Summer Break 2015

Posted on July 31, 2015 by jwj

Sorry folks for not updating my blog site sooner, but I have been taking a break from the heat that came on strong in July, staying inside and working on my collection, adding to it here and there, and cleaning up the quartz I collected in Arkansas the weekend of July 4th and the fluorite that we found at the Eureka Mine during our second machine dig end of June. I still have some cleaning to do on the fluorite, having completed step one with the Super Iron Out and now moving some pieces to the diluted down Muriatic Acid solution soon. I`m not even sure that Step 2 will remove the coating that is covering some of the cubes, because quite frankly, I am not even sure what the coating is made up of, but Muriatic Acid is as far into the cleaning process as I will go, so if that doesn`t clean it off, then it will just remain on the cubes. Here are some of the cubes cleaned up well by the Super Iron Out process…keep in mind, these are mostly small sized clusters, many of them smaller than palm sized and some are only the size of a golf ball….I used one of my high power halogen flashlights behind them to backlight them with…..

…and here are some of the quartz crystals I brought back from Arkansas the weekend of July 4th…some of these are available if anyone is interested and I have some small yard rocks available too. I have some local friends that like quartz for their rock gardens like I do, which is why I brought a few more back this trip…..I can send them to you by flat rate box if you are interested in some….the first four photos show the yard rocks….

…and these are medium sized clusters of quartz from Collier Creek Mine…I purchased them from my friends Bill and Faith who now operate a rock shop about ten miles east of Mt Ida on Hwy 280, called Blue Moon Crystals…they have the best crystal baskets around too…

..and an assortment of crystals including some smokey quartz crystals from DeGray Lake area….

…and this palm sized cluster of smokey herkimers from Lake Greeson….

…and this plate and small cluster of quartz with green chloride crystals too….

Arkansas in the Springtime

Posted on April 10, 2015 by jwj

Ray Roth called me back in February and told me that he was getting tired of the winter blahs and weather and would like to meet me at Hot Springs in April. Ray was going to Texas for a metal detecting treasure trip and visit some friends there in early March, but figured he would be back and ready for Arkansas by the first of April. I was able to secure enough vacation time at work to get nearly a week off and we coordinated our schedules to arrive there on the last day of March. Initially, my parents were going to ride down with Missy and I, they were homesick and wanted to see their birthplaces and visit with family and friends there, however some unplanned things came up that prevented them from going with us. My Mom and Dad were both raised in the same area of western Arkansas on dairy farms, in dairy farm country, an area that I am also very fond of.

This time of year I am normally down in western Kentucky with friends helping the staff of the Mineral Museum at Marion to expand the collecting opportunities at the Eureka Mine, enabling rockhounds to go there and dig more easily throughout the remainder of the warm season to find beautiful fluorite treasures. This spring tho, the staff was unable to track down any machinery to assist us in our efforts and we had to delay those plans…that enabled me to meet up with Ray at Hot Springs instead. I contacted my buddy Adam Lagaveen and let him know I would be driving down there on the 31st and he said he would be ready to meet up again and provide me with some nice stuff and more info on the Mt Ida area. Adam is a super nice guy and a wealth of information on quartz crystal collecting in that area, as well as a very talented craftsman of Native American artifacts…you should see the Indian knives and arrowheads that he has crafted from raw materials like rainbow obsidian and novaculite in various colors on his FB page at Adam Lageveen`s Lithic Art…truly beautiful stuff !! Adam was also raised in the area that my parents are from and knows some of my second cousins. Combined with the info he had provided back in the fall, I had researched several locations to check out this time and was looking forward to seeing what additional information he had for me.

Missy and I got on the road the morning of Tuesday, March 31st, at an early hour, down around Springfield by the time the sun came up over the horizon. By the time we pulled into Fayetteville, it was time for a break…I had called a young lady that I had talked to online a few weeks prior, she wanted to sell part of her rock and mineral collection, so we agreed to meet near Razorback University. She had some nice crystals in her collection and after selecting some and coming to an agreement on a fair price, I wrapped them up and gave her a few nice dogtooths from Missouri….here are a few of them….

We headed west to Sallisaw on Hwy 40, passing through Van Buren on the way, and we observed some recent storm damage, a tornado had ripped through there a week prior and heavily damaged some motels along the interstate…weather that we were really hoping to avoid on this trip.

We arrived in Sallisaw twenty minutes later and drove over to Adam`s house…he had some tubs of quartz crystals laid out for me to take a look at…and as we were putting Missy into his fenced in backyard, I noticed several flats of an old mineral collection that he had recently picked up…looked like some spectacular pieces of malachite with some calcite druse on some of them, and then there were some calcite crystals with a vibrant blue colored glaze all over them, with an iron ore type matrix on many of them…the blue coloring glaze was a turquoise blue shade, that I was unable to figure out…but they sure were captivating and beautiful to look at…

…and some that looked like malachite too….

….I picked up a couple of the flats of this beautiful stuff from Adam as well as some quartz he no longer wanted and he gave me some info on some places to collect fossils in Scott County near my grandpa`s farm and the Mt Ida area both, before we headed on south. I decided to stop by the fossil location first since it was on the way and so we headed south from Sallisaw to get there about an hour later…which by that time, the temps were up in the high 80`s, so I just stopped by to photograph it and then drove on down to Hot Springs. I had planned to get into HS by 4 pm and meet up with a new rockhound cause I had some flats of Missouri and Kentucky minerals and crystals to give to him, help him with his growing collection. I had also planned to stop and visit with Faith and Bill, the former caretakers at Miller Mtn Mine, now retired and living just east of Mt Ida on Hwy 270, but wasn`t going to have time to do that today, so I called them to let them know we would get back up there later and visit with them. Missy and I arrived in HS about 5 pm and drove over to the condo that I rented from April, who I had rented from on my fall trip down there, too.

This time we were staying in the downstairs condo and it turned out to be just as nice as the upstairs unit…however it was def warm and spring, as there were several bumblebees hovering right around the front door…at first I thought they were hornets…I called April to see if she knew about it and she said she would call the Maintenance guy and see if he could come spray for them. He did show up later and sprayed but apparently the spray didnt have any effect on them, cause they were there every warm day, only leaving when it cooled down on Saturday and Sunday. Turned out they were bumblebees tho and the biggest ones I had ever seen, too…guess they grow them big down there…I didnt let it bother me much, was there to enjoy myself and put it out of my mind soon after, just had to be aware of them when you came and went.

I met up with Justin soon after we arrived at the condo and started handing off several flats to him…including some dogtooth crystals from the secret spot and Eminence both, as well as some pretty fluorite pieces and some Doe Run Viburnum Trend specimens too…his eyes just kept getting wider and bigger as I handed him flat after flat of goodies. I invited him to have supper with Ray and I soon after Ray got into town and called to let me know he was there…Ray stayed at the Long Island Lake Resort on the longer island south of my location. We decided to meet up and go to the Italian restaurant in the plaza across from the Hot Springs Mall…Justin had heard about it as well and wanted to check it out too….April had recommended it when we were there in the fall. We had a good meal there, but I couldn`t believe the price for one glass of sweet Reisling wine…it was $ 9.25 a glass…geez, I could have bought three bottles of it for that price….Ray was astounded as well. I had the spagetti and the meatballs were the size of baseballs…only been to one other Italian restaurant where they were bigger, one in Florida had them the size of softballs !! It wasn`t as good as my Mom`s homecooked spagetti and meatballs but pretty good after a long drive down there. Justin promised to stay in touch and hoped to be able to go with us over the weekend days but had to work each night til 5 pm, so our day trips would not work out well for him…we hoped he could join us on the weekend trips.

The next morning I woke up from the couch in the living room, having crashed there after the news…the sliding glass door was open and the waves outside the condo put me right to sleep….I shot the beautiful sunrise the next morning…

As Ray and I were having breakfast at Mc D`s and were gonna head up to Twin Creek Mine and check it out…I called Bill and Faith to see if they were home…Bill said they were waiting on some carpenters but would park their white van out by the road so we knew which driveway to turn into…we arrived about 25 min later and found them in a nice brown split level ranch home with a two car covered carport on the east end of the house, on the north side of 270, one mile west of the Garland County line…we passed this beautiful waterfall right across from the old Monte Cristo Store and Rock Shop just before the County line…

….that waterfall is hard to see in the photo and I wanted to walk down there and get a better photo of it, without all the trees in the way, but there is a house on the hill right above it and its private property, so didn`t take any chances. The old Monte Cristo featured a gas station, store inside and they sold quartz crystals on those big racks in front…here is a link to the history of it in its heyday http://www.city-data.com/forum/arkansas/878079-exploring-arkansas-60.html

Bill looked soooo much better than the last time I had seen him, which was at Miller Mtn Mine before they retired, he was recovering from surgery then and just looked worn out…he looked more like a younger and vibrant Bill this time and Faith looked great too…they were setting up their crystal shop in their home and doing very well. We visited with them a while and then got a basket of quartz each…their baskets are ten times better quality than any baskets you will find elsewhere, hands down better than any baskets at Miller Mtn Mine, too…the last one I bought at Miller Mtn last fall was half full of clay dirt and the teeny tiniest crystals you had ever seen…almost needed a magnifying glass just to find them…and several plates of sandstone with nothing on them !! Wont find me going back there for awhile and certainly not buying anymore baskets there either !! If you want some good baskets, stop and see Faith and Bill at their new shop in the Joplin area east of Mt Ida, they are two miles east of the turn off to Mountain Harbor Resort and great folks to visit with, can fill you in on the history of the area too. My basket was full of golden healers and some smokey plates too. I was very happy with my basket this time. 🙂

From their house, we drove on over to Twin Creek Mine…to reach it you turn on to Logans Gap Road, next to Judy`s Crystals shop and go to the top of the mountain, about a four or five mile drive…right after you cross a single lane bridge on that road, you will come to a y and just stay to the right, then you come to another y and again stay to the right and that is Collier Springs Road, while Logan Gap Rd continues up the hill to the left and paved. Collier Springs Road is a gravel lane that is a bit narrower….its a good road, not rough, but not real smooth either, average Forest Service Road….a few miles down that road and you will start up a big hill, go past the first gate that directs you to the next gate and then you come to the entrance to Twin Creek Mine….

…wish I could tell you that this road is smoother, but it`s not and is a one lane, so pray that you don`t meet anyone on it as you are driving down the hill to the mine, cause it is basically a one way track…I was glad we met no one going in or out cause I sure didn`t want to be the one backing up or down that hill….

…the signs on the road say slow…it`s because it is a bumpy road, not smooth at all, but just take it easy and you can make it in a car or truck……luckily it wont take you long to get there…and it opens up to the digging area at the bottom of the hill…you can see massive quartz in the woods on both sides of the road there too.

Ray and I grabbed our tools and met up with the hostess for the day, Lisa, who outlined the boundaries after we paid our fees, then we gathered our tools and headed for the wall…here is Ray heading back up the hill to the spot with his hammer….

….we met a couple next to us named Ed and Lisa, with their son, who dug up some really nice crystals from the road near the entrance to the digging area. We worked the wall near them and I soon began pulling some small clusters out of the tree roots while they were doing some heavy digging into the wall looking for a good vein to work…

…don`t know if they ever found one, tho….it was a little warm that day and I was wearing one of my long sleeve pullovers…Hostess Lisa kept coming up to check on me, she was just sure I was going to keel over with heat exhaustion. I told her I had plenty of water with me and was just fine…besides I was working in the treeroots and didn`t want my arms all scratched up..she did a good job of checking on everyone while we were there…here she is checking on some other diggers near the bottom of the slope….

….here is what the digging area looks like from the top of the hill where we were back to the entrance…

and vice versa….

…it was supposed to rain and storm by 3 pm, so we decided to take off about 2:30 pm…I did not want to be up on that mountain with lightning popping all over the place. I had a bag full of small clusters which cleaned up pretty nicely, plus I was able to chip out a nice smokey quartz plate that was in between a couple of sandstone layers, too. I was exhausted and ready for a nap on my return to Hot Springs…Ray decided to stop off at Burl`s Smokehouse on the way back and get a smoked meat sandwich, and I kept on truckin toward HS….by supper time, storm clouds started rolling in across the lake….

…and soon after, rain started coming down in sheets…..

…but by dark, it had cleared off and only a few raindrops here and there remained….Missy and I headed up the street to get some ice cream at the homemade ice cream store, and I took these photos of the wet streets and lights near the mall….

..it was another nice night, so again I left the door open and bunked on the comfy couch, and again the sound of the waves put me out soon after the news ended….we awoke to a cloudy sunrise….

After breakfast at Mc Donalds, we decided to drive down to Glenwood and check out the Pigeon Roost Mine tailings…I had been told that smokey quartz, calcite, and witherite could be found there…we found some pyrite there and lots of slate there, but nothing else…it was an old zinc mine that had apparently been pretty picked over….

