered by an applicable state exclusion or exemption.
Yes