Traveled down to the Hot Springs area of Arkansas for my annual fall trek, for a few days of rest and relaxation from the grind of work with two goals in mind, photograph some models and dig for some beautiful quartz crystals, which can be quite impressive and found in the Mount Ida and Hot Springs areas. Having traveled to this area for the past four years as part of my fall vacation, I opted to take the advice of a few rockhound friends and visit the Miller Mountain Quartz Mine near Jessieville, Arkansas, about ten miles north of Hot Springs along Highway 7 and ten miles west on Hwy 298.  I had Kyle, one of my models with me, and he likes to rockhound too. We were staying at Lake Ouachita near Mount Ida and drove over to Miller Mountain on Saturday morning, arriving at 8 am and found we had the place to ourselves.

The mine is under new management and very well run compared to the last trip I made there a few years ago, I was very impressed with the new caretakers, Faith and Bill. I was given good advice on where to look and after paying our dig fees, Kyle and I got to work and started finding some nice crystals. I was looking for clusters and Kyle was happy with single points.

I brought some canvas bags with me from my Lowes store and a few buckets and left with the buckets filled and five canvas bags full as well. I found several nice larger clusters merely by walking around on top of the tailing piles and surface collecting as well. All in all it was a great four hour dig and as we were wrapping up and packing the truck bed, about seventy boyscouts and fifteen scoutleaders descended upon the mine and began their day looking for treasures. Here are some photos to show you what we encountered and found….

here are the tailing piles looking north….

and some of the better finds….

Kyle and I didn`t have to do much digging, there were so many just laying on top all over the place…Kyle filled two bags alone with them…easy pickens that day.

Def looks like a place worth going to for a days dig, keep all you find, for $ 10, doesn`t it ?