Everyone knows how much I like the deep purple cubes of fluorite and the folks at the BE Clement Museum were hosting another public dig this weekend at the Eureka Mine, so Missy and I got up early Saturday morning and made the five hour drive down to Marion, Kentucky for the day. I figured it would be foggy in the valleys so I decided to take a different route down and minimize that as well as the amount of two lane road I would have to travel at the same time. By the time we got to Charleston, Missouri, the sun was starting to come up in the eastern skies and I stopped briefly at the top of the ramp to allow Missy a break, since she was so eager to head out that she skipped her bathroom break. The river valley there by the truck stop on the south side of Charleston was filled with layers of fog, backlit by the rising sunlight….
We drove south of Charleston and saw even more of the layers blowing across the roadway near a farm, I have never seen fog like this….
…..it was alot easier to drive in, than the moisture laden fog I`m used to seeing and driving through up in central Missouri…as we got closer to the Mississippi River, the fields appeared to be filled with clouds of foam that resembled a sea of water from a distance…
…and the trees and billboard signs and poles floating….then I made the curve and drove up on the Mississippi River Bridge….
….a huge steel truss bridge that takes one to the southern tip of Illinois, and once up on the bridge, you can look to the right and see your next bridge to cross into Kentucky, the Ohio River Bridge, which as you can see here, is just as big and long as the bridge you are on now….as I drove down into the southern tip of Illinois, the farthest south you can reach into Illinois that is, I was greeted by even more fog, on both sides of Highway 62 as I drove down the hill from the Mississippi River Bridge….
….and then I turned right on the approach to the Ohio River Bridge, and looking to my right, had this view of the Mississippi River bridge I had just crossed….
……and as I drove up on the deck of the Ohio River Bridge, I was greeted with the rising of the sun over the waters with a tug boat pushing a long line of barges upstream….
……and as I drove into Kentucky, I stopped a few miles from the Ohio River Bridge and shot this photo of the Mississippi River from the Kentucky side….
…..and as I got back into the truck, I startled a huge buck deer which I hadn`t noticed immediately, since my focus was on getting a good shot of the bridge, and unfortunately the deer took off before I could get my lens trained on him as well, but I can safely say the rack of antlers was huge as well…I saw a few more big deer as we drove on into Wickcliffe, having breakfast apparently in fields of what appeared to be maze.
As we arrived in Marion, Docia called to let me know that she and Floyd wouldn`t make it over because Floyd had come down with a fever and possible virus, and asked me to relay the news to Tina. We arrived at the Clement Museum at Marion by 8:45 am and found about twenty rockhounds inside already, all anxious to get out to the mine and start digging. I was delighted to find Ed Clement inside as well and talked with him briefly before paying my dig fee to Tina and letting her know that Docia and Floyd wouldn`t be able to make the trip down. I didn`t get a chance to talk to Tina much more, cause she was busy helping several new rockhounds and selling t shirts like they were going out of style. Ed took me to one of the backrooms and showed me several large boxes full of t shirts in all colors, advertising the museum and rock collecting locations. I was so tired later, that I forgot to stop and pick one up. We all stepped outside to the parking lot shortly after and Ed gave everyone a safety talk and introduced the new bathroom break location fixture, which amounted to a pretty green bucket with a plastic bag liner and black lid. He said for those who might be embarassed about the use of it out in the woods, it even includes a privacy feature….an extra bag to wear over your head so no one would know who you were. Ed is a super good host and has a great sense of humor, and a wealth of information as well, such a pleasure to be around him. Ed introduced me to the group as a frequent digger and I volunteered to assist anyone who needed help on site. I really do enjoy helping others no matter what and its really neat watching others, young or old, enjoy this hobby as much as we do, see their eyes light up and those smiles appear on their faces when we share the knowledge and show them what we are looking for, especially when we actually find something down in the dirt or mud. It really doesnt get any better than that. We drove on out to the mine and as we approached the gate, I started seeing lots of color in the maples lining the private drive down to the creek.
As we arrived at the foot of the hill by the creek, I noticed they have created a parking lot in the field on the east side of the creek bridge, fence enclosed to keep the cows out of your vehicles. I had asked for permission to park on the other side in the shade up by the mine, since I had Missy with me and Ed and Tina had graciously allowed me to do so. Ed and I drove on up to the mine and found Tina`s husband, Brad, up there running the pump to remove the water from the pit. I hadn`t yet seen any photos of the new pit dug a few weeks prior by another rock club, so didn`t know what to expect. I was quite surprised not to see any tailing piles, the ground was completely flat all around the pit and looked to have been tamped down by a bulldozer as well.