…the next photo shows how enormous this place is…above the top of the rock is yet another pit and then you climb to those trees way up above….

…from here, we decided to drive up to the Oden area and check out the old Clear Creek Mine after hearing so many good things about it. I followed the directions I had to it, but when we arrived, I wasn`t sure if we were on the right road or not….it was lined with quartz but no mention of that had been made by my friend who gave me the info on the mine. We pulled up to a gate that was closed in a small wide spot on the road…we could hear machinery operating at the top of the hill on the other side of the gate….I told Ray I was going back to the main road where I had a signal, and call my buddy and make sure we were on the right road…I didn`t drive far before I met an suv coming down the road…I pulled over for it and waved the driver down. It was a young lady and I asked her if we were on the right road after explaining what we were doing down there. She was on her way up to the top of the hill on the other side of creek from the gate, where her husband was operating the machine we heard, and said she would check and then return with an answer for us…true to her word, she returned in about ten minutes and told us we were not on the right road, that the mine we were seeking was over the mountain to the west of us. Not knowing where to check to the west, we decided to drive to Mt Ida and have lunch. We stopped at the Dairyette cause I knew they had great burgers there years ago, plus good shakes and malts. It was beginning to heat up, so I took my food and headed east as I didn`t want to leave her in the truck any longer than necessary. Ray stayed and ate his lunch there before heading back to Hot Springs.

Having the rest of the day free, Missy and I drove over to Gulpha Gorge and Lake DeSoto to check out the spring color and the old powerhouse with its waterwheel, plus the waterfalls nearby….

…and very little color at Gulpha Gorge, where I am more used to shooting fall color than spring color, however I would have thought there would def be more than a few redbud trees in bloom here, I only saw spotty dogwood trees in bloom…..

Later in the evening, I met one of my local buddies at Colton`s Steakhouse and enjoyed a good steak dinner. The next morning was a bit chilly, so my sunrise images show a bit of blur, however there was a bit more color in the clouds, just out of view to the left side….

Ray had decided to meet up with local friends and go metal detecting and fishing today, and I was meeting up with local friends for some hiking later in the day. By mid morning, Missy and I were driving out to check on a local waterfall and to check out some other areas as well.

It was a bit windy in the morning, but cleared off my mid day….Ray told me the next day that he had only lasted about an hour out there in the wind fishing. By that evening, tho, I had some down with a severe stomach ache and didn`t feel like doing much of anything, sipping on a seven up which helped to relieve much of my discomfort later on. By morning, I was feeling a bit better.

After a beautiful sunrise on Saturday morning….

…I drove up to Scott County to meet up with Virgil Richards to look for fossils at a location that Adam had told me about last fall. Ray decided to remain in Hot Springs, so Missy and I were on the road shortly after 8 am…a nice crisp morning cooler than the prior days by at least twenty degrees. We arrived and met up with Virgil by 11 am and drove over to a reclaimed coal mining area nearby….

I had stopped off here to check it out after leaving Adam`s house on Tuesday and let Virgil know about it on Friday…he decided he needed an outing so we decided to meet up at Bates about 11 am. We drove over to the high wall….

….. and checked the pit below where we found just a few fern and leaf fossils in slate….it`s a well known area that has been heavily picked over…..

…and some were in a mix of organic matter that was petrified and colorful that reminded me of petrified dino poop…..

…some of the pieces I picked up crumbled to the touch, due to the exposure to the elements and some stayed intact…I hope to return and check this site again, paying more attention to the organic matter next time, where the fossils were definitely intact and stronger, plus more colorful…this area reminded me of the Mazon Creek Fossil area in Illinois. We lasted for a few hours there, the temps began rising and by the time we finished, it was quite warm…as Virgil turned to head west back into Oklahoma, we noticed smoke rising not too far from us, signs of a possible forest fire that was quickly gaining ground with a brisk wind driving it….

On the way back to Hot Springs, I stopped off at Burl`s Smokehouse and picked up some chips and a couple of sandwiches, deciding it would be best to eat on the light side for a few days and see if that helped. This is a place I have passed by on several occasions and wondered how good it was…Ray liked it and I had some local friends that stopped there last year on one of their trips to Hot Springs and really enjoyed it as well…inside I found a neat old rustic building where they make sandwiches to order…they have chips and wines there, too, and the biggest home made cinnamon rolls I have ever seen…had my stomach been stronger, I prob would have bought one to eat later on.

Missy and I continued on to HS and made arrangements to visit one additional site in the morning. It was a full moon that evening and I stepped out on the balcony to shoot a few images of it illuminating Lake Hamilton….

By the next morning, my stomach felt a little better and I decided to try the one last site, before Missy and I headed home. The sunrise was a cloudy one, but there was def some red in the skies to the east…that should have been a tip off for us….

The weather forecast the night before indicated that the skies would be cloudy but the rains would hold off til 11 am, so we figured we could get a couple of hours of digging in. We hit rain before we arrived at the location at 8:30, and after talking with the owners for a bit, we drove up the hill and began checking out the areas near where we had dug on our previous trip there. For the first hour, Ray and I turned over many pieces of massive quartz, before we started finding a few smaller clusters of crystals. I then decided to check out another area closeby and soon found a larger cluster of bigger crystals…by this time it was raining more steadily and I decided it was time to stop for the day. We packed up and headed out, and soon Missy and I were headed up I-30 toward Memphis, where we planned to stop and visit with Matthew and Carolyn Lybanon, rockhound friends in the MAGS Club. Matthew is the newletter editor and Carolyn is the Hospitality Director. Carolyn called as I was driving thru Benton and told me not to eat anything, that they planned to have a late lunch and that Missy and I would be joining them for dinner. As I entered the Memphis area, I discovered they have quite a bit of construction going on with their highways….

…..reminded me of the mess involving I-64 in St Louis a couple of years ago….I passed a unique structure as soon as we crossed the mighty Mississippi River, a pyramid shaped building emblazoned on the highway side with Bass Pro Shops on it….

…..and soon enough we were pulling into the Lybanon driveway.

We had a great time and good food and talked about rocks alot…they showed me their collection and I showed them what I had found and shared some of my finds with them…Carolyn had made me a beautiful oval shaped window made up of stained glass and some pieces of fossils and crystals as well…it is displayed on a metal stand and was quite pretty. They also gave me a huge ammonite that they found down in the Denton, Texas area on one of their fossil excursions down there.

After a nice two hour visit with them, Missy and I got back on the road and headed home via Hwy 63, which I discovered soon after leaving Jonesboro, was another hotbed of construction activity…Arkansas crews appear to be attempting to widen the roadway for several miles to the north. I spotted several sunbeams near Jonesboro…..

We arrived home safe and sound by midnight and decided to lock the truck and leave the unpacking to the next day.

Here are some of the quartz crystals I brought back with me….some beautiful stuff….

…and some I found in the basket I purchased from Bill and Faith…..

if you have any questions or wanna say hi, give me a shout at jwjphoto7@gmail.com

Arkansas Fall Trip 2014

Posted on November 15, 2014 by jwj

A few weeks out from my annually planned fall trip to southern Arkansas, I received an email from WC with the MAGS Club, letting me know that the club`s second planned trip to the Vulcan Quarry in Black Rock, in the northern part of Arkansas, was scheduled for the same weekend I planned to be in the southern part of the state. I emailed him back to let him know that I planned to be in Magnet Cove on that weekend, with Ray Roth joining me and we were going to be checking out a novaculite quarry in the Magnet Cove on Friday morning. This particular quarry has four different types of novaculite and comes in a variety of beautiful colors, looking more like agate or jasper than flint, and very popular with those who enjoy the hobby of knapping…creating arrowheads and other Native American artifacts….and checking out some locations on private property on Saturday, where over one hundred minerals could be found, including smokey quartz, brookite, and rutile. We would also be checking out a new quartz crystal mine in the Mount Ida area that recently opened to public fee digging and possibly checking out a phantom crystal mine nearby as well as following up on a lead on private owned property on the north shores of Lake Ouachita that had both wavellite in green and blue colors, and quartz crystals too. WC emailed back to say that he would rather go with us on our planned trip and would get back to me…he was having problems firming up the trip to Black Rock and might just switch the trip to Magnet Cove with us. I let Mr. Parker, the quarry owner, know that this might turn into a club trip and he was okay with that. I had begun talking to him by email the year before, but didn`t make it down to the Magnet Cove area that year, due to time restraints. About a week out from my planned departure, WC advised me that many of the club members had encountered some conflicts with the dates and would not be able to make it, himself included, but he would put any others interested in joining us, in touch with me by email. As it turned out, my good friend Virgil Richards, was the only other club member that decided to join us on the trip.

Ray and I had both planned to leave the morning of Nov 6th and travel to Hot Springs….my trip would depend much on whether my Dad made it through emergency surgery that he underwent on Nov 4th. I had driven my parents to Barnes Hospital in St Louis early that morning, as my Dad had to be there to prep for Abdominal Aortic Anneurism Repair Surgery. His abdominal aortic artery had a couple of bad spots just above the wye, where the artery branched off to supply blood to his legs, and the Chief of Vascular Surgery for Washington University and Barnes Hospital, Dr Sanchez, was going to perform the operation, and place a specially made graft around the artery at that point, snap it into place, and then suture it as well as place four to five stints in the artery all around the graft, which would further secure it in place. This special graft was designed by Dr. Sanchez and made in the country of Australia according to the specifications of Dr Sanchez, which required about six to eight weeks to make and get to the United States through customs. My Dad was on the operating table for approximately six hours while Dr Sanchez and his medical team performed the surgery. It was a long wait and our many prayers were answered for a successful operation, and Dad came through it just fine, very stable throughout the surgery. My sister joined us in the waiting room before the operation began and stayed with my Mom and I throughout the day, and some of Dad`s closest friends came by as well to check on him while we waited. His surgery had been scheduled for early morning, however a patient with a worse situation was moved in front of my Dad`s scheduled operation and so his operation was delayed about four hours.

Dad woke up from his operation about ninety minutes afterwards, and we were able to see him for about five minutes in the recovery room, before they moved him to a hospital room. As is usually the case with general anesthesia, from past experience myself with outpatient surgery, it is hard to wake up from it and about the only thing you want to do is rest and sleep it off, so I returned home at that time and Mom began calling a long list of friends and relatives to let them know that Dad had made it through the surgery just fine. I returned the next morning with a box of donuts and Dad was glad to get them, his breakfast was pretty light after a bowl of soup the night before after the surgery. He looked much better and after a few hours, gave me his blessings to go to Arkansas on my fall vacation.

The next morning, Missy and I headed west to Joplin and then turned south on 71 toward the Natural State of Arkansas…I stopped off in Fayetteville to check out some minerals for sale at a flea market, where I found some pretty pieces of amethyst, a couple of nice dogtooth crystals from a calcite quarry in Ohio…

and a chunk of matrix with three perfectly formed cubes of pyrite….

We then continued south after a short break for Missy, and stopped off at Sallisaw, Oklahoma, to visit with Adam Lageveen. I had been talking to Adam for a few weeks after answering his ad on CL regarding Arkansas minerals for sale, discovering in those few weeks that he was originally from the same small farming town that my parents were from, that he graduated from the high school there with one of my second cousins, Cassie, and found that we both share a love of Arkansas quartz. Adam had started out rockhunting and mineral collecting and then ventured into the art of knapping and found that he enjoyed it much more, and needed to part with some of his minerals in order to create more room for his knapping material. I was only too happy to take some off his hands and he was gracious with good information as well. He allowed Missy to run free in his fenced in backyard while we visited for a couple of hours, and gave me a flat of beautiful green wavellite….

….as well as some neat fern fossils from Scott County, shaped like an Arkansas Razorback no less…..more apparent in the second image tho….my Aunt Billy Jean noticed it before me…..when I showed it to her and Uncle Joe at the farm….

…..all these years I had never seen anything come from that area, thinking it only contained ugly rocks, but he sure proved me wrong with that plate of fern fossils, and the more I gazed at that plate, I was simply floored by the beauty of it !! Adam creates some beautiful arrowheads and Native American knives from different types of stone, some of them in beautiful shades of color, should check out his work on his Facebook page under Adam Lageveen`s Lithic Art…he has been working with rainbow obsidian lately and that material really radiate some nice sheens of different color. Adam also gave me some quartz crystals from the Mt Ida area mines…this next one a glassback plate from the old Arrowhead Mine…

…and this set of smaller clusters from a few of the other mines, most of them reclaimed in the National Forest these days…

…and this larger cluster from a mine located down the road from the Collier Creek Mine….

