Fieldtrip Report:
Fieldtrip Report:
JXR
"Grand Reopening"
June 9th and 10th, 2007
By Steve Barr
Photography by: Sandi Hill, Austin Barr, Pat Cummings, Don Aldridge and Douglas Drummond
Despite intense heat, with temperatures rising to almost one hundred degrees each day, the turnout for the "JXR Grand reopening" was phenomenal. On Saturday alone, we had close to one hundred club members show up. The lure of world-class amethyst from this infamous site drew quite a crowd.
Almost as soon as the sun came up, anxious rockhounds attacked the mine and began finding specimens.
Romin offered his customary prayer and sacrifice to the rock gods.
There were many familiar faces at the dig, as well as lots of new ones.
Russ Fulweiller flew in from Wisconsin at the last minute to join in on the fun.
Geode Pat drove up from Florida, and wore her "lucky purple" shirt. It seemed to work. Every time I saw her, she was holding another piece of amethyst and laughing hysterically.
Dave "Gronkus" and his son drove in from Pennsylvania for the big event.
Terry Ledford, JXR's owner, had used a bulldozer to smooth the earth on the property, which helped create massive dump piles and also provided plenty of parking close to the action!
In no time at all, JXR looked like a small city, with cars and trucks parked everywhere, and umbrellas beginning to pop up all over the place.
Donny dunagan and his Son.
More and more familiar faces began to roll in.
We found Robert and Marcy hiding nearby in the woods. I'm still not sure if they were just trying to keep cool in the shade, or simply escape from the crazed crowd of diggers who were in an amethyst frenzy all around them.
Buddy did his usual ritual where he dances with his sledgehammer before each dig to "limber up". I don't know if he actually hit the truck in this photo with his sledgehammer, but I don't think it had any amethyst in it anyway.
