Clement Mine Dig 2011

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

I returned from my Florida trip on Monday, somewhat rested up on Tuesday, tried to catch up by editing up photos while working around fire calls, then returned to work Wednesday night and Thursday evening, I drove into work and stayed til 2 am, then drove from St Louis to Marion, Kentucky, as we were scheduled to start the dig at 8 am Friday morning. Since I was leaving from work Thursday night, I opted to leave Missy at home and my parents would pick her up, on their return from Florida Friday morning and take her to spend the weekend with them. It turned out to be a great decision due to the weather we experienced down there over the two days, rain and lots of muddddd…..the type of mud you get on your boots and cant get off easily…take a step and get a six inch thick glob of mudd on your boots…yeah that kind of icky mudd. Missy would have been a muddy mess and I would have been an unhappy camper.

I arrived about 6 am and drove out to the mine, finding someone had been thoughtful enough to leave the gate open for me, so I drove on down the hill, crossed the creek and parked at the mine. I cranked my seat back and took a 45 minute nap, the sun waking me up just short of 7 am….I knew Mike and the guys would be arriving shortly, so I got out and walked around a bit to see if I could find anything and see what changes had occurred since my last visit……

…I saw the pit looked relatively the same as the the last dig that I had been to in October last year…but alot of dirt and mud had fallen down from the walls on the high side and accumulated in the pit, on the west side especially. This was the high wall that I had dug into, at the base last fall and found some beautiful crystals, next to a couple of nice gentlemen from Indiana. I looked around the edges and located some nice small clusters just sitting on top of the dirt where they had apparently weathered out of the older tailing piles. I snagged a few of them and placed them in my truck…here was one I found hiding in the dirt, I placed it up on top of the high bank for someone to find…

and these two that were just hanging around….

..so if anyone asks me if there is really fluorite that can be found there anytime, I`m going to point them out to this story as living proof that YES, one can definitely find some nice stuff there anytime.

About twenty minutes later, Mr. Crider and his son showed up and fired up the track hoe and bulldozer, and shortly after that, the rest of my crew drove in as well…Mike, Bill, and Thomas from North Carolina, and Jeff from Georgia…having arrived the day before, they were freshly rested up and ready to explore and free more beautiful fluorite crystals from captivity…in other words, we were
” READY TO ROCK ” !!!!!

Mr. Crider got together with Mike to find out what we needed him to do and then he began his work. ..while his son operated the bulldozer….we widened the pit a little bit, digging out part of the old shaft area, and dug out about twenty feet of dirt and rock in front of the vein area to the north…..resulting in this newer pit at the end of the dig…

..and then just pumping down the remaining water from the pit….

….Jeff worked the pump while Bill assisted in the pit moving the hose around to get as much water as possible out….Mike and Thomas worked at finding some pockets to work while this was going on and liberated a few large chunks of fluorite while waiting for the water level to go down…

and as this was going on, Mr. Crider created some new tailing piles, one huge pile full of goodies behind the pit and one row of piles between the pit and the logging road…

After that I put my camera away and we concentrated on finding pockets of beautiful fluorite crystals, many of them laden with calcite crystals, some with greenockite, and all over the place…pry bars were used and several large plates were liberated from the fractures of limestone…the following photos will give you a good idea of what we found last Friday…

…..here is the floor of one of the fractures we worked Friday and in the next image, I am standing on the floor of that fracture…

…….here is a close up of those pockets at my feet….

….as you can see, pockets of cubes all over….it gets better though….

…. here is a photo of the bigger of the pockets up close…

Bill is shown working on a pocket off to the side about ten feet away from us here…

..here is one of the nice chunks that Bill found later Friday and liberated….with a large calcite crystal sitting on top, something we rarely see at the Eureka Mine….in fact have never seen before or again since….

…..here is yet another specimen of beautiful deep purple fluorite we found…

..and a close up of it…….

this next one is what Bill found in one of his many pockets Friday….several chunks with galena lead cubes all over them….

