by Dion Stewart
The “Weather Gods” smiled on our October 10th field trip, providing us with perfectly blue skies and a temperature of 70 degrees. Twenty some rock hounds (nearly a third being children) attended the event Bob Hohn, CCGMS Field Trip Team Leader, set up a very nice check in table, where he had samples of both rough materials and finished cabs of crazy lace agate, as well as numerous examples of drusy quartz. He manned the table for several hours, and would assist those returning to their cars by showing them what could be cabbed and what specimens were too soft or too fractured. Everyone was very appreciative of his insight into turning their rough into jewelry.
My find of the day was a big block of crazy lace agate. It was a weathered boulder just lying on the ground that looked rather dull, but it showed a vague pattern in the dirt that covered it. Bob agreed to cut it and, as you can see, the entire block was one continuous pattern of swirling lace!
As always happens at this site, if you take your time and look closely, you will find some nice pieces that will make beautiful cabochons. The active quarry wall is now all the way into the hillside and the cut is nearly to the top of the hill. At the rate they are mining, it will not be that much longer until the quarry will exhaust the materials from the silica-rich horizon where we get our agate. If you have not gone to Summerville and have been planning to do so in the future, you might want to consider putting it on the top of your priority list and attend the next time we put it on the field trip schedule.
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