Fieldtrip report:
Lake Douglas, Tennessee,
11-13-04Official fieldtrip of M.A.G.M.A. and the Henderson County Gem and Mineral Society
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Hello members, we had a great turnout and trip to collect quartz crystals at Lake Douglas in Tennessee. We met at the Silver Armadillo at 9:00 Saturday morning and proceeded to the site, about an hour and fifteen minute drive. Once we arrived we headed to the lakebed, I use kneepads and crawl around the lakebed so I can see the small crystals. The quartz at the lake comes in a variety of forms, the crystals found range in size from pinhead to around an inch or more, some resemble small Herkimer Diamonds, others look like Pecos Diamonds, some have inclusions that our club geologist Mike says may be carbon, others have hematite inclusions giving them a nice red color, you may also find Indian artifacts, pottery, arrowheads, beads etc, we all found some nice stuff to bring home, John Deney found a water worn crystal that was at least two inches long, one of the largest I have seen from the site, he gave it to our new club member Terry from Minnesota.
Lake Douglas.
Mike and David keeping a sharp eye out for crystals as they walk the lakebed.
New member Terry.
John D.
Some of the smaller crystals that John found.
Steve P.
Steve found this interesting piece that may be a petrified limb cast!
These are some of the crystals I found after I cleaned them up, the clear ones look like little Herkimer's.
The cloudy crystals look like Pecos Diamonds.
Some of the crystals have hematite inclusions that give them a nice red color.
This small diamond has black inclusions, maybe rutile or hematite?
My total haul, around 200 crystals, including a piece of pottery and some beads. I have decided to name these crystals "Douglas Diamonds", hey it sounds better than Lake Douglas quartz!,
It's hard to stand up after crawling around the lakebed!
If you would like to collect these here are the directions to the site:
I-40 in Tennessee, take exit 432 A, turn right onto 25-70, drive 1.8 miles to 363 W, turn left, drive 5.9 miles to 92 S, turn left, drive 0.4 miles to parking lot on right. You can find the quartz crystals from the shoreline down to the middle of the lakebed. Have fun and good luck, Rick