…this was a large heavy chunk found with cubes all over one side of it…

Weather wise, we started out with cloudy skies on Friday, but by mid morning it started sleeting but changed over to all rain, all day, as the temps warmed. Saturday was a bit of a repeat, starting out cloudy only, then the rain settled back in about noon…we would have rather had the sleet than the rain…

One of the nicer pockets that Mike found along the way, resulted in this beautiful chunk coming out….

and resulted in this next photo when he brought it up on top of the hill….

and shown here with a few other pieces that came from the same pocket….

all in all, we found a lot of deep purple this year and several encrusted with calcite crystals like these….

..and even large pieces, talking 180 to 200 lbs each, with alot of calcite and galena cubes on them…

We had a great time, despite the weather, and found a lot of nice material, and spread even more of it around the sides of the pit for everyone to find. I received a call Saturday about noon from home, my Mom letting me know that they were getting hit with a major winter storm, thunder sleet and thundersnow falling, two inches of sleet on the ground and now the snow coming down with flakes as big as your hands…and more coming…so I decided I had better get on the road soon…I called one of my meteorologist friends at Channel Five News in St Louis and was told that the storm was due to hit St Louis anytime and that I would likely hit heavy snow and sleet around Mt Vernon, but the roads should remain just wet since we had warmer temps the last few days…

So we split up the finds and I took off about 2 pm and headed north toward Missouri….and sure enough, just west of Mt Vernon I started west into heavy snow and some sleet falling…the farther west I went, the bigger the flakes and the prettier it looked, heavy wet snows always make everything look pretty…

..I crossed the river into St Louis with the snow having moved out of the area and the roads still wet…

..and traffic was so heavy at the turnoff to I-44 that I just continued west to Big Bend and then went south to I-44, crossing the tracks in Webster…. I had to stop on the bridge anyway so just shot the scene down the railroad tracks…

and then I started up the grade at Antire Hill and shot this one…

..and as I got closer to home, I figured I would stop at Shaws Arboretum in Gray Summit, and photograph the neat little lake over there…

Luckily everyone arrived home safe and sound last weekend, and now we are preparing for the weekend and group dig this weekend. I look forward to seeing everyone at the group dig Saturday.

Florida Trip and Diamond Hill Quartz

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

My Mom decided back in the fall that she wanted to celebrate her ten year remission from cancer, in a warm and sunny location during the winter this year, and when my sister told her that she and Brad and my nephew and nieces were planning a trip to Orlando during spring break, Mom decided that would be the perfect time and place to go as well. When she asked me to go with them, I decided it would be a great opportunity to do some rock and mineral collecting and since I would be driving down a few days ahead of them, some photo shoots as well. With the problems everyone was having getting through the airline security lines and anticipating taking my rockhounding tools with me, knowing what problems it would create, I opted to drive down instead. One night at work, I figured out the mileage roundtrip, and figured out my fuel consumption would average out to the same cost as airline tickets round trip. So I planned my vacation the week before my Kentucky Mine Dig weekends, taking off eight days for the trip. Monday the 14th, we woke up to five inches of snow on the ground and I sure hoped this wasnt going to be a treacherous drive down, but my prayers were answered the next morning when Missy and I left town mid morning to a cool but sunny day. After a long day on the road, we arrived in Atlanta where we stayed an extra day with good friends Tad Boomer and his partner Roger. After a little small talk, we were soon asleep in the basement guest room.

The next morning Missy and I slept in a bit, visited with Tad and checked my emails, and then Missy and I headed over to Watkinsville, to visit with a new rock and mineral dealer friend, Chet Karwoski, who I had been talking to for about a year regarding the Diamond Hill Mine, and skeletal quartz specimens. Up to recent times, Chet had owned and operated the mine, only recently selling the mine to a friend of his, and we had discussed possibly trading some crystals, so I brought some poker chips and druse quartz down for him. We had agreed to meet mid afternoon and about 3 pm Missy and I arrived at his beautiful rural home and visited with him and his wife Gail, who is an author of childrens books. We talked about various mines and minerals and crystals a while before getting into the actual show and tell and trade. Chet has some gorgeous large specimens of skeletal quartz in his front yard, four of them shown below that required a small crane to place into position in his yard….

