Field Trip Report:
Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum Photos and text by Steve Bonney MAGMA’s 2010 trip to Marion, Kentucky began in advance of the club dig with a small group of members who invested in sufficient machine time to expose fresh material and prep the site for subsequent trips.
Lawrence scopes out the pit prior to the machine work at the Eureka Mine. Sleep was difficult the first night anticipating what the morning would bring and the material that hopefully would be exposed.
Treasure appeared early in the form of a beautiful Crittenden County sunrise.
When the excavator and dozer finally shut down the site might not have appeared too drastically different, but considerable amounts of new and old material had been exposed and distributed about the site to facilitate future collecting.
While we had anticipated some rain between the machine dig and club dig to further expose surface material, the lack of it didn’t deter 37+ collectors as they descended upon the pit and surrounding collecting areas on day one of the club dig.
Some chose the pit to start their search.
Others chose the fresh spoil piles.
Others checked out what the creek might offer.
As always, the Eureka produced some fine specimens regardless of the strategy employed to collect them.
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