The following is Troy's report on his first dig with the club and finding such a great pocket of crystals;

Troy’s Reel Amethyst Mine Field Trip Report:

While trying to decide on a spot to dig on Friday, I took heed to Rick's claims that collecting at the Reel would require a lot of work. Everywhere I looked I saw people wielding sledge hammers and pick axes, this was not going to be scratch and sift through the tailings sort of dig. The veterans I talked to that morning gave me some insight on what areas had been worked in the past and the consensus was that “you really want to get down to new unexposed material”. It was becoming clear to me that if you want to find something at the Reel, you’ve got to move a lot of dirt. And that’s what I set out to do.

With some encouragement from a senior rockhound who suggested that the area near by where I was thinking of prospecting was a pretty good choice, I set my sights on an existing three foot wide by three foot deep exploratory hole left by another club member the day before. After an hour or so of hard shoveling, I had expanded the space into a sizable working area and had dug several more feet downward. I then started to chip away at the walls and floor with a hand pick, examining the material a handful at a time looking for signs of color and glassy stuff. Pick, inspect, shovel out the hole, was my routine for the next several hours. I finally discovered a few single crystals as I got down below the over burden and into a thin vein of light chalky material probably five feet below my original stating point. I kept expanding my pit wider in hopes of following more of this material, but it seemed to fade away. By this time I had several small finds and plenty of ambition. I kept digging down and outward until by late in the afternoon I had created a small cavern approximately eight feet deep. At this level I found a larger vein of the lighter material that had produced gems earlier in the day and began meticulously clearing and inspecting and shoveling.

This layer was just six inches below a layer of sticky mud that seemed to have been filled in from rain water thirty to forty years ago based on the flowing lines in the sediment and the beautifully preserved Royal Crown Cola bottle I found encased in the mud. I wiped the mud off the bottle and the paint was so crisp and bright that it looked brand new. I left it on some newspaper to dry and when I picked it up an hour later the paint on the label had turned to dust and it blew right off!

I continued to find a crystal or two off and on as I kept picking, searching and shoveling. They were gorgeous, dark and glassy. There was a growing interest in my claim as more and more club members were stopping by to see what new finds were being produced from my hole in the ground. The chalky material was sporadic, but seemed to follow just below the sticky mud layer so it was easy to get back to it once I found the mud again as I kept digging deeper back towards the wall. The material I was chasing terminated at the back of my pit and with further expansion I realized it ran back under where I had been laying so I decided to expand my pit further down. In the process of inching my way deeper I was able to extract a pesky rock that had been in my way for several hours as I had been excavating around it. When the ten by five inch piece finally broke free it revealed a small cluster of beautiful amethyst crystals still attached to the granite matrix! This was yet another nice piece for show and tell and to peeked more interest to see what might show up next.

All day long I worked that spot, digging, scraping, shoveling and collecting, and shoveling and more shoveling… Every time I would pull out another crystal my neighbor Ben, who had been busting through rock all day long only three feet away, had nothing but praise and encouragement for me and my good fortune. We kept surveying the location of the vein material in relation to Ben’s claim and it looked like he would run into it too if it were not for the solid granite barrier between us. As I kept plucking through the soft dirt, Ben kept hammering and chiseling away at hard rock.

Saturday morning I arrived at the dig site with my friend Susan and some cleaned up specimens to show off from previous day’s adventure. Knowing that most of the hard work had been done the day before and hopeful that my spot would still produce some gems at the level I was at, Susan and I climbed down into the hole, now actually large enough for two. I started giving her some lessons in how to search for the gems and what indicators to look for. We both found a couple small points within the first half hour or so and then her side of the pit seemed to dry up as my side seemed to be getting better. I showed her a piece next to me that showed up in some sticky clay and how to extract it by clearing material from the perimeter and working the piece out with some of the matrix attached to ensure the whole piece was recovered. Behind the piece I extracted I could see the flat facets of a couple more crystals peering out of the mud and I let her take over while I went back to the car and retrieve my camera so I could document her efforts of playing in the dirt!

