I had met Debra, Denise, and Dora at the McRocks Fluorite Dig last year at Marion, Kentucky, and again this year at the BE Clement Museum`s first public dig last month in April, helping them find some good areas to dig for the big beautiful purple cubes we have been finding there the past five years now. They had asked if they could come down to Missouri and go hunting with us for druse quartz and poker chip crystals. Lots of people ask and never follow up or show up, so I gave my standard yes answer, thinking I wouldnt hear back from them.

A few weeks ago, Debra emailed and said, ” hey remember us ? ” and asked if they could come down the weekend of May 14th and 15th to go rock hunting with us. I checked my schedule and told them that weekend would be fine, although weather wise, it turned out to be cool and rainy, but we persevered as most rockhounds do, and made it work.

I comped out early Friday night from work and came home to get a few hours sleep, the same amount they were able to get as it turned out….they arrived at their motel at the same time I got home from work. I woke up at 7 am Saturday, got Missy fed and ready…. then we drove up to meet the gals at the Cuba Best Western for breakfast. After some banannas, biscuits and white gravy, we headed south to meet up with Docia.

There were spotty light mist showers as we drove down through the countryside and the temps were hovering around 55 degrees, not the ideal weather for hunting druse, but as Docia mused later, much better than the hot temps we had been experiencing lately.  We drove into the upper location and stopped in one of the prime spots, and as I got out of my truck, I noticed quickly that the wind was very gusty and would make walking around very tough going. I suggested to the gals that we head on down to the lower location and check it out, cause there was usually a lot less wind down there. We drove over to the turn around spot and the gals started spotting some nice druse and poker chip pieces laying around and stopped to check them out. As we were walking around checking this area, I spotted Docia driving over to meet us. It was fun watching them pick up druse and poker chip chunks,  oohhing and ahhing every step they took. I kept telling them wait til you see what we find at the lower location.

After meeting the gals, Docia also strongly encouraged them to proceed to the other area to search, due to the wind and also told them that we had found some nice druse outcrops there recently that she was sure they would like. We drove down there, parked, and  they quickly picked up their bags and tools and followed Docia to the new outcrops to find some nice druse. We walked up an old logging road toward a big pile of clay dirt and along the way came across some clay dirt outcrops of exposed druse quartz weathering out of the outcrops. There also happened to be the remains of a dead animal along the road and one had to move quickly upwind of it due to the odor, it was peeee–eewwww bad there. I walked on up to the top of the hill and located a clay dirt mound and started seeing little plates of druse all over and Dora came over to check it out. She spotted a nice little piece of dark druse and started to dig it out and discovered it wasnt little at all, more like basketball sized with bubbles all over of dark druse….boy was she excited then !! Unfortunately, I didnt have my camera with me at the moment or would have snapped one of her with a BIG smile on her face.

They quickly loaded down two bags apiece and decided to carry them back to their truck and then look around some more. As Missy and I made our way back toward the parking area, I decided to check one side of the clay banks where there is a path to the top, as the rest of the gals were checking out the other side, where druse plates often weather out of the upper layer of clay dirt and fall down to the ground. I worked my way up and just kept spotting gray druse and then I circled over to the edge and started back down, wanting to get to the floor and look for poker chip pockets for them. I spotted some dark shiny bubbles sticking out of the clay dirt and knelt down to take a closer look, make sure it wasnt just more gray, and as I pulled it out of the dirt, I found out it was smokey quartz druse bubbles and yelled over to Docia about it. I had everyone`s attention, specially Dora, who loves smokey quartz apparently…she yelled up and asked if she could join me and I told her to come on up….so she grabbed an extra bag for me and headed up to see what I was finding, cause right behind the bubble piece were two plates of smokey colored druse as well. I dug to either side to see how far the druse plates were located and determined there might be room for both of us to dig, as it appeared plates were coming out of the dirt approximately three feet wide and about ten inches down. Once she climbed up there and noticed what I was pulling out, it didnt take her long to join me in digging too.  Denise saw the plates we were pulling out and decided to join us as well…once she climbed up there, I let her have my spot…I had one bag full by then and still wanted to get down to the floor and look for poker chips.

I started walking downhill once again, along the edge just to look over and see what was below, and spotted a gorgeous soda straw druse plate hanging on for dear life and said a loud HOLIE COW !!

I knelt down and looked over the edge and saw a three foot wide ledge below….decided I could easily get down there by holding on to the bluff with one hand and try to pull that plate back with my extendable rake. I carefully made my way down after extending my rake out…. made myself a few footholds with it, then leaned out and gingerly pulled the plate back uphill to me as close as I could get it…. I then leaned down and grabbed it,  and held it up to the light…. wow, it was even prettier up close than it was afar…and gave out a loud WHOEEEE !! Everyone looked around and up as I held it up for them to see. Here is what it looks like…

I then looked down and saw druse bubbles to my right up away from me, said OH MY GOSH…. and that`s when Dora decided she needed to come over and check on what I was seeing all over the ledge. I straightened up after picking up a loaf of bread sized bubble druse of dark brown colors, and held it up for all to see….