From there, I drove back to Fort Smith and fueled up, then headed south on 71….intending to stop off at the farm in Waldron on the way down, but as luck would have it, it was going to be all I could do to get to Hot Springs by dark, and since I would be coming back to the farm on Sunday, I drove on down to the condo instead. In years past, I have normally stayed on Lake Ouachita at Mtn Harbor Resort, but my plans this year included several locations closer to Hot Springs in general, so I opted to stay on Lake Hamilton this trip, finding a pretty two bedroom condo close to Highway 7 not far from the Mall at Pretti Pointe. The owner of the condo had given me a great rate for five nights and it was so much roomier and comfortable than any of the hotels there, that I booked it a few weeks back. As I got closer to Hot Springs, I could see that the sunset was approaching and was shaping up to be a nice one…traffic was slowing in front of me and I wasn`t sure I would be able to get to the lake in time to shoot it, so I picked up my camera and at each stoplight, photographed it…starting with this one…

Finally, I reached the lake and drove past the entrance to Pretti Pointe, stopping on the first bridge, to photograph the fading clouds out over the water of Lake Hamilton….

…I turned to look out over the waters of the other side of the bridge, which is the first bridge crossing Lake Hamilton on the south side of Hot Springs, the location I photographed the fireworks from back in 2010, and saw the full moon rising up over the waters already….

…and then I drove on over to Pretti Pointe to find the condo before the sunlight completely faded away. As soon as I located it, and was able to get Missy situated, I grabbed my camera and walked down to the waters edge to shoot a few more images of the sunset, initially using a boatdock in my foreground that was located right behind the condos….

My buddy Ray checked into his hotel about thirty minutes later, about a mile north of my location…he had a late lunch on his eight hour drive up, so Missy and I decided to grab a sandwich at Subway at Walmart, since I needed to get some Bluebell Ice Cream while there too…found out the next day that there are about fifteen Subways in the Hot Springs area alone…three Walmart Supercenters, and multiple McDonalds as well…unfortunately for me, the nearest Phillips 66 station was all the way over on the other side of town. Oh well, cant have everything conveniently located nearby all the time.

The next morning, Missy and I woke up about 6 am, to a beautiful foggy sunrise….

After shooting the sunrise, Ray and I met up at the McDonalds next to his hotel, for a good breakfast, before driving down to Magnet Cove to meet up with Mr. Parker. We arrived at the Magnet Cove Store and found him and Jimmy Matlock waiting on us inside the store…Jimmy is a good friend of his and a rockhound as well. Jimmy showed us some of his cabochons from novaculite found at Mr. Parker`s quarry as well as some rutile crystals with eight, ten, and twenty four faceted sides…called eightlings, tenlings, sixteenlings, and twentyfourlings….many were micromount size crystals. Jimmy told us about locations that he used to rockhunt at where he found coontail quartz, in the Magnet Cove area, many locations still in the area but now privately owned and inaccessible to rockhounds…primarily because rockhounds in the past mistreated the property owners and disrespected their properties…the main reason why well behaved and respectible rock collectors today still cannot obtain access to properties where great minerals can be found, because many before us ruined it for others….all you have to do is listen to the people that live in that area and they will tell you how some rockhounds from several decades ago lied to them, snuck into their properties and stole from them, damaged their properties, and disrespected them in general, to the point that they now do not like rockhounds in general.

Luckily for us good rockhounds, Mr. Parker is working to obtain permission from property owners so that he can take us to places where minerals and crystals can be found. He advised us that while Magnet Cove contains over 125 known minerals, they are scattered all over the area and not found in a general enough area where they can be mined. At this time, he has access to a few locations and was able to take us to one of those locations Saturday morning. After our short meet at the store on Friday morning, tho, he led Ray and I down to his quarry at Magnet Cove Stone Company…..

While Ray and I walked around the various grades and colors of beautiful novaculite, I called Virgil to see where he was at and when he would arrive at the quarry. At the time I called he was approaching Mena from the Oklahoma side and would arrive at the quarry by noon. We decided to wait on him. Mr. Parker took us to the very back of his quarry where a small trench cut had revealed some novaculite stone with a pretty black and white shade, some with a fish eye effect as well…we picked up several pieces of it from this area first, and then drove back to the main collecting area of the quarry. Many pieces had dendrites on one side of them as well….

Novaculite is used for Arkansas Whetstones, which are used to sharpen knives and instruments, but it`s also catching on in popularity for knappers and as a decorative stone, both in the USA and abroad as well. Mr. Parker has novaculite fans who buy it by the pound as we did, as well as those that purchase it by the ton. Here is a pile of blue black novaculite that was going out by truck to one of the tonnage purchasers soon, some with dendrites on them….

Many of his knapper fans liked the material with the multiple shades of colors and patterns to them….these were the ones I looked for as well….

…so while we waited on Virgil to arrive at noon, Mr. Parker and Ray held a few discussions on various topics and Mr. Parker chowed down on some Louisiana grown Satsooma Oranges that Ray brought him as well….

True to his word, Virgil arrived a little after noon, and while he poked around and looked for some knapping material, Ray and I continued talking to Mr. Parker about the location he was going to take us to the next morning and after a couple of hours, Virgil decided he had selected enough stuff to hold him for awhile, getting into some rainbow colored stuff at the last. We settled up with Mr. Parker and told him we would meet him at his shop the next morning at 9 am. Ray decided to head back to the hotel and get a nap in, since I hadn`t been able to contact the private landowner yet…who has quartz and wavellite on his property. Virgil and I decided to check out a roadcut up near Hwy 51, that reportedly has smokey quartz and brookite in it…Mr. Parker told us that several geology students stop off at that location each time they are down, but other than that, he had no clue if anything worthwhile could be found there. Virgil and I climbed up to the rocks and shortly discovered that whoever had been there last, had taken a hammer and decimated much of the quartz outcrop and scratching around yielded nothing further found.

We then decided to drive down to the iron bridge over Cove Creek and see if we could locate any pyrite. We walked up the trail along the creek there as far as we could, it had become a bit more overgrown since I had been there the last time with Kyle a few years back, so we returned to the normal hole in the creek that most folks dig into to find the cubes and feldspar…Virgil spotted a few chunks with cubes deep in the waterhole, so I retrieved one of my extendable hoe/rakes and he was able to drag a few over to the bank, and a few of them were actually nice enough to keep. From there we drove up to Hot Springs and separated so Virgil could go find a motel to stay the night in…we made arrangements to meet at Colton`s Steakhouse about 7 pm for supper, and I texted Ray the arrangements as well.

We all slept in an extra hour the next morning, with yet another beautiful sunrise….

…and after another good breakfast at McD`s, we drove back down to Magnet Cove to meet Mr. Parker and follow him out to some fields that he was leasing from a property owner, to look for garnets and rutile. He showed us where to start looking, and we set off in search of treasure…..

Virgil and Ray drove on down into an adjoining field to check out an area that had great potential for large garnets and rutile crystals, while I dug into the edge of the field between a hay rake and trailer….

…I dug down into several places where it was obvious from several crystals and chips of novaculite that there was obviously some eroding material from the hillside. There was also alot of biotite mica laying all over the place, as well as within the soil…

….I dug down about a foot deep and found the mica all the way down to that depth as well, small flakes and big flakes alike…I found only a few crystals, many small ones, in the soil but found even more over in the roadway laying all over the place on top…..

…I was lucky to find one perfectly shaped rutile crystal laying right on top of the dirt, on closer examination it appears to be one of those sixteenlings, bout the size of a large pea, and silvery in color…prob one that someone else found and accidentally left behind.

We actually dug for about two hours there…we didn`t find much in the way of rutile, we were finding a lot of chards of novaculite, alot of them almost arrowhead shaped and many were in beautiful pastel colors…I found one that could be a thinking stone in a pastel pink. As we were packing up and preparing to leave, the property owner and his grandson showed up, and we stood around talking with them for an hour about the history of the area, they were very nice and provided alot of information on the area. From there we returned to Hot Springs, Ray for another nap, Virgil driving up to Mt Ida to scout out the crystal mines up there, and I decided to drive around and photograph the fall colors. I drove over to DeSoto Lake on the north side of Hot Springs, it features a spring fed small lake with a stone footbridge, manmade dam and waterfall, and an old powermill downstream from the dam that powered the estate of Col Fordyce that still sits on a hill above the lake….

I again woke up about 6 on Sunday morning, in time to photograph the sunrise and morning fog that started rolling across the lake once again….

…and soon after, we started hearing from Virgil and his scouting report of the mines open to the public in the Mount Ida area…the report wasn`t good…the Twin Creek Mine is where Ray and I had figured on driving to that morning, but it seems that Virgil had talked to a couple that had been there a few days and had found very little, mainly because the machinery wasn`t operating there. He had talked to rockhounds who had been to Miller Mtn Mine as well and they said the same thing about that location as well, no new digging material brought up from the mines to dig through…Virgil suggested that we go to Wegner`s Crystal Mine south of Mt Ida as he had been hearing some mixed reviews for them lately…I had never been to that location and was interested in checking it out in person….they have two hour slots available for their Forest Crystal Mine, which would work out perfectly for us since we planned to drive up to the family farm at Waldron for dinner. I called Ray and let him know that we needed to get on the road soon enroute to Mt Ida to meet up with Virgil. I decided to forego breakfast as I know dinner at the farm would be a big meal and grabbed a candybar to take with me just in case. After stopping off at the gas station on the west side of town, Ray and I started toward Mt Ida. We picked up Virgil at the Hwy 27 junction with 270 and he led the way on 27 south to Owley Road, where we turned east and drove about four miles to the rock arch entrance to Wegner`s Ranch. Soon after we arrived, we were signed up for the first two hour dig of the day and our ride arrived outside the office so we could load up our tools, bags, and in my case, Missy on her leash. I had made a phone call before heading up there and found out that they are a dog friendly business. There was only the three of us and a young family from Texas with two kids, and they had a blast digging for quartz, their son found an exceptionally nice crystal up there too, think that just made his day. Dave, our driver, helped show them what they were looking for and how to remove them with a pry bar….

…..then left us up there for two hours. I turned Missy loose as it was easier on me and I started down into the pit to see if I could find some pockets of crystals. I found a few, but didnt have my hammer and chisel with me. Ray was doing the same thing, trying to locate something in the pit while Virgil had walked down to the tailing piles in the forest area adjacent to the mine itself, to see if he could locate anything along the surface. Later we heard him in the small pit near the road to the ranch. I walked along the six foot dirt bank of the pit and started seeing crystals sticking out of the dirt in the tree roots….

…so I started raking the dirt down and pretty soon I had single points and small clusters popping out of the dirt I was raking down, all over the place. Ray and I stayed in that productive spot for the next hour or so, til we heard Dave coming back up the road in the truck, bringing another group up to dig there. By that time, I had a bag full of single points and small clusters…I cleaned alot of them up today and can safely say, I have some very nice small clusters out of that spot. The cost for that two hours of digging time was $ 16.50 per person, thinking the next time I will be paying for four hours instead. I saw some really nice larger crystals in pockets there, had I had the right tools with me, they would have gone home with me. As it was, we just didn`t have the time to stay today or we prob would have, but by noon we were on our way farther north to my grandfather`s old farm near Waldron, for dinner with several of my relatives, an annual family reunion and the day before, my Uncle Joe had given me permission to bring my friends with me. We arrived at the farm about an hour later….

…we parked up near the old barn and then walked down to where everyone was eating dinner by the garage…I told everyone there that I had no idea who the guy was in the purple sweatshirt with LSU in large letters on the front…Ray was asking for duct tape so he could cover up the letters…I had told him he would be taking his life into his own hands wearing that down there, cause he was deep within RAZORBACK territory there…they took pity on him and fed him anyway. Virgil liked the line of food entrees so much that he decided to put his diet on hold for half a day and he chowed down big time, before heading on home to Tulsa. Ray left soon after, headed back to Hot Springs and I stayed a bit longer visiting with my cousins before heading back to the lake as well, arriving just in time to capture yet another stunning sunset on the lake….

…and finished off the Bluebell ice cream I had picked up at Walmart a few days prior. I was looking forward to the next day, the temps were expected to be up in the mid seventies, but Tuesday would be a way different story. Missy and I woke up to another sensational sunrise Monday morning….

Ray knew I would be awake by then and called to let me know that he had a rough night trying to sleep, so I told him to get a couple more hours of rest and I would go take some photos of waterfalls that I hadnt had a chance to do yet. I also called and talked to the landowner that I had been trying to reach while there, and he gave us permission to come to his property later in the day to see if we could find some quartz and wavellite. Missy and I drove down to Cool Pool Falls, a local waterfall favorite of mine, and while we normally find great color there, it was pretty barren this year, even though it looks great in this photo….

We no sooner got done shooting, then Ray called and wanted to meet at Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then head to Miller Mtn Mine…I told him that I had talked to the private landowner and that we were welcome to go there about mid afternoon, leaving us only two hours to dig there, but definitely doable. After a good breakfast at CB, we drove to Miller Mtn Mine west of Jessieville and as we drove down the white chat road through the private deer hunters area, we approached the concrete slab and discovered a small sports car sitting in the middle of the road with damage….