..this one a very pretty specimen with both the iron oxice stained orange crystals and the black manganese coating on the crystals…

…we traded for some smaller crystals, most of them the pretty skeletal quartz, but I also selected a few of the amethyst and smokey quartz crystals too. Here are a few of my trades…

Diamond Hill Mine is a neat mine with a huge tailing pile area to dig through that produces some very beautiful smokey quartz and amethyst crystals and huge plates and chunks, like those pictured above, of skeletal quartz. Its located about two hours north of Atlanta near Abbeville, South Carolina. Since I didnt have enough time this trip and since it had rained recently with the mud making it nearly impossible to dig there, I decided I would come back in the fall season instead. The next day we continued on down to Florida for a few days of fun and relaxation, photo shoots, and family time…for the rest of that story, check out my other blog site http://jwjphotoblog.com

Rockhunting Mid February 2011

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

Missy and I woke up about 11:30 am this morning and headed south to do some rock hunting at the secret location…tired of being cooped up the last few weeks due to the snow and ice. As I drove in on the main dam road, the wind was really blowing today, dirt and dust was coming across the hood of my truck for the first quarter mile in on the road pretty thick, so I decided to drive on over to the non windy side and as I made it over there, I spotted a lone poker chip on my left side and stopped to pick it up.

We started looking around both sides of the dam road, checking out the washed out areas first and found some nice plates of druse and quickly filled two bags with it. Kaye couldnt go today, was helping take a friend to the doctors office, so she had asked me to find her a nice druse plate or two. Believe me, I was turning several over looking for some, found a few nice smaller ones and then all of a sudden, turned one over at the base of the hill….

and ” Oila “, big beautiful bubbles on the other side !

Still not sure what color the bubbles really are tho…due to the heavy clay stain on them now…hopefully by tomorrow morning I will have a good idea what color they are…well while down there admiring it, I heard a new dog yapping and yelping and ran up to the truck to discover that Missy and I had a visitor….

…what a cute little guy was sitting by my truck talking to Missy….so little I almost didnt see him even…and a bit malnourished…looked like he hadnt been fed in a while…what a time to be out there with no food. I had a spare bottle of water tho, so I pulled a bowl out of the cab and poured it in and boy did he start lapping it up…confirming my suspicions that he was very hungry…

I left him to drink some more water and wandered back down to my new discovery and lo and behold, he followed me and Missy every step of the way after that…when it came time to drive down to the lower location and check things out, he followed us back to truck and after looking into those big brown eyes of his, I didnt have the heart to leave him there…so I put a towel down in the back seat and lifted him up and placed him on the back seat. He sniffed around my fire gear and then stretched out nice as you please across the towel. I actually was thinking of taking him home with us….then he became sick a few times in the truck and luckily I had put a thick towel down, and that took care of the mess. Strangely enough, Missy seemed fine with him, something I hadnt figured on for sure.

On the way home shortly after, I dropped him off at the local police station and the officer told me that they had plenty of food and water for him and would keep him around for a few days in case someone came in to claim him. After that, he would be picked up by the local Humane Shelter. At least I know he is in good hands and will be taken care of til they find a good home for him. He seems like a nice little pup.

Cabin Fever Late December 2010

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

Well last Tuesday, December 28th, I had cabin fever and since I was off and the weather was halfway decent, I decided to drive down and see what could be found around the secret spot…I had emailed Docia and she said they only had a dusting there, so Missy and I drove down and found about two inches of snow on the ground…I checked a couple of the side roads first and found a few nice druse and poker chip combos…..

