Fieldtrip Report:
Fieldtrip Report:
Diamond
Hill Mine,
Antreville S.C.
September 16th and 17th, 2006
Text and photos by: Lee Fleming
This past weekend, MAGMA conducted a field trip to the Diamond Hill Quartz Mine in Antreville, SC. Several members arrived at the mine site early on Friday in order to set up camp and to get ready for a great weekend of rock hunting. Once we got our tents setup, we set about gathering fire wood for our evening camp fire, prepared our individual evening meals, and generally introduced ourselves to the new members who had joined us at Diamond Hill for the first time. Before we entered the site, even to do your house keeping activities, we made sure that everyone completed and signed their release forms and paid the digging fee for the period of time they were to be on the site. We were pleased to find that there were not tunnels or potential cave in sites on the property.
The first evening, we gather around a wonderful camp fire and Jim Olsen, the author of a book on gem and mineral collecting sites in Georgia, pulled out his guitar and provided us with a wonderful collection of campfire music. Jim played his guitar with a pick which he had made of mastodon ivory.
Saturday morning was clear and cool with a heavy dew. Early, we heard in the distance a donkey making his wakeup sounds and many of those present were confused as to what was the source of the funny sounds. After grabbing our breakfasts, we spread our across the site to the various pits.
Lee Fleming
It was shocking to see how the site had changed since our last trip, The skeletal pit had been widened and the old trenches had been leveled by people looking for crystals. The amethyst pit did not look as if it had been changed radically and the old cave which we filled last time were still covered. Finally, the smoky pit was the most changed. The spoil areas had been changed by material being moved, the far banks looked like it had been moved back about 5 to 8 feet, and the bottom of the pit was full of water. In no time, our MAGMA members descended on the smoky pit and soon it looked like ants were climbing all over the site. Several people were lucky enough to find some material in the spoil fill section and others found druzy crystals on the far side of the pit.
Kyle
Jim Olsen
Marcy
