I am finally getting around to a trip report from the Abernathy Mine on Saturday. We had a busy weekend with the trip Saturday and another on Sunday. Both went until dark, I still have not cleaned my specimens. We met at 9:00 at the parking lot in front of the Silver Armadillo in Asheville. The great weather brought out several of our M.A.G.M.A. members who had been hibernating all winter! We proceeded to the Sinkhole Mine first where we spent about an hour picking over the dump piles. The Sinkhole is a historic mine. There have been many ancient indian artifacts found here and many nice specimens of apatite are still found today. I also had the fortune to be there when Dave H. found the largest garnet I have seen from that site or any site in this area. Unfortunately Dave hit the garnet with his hammer, but I now have hope to find more like it. This garnet measured at least 1-1 1/4" across, a nice red almandine garnet. After leaving there we headed down the road to the parking area for the Abernathy.
John D., Andrea, Wolfy, Cory, Tim, Brad, Scott, Dave H. After arriving, we began the 1.5 mile walk down the train tracks to the collecting area.
Once we arrived, some wanted to explore in the mine while others began to search the dump piles for specimens.
Andrea on the hunt !!!
Dave H. and John D. looking for a prime spot to dig !
The rest of the crew were anxious to explore in the mine. There are a couple of varieties of bats in the mine. I must say that they posed well for having their pictures taken !
Eastern Pipistril chilling on the ceiling !
Three bats pulling guard duty at the entrance to one of the shafts !
Eastern Brown Bat taking a nap.
Eastern Pipistril hanging out !
Exploring in the mine. The Abernathy was mined for mica from the late 1800's to the early 1960's. There are still small veins of red rum mica showing in the shafts.
Red Rum Mica.
This side tunnel runs about 50 yards off the main shaft. This is where all the Pipistril bats live, the Brown bats live in the main shaft.
This is one hole you do not want to step in. It is about a 30 foot drop into the water filled tunnel below, with no visible way to climb back out !
Back to the entrance and out to the dumps to collect ! Everyone had a great time and we all found nice specimens. John D. found a very nice almandine garnet cluster. Andrea found the biggest specimen of apatite crystal growing in mica I have seen, the mica crystal was 4-5" wide and the apatite crystal was about a half inch+ across. The great thing was that she had both sides of the mica crystal so she has two of the biggest specimens I have seen of that material !, I will add more specimen photos to this report in a day or so. See you next time, Rick |
