Children are welcome.
Pets are OK but the owner has pit bull dogs which are very friendly to people - ?pets, I'm not so sure about? 

Location:  This is a world class site for staurolite (fairy crosses and the Georgia state mineral)!  Steve Hackney has made a few improvements to the digging area on the farm to make it easier for us to collect here.  Last year, he cleared and bulldozed the old trenches by the creek and dug new trenches.  Now you can either dig in the new trench area or make your own holes someplace else.  So far, the foot of the hill seems to be the digging spot of choice.  I, for one, like to 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 small and almost perfect.  Most of this material is in the form of single prismatic blades (over 60%), twinned crystals inter-grown at 60º (over 30%), twinned crystals inter-grown at 90º (3 to 4%) and occasionally Maltese crosses (under 3%) and "multi-twins" (rare).  You may also  find hornblende, diorite and gold ore.  On our trip here last year, several people panned the stream and found some small gold flakes!

Meet at:  We will be meeting at 9:30 AM in the theater parking lot located behind McDonalds at the junction of SR 515/76 and SR 5 in Blue Ridge, Ga. 

Minerals found: There is plenty of staurolite (Fairy crosses) here.  (Single prismatic blades, twinned crystals inter grown at 60º and 90º, and occasionally Maltese crosses)  You may also occasionally find hornblende, diorite and gold ore. 

Tools:  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!  Gold pan if you want to work the stream for gold.  Don't forget your food and drinks. 

Cost: $10.00 fee per carload.  A Georgia Mineral Society host will be collecting this fee and issuing a "parking pass" at the movie theater meeting location.  Please bring the exact dollar amount!

Directions:  We will be meeting at 9:30 AM in the theater parking lot located behind McDonalds at the junction of SR 515/76 and SR 5 in Blue Ridge, Ga.  To get there 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.  Turn left onto SR 5 at the Blue Ridge McDonalds and then right into the theater parking lot.  Total distance is 74 miles from I-75/I-575 and total driving time will be about 1:25 hours