…luckily we were able to get around the car and on up the hill to the mine, never did see anyone walking along the road tho. We met the new caretaker of the mine and she told us that despite what we had been told about their machinery being down, the piles we saw along the tailings pile, were fresh and new that morning. We paid our dig fee and drove on up to the parking lot and grabbed our tools. Where once you could get out of your vehicle and see crystals laying all over the parking lot and roadway, today, I never noticed a one laying anywhere in there. We walked over to the piles and it was quite apparent to me that the six piles had been sitting there for at least a few days in the sunlight, as they clay was quite hard and crusty, difficult to break open the clods to see if there were any crystals inside. It appeared to me that the front end loader had turned some older piles over and then lifted them up, over, and placed them up on the side of the huge tailing pile behind and above the so called ” fresh piles “, because the dirt and clods up there on that wall above were much easier to break apart and wetter even. I actually found quite a few singles and points up there on that wall than I found of anything at all in the ” fresh piles “. Another first, was the phone signal that I had today up there at the mine…in years past, I have never had a strong signal up there on top of that mountain, but today I did have one…in fact, at 2 pm, I was able to call John, the private landowner, and make arrangements for us to meet him 40 minutes later at his place. After looking over the quartz crystal baskets, Ray decided he couldn`t find one that suited him and we packed up and headed to John`s place instead.

We arrived at his place 45 minutes later and after a short discussion on the locations available, we opted to drive out to his farm and see what we could find in quartz first. It was a short drive to his farm, and we then opted to walk down the logging road to the search area…John briefed us on the history of his farm as we walked to the area, and once there, we did locate a few nice single points and small clusters just laying on top of the ground…having to rake the leaves back a bit to find them, but they were def laying around on the ground, all one had to do was walk around and look for them, most were clear and glassy and just downright pretty….here are some I found, now all washed up….

…and a larger chunk of crystals that came from that area as well….haven`t had a chance to hit it with the hose yet since it turned bitter freezing cold here on my return home…..

…and here is one of the pretty little clusters that I found that day as well….

…we looked around for about 20 minutes without finding any additional crystals, figuring we were there at the wrong time of the year, the difficulty being the leaves covering the ground…so we walked back up the road to John`s cabin and he took us to another spot up behind his barn on the hillside, where a vein of quartz ran up and down the hillside and there were several spots where mining had obviously taken place many years ago. John turned us loose as soon as I started spotting loose crystals laying all over the ground in that area….Ray started digging in an area about ten feet up hill from where I was digging….the crsytals I had initially found, were smokey quartz points, but I also found a few small clusters as well, here is one of the first clusters that I dug out from the old mining tailing pile….

…and here are some of my initial smokey finds…the deeper I dug, the more I seemed to find….

..the small dark crystal point on the left in the bottom image, was the very first one I spotted in the dirt where I decided to start digging…John said there were smokeys found in that area and he was sure right, I found several as well as some blue tinted milkies too…def would love to return to this area and dig for some more sometime. had a great time there, even though for a few minutes afterward, I thought I had lost Missy…it was just about dark when we stopped digging and she had wandered down to the creek just inside the wooded area of his property below his cabin…she being black colored, made it extremely difficult to spot her, and lucky for me, John spotted her moving around at the edge of the woods and pointed her out to me so that I could walk down and get her attention soon after. It got dark fast after that and we followed John back to his house, where he showed us some other quartz he had located on his property as well as some pretty wavellite. We thanked him for allowing us to come out and dig on his land and find some beautiful quartz and then headed back to Hot Springs. Ray and I decided to try out the Bleu Monkey Grill for supper on our last night there and we both had the grilled chicken and shrimp dish special, it was quite spicy and I had to wash it down with several glasses of cold tea, even the black beans that came with it, tasted like they were on fire due to the sauce they were cooked in….whewwww….never had anything that spicy before and hope I never do again either. I think even Ray said they were quite hot tasting to him and he is from spice country !!

Ray said he was going to hang around a couple of extra days, at least until the bottom dropped out on the weather, while Missy and I were set to head home on Tuesday morning. I headed back to the condo to start packing and then hit the hay. We woke to cloudy skies the next morning, no sunrise today, and started packing the truck soon after. It began drizzling rain as we headed out of the parking lot…I drove over to Walmart and picked up three half gallon containers of that delicious Bluebell ice cream that I had polished off on Sunday night, MOO-ENNIA Crunch, to take home with me. I iced it down real good, but it turned out to be a moot point. I drove thru Little Rock on the way home and the farther north we traveled, the more cooler the temps became. We stopped off in Batesville to grab some lunch and I found out soon after that, Ray had decided the falling temps and rain hitting Hot Springs, were too much for him and he had headed home as well.

I shaved about two hours off my driving time, stopping off in Rolla to fill up the gas tank once again and boy was that wind cold and sharp, blowing out of the northwest, when I got out of the truck !! I wasted no time in grabbing my jacket out of the back seat, Missy had kept it nice and warm for me, and from there on to the house, the heater was on low and felt great. We rolled back into the driveway about 2:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon, glad to be home, but a great vacation get away too, all about quality this time, instead of quantity. 🙂

If you have any questions about locations we went to on our trip, email me direct at jwjphoto@fidnet.com and I`ll be happy to help.

Arkansas Quartz Mining In Sad Shape

Posted on November 13, 2013 by jwj

I returned Sunday evening from five days of fall vacation in southern Arkansas, spending most of my time on Lake Ouachita at Mountain Harbor Resort once again. I really enjoy the restful atmosphere there, plus it`s dog friendly, friendly staff that goes above and beyond to make your stay there enjoyable, and they have great food at their lodge restaurant, too. Although I`m not into fishing and boating that much, they have a full service marina and can provide you with a rental boat of any size as well…I know this because I have photographed about every aspect of the place and met many of the staff members who work there, extremely friendly and knowledgeable folks there. My buddy Ray Roth wasnt able to make it up this trip, his dad was the victim of a mugging and vehicle accident a few weeks before and he suffered injuries that he was unable to recover from…Ray wisely decided to stay home and spend as much time with his dad as he could.

Missy and I picked up Mom early Wednesday morning and headed west, and within an hour, we left the remnants of the rain and storms behind, that had been hanging on for a few days. From there to the Arkansas line south of Joplin, we had cloudy skies that soon broke open as we were crossing the Boston Mountains and as with Missouri, we were seeing spotty color all the way down. I was a bit disappointed since the state of Arkansas had received much more rain than Missouri through the summer months and I figured the colors down there would be much more plentiful and beautiful. We made good time, arriving in Fort Smith a little after noon, and after a sandwich and chips with my Aunt Dorcas, who Mom was staying with for a few days, Missy and I headed south to Waldron, where I stopped off and visited with my three uncles for a bit at the family farm, before continuing on south to Lake Ouachita.

We arrived at Mountain Harbor and got checked in with thirty minutes to spare before the sun began to set…I figured from the heavy cloud base that we might just have a beautiful sunset tonight, and boy, was I right…..

…that was one heck of a beautiful sunset and just hung up there in the sky for the longest time that evening. I had actually figured it was over and began to head back over to the lodge from the Harbor North side, but then as the skies started turning cotton candy pink, then I found a new location to shoot from nearby and stayed to shoot a few more frames of it. In all, I believe I shot about two hundred images of it, before heading back to the guestroom and then meandering down to the lodge restaurant for a great plate of fried catfish strips with their famous baked potato salad and steamed veggies. They have several great food entrees there, no matter if you are there for breakfast, dinner, or supper, and from what I have heard, for groups, they also bake some great tasting cinnamon rolls. If there was one thing I could think of that was bad, it would only be that they actually shut down the restaurant from the first of December to about the first of March.

Missy and I woke up about 7 am the next morning and headed out for a good walk, getting in about a mile of small hills just walking around the immediate lodge and marina area. Below is what the main lodge looks like from the lake side, guestrooms are to the left, dining area to the far right…

There was some light fog out on the lake, covering some of the boats and docks, and I took my camera and photographed some of the scenery with the fog rolling across the waters….

After taking Missy back to the room and getting her fed, I wandered down to the lodge restaurant for a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast with grape jelly. Besides the great atmosphere there, they also have a great view of the lake and marina area from the restaurant windows. After checking my emails, Missy and I then headed to Miller Mountain Mine on the northeast corner of Lake Ouachita…we bypassed Hot Springs traffic by cutting across Hwy 227 through Mountain Pine and passed by Lake Ouachita State Park to Jessieville and then back west on Hwy 298 to the mine. As we drove down the freshly graded gravel road, I noticed alot of recent logging activity…..you pass through a hunting club area on the way to the mine, it`s posted on both sides of the road there, white signs with red lettering, and loggers had cut a wide and deep swath through the heavily wooded area on both sides of the road. Missy and I normally see a few deer as we drive down this road, but today we saw absolutely nothing wildlife wise, but we did notice that the road had been extensively worked over by county maintenance and was in very good shape all the way up to the top of the mountain.

We drove in and stopped up at the rock shop and office at the mine entrance, to find Bill and Faith sorting through single quartz crystals on the front porch of the office. There was a new guy working the office with them this time…I found out a bit later that Bill had recently undergone some cancer surgery and was recovering from it, with doctors orders not to do any heavy lifting for at least another three to six weeks, and the new guy was one of two now working there to do the work that Bill normally does there. Bill brought me up to speed on the current mining conditions in the Mount Ida and Jessieville area, and several events that had occurred since I was there last year in the fall. The short of it was that four mines were now shut down and no longer open to the public for digging at in the Mount Ida area alone.

A few years ago, a young couple from the East Coast had moved out to the Mt Ida area and purchased the leases on the old Fiddlers Ridge Mine and the old Arrowhead Mine. They planned to bring both mines into compliance with state and federal mining laws so that they could open both mines to the public once again, and even changed the name of the Arrowhead Mine to the Avatar Mine and the Fiddlers Ridge Mine to Fantasia Mine, boasting several new fee dig plans as well. They hired some local area miners to make the mines safe to the public for fee digging once again. After completing the work at the former Fiddlers Ridge Mine and after digging for a few months at the Avatar Mine, the local area miners decided to dig commercially instead and leased the Avatar from them for that purpose. I had heard from another good friend down there in the past year, that quartz crystals with red tips were being found there as well as blue phantom crystals, many blue phantoms reportedly found there in years past. At any rate, earlier this year, the local area miners were working one day at the Avatar and the Forest Service showed up and took control of the property once again…bottom line was that leases were not paid and property ownership defaulted back to the FS, from what I was told, and those two mines were shut down…the ironic thing is that if you do a google search for either mine by their new names, the young couple`s website comes up and reads as if they are in operation and nothing is wrong. I wonder how long that will last.

Sometime this summer, the Bear Mountain Mine was sold to another area miner and is now closed to the public as well, being mined commercially by the new owner. That makes three mines no longer open to the public and then there is yet another mine near Mt Ida, Wegner`s Crystal Ranch, that is advertising five adventure plans on their website, one that includes group mining at their phantom mine for a fee of $ 24 and allows four hours of digging time with a minimum of ten miners in each group to qualify.

Earlier this year, I emailed them to inquire about the Phantom Mine, and was told that while they planned to put this plan into operation sometime this year, the year is just about over and the plan has still not materialized. The ironic thing here, is the fee and the time allowed to dig…twenty four bucks for four hours when you can go to Miller Mtn Mine and pay only ten dollars at the most and allowed to dig all day long…its not rocket science folks…I would rather pay $ 10 dollars and dig for eight hours and keep all I find, rather than pay 48 dollars for eight hours and ” maybe ” find something good enough to keep.

The only other fee dig mine at Mt Ida is Sweet Surrender, where Ray and I wasted four hours of time and twenty bucks each at last year, and didn`t find anything worth keeping, lots of crappy rock but that was about it. Wont ever find me going back there. So as it stands now, there are these two mines at Mt Ida and the two Coleman brother`s mines near Jessieville that one can go pay to dig at. Miller Mtn Mine charges $ 10 per person or less for groups, and you can collect from sunrise to sundown and keep all you find. Ron Coleman`s Mine charges $ 20 per person….Sweet Surrender charges $ 20 per person, and Wegners Ranch fees start at $ 15 and go up for the mining and $ 10 for the tailings alone.

The Championship Dig held once again this year, only brought in sixteen diggers and many of them did not fare well, due to the mines they went to.

