Fieldtrip Report:
Fieldtrip Report:
Crabtree
Emerald Mine
Mitchell County, N.C.
Grand Re-Opening!
July 15th and 16th, 2006
photos by: Lee Fleming, Jim Ellis, Rick Jacquot
I hope you have a few minutes to check out this report, it will be worth your time. After editing many pictures from myself, Lee and Jim, I have decided to use most of them, over 100!. I feel it was the right thing to do to document to re-opening of one of the most famous emerald mines in North America. There were many rockhounds who attended this dig, and they all deserve to be a part of history by having their picture posted in this report, whether it is an individual picture or in a group shot, it is great to be part of something this important to the rockhound community. As most people know, our club is now managing this site for the owners, they have given me permission to bring in machines from time to time as we feel is needed to expose new material at the mine. Most of you know that I was not a big fan of the Crabtree the last couple of years, the site had been dug repeatedly and little was produced by hand digging. I had not set up a club trip there is a couple of years. This arrangement with the owners and our club was just what the site needed, turning over the dump material and digging 6-8 feet down into material that had not been touched in over 20 years has brought new life to the mine as you will see in the 30+ specimen pictures posted in this report. Just as important are the pictures of the members who participated in the dig, they were the first group to reep the rewards of this historic mine in many, many years.
The dig actually started on Friday for many of us, I arrived around 3:30 p.m. to find Steve Bonney, Ken Sexton and others already setup at the camp area.
Camp area in the field behind the mine.
I set up my camping gear and waited for the machine to arrive at the mine. We spent the evening planning the dig as many more members arrived to camp with us.
A couple of thunderboomers passed by that evening as we sat around talking rocks and preparing our evening meals.
Me and Lee, ready for the next days adventures!
That evening, while walking the site, Ken found a few pieces of emerald matrix which he quickly ground into a free form cabochon while Tom Wright watched.
Kens freeform cab, ground at the camp.
How many clubs do you know that bring along generators and cabbing machines into the field with them?
The next morning the members began to pile into the site, as early as 7:00 a.m. I started to see people filing in, I had an awning setup with a table to sign people in and take pictures of specimens as they were found by the members. Not much later, Rick Penley arrived to run the machine for the day.
Rick Penley on the trackhoe.
The machine was not huge, but it did get the job done, soon after things got going, people started bringing things for me to photograph.
I had a lot of people bringing stuff to me and I forgot who had what, some I did remember and posted the names with the rocks. The above two pics are a specimen of emerald matrix rock from the dumps.
Shirley and Richard Green.
Shirleys emerald in matrix.
Sandi showing off a specimen.
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