Field Trip Report:

Sheepcliff Aquamarine Mine
Jackson County
Final Days of the Sheepcliff Mine
Spring and Summer 2003

by: Richard Jacquot

We collected and collected, then the day came that we had to quit, we were granted a couple of smaller trips into the site, but the digging area was severely limited, even though, at the very last, a few nice specimens were recovered.

Dave Ladendorf, who found out about the site a little to late, makes a last ditch attempt to locate a specimen.

Today, the stream that runs from the mine has been lined with pretty rocks to make it more appealing to the new owners, they will probably sit at their picnic tables around the fish pond in their back yard, with no idea that they are sitting next to a once famous piece of North Carolinas mining history.

A nice twin crystal specimen collected by my son R.J.

A mountain of beryl! Some of Steve P's haul from the weeks we collected at the mine.

1,800 carat aquamarine crystal collected by our friend Mark.

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