Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum Fluorite Dig
Marion, Kentucky

Written by:  Steve Bonney, David Swearingin, Mark Randle
and Steve Barr

Photos by:  Steve Bonney, Mark Randle, Austin Barr, Matt Price, etc…etc…

There were two parts to this fieldtrip.  The first leg of the journey began when a small group of eight people headed to Kentucky.  Our goal was to do whatever it took to make the Eureka Mine an even more wonderful place to collect specimens than it already was.

The group included Rebecca, Austin, John D., Steve Bonney, David Swearingin, Mark Randle, Matt Price and Steve Barr.  Together, we defrayed the expense of renting a trackhoe and a bulldozer to move some earth.

We used the equipment to expand the existing pit a bit, and to keep it safe for people to work in.  A dirt dam was built to help keep the creek from flooding the pit after we left, but since the main vein is right at ground water level, water continued to seep in and pump was needed to keep it out.

As the work progressed, John Deney began doing what he does best, which is telling all of us what to do and acting as a "supervisor"!

We were hoping to expose a lot of material while we were there, and to create fresh tailings piles with plenty of fluorite in them for the people who visited the mine after we did.

Austin carefully inspected each piece that was unearthed, checking to make sure that it passed our quality control standards.

Rebecca eventually got tired of how slowly things were progressing, and jumped into the pit to show the guys how to find fluorite!

At one point, a crazed mountain man strolled out of the forest and scared the living daylights out of us, until we realized that it was just Dave.

At first, we weren't really finding much, so Mark exercised his option to call one of  "his life-lines" and ask what we should do.  We're not sure just who it was that he phoned, but once he hung up he began bossing us all around and we finally hit fluorite!

The machine went right through a section of the vein that contained awesome material.  At least two large trackhoe buckets of beautiful fluorite went into the tailings piles, and I'm guessing quite a bit of it is still hidden there, waiting for rockhounds to come and get it!

Even covered in mud, the specimens at the Eureka Mine are unbelievably beautiful.

Here's Matt Price holding a really unusually shaped cluster of smaller cubes, which turned out to be one of the most interesting specimens we unearthed.

This is a closeup photo of the piece, still covered in dirt.  It has fluorite cubes running all over its surface, and was removed in perfect condition.  I guess when you own your own mine in Arkansas, you learn proper digging techniques.  But I don't think Matt could have done it without Rebecca and John leaning over his shoulder the entire time and giving him advice!

In the four days that we were there, we created a lot of fresh tailings piles for rockhounds to search through when they arrange a visit to the mine through the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum.  We also continued to uncover the vein, and left much of it showing when we headed for home, so that our club and many others would have some great material to work with when they arrived.

Of course, by the time other folks arrived, the pit had water seeping into it.  Fortunately, the museum had the foresight to purchase a strong water pump.  For a small fee each day, groups can rent it when they are there to keep the water out and locate the beautiful fluorite that's hidden at the Eureka!

We'd all highly recommend that any seasoned rockhound who wants to add nice specimens to their collection, and people who are new to this hobby, should make plans to visit the Eureka Mine and the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum as soon as they possibly can.  The site yields some fantastic minerals, and we left plenty of it there for other people to find.

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