20th Annual
Western North Carolina
Rockhound Roundup

July 24th - 30th, 2023

Photos by: Rick Jacquot, Bill Stine, Mike Callahan, Mark Veilleux, Steven Colvin, Stacey Tiezen, Bob Jordon, Duane Gray, Randy Fitzgerald

What a great week we had for our 20th anniversary WNC Rockhound Roundup. A lot of old friends we had not seen in a few years, and many new members joined us for the week of fun. While many visited us during the day, we had quite a good group camping with us for the week.

Getting camp set up on Monday.



I brought around 2,000+ pounds of minerals to the event in my flatbed. I was selling it at 50 cents a pound. The members hit it hard first thing Monday morning and it was being sorted through all week long. As some of you know, all the money I make from mineral sales and the sale of my Smokey books goes to care of the feral cats and other critters I take care of.

Tony looking for a deal.

We had a good crowd going by Monday evening.

Sharon on the hunt! The first field trip of the week was to the Crabtree Emerald Mine. The trip was led by Brenton. Thank you, Brenton for leading two of the field trips for us during the week.

Andrew

Brenton and Sharon emerald hunting.

Randy having fun.

Following are some of Steven Maliner-Colvin's mine finds.







A nice amber Steven traded from Ed.

None of our events are complete without Luther and his huge selection of minerals. He completely sold out the first day and had to go home and reload his truck for the rest of the week.


Bill Stine also had a nice selection to choose from.

Bill and Bob

Mike and Brenton

Duane

Mark and me discussing very important club business ...Where to order pizza!

Jay and Carly

Mark, Andrew and Patrick


Chelle and Bob expressing their opinion of pizza with anchovies.

We had not seen our friend Dave in quite a while and it was great to see him pull in with a truck load of goodies to share with us for the week.

Sharon checking out Dave's treasures.

Dave and Johnny led a trip to Chunky Gal mountain on Thursday.

Terry on Chunky Gal.

Chelle hunting sapphires.

Nice ruby that Steven found.

Stacey found a flower.

Dave brought this monster bowling ball cluster of sapphires back to the roundup. He dug it on the mountain years ago. I traded him a pile of kyanite for it a few years back. Then he acted like he missed it, so I brought it to a roundup a few years ago and gave it back to him. He said I can have custody of it again for a while. So it is now sitting in my living room, reminding me of all the good times we have had on Chunky Gal and Buck Creek.

You may have noticed the moth sleeping on the big corundum specimen above. So lets take a look at all the different moths that visited us during the week.












No roundup is complete without Johnny Clear and his 18" slab saw. He was there ready to cut. Randy helped cut rocks all week and I had at least a couple of dozen Brazilian agates cut that were collected in the 50s and 60s. Some of them had some great patterns. Thank you, Johnny and Randy!

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