Fieldtrip report:
Roving Rockhounds semi annual fieldtrip, May 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th, 2004 North Carolina trip
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The Roving Rockhounds is a fieldtrip oriented club based in New Mexico, I have just joined the club and this was my first fieldtrip with the group and I must say I was very impressed, these are some of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure to rockhound with and I look forward to many more trips. The group travels all over the country twice a year for a three to four week period collecting at many great locations daily, just listening to them tell stories of some of the places they had been made me drool. The club was making it's way to North Carolina from Oklahoma and Arkansas and my friend Jim Nelson called me and asked if I would like to join the club and guide them to some sites this week, Jim and his wife are members of the Catawba Valley club locally. The group camped out at the KOA East while in town.
Some of the club at the Little Pine Mine on the first day. I noticed they have good taste in literature 8^)
I showed the members where I had found my large crystals a few weeks ago and Darrell was successful within the first few minutes pulling out two large specimens and a two inch crystal that was cutting quality!
I only dug for about an hour but did manage to find a few crystals including the five inch double crystal on the right.
Tuesday was a trip to the Abernathy Mine and the Sinkhole Mines where everyone had a great time. One of the members of the club is Dave Millis a noted writer of fieldguides, he has several books out on different locations covering the US, Canada, and Mexico, I was able to get a copy of his New York guide for an upcoming trip I am planning.
Daves book.
Today we headed to the Crabtree Mine in Mitchell County. We met at the Hardees parking lot in Mars Hill and proceeded to the mine.
Ready to go.
Everyone had a blast digging and sifting through the dump material!
At the end of the day I think it was Mary who had the most emeralds!
It is a small world, my friend Bill from Waynesville has been telling me for years that I needed to meet a man from Alabama named Bob NuSchaffer and guess who was a member of the club!, Bob is a great fellow, he has worked for NASA for 38 years and now devotes his time to rockhounding.
This member had the right idea, digging in the shade.
This member had success by digging under the tree roots of a large tree that had fallen about three years ago.
Dave Millis decided to do some hardrock mining and was able to retreive some nice sprays of tourmaline and beryl.
My friend Jim and I have something in common, we are both retired cops, now we are full time rockhounds!
After the dig we headed to the Museum of North Carolina Minerals in Spruce Pine, this museum had been remodeled last year and was interesting to see.
Unusual bent (folded) mica specimen on display at the museum.
This neat display has a geiger counter which sounds off when aimed at the individual rocks.
One of our members found this pair of prescription glasses while collecting today, I wear glasses and know how much they can cost, if anyone knows who these belong to, let me know and I will mail them to you. Found at the Crabtree Mine.
Well I had a blast with the Roving Rockhound Club and look forward to upcoming trips, some of the members were leaving tomorrow and some were going to seperate sites so I decided to pass on tomorrows trip, I need to get ready for this weekend 8^)
