Field Trip Report:
Diamond Hill Machine Dig!
Antreville, S.C.
April 2008Report by: Rick Jacquot
Some
of the crystals were formed singly, others in veins and pockets. Many
of the plates were made of drusy crystal with large amethysts attached
and covered with a black manganese coating. Here Bryan exposes a drusy
plate. |
In the ground...
And out!
Base camp
didn't get a lot of use. We would get up in the morning, eat and head
down to the pit. We would break for about a half hour for lunch and
then continue digging till dark. |
Towards
the end of the dig, the crew uncovered a huge plate. The next day or
so we would have to figure out how to remove it. |
We
decided to use the track hoe to lift the plate and place it on the back
of my truck. |
Once it was in the air, we got our first look at the underside.
We
had to place the plate on blankets and then turn it over onto a waiting
pallet. |
Chet
points at a large crystal cluster. The piece has several crystal rosette
clusters with 2-4" crystals and many side pockets with perfect
crystals. Some of the tips were dinged on top unfortunately, but it
is still the largest amethyst plate I have ever seen. |
Once on the pallet, we loaded it on the back of Maggie.
Big plate on truck, I used Mark instead of a quarter to show the size. |
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