Fieldtrip report:
Cateye Cut Corundum,
Clay County, North Carolina,
July 3rd, 2004____________________
Greetings to our members, we had a great turnout today to visit the CatEye Cut Corundum location in Clay County, this site produces excellent corundum specimens in a variety of shapes, colors, loose and in matrix. This deposit is one of many in the Buck Creek Mining District. RJ, Travis, Landon and I met with Dave L., Andrea, Grant and Nancy at the Silver Armadillo at 9:00 this morning and headed to the mine.
Grant and Nancy, ready to rock!
We met John D., Alan, Jerry and Tena when we got there.
For those who know the CatEye, it is a waste of time to collect here unless you have a bit of water to wash your material for identification, the dark soil in the area covers everything and unless you find a six sided crystal or can id a specimen from the weight you will not find much without water. As I figured, all the rain over the past few weeks has the creek up and there was plenty of water to screen with, several nice small rubies were found as well as a few nice hex crystals and some larger matrix pieces.
John offered Tena a nice sapphire crystal for her hand in marriage, and a romance was blooming!
But Jerry, who had his back turned while this deal was being negotiated quickly realized what was going on and informed John that once he crossed the state line with Tena he had to keep her, as is the law of the mountains!
John re-negotiated and got his sapphire back, and Jerry and Tena are together again 8^)
Another happy ending and a great day of collecting with friends!