There were two bubble outcrops of beautiful dark druse weathering out of the rocky bluff I was holding on to, and alot of the sections were loose enough to work out by hand. Docia retrieved her camera from her truck and photographed me, so these photos are courtesy of her, no remote timer involved here, lol. Here I am up on the ledge with Missy watching me closely from the edge of the bluff above me….

and this next one gives a little more perspective as to my location…

The next photo shows all of us hard at work, Debra digging to the right side, Denise up above me digging for smokey quartz, and Dora, Missy, and I at the ledge druse.

I wasn`t even aware that Missy was that close to me til I saw Docia`s photos, she apparently laid down on the top edge of the bluff and stayed right there with me til Dora came over to help me out.

Here I am below,  pointing somewhat to a pocket of druse to my left, which only produced a few smaller pieces of loose druse….

…the main area that produced bigger pieces is actually in front of me and to my right, and hard to see in this photo. I was able to dig enough material from the area to my right, that filled two canvas bags completely full…there were four basketball sized pieces of bubbly smokey colored druse from that one pocket. gorgeous druse pieces !

It didn`t take Dora long to figure out I was pulling some nice stuff out of the ledge and left Denise with the pocket of smokey druse plates. I started handing stuff up her and Docia decided to walk up and photograph it more closely.

Docia offered her camera to me to photograph a pocket I discovered behind some of the druse plates, but I decided it wouldn`t be safe to let go with my one hand from the rock outcrop I was holding on to for balance. I did decide to take a closer look at the pocket tho….

.….and what amazed me the most, was out of all the pockets we had found, this one just had to be located sixty feet up higher than any of the other ones…after pulling three basketball sized bubble druse chunks coated with heavy calcite crystals, out of the entrance to the pocket, I discovered about thirty dogtooth calcite crystals laying in behind those big pieces, loose in the dirt and strata, and removed them as well. No poker chips found, but I wouldn`t have been surprised had I found any either, lol.

The next photo gives a little more perspective on my location in relation to the floor below….

…I`m sure I will hear about this from a few choice individuals and I`ll prob inherit a few more choice nicknames from here on as well, when they read this. I should prob prepare my response now…..but I wouldn`t have climbed down into this area if I hadn`t felt safe enough to do so…there was a ledge of rock about eight inches wide to stand on at the base of the bluff rock, which was solid as well, and then there was an additional four feet of sloped gravel and rock to the edge. I`m afraid of heights folks…well the falling part anyway…but I felt truly safe up there.

Well I cleaned out as much as I safely could, even using Denise`s mini mattox to pry some of the plates out, and then climbed back up and walked along the edge back to to their position to see how they were doing, and in so doing, discovered yet another pocket of bubbly druse weathering out of the clay dirt at the edge again.

this time I just bent over the edge and tried to dig it out but found it to be connected and extending way back into the bank about three feet, even traveling back under me, and way too big for me to take out. I decided at that point, to walk down to the floor and look for poker chips…little did I know that Docia had found a poker chip pocket of immense proportions already…she had warned us a little, when she drove her truck over to the bottom of the  hill and left it for us to load up our stuff, but didn`t say how nice a pocket it was…boy were we in for a surprise when we got down there…it was so nice, I decided to get my camera out and take some photos…

Here Debra and Docia are working the pocket and you can see a ton of goodies already removed from the hole in front of them. Docia and I both reached way back into the pockets on either side of that hole and removed single poker chip crystals with the pretties yellow orange glow to them, some of them glowed more than others. We both had our arms in as far as we could go, up to my elbow and there was still more pocket extending back…here are some of the pretties removed already….

 

…this was one that glowed more than the others…when Dora and Denise finished moving their bags from Docia`s truck to their truck, they came over and we all took turns helping remove a few more plates and chips from the pocket…

….and each time something nice, like this narrow and long druse plate with chips attached, came out, Denise or I would pull our cameras out and record the moment.

..but we did give Denise an opportunity to do some chipping on her own….

…as did Dora….

We each chose what we wanted out of the poker chip hole and soon headed back to Cuba. The gals stopped by my house the next morning on their way home to Indiana and took a look at my rock gardens and my collection inside as well. They were quite happy when they headed home, that explorer was heavily loaded down with Missouri druse and some beautiful poker chips too.

I cleaned up some of my druse chunks and plates from the pocket and ledge, shown below…