Past Field Trips

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Mud to the Right, Mud to the Left, Mud Behind Us as We Slide Down the Hill!!!

by Robie Hunt

December 6, 2014 was a very interesting and fun field trip led by Shelton Boyd to South Carolina. There were about 18 members from the CCGMS Rock Club who attended. There was also a Boy Scout troop of maybe 8 to 10 boys, who camped there and were having a great time looking for the big treasure. Everyone had their minds pretty much made up as to what they wanted to find; smoky quartz, clear quartz, amethyst, skeletal quartz and aquamarine. We were all digging, scraping and washing anything that remotely looked like anything that might have a purple tint. Amethyst would be the big find if one was found. People did find a lot of smoky quartz, clear quartz and white quartz. I don’t know if any skeletal quartz was found. We didn’t need to haul buckets for washing the finds as there was enough rain to create many large puddles for this process of rock hounding. We may have gotten very wet and some very muddy, but everyone seemed to be enjoying the dig anyway.

I think the largest piece that was taken home for a yard rock was found by Lawrence. He said it may weight in at about 200 pounds. He had to enlist the help of a couple of Boy Scouts to lift it into the back of his pick-up. He said that was the cheapest labor he had used. It just cost him a soda for each boy. It sure has a lot of points to it and it is all white quartz. It probably won’t be brought in for the show and tell anytime soon.

Shelton, the CCGMS trip leader, was terrific at helping folks out and sending them to different areas to find rocks/gems. The upper level of the mine was where a person “might” find aquamarine and that was where a few of the Boy Scouts stayed, in hopes of a great find. Most everyone else went down, down, down into the pit area and that was where the quartz crystals were to be found. Bill, the owner of the property/mine was great too and seemed very pleased that some of us “Rockhounds” found a few pieces of amethyst, even if they were very light in color and blended in with some smoky quartz.

Robie found a beautiful piece of amethyst. When some of the other members saw the amethyst that was found, they went back down into the pit to look harder for that elusive gem.

Folks started leaving around 1 PM and the others followed later to head back home with all their great treasures. There seemed to be a number of folks that would like to make another trip to this big dirt pit, hopefully when it is “NOT” raining. But “mud” never deters a Rock Hound!!!

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These reports chronicle the details of the fun and adventure of seeking and finding your own rocks, minerals or fossils. Frequently, these trips are repeated. This makes this page a good reference site for future trips. Collecting location specifics won't be included in the report as they generally require special permission to collect. It's important that we protect the privacy of our site owners to avoid unwanted rockhounds searching on their property.