Crabtree Emerald Mine 10-25-03

What an exciting day, I went on my first Magma field trip - and to an EMERALD mine. WOW!!

Rick, his son, Dave and I arrived at the site. During the day we screened, we dug, we broke rock! EMERALDS,
I've never even seen one before. And then others started coming for their search for EMERALDS - during the day at least 20 others came to the site searching, they were from all over. Greenville, SC, New York and all over NC.

I didn't know what tools to take. A shovel, a screen, a scraper, a 6# hammer, chisels - I had them all. We dug, we screened, we broke rock. To be completely honest most of us found beryl crystals - some were a little small.
And EMERALDS were found, by one person, a Yankee, an invader from New York state. The only person to find these beautiful EMERALDS was an outsider from NY.

And our leader Rick finally broke out his ultimate tool for finding crystals of EMERALD - a 20# sledge hammer. We were all amazed and impressed as he started to strike with the 20# sledge. But then came the confusion as he struck HIMSELF with the sledge. Was he trying to impress us with the hardness of his head - as the blood ran down his face and his eye started to close we left this EMERALD site. Should we go back and search again and if we do what tools should we take??