Got word earlier this week that a buddy of mine from Colorado, would be coming to visit later this month, so Missy and I loaded up and headed down to Eminence to check out the quarry and see what was new there. I had told Ian about this spot before and since it had been several weeks that I had been there last, I wanted to see if there had been any new activity there. I had checked in with Docia on Friday and found she and Floyd would be deer hunting with their bows this weekend and unable to join us. I got a late start Saturday morning, the forecaster the night before was calling for a cool morning and possible rain, so I didnt get started down there til 9:30 am, putting me there almost noon. Lucikly for me, the forecast was for the St Louis area and did not include Eminence…turning out to be a very nice warm and sunny day.

We arrived and I parked down at the bottom of the entrance hill by one of the asphalt piles, and after changing into my boots and grabbing a couple of bags and tools, I walked over toward the point that we had often worked before.

You will notice my blue bag on the right side above…I actually started on the left side of this point, on the other side to the left up there…thinking I had found a pocket, but went back to the truck to get my hammer and chisel…on the walk back, I skirted around a small pile of fall down rocks and actually found a few pretty crystals in that pile…took them back to the truck and set them on my tailgate…came back and walked farther down that pile and over to this clay red muddy area and started seeing even more crystals that had fallen down from above, so I walked up to find out where they had originated from. Low and behold, I discovered a pocket of poker chips and dolomite druse within just a few minutes of checking this wall on the right side of the point. I cant tell you how many times we have looked along this wall and found nothing at all, pocket wise.  While walking up to that wall, I spotted this beauty sticking up out of the mud partially…the only thing I could see were the crystals sticking out of the mud…..

….and after cleaning it off this morning with the water hose, I was pleased that I had brought it home with me…though there is some damage to some crystals, there are several crystals and dolomite druse that are very pretty…

Here are the ones I found and set on the tailgate before I started digging into the pocket in the wall….some that someone else apparently didnt want to take home or just rolled down from a pocket up above….

 

…the big one on the left side of my tailgate, had crystals on both ends and just a few small pockets of dolomite druse in the middle….

….so I decided to pull a Mike Streeter and do some cobbing down to save this end with the neat dark colored poker chip crystal embedded….

…so I walked back over to the right side of the point wall and began examining the pocket up close and deciding what course of action to take…using my mini mattox for about thirty minutes and pulling out some nice crystals and clusters….

…some like this beautiful poker chip nestled in some dolomite druse….

and pried this chunk of crystals out of a pocket inside the main pocket….

..my pile of crystals so far was a bit small, but the day was young yet and I was just getting started….

I had finally reached the point where I needed to do some hammering with the chisel, so I walked over to the truck, took a short water break, and returned to start getting some extra matrix and rock out of my way so I could get into a few pockets that were visible but slightly blocked out. Once I was able to free up the pockets, believe me, I started pulling crystals and clusters out right and left. Since I had arrived mid day, I didnt take time to photograph and document my progress much. Within another hour, I had reached the point where I could go no further….

…even with one pocket staring me right in the face…

 

…dont get me wrong, I cleaned out this pocket as much as I could and then stopped to wrap up what I had pulled out, which was quite a bit….

 

…to go further with what was still there, plenty of potential sign for more pockets by the way, would require moving a lot of rock above and I didnt want to find out exactly how much rock that would wind up being…

I spent about thirty minutes wrapping and high grading, leaving some pretty stuff for someone else to find, taking more spectacular stuff home with me. Trust me, I took alot of pretty stuff home, I have a lot of friends who cant travel around like me and find stuff, so I always like to share with them, like to see their faces light up when you hand them stuff like this….just makes my day and usually theirs too.

I decided to walk up to the upper bench and see if I could find any fall down crystals up there, so  I grabbed two more bags out of the truck after securing Missy inside the truck with the ac on for her, and hiked up above. I also checked the wall for more pockets, but alas, they were high up on the wall, where we had originally found them when I was there shortly after the blasting. There were no pockets to be found down at the new walking level. I did find a few single crystals here and there, but that was about it. I walked back down to the truck and drove across the lower level to a newer area to check it out.

…where after a few minutes of walking around,I found this beauty just sitting in a small pile waiting to be found…

 

I quickly returned it to the truck and walked farther up in this new area, and walked upon a beautiful poker chip triple in a dark chocolate brown color and a few in a deep green color. I also found a few chunks of a pale pink color calcite, but nothing in poker chip form. Most of these had some matrix attached, but was very pretty and all of it went home with me. I was walking around up near the top, and walked right up on this huge cluster of crystals, partially buried, waiting for me….

…shown above in my backyard after cleaning. I was completely amazed….I turned around in shock,  and found this one right behind me….

…now I was really in shock, two large beauties like this within ten feet of each other, possibly from the same pocket and blasted down from above. If you want to know exactly how big they are, think of a beach ball under your arm and you`ll have a good idea how big they were to me,  when I stashed each one under my arms and carried them to the truck.

 I was very happy when I found both of them, specially after I was able to dig them both out with ease….both of them big, both beautiful, both with some damage…but thats to be expected when looking in a blast pile…put yourself in their place…how much damage would you have it you were suddenly dynamited out of your safe secure position in a limestone wall and landed in a blast pile among many other rocks, some bigger than you.

Despite the damage to each one, there were several smaller pristine crystals attached to each of the bigger crystals. The second cluster had obviously been sheared off, but there was a perfect set of twin crystals attached to the other side…I`ll try to photograph the other sides of each one tomorrow and add them so you can see what I`m talking about here.

I no sooner walked back up to take another look, when I spotted a pocket along the wall and stopped to investigate it more…with my mattox I was able to pull a few plates of several shades of colored dolomite druse crystals, even a few with dogtooth crystals attached to them and what looks like a smattering of marcasite on a few of them. I had two bags with me filled with some wrapping cloths and put them to good use…emptying the pocket required about thirty minutes, cutting into my leave before it gets dark time…and then I decided to make one more walk around…and found a huge chunk of green poker chips embedded in the ground….it makes a good yard rock but thats about it.

After loading the two bags of dolomite druse from the pocket and the three huge chunks of poker chips into my truck, after wrapping them all up,  Missy and I headed for home. I was quite tired and looking forward to an extra hour of rest…even though I didnt get it due to a bad trailer fire call around midnight. Nothing beats a good nap the next day though. 🙂