Bill told me that they are now digging into the mountain at Miller Mtn Mine once again, and so far the pit was about eighty feet deep and they were finding some beautiful stuff lately….they had two inches of rain on Tuesday and so conditions were still way too wet and muddy to do any digging that day, plus they needed to get some overhead rock out of the way first. I had a few hours to dig that day, before meeting a friend for lunch in Hot Springs, so I drove on up and parked, cracked the windows for Missy, and got ready to walk around in the wet mud. It was way too muddy to release her from my truck and Faith had a dog running around outside as well, and it was cool enough to leave her inside, about fifty five degrees at that time of the morning.

I grabbed a bag with some wrapping cloths, got my gloves on and grabbed my mattox and headed up into the tailing piles of fresh wet clay to see what I could find on the surface. I walked up the outside of the huge pile, away from the office, to the interior access turn in, and checked the outer edge of the mud pile, and within a few minutes had turned over a few medium sized clusters that were sitting upside down, pretty side down and ugly side up, that apparently had been ignored because of that. I wrapped them up and placed them in the bag and continued on…saw that the new machine dig area was fenced off at the top of the hill beyond me, near the camping area at the back of the pile. I walked back to the turn in and climbed up to the top of the center of the pile, talked to a few people digging in the back of the tailing pile and then started down the center of the top of the pile, checking the freshly overturned small piles and the new small piles as well, and seeing glints of crystals shining in the sunshine all over the place. After checking the first three piles on top, I had my bag half filled with small clusters and double terminated small crystals laying all over the place. After about two hours of walking around in the ooey gooey mud, I had my bag filled completely and I had found a couple of yard rocks as well. I took a break and checked on Missy, she was doing fine,but obviously wanted to get out and stretch her legs. I decided to wait til we got to Gulpha Gorge to check out the fall color in the creek and campground area. I wrapped up my crystals and cleaned up, then drove back down to the office to get a couple of baskets of quartz crystal plates and talk with Faith and Bill a bit more before heading out.

I drove down to Hot Springs to pick up a friend and go hiking some…that evening, we drove over to Harbor north to see if we were going to get another pretty sunset when we came across some beautiful deer grazing by the road on the plentiful acorns….

…and we definitely found a pretty sunset about an hour later….

Later that evening, I met up with Aaron, a private area collector who I had corresponded with online earlier in the week, and we made arrangements to meet up and trade some material. Aaron had some great minerals and crystals from the Magnet Cove area including some smokey quartz with phantoms, pyrite cubes, brookite crystals, some with pyrite….

….magnetite crystals, and some novaculite suitable for cutting material. I had brought Aaron quite a bit of druse quartz from Missouri, at his request, as well as some purple fluorite cubes from western Kentucky, and some Doe Run minerals too. He parked next to my truck and uncovered the goodies that he had brought to trade, and I discovered he had a couple of tubs of pyrite with white feldspar from Cove Creek, one large chunk of pyrite on white feldspar that weighed at least twenty pounds by itself, a tub of shell and screw fossils from Leslie, Arkansas, a large slab covered in trilobites that measured eighteen inches high by ten inches wide and at least three inches thick…..

…a few large chunks of novaculite that was as pretty as some agates, a box full of brookite crystals from Cove Creek….

….and a few smokey quartz crystals, one large one with a phantom at the top of it…..

He then proceeded to unwrap a nice large cluster of quartz crystals from the pit at Miller Mtn Mine and handed it over to me….it was quite beautiful !!

Thanks again, Aaron !!

I had a bit of trouble with acid reflux that night and lost a few hours of sleep…so I opted to do nothing at all on Friday til later in the day… afterall, it was a vacation and I felt that I needed at least one day of doing absolutely nothing, so after a good hike at daybreak, capturing more fog on the water…

….we moved from the guestroom, to a log cabin at Harbor North. While out hiking, we came across this neat outcrop of layered, colored shale on the lakeshore…….

Later in the day though, I drove into Mt Ida and met up with Jeff Burrows of Collier Creek Crystals and saw some of the prettiest quartz crystals I have ever seen…aura quartz in a few colors….

….irradiated quartz….

smokey quartz, golden healers, large clusters, and then he showed me some Mexican minerals including dogtooth calcite crystals in flower form, selenite, fluorite, and huge pallets full of geodes coated with druse quartz, Jeff was able to fill me in on some more happenings in the quartz mining of the area as well. He said he could remember a time when there were about twenty five mines operating in the area, but these days, due to the extensive regulations by the present administration, only a few mines remained open to the public. You can view more of the crystals Jeff has for sale at www.colliercreekcrystals.com

Saturday, after a good hike with Missy around the north lakeshore, I had a good hearty breakfast at the lodge and then we drove down to Charleton Lake Park and hiked down to the waterfall and checked out the fall foliage…..

..there is a neat looking rock on the right side of the falls, looks like a magma flow, specially up close….

I had received a call from a good friend the night before, and he decided to drive down to visit that afternoon so I spent the rest of the morning repacking the truck, redistributing the rocks and minerals in the bed especially. After a short nap, I drove up to the firehouse to wait for my friend Pierre to show up. We had a great visit, went for a nice hike to some beautiful fall foliage areas and then had some great food at the lodge restaurant before he headed back home that evening.

The next morning, I headed back up to Waldron to the family farm for an annual reunion with family and friends, and a big dinner. On the way up, we spotted some pretty foliage along Hwy 270…

Mom and I visited with several family members and area friends before heading for home about mid afternoon. Luckily, this year I had taken a few extra days off to catch up and rest up before heading back to work. As soon as I get caught up, I will post some photos of my finds and trades.

If anyone is looking for some novaculite for cutting material or knapping material, I know a great little quarry one can go to and be welcome at, to get some great pretty material there. Give me a shout and I will put you in touch with the owner.

if you have any questions or wanna say hi, give me a shout at jwjphoto7@gmail.com

Arkansas Quartz Again

Posted on November 13, 2012 by jwj

Back in August, Ray Roth, one of my rockhunting friends from New Orleans, contacted me and asked me when I was going down to Arkansas for some quartz crystals. I told him I would be heading down there the second week of November and would have at least a couple of days free to dig quartz crystals. I usually have some photo work down there as well, but wanted to set two days aside for crystal collecting and set my vacation time up this year for just that. Ray said he would meet me down there and we stayed in touch through September and October by email.

He contacted me a couple of weeks ago, end of October and asked me about lodging options in the Mount Ida area, he was thinking about staying at the Crystal Inn once again, having stayed there before. I told him I would be staying at Mountain Harbor Resort, on Lake Ouachita, which was about five miles east of Crystal Inn and right on the lake. I mainly stay there because its one of the most dog friendly places to stay at, very scenic and pretty, and one of the few places I have found that has very friendly staff that are responsive to your needs. I have stayed at this place in the spring and fall both, one of the nicest and pretty places to stay at, with a staff that truly cares about your stay there. Ray asked for their website and I emailed it to him…he checked into it and decided to stay there as well, told me they gave him a great rate on a room that he couldn`t pass up. Their fall rates are much better because its their off season…and he was going to stay with them for about a week so they gave him a good deal. Their guestrooms are very nice…one or two king size beds and a sofa sleeper, fridge and freezer, coffee maker, patio with chairs and lake view, nice big backyard, and very pretty walk in shower with marble tile walls and glass doors. http://www.mountainharborresort.com is their website if anyone would want to check them out, very dog friendly place. They also have a great dining room in the main lodge and there is a massage and spa business located on the east side of the resort called Turtle Cove Spa, and besides walking trails there are also horseback rides and boating opportunities available too.

I like to stay in a log cabin when there, and made reservations for one back in August when I talked to Ray….thinking a few friends would visit with me while there and I would need the extra room…then found out the first two nights I wouldnt need the extra room. I mentioned that to the gals at the Lodge and they made me such a sweet deal, I just stayed in the cabin the whole time there. We were so busy during the day anyway, I didnt even notice no one else was there with me besides Missy, my border collie.

Ray arrived there on Tuesday, November 6th, the day before I did and the gals at the Lodge made him feel right at home. I took off Tuesday from my work, to get my packing finished for my trip the next morning, and to pack some goodies for Ray from Missouri and Kentucky both. I took him some fresh found druse and some purple fluorite from Marion, Kentucky, as well. Missy and I rose early the next morning, and after picking up my Mom, we headed west toward Joplin, where we would pick up Hwy 71 and head south to Fort Smith, Arkansas, our first stop. We made good time driving down there, nice sunny day and as we crossed the Boston Mountains on Hwy 71, we noticed quite a bit of color remaining in the trees in the mountain valleys…usually a good sign it will be colorful further south.

We soon arrived in Fort Smith, where I stopped off at my Uncle Harley and Aunt Dorcas` house, to drop my mom off…this is one of her younger brothers and he had already left for the family farm at Waldron to go deer hunting with more of our family members…Mom stays in Fort Smith and goes shopping with the gals til Sunday when we all meet at the farm for a reunion and dinner before heading home. I stayed and had a small lunch with Aunt Dorcas and Mom, and then filled the gas tank and headed south on 71 once again, passing through Waldron myself on the way to Lake Ouachita.

Waldron is where my Mom and Dad were both born and raised, and where they used to take my sister and I at Christmas when we were young and growing up…to visit my grandparents on my Mom`s side, at their dairy farm. I really cherish those memories…helping milk cows, feeding the calves….playing in the hayloft of Grandpa`s old barn…and I really miss my grandparents…my Grandpa lived to 90 years of age…milked cows til he was 65 yoa. Grandpa wasn`t one to sit around and do nothing in retirement though…so he went to work for the US Forest Service there as a carpenter, helping them build fishing docks and pavilions and picnic tables, and also helped them fight forest fires in that area…..and then retired himself 25 years later, and died soon after from a rare blood cancer, caused by moldy hay of all things. I remember his supervisor at his funeral service, came up to me and told me that my Grandpa was something else when it came to hard work…she was amazed at his strength and endurance one day when she left him with the truck and radio on a forest fire, and she took a crew of younger men up the mountainside to rake a fireline…she said about halfway up that mountain, they all came to a staggering halt…out of breath and about to collapse, grabbing on to small trees to hold themselves up…..trying to recover and gather some strength to continue up that steep mountainside…..when all of a sudden here came your Grandpa raking a line with a mattox, right on past them and up that steep mountainside, moving at a steady pace….she said he wasnt even breathing hard nor had he broken a sweat !! Needless to say, I dont think she ever doubted him again after that.

I drove on toward Mount Ida from Waldron, stopping off briefly near Y City to photograph the fall color on the Fourche La Fave River….

This is one of my favorite stops because the color along the river is simply beautiful…on both sides of the highway bridge…

I stopped just south of the river to check on a small waterfall in the area of the old store there…but apparently the river was down far enough that the waterfalls were not even running this year…so we turned east on Hwy 270 and continued toward Mount Ida. As I dropped off the mountain east of Pencil Bluff, I crossed the Ouachita River a few miles west of Mount Ida and had to stop and walk back to the bridge with my camera…

…it was absolutely gorgeous color on the east bank…and then I took a good look at the reflections in the water and in the distance the color on the trees on the hillside was fantastic too !!

I had planned to stop at Bob`s Food City there and pick up some milk for my cereal and some Blue Bell Ice Cream, but decided I would get it on Thursday instead. We continued on to Mountain Harbor and arrived around 4 pm. After checking in with Pati and Luann at the Lodge, I stopped off at Ray`s room and gave him his care package…six flats of goodies…we sat on my truck tailgate and he looked over the fluorite and was happy with what I brought him to add to his collection. He showed me a large package of frozen gumbo that he had cooked and brought to me…while I have never tasted it to my knowledge, my Dad LOVES it as does my Supervisor at work. I had him hold on to it while I was there. Missy and I headed over to the cabin to get settled in….

…and then headed back to the Lodge restaurant for supper with Ray. That`s another great feature of the resort…they have an excellent restaurant with great food and service, plus a nice view of the lake, as the restaurant sits up on a hill overlooking a large expanse of water there. I had been looking forward to their hand breaded chicken fingers and steamed veggies, with some of their homemade potato salad…and boy do they know how to brew some good sweet tea, too.

After a good supper, I checked my email and found a reply from an area mine owner regarding a visit at their mine on Thursday morning. I had contacted a buddy of mine, a quartz dealer who resides nearby, a few days earlier and asked for area mine information. Mike had told me that the only mine that was actually digging and open to the public in the area at this time, was Sweet Surrender Mine, north of Mt Ida near Story, on the north side of Lake Ouachita. I had heard of it but had never been there before. He knew the owner and suggested we go there and dig, maybe even talk to Randy the owner and see if we could work a deal with him on getting into a pocket. He told me that a fellow that he sent there two weeks prior, was able to get into a pocket that Randy found with the track hoe, and removed several buckets of crystals nice enough to wrap up. I told Ray and we decided to go there the next morning and see what we could find. I wish now we hadn`t gone there.

Missy and I woke up at sunrise and got a good hike in, walking the north lakeshore as the sun was coming up, this view of the main marina right off our cabin`s back deck…

..we then walked around the lakeshore toward the north marina…..