When I returned she had already recovered a few more single crystals and was working on a larger piece in the same sticky mud. She worked on it for a few minutes and then asked that I take a look at it because she was not sure how to proceed. Turns out she had found the beginning of a nice cluster and we exchanged places so I could investigate further. After a half an hour of me gingerly working the piece out of the tacky clay the fist sized cluster came free. We cleared some of the mud away from a couple of the perfectly shaped points to reveal beautiful dark purple amethyst! And right behind where that piece had come out of the mud was another glimmer of glass. I worked that spot for a couple more hours eventually revealing what turned out to be a chain of amethyst growth in a mud vein. We had discovered the tip of the vein and as we worked further towards the back of the pit the vein widened to about a seven inch tube of dense sticky clay with a band of crystals down the middle of it. I had to remove some more rock above and along side the vein to chase it further back and towards Ben’s site. I kept encouraging Ben, who was still busy chiseling through dense rock, to keep working towards the area that the vein appeared to be heading.

By mid day I had removed several nice clusters and uncovered a two foot long section of densely packed crystal growth that Susan claimed looked like a backbone made of amethyst. At one time I had approximately six fist sized clumps packed end to end exposed in the clay. The grouping extended to the back of the wall and I was certain there was more, but had to start extracting the backbone sections before expanding the area. Ben and I were tapping on the rock that separated us to help direct him to the right level and location. He was getting close. I had spent countless hours laying on my side picking mud and matrix with bamboo and screwdrivers, only sitting up to hand out or wrap another piece or shovel out the tailings. What I did not realize was that Ben had been working head down in his hole at about a fifty degree angle and laying on solid rock. Now that was some determination. That night when I took my shower I discovered big bruises on my left arm, elbow, hip and thigh from laying in the dirt and rocks all day. “Hey look, I found more purple!”

I don’t know exactly what time it happened, but as I was working the upper section of the backbone, a large screwdriver blade came poking through the rock next to my head. Ben had made it through! We worked from both sides to open up a small connector between us so he could get access, but it was looking like the vein had ended right at the connector where we met. It took me a half an hour or so to expand my search area and relocate the vein. It had turned downward and further back into the wall. During this time Ben had opened the hole in the rock between us to about an eight inch diameter. We started working together to extract a section of newly exposed gems and I told Ben that he could keep the piece once we got it out. I think he was a little surprised by my offer, but I thought he had earned it. We worked for fifteen minutes or so from both sides until the piece started to work loose. At this location the gems were encased in mud from the tops and sides and were attached at the bottom to a layer of hard rock and an eighth to a quarter inch of what appeared to be almost asphalt like material. All Ben could see was the top section of the piece and all I could see was the lower half and a hand sticking through a hole in the rock in front of me. He slid a bamboo blade underneath the clump and lifted it up rolling it back into my hand. I then reached through the opening between us and handed it off to him. The teamwork and friendship we shared that afternoon was really great.

Ben shared his efforts from his side of the connector with two of his friends, collectively referred to as the “3 DigAteers”. We took turns claiming the next few pieces as we worked together to extract the material in the cramped and pinched back section of the pit. I was still unaware of how daunting a task it was for the boys on the other side to be working at such an angle and tight quarters. The camaraderie of everyone in the mine that day was overwhelming. I took as much time as I could to share with others and explain what and how we were going about finding and extracting the gems. From under the ledge of my pit I heard a veteran rockhound who was sitting and watching me extract handfuls of crystals in mud matrix remark, that watching me extracting that vein of amethyst was as much fun as any day he had ever had collecting. I thought to myself, “how cool is that!” I knew that this was a rare event and considered how lucky I was to be in the middle of it.

We all pulled out a few nice clumps of crystal in clay and covered up an existing point left sticking out of the mud before we called it a day and placed shovels over our sites to mark our claim. Knowing that there was at least one more crystal in the hole would make for a good night’s sleep. I suggested to Ben that we pool our resources on Sunday and cut down a couple feet of the roof of my hole over top of the excavation point as well as open up the union between our two sites. That would mean moving a whole lot of dirt out of the holes, but would make it easier for us to work the site more efficiently the following day. We could then take turns extracting specimens from the site as long as it was still productive. Ben asked that he and his buddies be considered one half share in the take as they were working as a team. I graciously agreed as I wrapped and packed the last of my finds of the day, which now filled a four gallon canvas bag!

Sunday was to be just a half day for me in the mine and after an hour of prep work on the dig site, me and the boys started recovering more specimens. We took turns in the hole and collected only from my side, leaving the granite sliding board as an observation point for onlookers instead of the torture chamber the fellows had experienced the day before. By noon I had taken at least four turns extracting and had to call it a day. We were still finding gems, but the size of the pocket was starting to narrow. I turned over my claim to Ben and his buddies with strict instructions to let me know what else was found before they left and to share more of the stories about the days adventure, most of which would start out with “There I wuz, down in the hole…”

Following are some of Troy's finds;

Page 8

Back to field trip menu