Gem hunters' giant amethyst spotlighted at S.C. museum
By Wayne Ford

The Diamond Hill, LLC, (DH LLC) owns the Diamond Hill quartz digging area (the "Property") near the town of Antreville in Abbeville County, South Carolina.  With prior permission, visitors are allowed to enter the Property and search/dig for rocks and crystals. 

1.  The DH  LLC  is keeping open the Property as a resource for the use and pleasure of all rockhounds and interested individuals.  Don't do anything that will jeopardize this relationship.  Always be polite and helpful to others who are legally on the Property. 

2.  All visitors to the Property must have a signed Form (see below) from DH LLC, or they must have given their signed form to their trip leader.  Anyone on the Property without proper permission will be subject to arrest and prosecution.

3. You may search for and keep crystals and mineral specimens that you find on the ground surface, or that you dig for.  You may dig with hand tools only, such as shovel, pick, hammer, chisel, etc.  Not allowed are power tools such as jackhammer, or motorized equipment such as backhoe or bulldozer.

4. Searching and digging for crystals is inherently dangerous.  Always take care with your activities, and realize that the DH LLC does not assume liability for any occurrences on the Property.

5.  Keep the Property clean.  Always remove all of your litter.  And remove other litter, too.  When your visit is complete, you should leave the Property as clean as, or cleaner than, it was when you arrived.  

6.  Visitors to the Diamond Hill Property should not enter the private property on the opposite side of Diamond Mine Road for any reason! 

7.  Report any problems immediately to the DH LLC.  Problems include such things as: (a) a large amount of pre-existing litter on the Property;  (b) presence of unauthorized people on the Property;  (c) use of equipment other than hand-tools;  (d) any activity that could pose a risk to the safety and health of others; (e) anything else that could conceivably jeopardize keeping the Property open, or that could jeopardize your group from being permitted to return to the Property.

8.  If any individual is performing an unlawful or dangerous activity which poses an imminent danger to the health and safety of others, contact law enforcement immediately.

9. If a scheduled visit to the Property must be canceled (because of, for example, bad weather, sickness, etc.), no fees can be refunded, but an alternative date for the visit can be scheduled.  If you know that your planned visit will not occur, contact the DH LLC as soon as possible to make alternate arrangements.

Visitors fall into one of two categories: 

1.  A private group of one or more individuals who desires to visit the Property; 
2. Members of a recognized organization or club that is sponsoring a field trip to the Property. 

To get permission to visit the Property, you should contact the Manager of the DH LLC (Chester Karwoski), or his wife Gail. 

Chester Karwoski
1040 Sweet Gum Way
Watkinsville, GA 30677

Phone: 706-769-8163 
Fax: 706-769-9589
e-mail: GAILKARWOSKI@HOTMAIL.COM

If you cannot reach Chester or Gail, or if you want to schedule a trip to DH "at the last minute", then you can contact the following people who might be able to schedule for you:
"To contact Anna or Bryan, you should always first try phoning them."

BRING:
If you want to explore the dump piles, bring a scratching tool (like rake or hoe) and a probe (like a big screwdriver) to pry pieces out of the dirt/clay.  If you want to work in the native veins, you can bring a pick and shovel, prybar, rock hammer and chisels.  Bring your lunch, plenty of fluids, sunscreen, a hat, gloves, sturdy boots, newspaper for wrapping crystals, and buckets/boxes for carrying crystals.  Bring rubber boots and a change of clothes if the ground is wet or there is a good chance of rain.

DIRECTIONS: 
Directions to the mine: Take I-85 north from Atlanta to exit 21 (US 178/Anderson, SC). Go south on US 178 for one mile and bear right onto SR 28 (Abbeville/Antreville). Stay on SR 28 all the way to Antreville. Crawford’s Country store is on your left as you enter Antreville and is also 21 miles from exit 21 on I-85.  Drive past Crawford’s store till you see Emanuel Baptist Church and turn right on to SR 284.Drive 2.3 miles and take a right on Suber Road/SC road S-01-508. Be careful not to turn into the folks' driveway just before the road here. Go seven tenths of a mile and you will see on your right a gravel road, Diamond Mine Road/SC road S-1-538. Turn right and go half a mile and the mine entrance will be on your right.

Here is some Diamond Hill info and maps. Currently, there are five productive digging areas.
 
1. The Skeletal Pit.  Straight in from the entrance.  At the bottom, look for man-dug trenches (maybe around 4 ft long, deep and/or wide).  Dig down, sideways or in line, and hopefully you will find veins.  Some veins are higher on the walls, too
2. The Smoky Pit (lower pit).  As you reach the smoky pit from the poor dirt road parallel to Diamond Mine Rd, look across the pit to the far wall.  As you dig into the far wall, you may find quartz crystal plates and crystals, some smoky.  There are crystals to be found all around the Smoky Pit, too, in the dumps.
 3. In the Amethyst Pit, you might find amethyst in the pit or in the surrounding dump piles.  Many people have success here by digging deep into the dump piles in this area.  You might also find interesting quartz crystal plates, often coated with black manganese oxide or brown/orange/yellow iron oxides.  The crystals on such plates are typicall small and drusy.
 4. Between the entrance to Diamond Hill and the Amethyst Pit, there is a small trench with adjacent hard quartz ledge.  This hard quartz area overlooks the Amethyst Pit.  Look for various types of quartz crystals in this area.  Pockets of crystals can be found in the hard rocks.
 5. We have moved dump piles from all four areas to the far side of the field to the right, as you drive into Diamond Hill.  Especially after a rain, there should be crystals on these dump piles.
 
Also look for veins anywhere -- if you find a crystal vein, dig into it!  Actually, dig just to the side of it and carefully remove the crystals, otherwise you might damage the crystals.
 Also, check all of the dump piles. Recent rains often expose nice specimens.
  
For visitors that have not been to Diamond Hill before, it can be a good  idea to have a guide person to orient you around the property, and also to help you dig the native veins.  David Smith has done this many times with both groups and small private parties.  Everyone reports that he is  wonderful to interact with, and his services are well worth the cost.  If you'd like more information, you can phone him at 706-377-4428. 
    You can also contact Bryan Major (his contact info is at the bottom of the main Diamond Hill information page, which is sponsored by the Georgia Mineral Society  --  http://www.gamineral.org/commercial-diamondhill.htm.

You can also go on a virtual field trip at these two web sites:   http://www.mcrocks.com/page18.html   (scroll down to South Carolina) and  http://www.wncrocks.com/magma/fieldtrips3.htm  (scroll down to Diamond Hill)   Also, at www.dirtyrockhounds.com, go to their message boards.  At boards such as their "rock talk", "mine talk", "recent finds" -- search for threads with "Diamond Hill" in the title.  Most of these will have a lot of information, and photos, about Diamond Hill.

Check out the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of the magazine "Rocks and Minerals" for our article about Diamond Hill.
  
We sell quartz from Diamond Hill.  Specifically:

Contact us for more information on any of these minerals and products. 
 
We also sell oxalic acid, which is useful for cleaning iron and manganese stains off of Diamond Hill specimens. 
You can also see us (booth is named Oconee Minerals) at festivals and rock/gem shows in the southeastern USA.  Contact us (e-mail gailkarwoski@hotmail.com, or phone 706-769-8163) if you'd like more info about any of this.
And you can learn more about Gail (the children's book author) at: www.gailkarwoski.com.