…..I was looking for quartz veins in the shale, to see if there were any crystals or just massive quartz….

..most of the lakeshore was made up of a shale shelf that stairstepped down to the water`s edge…this one shows two nice maple shrubs cloaked in fall colors….

…and occasionally we would come across chunks of massive quartz laying on the beach, in a manner of speaking, and sometimes in the edge of the water….

…and then we walked on around to the north marina via the lakeshore, here you see a couple more of the cabins on the lake…

…we then watched a couple of guys heading out of the harbor toward open water to get some fishing in….

…in the upper left hand corner of the photo above you`ll notice a house near the top of the mountain…its referred to as a glass house…I met the residents on my May trip there and photographed it the previous fall season there.

When the fishermen hit the open water, they really opened up the boat and took off…

…as we got over to the north marina, we hit a stretch of shale that looked pretty and shapely…looked like it would make nice stepping stones….

At this point, we reached the end of the road that our cabin was located on so we started back to it…passing Cabin 18 up as we walked back…I stayed in it a few years back for a couple of nights, its the most popular cabin they had back then, its the closest one to the water….

After a quick breakfast of Arizona Green Tea and a few cookies, we met up with Ray at the Lodge and then headed to Mount Ida…I needed to stop at the bank`s atm and then we drove north on Hwy 27 toward Story. We arrived about 9 am and parked in the parking lot at the top of the hill and met up there with Aaron, the owner`s son.

Aaron told us his dad, Randy, would arrive within the hour and after a bit of small talk, Aaron gave us the nickel tour of the mine property….

We explained to him that we were interested in getting into a pocket of crystals and he told us that two pockets had been discovered the day before. He took us down to the track hoe and showed us a few boulders that he had dug out the day before that were covered with some nice two and three inch long crystals..they were still covered in clay mud but you could tell they were nice sized. He also pointed out the location of the pockets in the pit below the track hoe, one up above a shelf and the other believed to be below the shelf and under a boulder that weighed a thousand pounds or more. I walked back up the hill to grab my camera and as I did, I looked around on the ground to see if I could spot any crystals laying around…seeing nothing more than alot of generic rock, dirt, and a few damaged crystals here and there occasionally. I have never been to a mine where nothing collectible was laying on the ground…til today.

Ray and I dug for a couple of hours and found absolutely nothing…let me rephrase that….we found absolutely NOTHING worth taking home with us……there, thats better. Randy arrived about noon and asked Aaron what we were finding…Aaron told him we were finding absolutely NOTHING and suggested that he fire up the track hoe and dig out the area a bit to see if any pockets were truly located there. After several attempts, and a battery jump with assistance from Aaron, Randy was finally able to start the track hoe and proceeded to dig out the area we had previously been digging in. Once finished, he pointed to an area farther up hill that he felt contained a pocket and then suggested that we start digging out the area we had already dug into. After a few minutes of digging and again, not finding or even seeing evidence of any crystals, he suggested that we settle up.

I wasn`t sure how Ray felt about it, but personally, I was not impressed with anything I had seen so far. I explained to Randy that while we had dug for a couple of hours, we had not located anything at all nor seen any evidence of crystals in that area. I asked him if it was possible for Ray and I to split the cost of a true pocket and Randy was not agreeable to that, wanting even more money than the other fellow paid, that Mike had referred to him. I advised Randy that I would have no problem paying that as long as he could actually point out the pocket and show us evidence of crystals inside that pocket, in other words, a sure thing, but I wasnt going to pay for a mere possibility of finding something or nothing at all. We couldnt come to an agreement other than to pay the normal dig fee, so we returned to the normal dig area. If anyone wants more information on this conversation, just email me and I will be glad to tell you about it, but let me say this, I would NOT recommend this place to anyone.

After about an hour of digging around and surface collecting in other areas of the mine property, which contained alot of shale and more damaged crystals, I told Ray I was ready to leave. I have never seen a mine with so much CRAPPY rock laying all over the place, total waste of time and money.

We headed back to Mt Ida, stopping off at Bob`s Food City and picking up some milk and ice cream…I had to get me some Blue Bell ice cream…. and then returned to the Lodge for supper. I told Ray we would go to Miller Mountain Mine the next morning…a mine that he would see and find lots of good crystals at…I have been there several times and NEVER had a bad day there…plus they only charge ten dollars a person, less if in a group of seven or more, they have reasonably priced baskets of crystals some of which come from a variety of mines in the area…. but I have always had good luck pulling some really good material from the baskets I have purchased there.

After yet another good supper at the Lodge, we retired for the night and prepared for a better day of quartz crystal collecting. For whatever reason, which I havent figured out yet, I again rose early the next morning…and Missy and I took off for another hike…thinking I`m supposed to be on vacation so shouldnt I be sleeping in later ?? This time Missy and I hiked over to the west side of the lake where we normally shoot sunsets from, the north point…this time though the sunrise this morning was putting on a good display and making me think it was sunset instead….

Looking the other way, to the east though, the sky was rather cloudy a few minutes later as we walked around to the campground side of things…

…there is a campground on the very north point of Harbor North side of Mountain Harbor, operated by the Corps of Engineers and closed this time of year…another shale lakeshore with some good color there…

…we then hiked down to the water`s edge facing south and photographed the reflections of the north side marina and boats….

…I looked at the clock on my phone and it seemed we needed to head back and get some breakfast down before we met up with Ray again, so I turned and shot the campground across the bay….

After cleaning up and getting some breakfast down, we met Ray at the Lodge and after checking email, we headed to Miller Mountain Mine via the backroads…Ray told me when we finally arrived there, that he was all turned around and didnt know how to get back to the resort from there now…I told him by avoiding the drive through Hot Springs we had probably saved about 30 minutes driving time going the backway. We stopped at the entrance rock shop and I introduced him to Faith…

……one of the caretakers, who with her husband Bill, helps run the mine for Jimmy Coleman, the owner. Faith was telling us that many of the fee based mines had shut down in the past year, due to the stringent and restrictive policies of the Obama Administration...she said the agencies that control the use of the land, environment, and safety of mines, were now regulating the quartz mines under the same set of rules and regulations that coal strip mines are governed by, and many of the mines had simply folded under the onslaught of paperwork, red tape, and hoops the owners were expected to jump through these days….. not to mention some of the outlandish things they were penalized and written up for. One of the mine owners had told us they were written up for not having a bathroom on the premises and the fine was five thousand dollars. After consulting with someone in the know about IMSHA rules and regulations, who wasnt able to locate any laws requiring one, and suggested purchasing a five gallon bucket with a toilet lid and disposable plastic bag inside the bucket…. the inspector on the next trip observed the bucket and voided out the citation to the mine owner. I have been to several mines, not just in Arkansas, but other states and there are many mines that do not have bathrooms on site and they widely publicize that fact. I think our government is becoming a sad state of affairs when they start harassing folks over idiotic stuff like this, and yes, the current administration should be held responsible for the conduct of the regulating agencies when it gets this bad. After all, wasn`t the phrase ” less government ” one of the campaign promises made to the people, just four years ago ???!!!! Yeah…thought so…someone up in DC needs to get a clue…all these people are trying to do is eke out a basic living…and if anyone up there thinks its an easy life, they oughta come on down here in their expensive three piece suits, and find out for themselves just how ” easy ” it is !

Most of these mine owners spend each moment of available daylight each day, digging in their mines or working to provide good tailings for the public to dig through to find crystals, not to mention working on the equipment when it fails, the cost of replacing parts to keep the equipment working, the cost of paying employees, maintaining a safe working area and environment at all times, preaching safety to the public visitors, and securing their sites. If you come across a mine owner who is working less hours…and there are a few of them these days…its because of the regulating agencies driving them nuts. I know I`m preaching to the choir for the most part…but why do we have even more government instead of less, like we were promised.

After talking to Faith, Ray and I took a look at the baskets they had left and then walked around looking at the clusters they had on display outside the shop, so Ray would get an idea of what could be found there. Faith told us that some folks there the day before, had found several smokies, so we headed on up to the parking lot, where I released Missy from the truck and we prepared to do some digging. I told Ray to get ready to find lots of crystals….

Faith told us there were five fresh piles up at the tailing pile area and the dirt above the piles had been turned over as well….

We both got changed into our boots and grabbed our buckets, bags, and tools and started looking around. Within the first eight minutes of searching, both of us had filled at least a bag or bucket and were going back for more. I no sooner stepped up into the dirt when I started spotting crystal points and tips sticking out of the dirt, and a few of them turned out to be smokies. Ray and I were about ten feet apart and within moments he spotted this nice golden healer cluster very close to his left foot and under a large dirt clod….

….one of my spectacular finds was a large crystal point that I found in one of the piles a few inches down…I spotted just a sliver of the crystal face sticking out and it just kept growing as I dug it out…in the photo below its in the center at the top….

…and here are a few more that I found within the first hour of looking around…

…so by this time I am definitely up on the dirt above the piles and working my way to the west, away from the entrance…and by this time we have been joined by another couple, Larry Badger of Kansas City, and his sister, who left there at 5 am and drove straight down to Miller Mtn Mine. Larry told us that he had talked to a country gal named Docia from the Salem, Missouri area and she told him he should drive down in the fall to get some Arkansas quartz…so he took her advice and brought not only his sister with him, but a couple of the Independence Rock and Mineral Club members as well. I told him Docia is one of my best rockhunting friends and we often rockhunt together, but this week is deer season and she cant be pried away from the woods in central Missouri this time of year.

I was inching my way west along the dirt wall above the piles and came upon this little number, palm sized and spotted the yellow color and the irredescence as well…

..I looked up to find Ray taking a break from digging….

…after he rested up, he turned around from where he was sitting down and dug down a little bit and within seconds, pulled this nice golden healer on the left side of the photo below, from the dirt wall….

…and a few seconds later, he spotted more yellow in the dirt and mere inches away from the first one…he pulled out these two one after the other….

…the cluster on the right up above, has a very large single crystal laying down above a multitude of smaller crystals…he was pulling out all of them amidst several oohs and ahhs from the rest of us…in all a total of five basketball sized clusters of golden healers and some smaller ones as well. We continued to dig and pick up crystals and clusters for the next hour, both of us finding several larger plates covered in a thick clay mud and some softball sized chunks as well. We took off about 4 pm after picking up a couple of baskets and bidding Bill and Faith good byes and see you laters.

We stopped off at Colton`s Steakhouse on the way back for a good steak and fixins…I contacted one of my models, Scott, who was just leaving his workplace and he met us at the steakhouse. Scott visited with us over dinner and then took off for home as we headed west to the resort. After checking my emails once again, Missy and I headed back to the cabin for the night. We had decided to try Judy`s Crystals the next day and dig at Fisher Mountain Mine, which is located south of the Mt Ida Airport. Ray didnt sleep well that night and called early to ask for a few extra hours of rest. I had no problem with that at all, getting another hour of rest myself, and then getting our walk in around the resort.

We walked down to the wood bridge on the Harbor North Road and shot the sailboats over at one of the Marina`s, looking toward the area of the Lodge….

…then heard a speedboat coming down the lake behind us, so turned around and snapped these guys speeding along against a wall of colorful fall foliage on the far shore….

…breezed by one of the newer family cabins on our way to the Lodge area….

…and then drove up to the Lodge area to see the big fireboat the resort has tied up at the main marina behind the seasonal Subway Restaurant….

…a retired Coast Guard Cutter that was actually purchased for the resort by a private donor in the area. I actually had the pleasure of touring it back in May when it was very warm both inside the cabin and holds as well as outside…the front machine gun had been replaced by a water deck gun, pretty neat investment for the entire lake area. I turned around and looked back to the east toward the boat launch site and saw some beautiful fall color as well as a couple of sailboats drydocked and sitting up high….

Missy and I headed back to the cabin to get in some breakfast and tv time while waiting for Ray`s phone call that he was ready to go to Fisher Mtn Mine. By noon, Missy and I were driving to Judy`s Crystals to meet Ray there…. arriving a bit early, I met and visited with Judy and her friends, and walked around the displays to see what Judy had for sale outside the rock shop…finding some pretty quartz clusters and alot of colorful slag glass, for the most part. Ray pulled up soon after and we made our arrangements with Judy to drive on up to Fisher Mtn Mine and see what we could dig up.

The Fisher Mtn Mine has alot of history associated with it…..it`s Ocus Stanley`s original mine….he is the guy that got the quartz crystal hunting craze started in the area….the mine sits on top of Fisher Mtn about two miles south of the Mt Ida airport, easily spotted on Google Earth Maps off Logan Gap Road before it intersects with Owley Road. For those of you that know Judy, she suffered a stroke about five weeks ago and is now hobbling around on crutches and recovering from it. She seems to be doing pretty well now, her only complaint that she hadnt been to the mine in six weeks. Ron Coleman also has an old mine up there, accessed by the same road, closed to the public by a very heavy steel gate.

