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Diamond Hill Mine
Antreville, South Carolina
Feb. 10th , 2007 9:00
A.M.
“The Diamond Hill Mine has been producing skeletal, amethyst
and smoky quartz crystals as well as quartz scepters and an assortment of
pegmatite minerals for many years.”
Antreville is just over 2 hours north of Atlanta,
near Greenville. The instructions said meet at 9 am which
means (yuck!) wake up well before dawn on a very cold Saturday when I would
like to sleep in, fill the thermos with hot coffee, and hit the road even before
our newspaper arrived.
When we got to the site after 2 hours on the “big road”, 15 miles
of smaller and smaller roads ending in a final stretch of one lane dirt road, we
were a little worried. Through the woods,
we saw a large yellow back hoe, some piles of dirt, and almost no vehicles. Was this the right place? Where was everybody? Fortunately, George Libby’s van was one of
the three vehicles in the lot – it was the right place. He was happy to take our money and have us
sign a release for the landowner, and to point us in direction of the “mine” -
which was a series of 10 to 20 foot deep pits in the Piedmont clay. At least it had not rained in a few days and
the ground was dry.
Jay took off with the big rock busting tools – I starting scratching
around the clumps in the loose dirt at the surface. After 15 minutes, I had found a few so-so specimens
of crystalline quartz – just good enough to donate to club for grab bags. I also found some spectacular clear crystals,
which, alas, melted as soon as it warmed up.
(The prettiest crystals I have ever seen rock-hounding are ice crystals growing
just below the surface– too bad they do not last). I went back to the parking area, and surveyed
tailgates to see what others had found for inspiration. Deciding to descend into the pits, I walked
by a large rock blanketed in fine dust.
The surface looked a little bumpy, so I brushed the dust off – wow! The top of the rock was covered with 1 inch
skeletal quartz crystals. Jay was happy
(he had not found anything exciting yet) – and I could not help but show my
treasure to the rock-hounds who had walked by the same rock several times that
morning. We loaded the rock
(conveniently at the surface, just beside the dirt track to the pit) on the
hand truck and took it back to the truck.
Later that day, several people (including Charles and Lori Carter) found
even better specimens nearby.
That was enough to get me started. I scouted around the “pits” and ended up going
into the furthest (and deepest) pit. On
the very bottom, I saw some great plates of quartz crystals – all firmly attached
to very large rocks, with no way to bring the hand-truck in. I selected a good plate and went to work with
chisel and maul. After more than an
hour, I finally pounded the rock into pieces light enough to carry. I was disappointed that they were not as
pretty when I got them out of the hole as when I first saw them. As I scrambled out of the pit with my
treasures, I looked at the ground close to the surface, which was covered with rocks
of all sizes. Wow! Many of the rocks were covered with smaller
quartz crystals. And I had walked past
these on the way down, convinced that the “mother lode” of good quartz had to
be at the bottom of the pit. I ended up
collecting more quartz near the top of the hole – the specimens were as nice as
those on the bottom, and much easier to carry to where we could wheel them
out. As the day wore on, we found more
and more crystalline quartz – on the dirt track, covered in dirt on the spoil
piles, and (of course) at the bottom of the pits.
Well, the drive was worth it. It was a beautiful day, even if it started
out cold, and everyone went home happy.
Thanks to George for arranging a great field trip. In addition to the skeletal quartz plates and
many clusters of smaller crystals, George found a small, clear smoky quartz
specimen. I also saw another nice cluster,
which appeared to have some amethyst in it.
By the end of the day, a few more folks showed up – there were maybe 10
cars there at any one time. Poor George
- every time a new arrival showed up, he had to stop collecting and sign them
in.
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