We spent the afternoon Friday finding all kinds of cool specimens, then we got together that evening for dinner at the Soap Creek restaurant for catfish and chicken. Saturday morning, back to the mine to meet with many more M.A.G.M.A. members. Saturday morning started off with a light drizzle. We wore our rain coats expecting to get wet. The rain lasted about an hour then dried up for the rest of the day. It stayed cloudy which made it perfect for digging.
Rich inspecting a specimen.
John D. on the mountain.
I have heard of and seen many big quartz crystals from Graves Mountain. These crystals are usually ugly, chemically eaten etched crystals. Sometimes you will get lucky and find one with a nice iridescent coating on it. Lee and I were poking around a wall in the lower pit when we began to find numerous smaller quartz crystals on the dumps. We began searching the area to see if we could find the source. Lee had stayed at the bottom of the wall, ground hunting, when he spotted a long object with flat sides, what could it be? Well, it has flat sides and it is quartz, in fact it is the biggest quartz crystal I have ever seen from this site, it must weigh at least 30 pounds?
Lee and his monster quartz crystal. |