This is the road that ascends much of the mountain to the mine, after passing through a very heavy steel gate off Logan Gap Road…a very pretty and scenic drive up I might add, this time of the year….

We ascended three times and leveled off three times in the mile and a half drive from the gate to the mine clearing…with a few scenic views of the mountains and valleys as we went…I had been told this might be a rough road, but as I pleasantly discovered, the lane was a thick carpet of oak leaves and pine needles under making for a soft ride instead with just an occasional rough spot along the way.

This was the view from the top of the mountain, when we arrived a few minutes later….

The view from up there was extraordinary…you could see to the south for miles and the color up there was pretty nice as well for a region without much rainfall since September, spotty but nice…

….with a large swath of pine trees right below the border of the mine itself…Ron Coleman`s mine on Fisher Mountain was through this gate and on down the road, closed to the public….

We parked near the pines at the top of the hill by the road and walked around to surface collect and get our bearings first…Ray had been to this mine last year and it took him a few minutes to figure out where his party had been digging at then…things were a bit different layout wise this time...

We walked down to the east end and only found more rock down there, no easy digging, so we returned to the main area and began looking for some potential areas to dig into……we met up with Larry Badger and the rest of his club party there…they had done quite a bit of digging since arriving there at 9 am, but hadnt found much and were preparing to head to a known locality for wavellite.

…we found a few small crystals after digging in some obvious areas already explored in….

Ray and I decided to explore under the roots of a few pine trees in the area and finally started finding a few crystals and clusters…nothing to write home about but more than we had found out in the open main area.

…after digging a few hours here… we started wrapping things up and on the way back to the trucks, Ray discovered a place where someone had recently excavated an entire sandstone shelf, apparently finding quite a few crystals of all sizes, yet breaking several in the process of removing them from the host rock. We were able to find a few in their highgrade pile as well as a few singles just sticking out from the host wall, to take home with us.

And now for the rest of the story on the history of this mine, told to me by several sources down there….several years ago, Ocus sold his remaining lease on the mine to Jimmy Coleman, who took his digging equipment up there and dug down into the sandstone and dirt…. discovering a huge crystal cavern, with large crystals in single points, doubles, and clusters with VERY BIG crystals attached to the walls and the ceiling…they removed as many as they could and took them to the Tucson show, where he made a huge profit selling them. The story I was told…by two different people who dont know each other but know that area well…was that while removing those crystal clusters, a hole opened up in the back wall behind that cluster… they took a flashlight and looked inside…. saw a cavern even bigger and deeper than the one they were standing in, also loaded with crystals and clusters, some of them looking like they would fit on a pallet just fine. They covered the opening to the original cavern with plywood and dirt…. and made plans to return to excavate the second cavern, but alas, the Forest Service refused to allow Jimmy back in nor honor the remaining time left on his lease. After hearing what he had paid the Forest Service for that lease, I can well understand why many people have no respect for our Forest Service any longer. Things like this can leave a bad taste in your mouth.

We returned to the resort after descending down the mountain and relocking the heavy steel gate and returning the key to Judy`s Crystals Shop, just in time for a pretty sunset over the lake…

…then I tried a few with a new sunset filter, designed for those evenings when you have just plain clouds and this soups it up a bit…

..had to play with it a bit to get the water to turn darker too, otherwise you can tell a filter has been used….

…had a good supper of hand breaded chicken fingers once again, with the homemade potato salad…they really believe in feeding you there at the Lodge restaurant…then went back to the cabin to finish as much of the blue bell moo-lenia ice cream as I could. Missy and I got up about 7 Sunday morning, got a short hike and run in before packing the truck for the drive home, and before it started raining…the skies were dark when we finally stepped outside the cabin to take hike around the shore again…there was an extensive cold front coming in from the west, part of the Brutus Storm that had pounded the northwest with heavy snows earlier in the week, but the forecasters had said the storms and rain showers would hold off til noon at least…guess they were wrong again. We headed up to the Lodge to check out and check my email once again…and while there I updated the McRocks board too. Ray came down to send us off and gave me a big frozen chunk of gumbo to take back with me, and said, ” lets do this again sometime ” 🙂 He wasnt leaving til Monday or Tuesday and said he would let me know that he made it home safe and sound, his drive is about as long as mine, eight hours.

Here are some of my clusters and crystals all cleaned up.

this one above is one of the many that I found in the baskets I purchased at Miller Mtn Mine, some very pretty crystals can be found in them.

and this next one shows a cluster plate that I found at Miller Mtn Mine, covered in mud and had no clue what was under it but its about 14 inches long and eight inches wide, three inches high and chock full of yellow golden healer crystals, a few damaged but many are just fine and exceptional…..hard to tell from this photo, so I`ll try to reshoot and repost a better photo of it later this week. I was very happy though, when I cleaned the mud off and saw what I had. 🙂

if you have any questions or wanna say hi, give me a shout at jwjphoto7@gmail.com

Arkansas Quartz in May 2012

Posted on May 8, 2012 by jwj

Missy and I traveled down to Lake Ouachita last Tuesday for a six day stay on the lake. I had been hired to do some photo work for a private client for a real estate website last fall, and the work includes a few extra visits down there at various times through out the year, so this was the spring trip. We stayed at a beautiful private condo at the Mountain Harbor Resort east of Mount Ida while there and had great weather the first couple of days, then it heated up and became muggy over the weekend. Since I wouldnt be shooting the bulk of the photo work until the weekend, I had the first few days free to dig and collect quartz crystals.

Missy and I woke up on Wednesday morning and when I didnt hear from a friend who was thinking of coming to visit us, we headed south of Mt Ida to Bear Mountain Mine, one of my favorite places to look for quartz crystals. After registering at Fiddlers Ridge Rock Shop and talking to Bobby by cellphone, discovering he wasnt going to make it up to the mine that day, we headed south to the mine. I noticed the road up the mountain was a little rougher this time….

…in fact it was so rough right above the gate, that Bobby had posted a speed limit of five miles per hour…heck I couldnt even go that fast up that hill…I was doing maybe 3 miles per hour…it finally smoothed out near the top though when I crossed the bluff area….

…and when I finally got to the top of the mountain and drove up to the tailing area….

I saw that Bobby had really expanded the size of the tailing pile area….

…where you see that blue dump truck in the photo above, there used to be a road there that took you to the other side of the pit to more tailing piles…obviously one cant drive over there any longer…and this new tailing pile is high and huge….

…so I parked, got out and got my boots on, and walked over to the edge of the pit to get a look at what he had done with the trackhoe since I had been there last….

…..there was quartz crystals laying all over the place, big and small plates and singles, and chunks with quartz crystals all over the faces….and I saw a guy walking around the top of the huge new pile.

I say new pile, cause the last time I was there, that huge pile wasn`t there….the photo below shows the pit and Bobby working on the overhang above the pit the last time I was there….

…so you can see the entire shape of the pit and overhang above has changed, the overhang is basically cut down to size and removed. The pit was looking quite a bit deeper this time as well….

…so as you can see, Bobby had knocked off quite a bit above the pit and he had told me this pit was pretty deep as well underwater….

…after setting my camera back in the truck, I gathered up my rake and mini mattox and a couple of bags, and headed over to the small spread out tailing piles near the entrance to surface collect and then worked my way up the bigger new tailing pile and ran into the guy walking around….Ed, who said he was a retired firefighter from Tulsa Fire Department. We talked Fire Dept shop talk for a few minutes, then I found out he was also into photography a bit and we talked about cameras a bit more and then we started looking for crystals. He had already been down the short ridgeline right above the pit wall and had found quite a few nice crystals in the clay pockets in that wall. We were finding some purple colored looking clay while looking around the area. I walked up and over to one of the new huge rock piles and started finding crystals in cluster form right away…some small ones and some medium sized ones…it was warming up fast but luckily there was also a good stiff breeze blowing up there as well…so you would heat up and then the wind would cool you back down. Despite this, I still took a few breaks and drank my water, just to stay hydrated in that heat, cause I only had a few hours to hunt and wanted to make the most of it.

Eventually, we both found some nice ones and on one of my breaks, I carried a few of the larger chunks I found with quartz all over the faces of them, to the truck….like this one….

…Ed wandered over to the far side while I was carrying the big ones back to the truck…he joined up with another guy who I could only see in the distance over there, later finding out his name was Casey. I was finding so much right there within 100 feet of my truck that I didn`t want to venture any further out to look for more…the idea of finding something nice way over on the other side, and then carrying it across there, didn`t really appeal to me at that time.

Another couple showed up and started walking around the same area I had covered when I first arrived, and then made their way up on the top of that huge pile and wandered toward the far side…they didn`t stop to chat at all…I walked down to a newer area and within moments, I started finding nice plates all over this new pile and some medium sized chunks with crystals all over the top of them, like these….

…and it was during this time that Casey made his way over to the parking area with a nice big plate up on his shoulder, and then he returned for yet another smaller plate that he had chipped off the top of a boulder that he found on the very far side of the pit. He had to make a few trips across there to bring back all of his finds and then return for his bucket of tools…in the time that he was back at his truck, I discovered that he was from the northeast area of Montana and had been down in Texas where he found some nice petrified wood and was spending a few days in Arkansas for quartz before returning home. I gave him and Ed some samples of Missouri druse quartz and calcite crystals and bladed barite as well. I took a photo of Casey with his plates….

by this time it was close to 4 pm and we wound our day down with some more small talk and packing away our nice crystals….

Ed was heading to Texas the next day so we bid him a farewell and good safe travel.

Casey was looking for a place to camp out for the night and I told him Miller Mtn had a small camping area, so he decided to drive on over and camp there for the night, then wait for my arrival and hunt quartz there with me on Thursday.

Thursday morning, Missy and I got up early and headed over to Miller Mountain Mine on the northeast corner of Lake Ouachita. It was a bit foggy and we hit some stretches of slightly drizzly rain conditions, sure wasn`t anything close to the forecast from the night before.

We took the backcountry route crossing below the Blakely Dam and cutting past Lake Ouachita State Park, coming out two miles south of Hwy 298 on Hwy 7 at Hot Springs Village. This cuts about twenty minutes off my drive time had I gone through Hot Springs itself. As it was, I got stuck behind a slow driver on Hwy 270 who didnt want to get up over 35 mph in a 55 mph zone.

Despite leaving early, it was 8 am before I arrived and Casey was waiting on me. I was pleasantly surprised to find the road going to the mine was nicely graded, widened, and very smooth this time. We registered with Bill and Faith, the caretakers for Miller Mtn Mine at the mine rock shop and we quickly got started looking for quartz. Without sunshine to help us find glimmers of crystals, we were going to have the subdued light for a few hours to contend with…. the fog had lifted as we climbed up the mountain to the mine, and the drizzle had ended, but it was def going to be cloudy light, for a while at least.

Bill had brought up two new loads of clay mud and quartz that morning prior to our arrival and turned over four existing loads from the day before. I walked over to one of the fresh piles and quickly pulled two crystal clumps of clay out, one fairly small one and one fairly big one….

They were mostly clumps of clay but I could see one crystal sticking out of each one. I took them to the truck and came back to start digging into one of the dirt piles. Casey sat down on the other side of one of the fresh clay piles and starting digging in, to see what he could find. Another couple joined us shortly after, and then yet another couple showed up soon after and started digging alongside us as well….

On one of my many breaks that morning, my knees were still sore from the day before at Bear Mountain, I looked over the edge of the parking lot hill and down into the mine area, and saw a trackhoe…which I had never observed there before, and it looked to be in working condition too….

…Bill told me later that day, that they were now digging out their own crystals once again, no longer trucking in tailings from other mines. He also told me that Ron Coleman hadn`t been digging from his mine for the past two years, nothing since he struck the spring and then found the huge pocket of large crystals that he dug out and took to Arizona to sell at the Tucson show. He also told me that two guys had purchased the land where one of the original mines in Jessieville was located, a mile west of Hwy 7 on Hwy 298, and had invested several thousands of dollars to find the crystal vein, and after hundreds of hours of hard work, only coming up with the discovery of several cave like pockets of white aragonite. He showed me some flats of the aragonite that he had on hand.

A few minutes later, after returning to the dig piles, I found a nice single finger crystal packed into a clump of clay dirt….

…having started early, I began wearing out by 1 pm, which is about when the sun finally burned off the fog and cloudy conditions from the top of the mountain. I caught up with Casey on the other side of the tailings area, and let him know I was leaving early. He continued to dig and indicated he might return to Bear Mountain Mine on Friday, since we had seen so much quartz laying all over the place over there the previous day.

