Fieldtrip report:
Erwin Tennessee Calcite,
Little Pine Garnet Mine,
January 8th, 2005official fieldtrip:
Mountain Area Gem and Mineral Association______________________________
Hello members, another fantastic turnout for todays fieldtrip, many new members met us at the parking lot in front of the Silver Armadillo Rockshop. Our member Denny drove up from Charlotte and had brought along some of his excellent stilbite specimens for sale and trade, our new member Phil Potter and I aquired some very nice pieces for our collections, Phil will be taking many of his zeolite specimens from North Carolina to Tuscon to be displayed at the show.
One of Denny's stilbite specimens.
John Deney, Steve Penley, Phil Potter, Denny Lawing, Jim Ellis, Grant Kidd, Andrea, Jerry & Tena, and Steve & Netra were all waiting when I finally arrived for the trip, after catching up on current rock issues and admiring the many specimens that our members have been collecting in the field within the last couple of weeks, we proceeded to the Erwin location, once we arrived, we met with Drew and Tate from Virginia and a few M.A.G.M.A. members from the Kingsport Tn.Club.
This site was first discovered by our M.A.G.M.A. member Steve Penley, years ago when the Tennessee side of the interstate was first being built, Steve was also the first one to report the mineral finds to the local university geology department in Tennessee.
The Erwin site is noted for it's fine calcite specimens, I managed to find this piece before we headed to the Little Pine Mine.
Before the rest of our group arrived, it seems a local sheriff deputy had stopped by and advised Drew and Tate that they would receive a $200.00 ticket for parking along the road at the collecting site, the deputy said that the State Troopers were the ones who enforce these rules, this contradicts what the State Troopers have told me in the past, I have been asked twice if I was broken down when parked at the site, when I told them I was rockhunting, they would just laugh and leave me there to collect, I will check on this later this week and report what I find out. Needless to say this made some of the members nervous, we stayed there about 45 minutes and then decided to head to the Little Pine Mine to finish off the day of collecting. Many of the new members had never been to the Little Pine and many others had not been there in several years, I always enjoy a trip to this site and it was fun to watch the new members find specimens at this historic location.
Creek at Little Pine.
John Deney had been on our New Years day dig last week, you'll recall he came home with some nice specimens, he did the same today!
Jerry had not been to this site since the 70's and Tena had never been here, so it was fun for both of them.
Tena came prepared with a feast of delicious strawberry cupcakes, (she cut me off at five!)
Steve and Netra also drove up from Charlotte, they had not been to the mine in several years.
If you look in the middle of this pic, you can see Denny hiding way up in the back of the mine.
My friend "pip" was hanging out at the mine, I have been watching the same bats migrate back and forth to this mine for 3 years now, there is this one, and a larger Eastern Brown Bat that reside here in the winter.
Here's Denny again, stuck between the ceiling and the ledge.
Tate got into the swing of things pecking away at the back of the mine, he came out with some nice garnets.
Drew decided to work near the entrance of the mine where the light was better.
I poked around in the back of the mine with Tate and Denny for a while, I filled my 1 gallon bucket and figured I had enough. I figured out how to find out what sports people like, I heard some say they had garnets the size of golfballs, pingpong balls, baseballs, softballs (rare at the Little Pine), Denny must like tennis, the last I heard, he had 10 garnets the size of tennis balls sticking out and was working to remove them !, I guess I like food more than sports, all my garnets were the size of oranges 8^)