…and decided to drive down to one of the lower locations just to see if I could find anything walking around…as I started down there, I decided to take an interconnecting road that I hadn`t explored yet, which connected me to the old path and once on the old path, I was driving down through a stretch where some of the original rocks had been placed in a muddy area and for some reason I looked to the left and a bright sparkle caught my eye. I stopped and backed up and there in the snow was a medium sized druse with a nice poker chip or two attached….

…we hadnt been down this road in quite some time…I`m thinking it must have been sitting here the whole time covered in dust and dirt most likely….cleaned from rainfall since then…it sparkles alot more in person let me tell ya, than the photo shows…I wrapped it up and placed it in the cab with me…and we drove on down the road.

Well there was snow all over the rocks and I didn`t want to climb around in the snow on the rocks, just in case, so I decided to check the outer areas for druse instead. I grabbed two bags and started checking the edges and within a few minutes, I figured out I hadn`t grabbed enough bags…I came up on several plates of bubbly drusy quartz and soda straws of glittering smokey colored quartz crystals…talk about EXCITED !!!

We find a lot of colors there, clear, pink, yellow, gray, tan, brown, blue, and smokey is by far my favorite color of druse to find…but we don`t see alot of it, so I was very excited when I saw several plates of it that had eroded out of the clay, and within a few minutes, I had filled two bags with the plates.

Here is one of them still coated in clay….

Hopefully by tomorrow, I`ll be able to get a few more photos taken of the plates that I brought back…here is another one of some that I found while there…

and only found one double down there this trip…but found a lot of drab gray druse pieces with some nice poker chips attached to brighten them up, one a few photos above had a nice yellow chip attached.

..and here is the rest of the story…druse plates and poker chip chunks and combos, that I have set out in the yard to let Mother Nature clean up for me….my water hose doesnt work too well this time of year. 🙂

..and there you have it…

Arkansas Quartz Nov 2010

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

I took my mini fall vacation and headed south to the Hot Springs area for a few days off, had to cut a day out of the normal plans due to the recession and some cut backs, to make it happen, and since I didn`t stay at Mountain Harbor this year, I cut the Bear Mtn Mine visit out this trip and went to Miller Mtn Mine instead…I did pretty good there, found a large chunk for my rock garden right off the bat…it cleaned up nicely and is sitting out in the yard now letting Mother Nature scrub it down and clean it off, but there are some nice crystals on the sides of it. I don`t think anything I have found this year, yard rock wise, can top that 200 lb chunk I found at Bear Mountain Mine back in September with Jimmy E there with me.

…but I had a lot of fun at Miller Mountain Mine again this trip, and believe it or not, Missy and I arrived about 8 am to find ourselves the first ones there, and we had the place to ourselves for about an hour…we stayed for about six hours and I left with four bags full and six medium sized yard rocks as well…and there were only three other diggers there when we left. Here are some of my finds from there, all cleaned up of course.

this one had some smokey colored crystals, still have some clay pockets to clean out but its looking like there might be some genuine smokey crystals in there…

Arkansas in the Fall 2010

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

Well I traveled back down to the great state of Arkansas for my fall trip last week, and decided to stay in Hot Springs on Lake Hamilton this year, since Mountain Harbor was completely booked with two events…but after giving it a lot of thought, decided I was going to do some more photo shoots down closer to Hot Springs and would only have time to work one dig in for quartz crystals this trip….it made more sense to stay in Hot Springs this time.

Missy and I slept in just a little bit and then headed to Miller Mountain the next morning…arriving shortly after 7:30 and finding out we were the first arrivals of the day….after talking to Faith and checking in while Bill was bringing up fresh dirt piles, I drove over to the parking area and let Missy out to stretch her legs as I prepared to find some nice quartz.

