I finally got back in the creek and went gemstone hunting today! I recently visited the Hogg Mountain Mine in LaGrange, GA and had a great time, but I truly enjoy putting my camp chair in the creek, and sifting through trays of dirt!
For those who don’t know, our favorite gem hunting spot is in Cleveland, GA, at Gold ‘n Gems Grubbin’. Besides being a fun place to hunt for gemstones at the creek, this was also the place that led me to write The Gemstone Chronicles.
What I found:
Today, though, it was just brother John and me and we had a great time and had a pretty good haul of gemstones.
I know you can’t see the details in the picture above, so I will tell you that there are citrine, quartz crystal, hematite, garnets, emeralds, topaz, a couple of sapphires, one ruby, and one really purple amethyst! I have some better pictures of some of the stones.
Citrines from the trip! I wish I could have gotten a closer picture to show the points on the stones, but they were very well defined.
In this picture, there are a few garnets (note the deep red on the tip of one of the garnets), a couple of topaz, and a small emerald.
I think this is one of the best finds of the day! It is a clear quartz crystal with a few surface flaws, but the interior looks pretty clean. I might have to take this one to my friend who cuts facets for me and let him work his magic. Maybe Lana gets a new pair of earrings!! Below is another picture of the same crystal.
Lastly, I have a picture of a deep purple amethyst. This was the only deep colored amethyst I found. I found another one, but it was very pale. It had a blush of amethyst instead of the deep purple that I like. I didn’t include a photo of that stone.
So that’s it. The results of four hours of sifting through tray after tray of dirt in the creek. Pretty good day to be back in the creek!!
Have you done any collecting recently? Antiques, stamps, coins, or any other collectible (like maybe the four books of The Gemstone Chronicles)? If you have, please leave me a comment and let me know what treasure you found! I’d like to see it!
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