HACKNEY FARM is a world class site for Staurolite (Fairy crosses) which is the Georgia state mineral.  Ann Williams, the remaining owner, has decided to carry on her family's tradition of allowing "rockhounds" on the property for fee collecting.  She has made a few improvements on the farm to make it easier for us to collect Staurolite.  There are now ditches in place but you will still need to dig deeper to get into the specimen material.    If you don't like to do a lot of digging, you can just sit in the shade of a tree on an overturned 5 gallon bucket and screen the creek for crystals.  The crystals at Hackney Farm are mostly small and some are almost perfect.  Most of  this material is in the form of single prismatic blades, twinned crystals inter grown at 90º and occasionally Maltese crosses.  You may also occasionally find hornblende, diorite and gold ore.   In fact, Ann Williams' father was known to carry a small gold nugget in his pocket to show rockhounds why his father purchased the property in the first place.

FEE:  
You should make arrangements with the property owner, Ann Williams, before arrival!  Call Ann William's phone number - (706) 492-5030 or email her - jahw@bellsouth.net. 

There is a $10.00 fee per adult and a $2.00 fee per child twelve years or younger requested the the property owner.  This site is suitable for children and is a perfect place for a picnic.   The fees charged for club trips or large groups may be less and should be set at the time you schedule your visit to her farm.

BRING: 
You will need to bring a shovel and pick for digging in the new trenches, a bucket or two to hold specimen dirt, wire screens of ½ inch and ¼  inch to take to the stream to wash your bucket material, and  ziplocks™ for your specimen finds.  You can forget the digging and just screen the stream material.  I've had great luck with this  method in the past.  You may even want to take a few buckets of specimen dirt home to process later!  Don't  forget your food and drinks for a picnic. 

DIRECTIONS:   To get to  Blue Ridge, Ga. from Atlanta, take I-75 north to I-575.  Follow the four lanes as it turns into SR 5 at Nelson and US 76(SR 5, SR 515) at East Ellijay.  Continue on towards Blue Ridge, GA.  Turn left onto Bullens Gap just before the town of Blue Ridge.  Follow Bullens Gap road and make a right on Sunrise road.  Drive down the hill and make your next right on Sowers road.  In about 3/10 of a mile and as you make a sweeping curve to the left, turn right onto the gravel road with gate that leads to Hackney farm.  Stop and check-in at the old cabin at the end of this road before proceeding to the collecting site down by the stream (see pictures).