Luther
Thomas Collection
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94 year old Luther Thomas has been collecting rocks and minerals in the Western North Carolina mountains for most of his life, he lived in Micaville N.C. until recently , he now resides with his son in Burnsville N.C., for many years Luther displayed his vast collection in an old building that stood at the edge of his property. Luther has specimens that will rival and many times surpass specimens in many public mineral museums. Luther had the privledge of collecting at many sites that are now closed to present day rockhounds. I spent the day with Luther talking about and photographing his rocks and minerals, he is a living encylopedia of information for mineral locations that are not listed in any books etc. Luthers collection is no longer on display, it has been dismantled and stored away by his family, I have picked out photos of some of his premium specimens for your viewing pleasure, Rick
This small building at the edge of Luthers property contained thousands of excellent North Carolina specimens.
Luther shows off some of his specimens.
Cinammon Garnets from Madison County are considered fairly rare for this area. This large specimen may be the largest piece ever collected.
Giant cinammon garnets in matrix, 2" crystals.
Torbernite crystals from the Chalk Mountain Mine.
Luther has been offered $5,000 for this facet grade piece of kyanite in matrix, the crystal is over a foot long.
Luther and his son had the opportunity to collect at the Walker Creek Kyanite site long before others knew of the site, he also has many nice specimens from the now "off limits" kyanite site just off the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Gem kyanite from the parkway site, notice the beveled edges, highly crystalized.
