Fieldtrip Report:
Galax,Virginia Iron District
2-19-05,
By Dave Hart
Got up early and met up with Drew, Tate, and Tate's dog Gila (sp?) at the Matthews State Forest just outside of Galax, Va. Tate had been told about this site by his sister who runs cross-country. She picked up a rock and brought it to Tate, ended up being Kyanite. We didn't do any digging, just some surface collecting. Didn't find anything too nice but managed to pick up a few pieces of pale kyanite and some staurolite, it was my first Va. kyanite, and first staurolite ever.
We left the State Forest and stopped in at a small Amish Market, grabbed some sandwiches, and also had a cup of the best soup I've ever tasted. It was called "Hobo" soup, had taters, hamburger, macaroni, onions, butter, some basil, I dunno what the secret ingredient was. I found out they sell it by the gallon, I think it might be worth the hour drive just to pick some up.
After lunch we proceeded to the Iron mines. The first mine we visited was the Iron Ridge Mine.
Iron Ridge Mine:
Drew and Tate had scoured this site before, but all three of us were in for a surprise when we spotted the huge pit in the ground. There were huge holes tunneled into the ground, I've never been to Graves Mtn. before but I've heard how big it is, this place has to be nearly as big. Note in the pictures that the pines growing in the bottom of the mine are at least 60-70 ft. tall.
We scoured the pits and found some neat things, unfortunately almost all of it is very badly oxidized and weathered. There's a pretty strong sulfur smell all around the dumps. I did manage to find a plate of weathered schist with some spessartine garnets in it, and also some salvageable kyanite in matrix, too bad it's weathered and poorly colored, the formation of the blades is really spectacular.
From what Drew told me, the iron mines in the area were worked back during the civil war, and he said they may have been worked up through the 1950's off and on. Not sure exactly how old the Iron Ridge is, but we did see signs of both very old workings, and more recent workings.
Newer shed built
Theres water being pumped up, we couldn't figure out what for, Drew and I guessed it was to cycle the groundwater out, he said a guy from the county has to come add chemicals to the water in and around the iron mines.
Dump pile where I found the garnet plate and kyanite.
Kyanite
Garnet plate
