This trip had persons from 7 years old to 91 years old in attendance. I think everyone would agree that both of those age groups were among the most enthusiastic and energetic of all of us who attended. Long time CCGMS members Ed Doyle, the 91 year old, and his wife Nelia drove all the way from Florida to attend our trip. They have collected for many years at Graves and it shows! Nelia was climbing the walls and finding materials like a pro! Ed could wasily distinguish kyanite and lazulite crystals in a rock when the minerals were less than an eighth of an inch long.
Three locations were selected for collecting, and maps were available showing the areas of concentration for the six main minerals we were hoping to find on the trip. The first stop was the south wall of the upper pit where there were isolated kyanite and lazulite crystals in the main crystalline quartz vein with nice radiating crystals of pyrophyllite in the side veins. Dion’s discussions about minerals and geology of the mountain attracted a lot of other Grave’s visitors.
The second locality was on the south end of the lower main pit. Thank heavens most people were able to flag down one of the golf carts provided for transportation during the Open House, as it was a long walk to the lower pit (and a lot harder going back up), and the day was getting warmer by the minute. In the bottom pit we looked for individual lazulite crystals, large flakes of ilmenite, and masses of short interwoven kyanite crystals. We found only small pieces of lazulite, but several two to three inch ilmenite plates were found, and some larger rocks were collected that were nearly pure kyanite.
The third locality was the north wall of the lower pit, nice blue quartz, and iridescent hematite were pointed out. And at that point it became every man, woman, and child for themselves; as we all dispersed in our own direction to claim a small piece of the slope for our personal collecting spot. Some members screened through the schists for rutile, while others checked out the veins for the hematite. We did not reorganize that day, but at the October monthly meeting we were pleased to see that Bill and Carolyn Hart brought in a great collection of Graves minerals that they had collected from the designated localities on our trip to show other members at the meeting. Thanks to Richard Graveline for sharing his information on Graves Mountain with us to help us make our guide maps.
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