Well I didn`t have to wait long to find something nice and big…soon after lacing up my boots and grabbing my rake and bags, I ambled behind the truck to the first pile and found a very large quartz chunk with crystals all over one end and both sides…so I backed my truck up and loaded it right up…then decided to do some surface collecting while I had the place to myself….I filled half a bag with smaller crystals laying around in sight and soon after, another couple of folks showed up to look for quartz too…they turned out to be a nice couple from Topeka, Kansas, and were like me, just looking for anything pretty to take home…I helped them locate some nice crystals while digging into a few of the piles near the parking lot…I was mainly still surface collecting but if I located something, I would dig down and see what else was nearby and usually there were quite a few small clusters and points nearby. I filled two bags pretty quickly….within the first hour I dug out a couple of smaller clusters of smokey colored crystals…and was quite happy with them…decided even if I found nothing else the rest of the day, my day was complete with them…but as it was, in the five hours I was there, I did find quite a few nice singles and clusters…

…here Missy is seen on one of her many jaunts around the tailing piles checking things out…with the beautiful fall foliage in full display near the entrance to Miller Mountain Mine…

…mind you, this is only the rocks part of the story of the trip…if you want to see the rest of the trip, you have to visit my blog site with the landscapes, waterfalls, sunsets, and beautiful models, found at http://jwjphotoblog.com

Secret Spot Once More

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

After listening to the forecasters last night talking about rain all day on Sunday, I decided to head back to the secret spot again today to take advantage of the continued great fall weather…I checked with Kay before I left town, but she was restricted to wedding detail today and couldn`t make it, so Missy and I headed south a little after 11 am.

We arrived to find a very high wind and dust blowing everywhere….

…so thick as I drove across the flats, that at times I couldn`t even see the front of the hood on my truck….

I drove across to the far side and decided to see if I could find some druse first this trip. I grabbed a bag and my rake and headed down the slope of the upper location to see what could be located today…here is the view from the bottom of the slope…

After finding two nice pieces of druse right out of the truck, I soon discovered there were quite a few chunks of nice poker chips all over the slope as well as druse, and it didn`t take me long to find the first nice chunk of druse with poker chips attached….

..I no sooner stuck this one in the bag, than I turned around and saw the second one, very pretty and my first find of the day….

…this one about the size of a softball and very nice and colorful, despite having been out in the sun all summer….a few steps away, I found these two close together….

The 4th find, turned out to be my second surprise and second find of the day…it doesn`t look like it here, but following advice from Docia, I dug it out….

….and then I turned it over to see the other side….

…and I was like WOW…..carried that one up to the truck and wrapped it up right then….came back to within five feet of my bag, that I had left near the bottom of the hill, and found number five….

…a nice druse with hematite balls and a poker chip attached….and found these two pretties sitting in the sand next to the truck…

…then I came back down to the bottom of the slope and found Missy sittin pretty and looking out across the moonscape….

…then I turned and spotted another pretty….

…there was no doubt that fourteen was going home with me…very sweet poker chip here……and then I turned around and spotted these two close together….

…lets see if you can find number 17 in this mess…..it was easy for me…I almost stepped on it…why you have to watch where you step at all times in a rock strewn field like I was in….

..sometimes you never know where you will find them…this one was partially hiding on me under a big rock….

..and this beauty was pulling the out in plain site maneuver and sitting pretty in the sand when I spotted it….

…while number 21, a nice druse plate with a poker chip or two attached, was nestled in some rocks while I was walking back to the truck…I actually spotted 22, 23, and 24 and sat my bag down next to 21….

…and I found this nice little number as I was getting near the road…large druse chunk with multicolored crystals….large crystals on it too….well I loaded all of these up and then decided to drive down to the lower spot, I had had enough of the dust blowing around and wanted to get out of the wind for a while and check out the pockets again….

the upper pocket into the slope is the pocket I worked yesterday and again today at first….after removing poker chips and nice druse plates from the upper pocket, I discovered the pocket going deeper and back toward where I was sitting….on top of yet another pocket, hence the lower pocket where you see my red hand rake sitting…I pulled some nice druse plates with big poker chips attached to them…you will see them in the next few photos….

and one more a little closer up….

