Fieldtrip Report:
JXR Fieldtrip Report
Written by Steve Barr
Photos by Don Aldridge, Mark Randle, Jorie Billingsley
and Mrs. PainterEd brought along a piece that he had cut, which has been valued at thousands of dollars. He also had a handful of other faceted specimens to show off.
Russ cluster and bloody hands!
Sandi
Sandi let out a scream when she unearthed a nice hunk of purple, and the film crew scrambled over to tape an interview with her.
Rodney was true to his word, and kept pumping out fresh dumps for us all to go through. When he finished his interview, he dug even more for us before he broke for lunch and got something to drink. Throughout the day, as he dug in the pit, I watched him toss crystal after crystal up onto the edge of the hole so everyone could have some.
At one point, he pulled me aside and told me that he had just dumped the cap of a nice pocket up in the back corner. I told people to go search there, but they were finding so much where they were that they just kept digging in the same spot.
Working a pile.
Seven year-old Bailey Painter had been finding crystals all day long. I guess it helps to be close to the ground and still have good eyesight. He just kept showing up with nice specimens all day long. But after Rodney dumped that cap, young Bailey really hit paydirt! He simply turned over a big rock and crystals were jutting out the other side. His mother sent a photo of his cluster after it was cleaned up a bit. His parents said the little guy slept with his arms wrapped around it that night in the motel, and woke up in the morning still clutching it.
Sunday proved to be even better than Saturday had been. The big machine ripped the walls of the pit apart, uncovering cluster after cluster of large, dark crystals. Once again, Rodney tossed many of them up to the waiting throngs on the edges of the pit, and almost everyone who dug in the blazing sun was rewarded with great finds.
Dirtydigger
