Remains of the burn.

Big Shaft Mine

I used the flash and took a shot into the mine. It was just the way I last saw it. I was glad to see that no one is digging in here.

Ice Stalagmites outside the mine.

View from above the Big Shaft.

I spent a day visiting some old mines in the Franklin area. I had to stop by and visit my favorite corundum crystal. The 48.5 pounder from Corundum Hill.

This was one of my finds from an old mine near Franklin. A 70's era coke can in pretty good condition, a little rust on the bottom, but no dents.

I spent a day at Lake Chatuge checking out some sites.

This 2" hunk of quartz made me so mad I brought it home with me. I was walking the lake bed and saw the six sided shape. I thought I had a nice big sapphire...

Some rutile from one of the lake sites. Biggest piece is about the size of a quarter.

This piece of corundum is also from the same site. It has a weird color and has a lot of rutile in it.

Some type of secondary iron mineral growth over hematite.

I went to one of the well known sites at the lake not expecting to find much. I walked out onto the lake bed about fifty feet and spotted a small piece of corundum showing. It ended up being this 6.5 pound hunk of corundum and matrix.

After checking out the usual spots, I decided to look around some newer areas. I ended up finding this ruby before I had to leave. I found it and several smaller pieces of pink and red in about thirty minutes of surface hunting. I was happy to find yet another new hunting ground at the lake.

Not too bad considering I wasn't planning to collect!

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