…all in all a great day weather wise and finds wise….now they are calling for morning showers tomorrow and clear and sunny skies in the afternoon….hmmmmm wonder what I could find to do tomorrow….

Secret Spot Again October 2010

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

Since I had a short night last night at work, I got up this morning about 9 am, loaded up the truck with Missy and we set out for the secret spot again. It was going to be a beautiful fall day, 75 degrees and sunny most of the day, clouds to roll in by evening for rainfall from a system in the Texas panhandle, but we have been so dry so long, I wasn`t going to hold my breath…and I was actually going to look for druse to finish out my front foundation wall, but once we got there, I decided to drive down to the lower location and see if anything had changed.

On the way down, we passed thru a thick haze of smoke that smelled alot like someone being super dumb and burning leaves…I say super dumb, cause we are five inches short on rainfall this fall season, and its super dry and was super windy this morning, translating into super dumb for someone to be burning leaves today. I felt sorry for any fire department that had to be out battling a brush fire in these conditions…I was out with my department earlier this week and let me tell ya, it was hot out there…I backfired the line while two guys ahead of me created a wide line with the leaf blowers, and when I backfired back up the hill, it didn`t take long for the flames to get going high, hot, and fast….the wooded areas around Steelville are no different than the woods around Sullivan, steep hills and deep gullies….hot fires and tired feet after a long battle with brush fires…I wasn`t able to detect the source of the fire so I kept driving and hoped no one was called out to one….

Arrived at the lower location and it looked the same…..

so I grabbed my bag and rock hammer and rake, and decided to walk around a bit and see if I could find anything I had missed before. New angles and sunlight can make all the difference in the world…and sure enough, within a few minutes, I had the bag half full of poker chips and druse combos….I walked up toward the top of the slope and found a few larger chunks of chips and decided to take at least one of them home with me, so carried the bag down to the bottom and set my rake down, then returned to pick up the chunk and take it to the truck.

I walked back up to a pocket I had found way back in the late spring this year, and had filled four bags and removed five basketball sized chunks covered with poker chip crystals from….when Virgil brought his club members up to visit, I had taken one of their young members over to the pocket and showed him what he could potentially find there…he and his uncle worked it for a bit before they left…it was pretty hot that day and they may have just decided it wasn`t worth the effort due to the heat that day…I sat down and spotted some honey brown poker chips sitting near the pocket opening and decided to dig in and see if there were more there…soon enough I had my answer…there was either another pocket opening up behind the original one, or the pocket I had handed off had never been exposed to its true potential….

I walked down and picked up another bag at the truck and got my hand rake as well…and walked back up and began raking around and was finding single crystals right and left…within a few moments, I found a few clusters and then a few druse plates with poker chips on them and the color changed from honey brown to white…I started raking more to my left and pretty soon had opened yet another pocket and was able to see some larger plates of druse hanging upside down….I apologize for not taking my camera up there guys, but there was some overhang above me and I decided I might have to move quickly and its a little tough to do with a camera around your neck.

After a few overhead collapses, nothing major, I wore out and decided I had done well, two bags filled out of this pocket alone and four medium sized chunks to take home as well as the prior bag too. Missy and I loaded up and headed home. Saw a little bit of fall color up on the hill, was brown in the valleys…

As we got closer to Steelville, we could see the haze and smoke had increased, four hours later, and soon after I met a brush truck and pumper headed toward the haze, but they werent running lights or siren, so I naturally thought perhaps they had been there already to assist them on a fire and were returning home now….but soon after, as I was driving through Cuba, I met a brush task force of seven brush trucks and they were running code through town headed toward Steelville…I picked up my cell and called my department, and was told that Steelville was battling a one hundred acre brush fire and had called for a brush and pumper task force…our brush truck was already there on the second alarm…soon after I met the pumper task force on I-44 east of Cuba and headed that way, also running code…seven pumpers…now I`m sitting at home as I write this wondering if they have the fire under control or if they will be calling for more help later tonight….I might wind up back down there if they do…

Last Eureka Mine Fluorite Dig 2010

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

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.

