by Dion Stewart
A wonderful feature of visiting an active quarry is that fresh rock and new finds are always available, and so it was with our annual trip to Summerville to collect agates, banded chalcedony, and pink dolostone during the first week of November 2016. This trip was especially nice as we invited members of the Franklin, NC mineral society to join us and we had collectors from as far away as Kentucky attending the dig.
Our trip leaders, Tom and Bonnie Smith, put on a great “breakfast” with hot coffee, rolls and brownies that was appreciated by everyone! They added a side excursion to a local rock and mineral dealer where great local materials were available at very reasonable prices. Several people said they are ready to sign up for Tom and Bonnie’s next trip — site (sic) unseen — just for a repeat of a fantastic time. Some of the guests had so much material by the end of the day that they had a difficult time getting it all into their vehicles for the trip home.
The quarry consists of highly broken fragment as it is in the fault zone at the base of the Knox Formation. The Knox formation is a rather famous dolomite and limestone rock unit, where secondary hot fluids, saturated in dissolved silica, invaded the upper part of the formation and replaced the original carbonate with quartz-rich materials; such as chert, chalcedony and agate. Some of the replacement have captured the original oolites that were in the limestone and these pieces make nice speckled cabochons.
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