Field Trip Report:
Balsam
Mica Mine Hello members, we finally got to complete our overnight camping and rockhounding trip to the Balsam Mica Mine in Yancey County, N.C.. We had planned this trip twice only to have it cancelled by inclement weather. I have not had this much fun in years. I love camping and backpacking in the woods especially in the winter. This was the first trip I have been on in a long time.
After crossing the creek at the National Forest we unloaded our equipment and started the long hike up the mountain.
The fearless four, Dave, Jerry, Bill, and me. We began our hike up the mountain. Jerry and I were camping out and both of us had to carry our 50lb. backpacks with us. Dave and Bill came along for the day trip and returned in the late afternoon.
Jerry takes a break at the four trunk tree.
Bill Farrell takes a break at 2 miles up the mountain.
2 miles up The hike to the mine is just under 3 miles. Dave went to the mine to collect, Jerry and I took a detour up another part of the mountain to see what was there. After a 3 mile off trail detour we made it back to the main road and continued up the mountain to the mine. We did wish we had left our backpacks somewhere before our off trail prospecting.
Base camp: 4656 feet After a total of around 6 miles of hiking, Jerry and I finally made it to our camp location that afternoon. I think I discovered muscles in my body I never knew were there. There was still a lot of snow on the mountain and at the mine area.
Jerry at dinner time at base camp.
Dave visiting base camp before his trip back down the mountain.
Cooking a pot of coffee for breakfast Sunday morning.
Balsam Mica Mine, 4805 feet Surrounding the mine are huge dump piles that have been overgrown with vegetation. There is literally tons of material to search through. The Balsam Mica Mine was a major producer of mica in the early 1900's. As with all mica mines, much of the smaller books of mica were discarded and only the biggest and best pieces were used in industry. When other uses were found for the smaller pieces such as ground mica for the tire industry etc. many of the old mines were reopened and the discarded material recovered. While searching the dumps I found many large books of mica which will make great specimens. I guess they left this material because of the long haul to get it off the mountain.
Red Rum Mica book, 4" x 5" x 1" On the road leading to the mine you can find numerous specimens of small kyanite in matrix and as loose crystals. These crystals are small about 1-2" and usually a pale color bluish/gray. During our off trail prospecting, Jerry found some pieces of deep blue kyanite. While digging at the mine, Dave discovered a nice specimen of kyanite with deep blue color rivaling that from the Walker Creek site. Jerry also found some of the deep blue in the mine dumps.
Excellent specimen of kyanite, crystal measures 2" x 1", rare from this mine. I have visited this mine five times and always found some interesting material. On my last trip I found several almandine/iron garnets up to 3/4" in size with 24 sides.
My
garnet from my last trip. While hunting the dumps this trip, I was searching for more of these large garnets and found something different. The large books of red rum mica were plentiful and Jerry and I were high grading a lot of mica to bring down the mountain. I started noticing small pink spots on the mica and then started finding very nice specimens of garnet formed in the mica books. These pieces were everywhere and we plan to make another trip to collect more of this material.
Specimen 3" x 2" x 1/2"
Almandine
garnet in mica with rhodolite in front.
Translucent
red rum mica book 2" x 2" x 1/2" Another thing I was searching for was beryl. I did find one football size specimen with three crystals formed in the matrix. The largest crystal was about an inch across with two smaller crystals to the side. Since we had no way of hauling 20 lb. rocks down the mountain with our camping gear we had to do a lot of high grading. As I was trimming this piece I shattered the specimen and managed to retrieve only one beryl crystal 5/8" x 3/8".
This material is what I think was our best find. Jerry and I both found a lot of this material. Some of the pieces weighed at least 20-30 pounds and were completely covered with these green crystals with the orange and almandine garnets. They have been stowed away for my next trip up. This piece measures 3" x 3" , it is a quartz/feldspar matrix with almandine garnet (top center), orange garnet (bottom left to right), apatite, light green (right). I thought the dark green crystals were apatite but under the short wave uv light only the crystal on the right is a fluorescent orange. I would guess that the dark green is either beryl, apatite that is not fluorescent or tourmaline. I am going to have this piece checked at UNCA at the earth science department. We had a great time and have already planned our next overnight trip. It will be to the Walker Creek Kyanite site in Buncombe County, N.C. and I will post the date on my web site. As always all are welcome to join us on our trips. I guarantee you will have a lot of fun and find some great specimens.
Time to head home, see you on the next trip......... |