Miller Mountain Mine in September 2010

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

Jimmy Ericson and I drove over to Miller Mountain Coleman Mine on Saturday morning, arriving about 9 am and found there were already about fifteen people digging thru the piles of new dirt and some on top walking around searching for yard rocks. We paid our ten dollar dig fee and then Jimmy drove on up and got started, while I visited with Faith and Bill, the Caretakers for the mine, who had asked me to bring some druse quartz down the next time I was there, so I brought a few pieces down to look at. They decided they liked a couple of the boytroidal ones and we did a little trading. I decided I would do my digging first and then trade afterward.

I drove on up and found Jimmy settled into a pile of dirt….

…so I got my boots on and changed to a shirt already clay stained, didn`t want to get my last good fire department shirt stained…and grabbed my bags and my extendable digging rake. I was invited by a couple of ladies to join them at their dirt pile two up from Jimmy, and one of them showed me some killer clusters she had found already. I hadn`t dug in more than two minutes before I found a beautiful small cluster and then several single points, so I figured this was going to be a nice pile of dirt. There was a lady digging behind me that had found a large point that was every bit of six inches wide and maybe seven or eight inches long, most everything was being found in the large clumps of dark red clay. Here is a photo of the small cluster I found, all cleaned up….

We kept on digging, Jimmy was finding several smaller crystals down at his pile and I was finding a few singles and a lot of smaller clusters, but nothing very big….the lady that had invited me to dig at her pile, was from Arkadelphia, about thirty miles south of Hot Springs and has a rock shop there…about an hour after we sat down, she pulled out a nice plate of black quartz crytals….mouthwatering to say the least…when she got up to go walk the top of the pile a few minutes later, I drifted over toward her side and started digging deeper…within a few minutes of doing so, I pulled out what appeared to be a softball sized cluster that seemed to contain two large points…I could see the tops of the points and a couple of smaller points down the side of it, so I was thinking I had a five crystal point cluster. I decided to take it down and wash it off….something I have never done when there, ever….but this one felt good and I wanted to see what I had….I really don`t think I have a good photo of it yet…but here is what I have so far….

…cleaned up of course…it was quite pretty there too though….and as I walked back toward the pile, everyone along the way wanted to see it so I stopped and showed them what it looked like dirty and then on the way back, cleaned up….I would call it the find of the day for me….I filled four bags of potential crystals, there was so much clay on most of them, when I felt or saw points, I just stuck them in the bag…while not all of them were keepers, quite a few were and I waited til I got home to clean them.

After four hours of digging, I decided to get up and walk around on top and see what I could find…I had seen a guy walking back and forth to his truck from up above with big yard rocks in his hands, so I didn`t really think I would be finding any good sized ones but thought I would just see what I could find surface collecting. I didn`t get very far up the way until I saw a couple of points sticking out of the dirt winking at me and pulled out a few nice smaller clusters…in the bag they went and I kept walking…up on top I found several small singles and gave them to a couple of kids with young families…one family from Nacodoges, Texas, who were there for the weekend and sat and talked with them a bit…they had come up for the weekend to escape the Texas heat and found the heat in Arkansas to be much the same…as well as drought conditions…told them about our dig at Bear Mountain the day before and they decided they just might go there the next morning on their way home and check it out.

Here are a few of the crystals I found while walking around, shown dirty first…

…I didnt carry my camera around with me that day or I would have shown them to you in a step by step format….this one shows a nice single crystal that I found sticking out of the pile….

…and here are some of the other crystals I found…

Sometimes you never know what you have til you get home and start cleaning it up….you start out with a glob of clay…….and then as you are washing it off, out come two points, one on each side…looks promising, so you continue washing, even brushing, and then oila !