Fieldtrip Report:
JXR Fieldtrip Report
Written by Steve Barr
Photos by Don Aldridge, Mark Randle, Jorie Billingsley
and Mrs. PainterThere was some beautiful material recovered, but the best was yet to come. When Rodney took his lunch break, he told me that everyone could go down into the pit for one hour. I hurried everyone in, knowing that they would have to move fast.
Jorie and Russ
Russ and cluster.
All of a sudden, I heard Russ Fulwiler, who had flown out from Wisconsin for the trip, gasp. "Steve.I found one of those pockets of white clay you told us about! What should I do?" The color had drained from his face, and his hands were shaking uncontrollably. I told him to "Dig man, dig! Get it all!"
As Russ plunged his hands into the white clay, he began pulling cluster after cluster out of the narrow hole. Sandi immediately abandoned her own search and rushed to help him. She held an umbrella over his head to shield him from the sun, and began wrapping specimens for him at the same time. I ran to get Gatorade and water to keep him refreshed, then helped wrap his finds. Romin ran over and helped remove some of the surrounding rock. That's what MAGMA is all about! We all gave up our own chance to find a pocket to help Russ hit the jackpot. And hit the jackpot he did!
Russ and cluster.
When our hour in the pit was up, Russ was staggering from the heat and excitement. We helped him carry out buckets of gems, a large specimen in matrix and the grand prize, a cluster that Rodney valued at $6,000. As you can see from the photo, Russ tore his hands up as he worked feverishly to get every last bit of amethyst out of that pocket, but he said it was absolutely worth it.
As a thank you for their help, he gave Romin and Sandi each two of the nicer clusters he had found.
At the end of the weekend, almost everyone went home with great new additions to their collections. And once again, a MAGMA member deserved the honor of being "Dirty Digger of the Day". Romin left covered head to toe in dirt and clay, but with lots of amethyst to take home and clean up.
Romare (Mark Randle) matrix specimen.
Faceted amethyst from JXR.
Rodney moved a lot of earth for us, and here's a word to the wise..the next time there's a huge downpour in Tignall, some lucky soul is going to find a whole lot of amethyst in what's left of the new dump piles!