As I walked up to the pit to view it, this is what I saw….Brad is walking down into the pit here to check on the strainer…
About five or six people decided to try their luck up above and in the flat areas surrounding the pit, but soon found out what I had suspected, the ground was hard as concrete after being flattened, then the sun beating down on it and no rain for two weeks…and after talking with a few of them later, learned that nothing was found in the flat areas…the rest of us fanned out inside the pit area, old and new area alike, and started digging. I had told everyone where they could find the pretty stuff and how to find it as well.
I set up shop near two nice guys from Evansville, Indiana, Bob and Rick, who were working the high bank along the vein near the northwest corner of the pit. I saw where someone had dug in at the bottom and I continued that extension myself and then moved back and reached deep down into the mud and found a few nice pieces
right away. You can see one of my canvas bags and some of the finds to the left of Bob up on the ledge….I was working there.
Well we all worked hard and dug hard, and found some nice stuff there, Fred from the McRocks site who I had talked to, was working across from me along the path down into the pit with his friend Shawna, who had just returned from a tour in Afganistan, and his wife who set up working next to me along the west wall….she took my advice and with the use of a pitchfork looking tool, began digging her way to China along the wall in a few places…about an hour after we started digging, Ed called me over to check a bench of fluorite along the vein discovered by Pam and her family, who were also from the Evansville area. Pam is the original rockhound in the family according to her husband and he and two of her sons, Brandon and Clinton, who were along as well and who are both Eagle Scouts, support her and help her with her rock collecting. Sure could have fooled me guys, sure looked like four rockhounds to me, lol. Seems they had discovered part of the bench that we found back in March when Mike Streeter and Jeff Deere reached up under the bench and found a pocket of fluorite cubes. The way the bench looked yesterday though, it would take a lot of hard work to remove the mud that surrounded it to do any further exploring under it. However, they had dug around along the top of it and discovered a pocket inside it from the side, and asked me for my thoughts on removing the cubes inside. I remembered what Mike had told me about hammering crystals out, backing away from what area you wanted to safely remove and chiseling in and trying to form a crack, then using pry bars to wedge into the crack and pry out the piece you wanted, intact. That was the advice I passed on to them and they were able to successfully remove some nice pieces.
I was able to see a few nice large pieces that came out of various places there…a few wandered up to the Columbia Mine while there to see what they could find, and from what I saw and heard, there were a few nice pieces found up there as well…I didnt make it up there though myself…but as the day wore on, some grew weary and tired and began leaving…I took a short break and changed from my muddy jeans and boots to fresh jeans and my hiking shoes and decided to work the hole in the bank that I had worked in June that gave up so many nice treasures….I had met Lisa and her two boys, as well as her sister and friend, and began helping them find some more nice material to take home…they were digging on both sides of another bench of solid fluorspar that had cropped up apparently when the new pit was dug out a few weeks back and were finding rocks to take home and clean up too. Lisa showed me a couple of big ones later that looked pretty promising.
Pam and I worked both sides of that bench and pulled out some nice pieces from underneath it that looked nice as well. They began to clean up and prepare to drive home, so I took a short break and invited them to my truck to take home a few extra goodies from Missouri and Arkansas for their collections…Clinton was working on an Eagle Scout project and needed some nice rocks for it so I told them to pick out some nice ones to take home with them. I said the same thing to everyone there, and Lisa`s youngest boy Christian, climbed right in and found some pretty rocks for his collection, another point in time where the sheer joy and delight evident on their faces was well worth it to me to make the drive down there Saturday.
As I returned to the pit, I met Denise and Dorris from Indiana, who had driven down to dig during the day and take in the night dig as well. Denise told me that they had dug quite a while up above and hadn`t found anything worthwhile, so I invited them to join me in the pit next to me and see if we could find something nice to take home with them. Denise joined me and started digging a few feet away and I told her about what level to get down to…she was at first finding alot of float rock and leaverites, but soon started finding some smaller crystals and I would hand her a few here and there…she was quite happy too. I was working a hole that someone else had started and was finding a lot of nice material, so was happy to share what I was finding with her. Again, that look on the face and sheer excitement level was well worth it.
We dug another hour and then I called it quits, or I should say my hands and arms called it quits for me. Plus I still had a long drive home ahead of me. As Denise and Doris were pulling out and heading up to the Columbia mine in their suburban, I snapped a photo of the color that surrounds the Eureka Mine, very pretty.
….and Missy taking one last stroll around before climbing back in for the five hour trip back….
I called Ed to thank him and let him know we were heading out, that the girls were driving over to the Columbia mine and were just gonna stay out there for the night dig instead of meeting him at the museum…Ed had returned to the museum about mid afternoon so Tina could leave…and then Missy and I drove up the hill toward the county road…as we did, the fall colors and narrow lane reminded me of one of my favorite John Denver songs…
…Country Road…Take Me Home…to the place…I belong.