It was doubtful I would be able to join him since I was sure I would be busy with photo work for the client. I headed down to Hot Springs intending to stop and have lunch with a friend there, but couldn`t locate him and wound up grabbing a Little Caesers Pizza instead and driving back to the condo for a nap.

The next morning, I contacted Stu Schmidt, a former mine owner and now crystal buyer, who lives near Mountain Harbor and had some beautiful green and blue wavellite that I wanted to take a look at. I had contacted Mr. Schmidt by email the year before but didn`t get a chance to meet up with him at that time, and since wavellite is so hard to come by, I def wanted to do so this time. With a free hour this morning, I called him up and drove over to meet him and check out his wavellite collection. He lives up on a beautiful hillside above the highway with tall pine trees surrounding his home, the wind whistles through the trees and creates a pleasant windsong that just soothes and puts one right at ease. It reminded me of my grandfathers farm north of there in the Waldron area, which brings back so many great memories from my years of growing up and visiting at various times of the year.

Mr. Schmidt was cleaning up some crystals that he had found the day before at one of the older mines in the Mount Ida area, and after some small talk, we moved inside his garage to look at the many flats of wavellite that he had on hand from his former mine in the Avante area. He recently sold his Avante diggings claim and also his mine, Clear Creek Quartz Mine, which was located west of Mount Ida. He was now in the position of buying minerals and crystals instead of digging for them and it was much easier to do, no more hassles with the government agencies that regulate everything to death in the area. As a mine owner, you first have to deal with the US Forest Service if you lease the land where you intend to mine for quartz, then you have to deal with IMSHA and OSHA and the EPA as well, and each agency can be a real headache to work with. If you purchase the land, then you can drop the Forest Service from the list. Most of the mine owners lease the land these days.

As I looked for a few nice pieces of wavellite to take home with me, he brought me up to speed on the mines in the Mount Ida area as well. It seems the old Arrowhead Mine and former Fiddlers Ridge Mine, were purchased by a young couple from out of state recently. Mr. Schmidt and Bobby Fecho were hired by the couple to do some work at both mines to bring them back into compliance with the safety and environmental laws of each agency so that the couple can eventually re-open the mines to the public for fee digging. This explained why Bobby had moved his trackhoe off Bear Mountain because he was now digging at the older two mines to get them cleaned up and ready for digging at within the next few months. They hope to have both mines open within the next year at some point. From then on, those two mines and Bear Mountain Mine will be the only three doing their own digging and Miller Mountain Mine in Jessieville, that are open to the public for fee digging.

Here are photos of the first two crystal clusters I pulled out of the fresh piles at Miller Mountain Thursday morning, May 3rd….

…and the smaller crystal I pulled out of the pile right after I pulled the big cluster out….

…and a few more that I found, like this large single point with a small cluster of crystals attached at the base….

…and these two small plates of golden healers….

Mom`s New Rock Garden

Posted on April 18, 2012 by jwj

Wednesday afternoon last week, I woke up early and went over to my parents house to help them clear off an old flower garden and convert it to a rock garden with rose bushes and iris flowers. I had been gathering several medium to large druse crystals for it lately and put it all together by Wednesday evening. While we were out there arranging things and digging up older flowers to take out, I kept hearing wild turkeys chattering around the area, and finally spotted six of them deep in their neighbors backyard across the street…they were running all over the place and didnt seem to mind us out in the yard working…

…there appeared to be a couple of gobblers and four females…they almost looked like large geese, since a couple of them were pure white…anyway we finished the garden about suppertime…

…there is druse, Arkansas Quartz, Poker Chip Calcite Crystals, Bladed Barite, and Fluorite in the Garden now…with the knockout roses my Mom put in there too.

…and a few more I helped her create this past year as well….

Arkansas Quartz 2011

Posted on November 21, 2011 by jwj

Well its been a week since I returned from my fall Arkansas trip, so guess I better get this story in there or I`ll get behind again and I hate falling behind. I think its this dreary weather that makes me do that…Missy and I always have a good time down there no matter what, and this year, Kyle, one of my gymnastic models, decided to join us cause he loves to go rock hunting too. Kyle hasnt had a vacation yet this year so this was a double bonus for him. We got up early Wednesday morning and picked up my mom, she rides with me as far as Fort Smith, Arkansas, and I always drop her off at the home of my Uncle Harley and Aunt Dorcas, to visit with while we are down near Hot Springs doing our rockhunting and photo shoots….she goes shopping with the gals, some of my aunts and cousins, and then meets us at the family farm for a small reunion on Sunday before we drive back home.

We started down 44 and boy was it windy, a strong wind out of the northwest made driving to Joplin a real picnic….couldnt make over 18 miles to the gallon even, normally I can get from 23 to 25 miles to the gallon with my Colorado, but not today. When we finally turned south on Hwy 71 at Joplin, though, my mileage drastically improved with the tailwind behind us and we made better time as well, arriving in Fort Smith around noon. After helping Mom with her bags inside and visiting with Uncle Harley and Aunt Dorcas a bit, Kyle and I headed on south on Hwy 71. We stopped in Y City for a few minutes to check out color along the Fouche LaFave River there…there are some little waterfalls there that I photographed Kyle in two years ago…doing his favorite pose…handstands. There was a young couple there from Louisiana that had stopped to check out the color as well, they were northbound to the Springdale area and we talked with them a bit while I snapped a few photos of the color there…

…spotty color all the way down from Missouri is what we saw…even in Springfield on I-44, we saw maples still in bloom, and several places in Arkansas south of Fort Smith we were seeing maples half in color and the other half still green leaves.

I had several things on my agenda this trip, some photo work to do the first couple of days for a private client at Lake Ouachita where we stayed at Mountain Harbor Resort, before we could even do any rock collecting. Saturday morning, we got up early and by 7:45 we were pulling into Miller Mountain Mine west of Jessieville, on the northeast corner of Lake Ouachita.

For the first two hours we had the place to ourselves…a few people that had camped the night before pulled out as we were getting ready to dig…after talking with Faith for a few minutes and registering, we started a surface check to see what we could find. I put on my old boots because the dark clay was very muddy and soupy looking, it was extra nasty looking today…Bill was turning piles from the day before, over and mixing things up a bit as we climbed around on the side of the dirt hill….

I didn`t know it at the time, but shortly after Bill turned the piles over, I came down from my surface hunt and looked at each pile til I found one with the peanut butter and then began digging into it…within a few minutes I spotted a few nice crystals poking out of the clay mud and pulled out a ball of clay with this one embedded in it…

…I say I didn`t know til later, like yesterday, when I cleaned off the mud and this is what emerged from the clay mud. Here is another beauty I cleaned up yesterday that I wasn`t sure what I had….

..found in the same peanut butter as the big cluster I found earlier.

Within twenty minutes, about twenty cub scouts descended upon the mine with a few adult scoutmasters….

…and pretty soon there were kids all over the place…Kyle had already stopped searching due to the cool wind chilling his fingers. After a few times of unsupervised kids nearly stepping on my pile of crystals next to my bags, which I had pointed out several times and asked them to be careful where they were walking, and a few that ventured over to chip and hack at anything nearby, I decided to call it quits as well….I told Kyle I was going to take a walk up to the far end and just see if I could find anything else surface collecting before leaving. I walked along the edge and found this little beauty just perched up on the dirt….

…..it was dirt up above and pure nasty mud down below…..and while up there, I also spotted a sandstone plate turned upside down…I reached over and turned it over and was greeted by a beautiful plate of smokey colored quartz crystals with just a little bit of damage…I was so happy by then, I decided to stop right then and there…another five carloads of cub scouts had shown up and there were more adults walking up to the far end where I was at as well. I had filled three bags by that time and Kyle had filled two bags as well, so we loaded up and headed toward Hot Springs. We decided to drive down to Magnet Cove, south of Hot Springs, and see if we could find some pyrite in Cove Creek. I had been in touch with Mike Howard, a geologist with the State of Arkansas, and he gave me some good information on where to drive to, park at, where to look and what I might be able to find there, pyrite cubes and feldspar, and possibly brookite crystals as well.

We drove down to the creek and parked next to the creek, and as I was getting out of the truck, a local resident stopped at her mailbox to pick up her mail…I talked to her a few minutes and she told me the local folks didn`t mind rockhounds as long as they were respectful of the area and cleaned up after themselves and didn`t leave their trash laying around for others to pick up after them. I assured her that we were very respectful and well mannered rockhounds. Its amazing how some people who have no respect for others or their property, can make a bad name for the rest of us.

Well I got my fire boots out and waded up and down the creek while Kyle searched along the creek bank in the gravels…I had read online while researching the creek and pyrite field trips and read where there might be some tailing areas along the bank…Kyle managed to find a few small pieces…he had greater success than I did, all I could find was the feldspar dike running across the creek. I figured we might be there at the wrong time of the year as well, since the leaves were covering the ground thick as could be. I left after an hour of searching with just a few small pyrite crystals in my hands and one small chunk of feldspar with a few pyrite crystals in it. I might return there next spring when I am back down there again.

I have a couple hundred pounds of quartz yet to clean up, so I will post more photos as I get that done. I plan to be down in Arkansas at least four more times next year, due to more work for the client down there, and plan to visit Miller Mountain again. I had planned to visit Bear Mountain Mine as well this trip, but they had just concluded visits by the Federal Government and were just getting back to digging when I was down there, so I didnt visit with them at all this trip. Maybe next year.

Arkansas Quartz Nov 2010

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

I took my mini fall vacation and headed south to the Hot Springs area for a few days off, had to cut a day out of the normal plans due to the recession and some cut backs, to make it happen, and since I didn`t stay at Mountain Harbor this year, I cut the Bear Mtn Mine visit out this trip and went to Miller Mtn Mine instead…I did pretty good there, found a large chunk for my rock garden right off the bat…it cleaned up nicely and is sitting out in the yard now letting Mother Nature scrub it down and clean it off, but there are some nice crystals on the sides of it. I don`t think anything I have found this year, yard rock wise, can top that 200 lb chunk I found at Bear Mountain Mine back in September with Jimmy E there with me.

…but I had a lot of fun at Miller Mountain Mine again this trip, and believe it or not, Missy and I arrived about 8 am to find ourselves the first ones there, and we had the place to ourselves for about an hour…we stayed for about six hours and I left with four bags full and six medium sized yard rocks as well…and there were only three other diggers there when we left. Here are some of my finds from there, all cleaned up of course.

this one had some smokey colored crystals, still have some clay pockets to clean out but its looking like there might be some genuine smokey crystals in there…

Arkansas in the Fall 2010

Posted on September 10, 2011 by jwj

Well I traveled back down to the great state of Arkansas for my fall trip last week, and decided to stay in Hot Springs on Lake Hamilton this year, since Mountain Harbor was completely booked with two events…but after giving it a lot of thought, decided I was going to do some more photo shoots down closer to Hot Springs and would only have time to work one dig in for quartz crystals this trip….it made more sense to stay in Hot Springs this time.

Missy and I slept in just a little bit and then headed to Miller Mountain the next morning…arriving shortly after 7:30 and finding out we were the first arrivals of the day….after talking to Faith and checking in while Bill was bringing up fresh dirt piles, I drove over to the parking area and let Missy out to stretch her legs as I prepared to find some nice quartz.

Well I didn`t have to wait long to find something nice and big…soon after lacing up my boots and grabbing my rake and bags, I ambled behind the truck to the first pile and found a very large quartz chunk with crystals all over one end and both sides…so I backed my truck up and loaded it right up…then decided to do some surface collecting while I had the place to myself….I filled half a bag with smaller crystals laying around in sight and soon after, another couple of folks showed up to look for quartz too…they turned out to be a nice couple from Topeka, Kansas, and were like me, just looking for anything pretty to take home…I helped them locate some nice crystals while digging into a few of the piles near the parking lot…I was mainly still surface collecting but if I located something, I would dig down and see what else was nearby and usually there were quite a few small clusters and points nearby. I filled two bags pretty quickly….within the first hour I dug out a couple of smaller clusters of smokey colored crystals…and was quite happy with them…decided even if I found nothing else the rest of the day, my day was complete with them…but as it was, in the five hours I was there, I did find quite a few nice singles and clusters…

…here Missy is seen on one of her many jaunts around the tailing piles checking things out…with the beautiful fall foliage in full display near the entrance to Miller Mountain Mine…

…mind you, this is only the rocks part of the story of the trip…if you want to see the rest of the trip, you have to visit my blog site with the landscapes, waterfalls, sunsets, and beautiful models, found at http://jwjphotoblog.com

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Category Archives: Arkansas Quartz

Summer Break 2015

Arkansas in the Springtime

Arkansas Fall Trip 2014

Arkansas Quartz Mining In Sad Shape

Arkansas Quartz Again

Arkansas Quartz in May 2012

Mom`s New Rock Garden

Arkansas Quartz 2011

Arkansas Quartz Nov 2010

Arkansas in the Fall 2010