skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Today was one of those cold, raw and rainy days. Temperature never got above 34 and it is now falling into the 20’s. Arkansas is under a winter ice advisory – we only had rain but tonight may bring the ice.
We did our groceries and started to break camp since we are hoping to leave for Texas tomorrow (depending on the weather/ice).
I did some more crystal cleaning and putting away but I do have some pictures.
Isn’t it incredible what nature produces! I can’t wait to see the shine after the final cleaning.
Until tomorrow!
Our temperature this morning was 55 degrees – made us smile. So today was a take it easy day. I did the first cleaning of the crystals – I did get some nice pointed ones. I found out that they need to be washed and dried a few times, then a final in an acid bath. The crystals are surrounded by red clay and it sticks in every nook and cranny. I will get some pictures tomorrow.
We spent some time with chatting with our neighbor, Rob – he found some really nice crystals. And of course a great campfire night.
Today we went with our neighbors, Rob and Doug, to the Arrowhead Crystal Mine to dig for crystals. It is located near Mount Ida which is the Quartz Capital of the World. The mine is a working mine where they look for crystal clusters then dig out and dump the dirt. We were allowed to dig in the dirt - :-)!
Here is where the workers dig for the crystals:
Here is the mine – we were digging in the pile behind the pit:
Andy digging away (in the red plaid):
Me searching thru the dirt:
What did we find? Some beautiful quartz crystals – some clear, some milky, some white. It is amazing to see what nature produced. When I get them cleaned up, I will post some pictures.
One of the neat things is that when the sun came out, the dirt just sparkled - WOW! But it is really hard work because the soil is like red clay. We are aching tonight.
We had dinner at one of the local restaurants – Fisherman’s Cove – great steaks. No campfire tonight – very windy.
We spent most of our day today diamond hunting. We arrived on the field with all our tools, rented screens and away we went.
Here is another picture of the field:
We were told to keep the sun at our back and look and dig and wash, etc. The neat thing about this field is that on a sunny day, you can see sparkles all over. Most if not all are not diamonds but mica. (It still looked pretty cool and had us fooled for a while.)
Andy did most of the sluicing and I did most of the hunting (and we gave each other breaks).
Here is Andy sluicing:
Here I am looking through the fine stuff left after sluicing (forgive the outfit – my ears were cold and it was sunny):
So what did we find…….?
No diamonds – awwww!! But I did find jasper, clear quartz, an agate, two conglomerates, and a bone (yes, a bone – the center told me it was from a very small animal). It was a lot of fun!
We got back late afternoon, started a campfire and even cooked over it. But, for me it was a little too cold to sit out after supper. Hopefully later this week.
We woke to a cold, cloudy day in Arkansas – 33 degrees and the forecast high was to be 40 degrees with on and off rain so we decided it would be maintenance day – laundry, cleaning, chopping wood, etc.
This afternoon, however, we went to the visitor center to learn about the park and how to search for diamonds.
A little history of the park:
The first diamond was found here in 1906 by John Huddleston, who owned the property. The property did change hands several times over the years and several unsuccessful attempts have been made at commercial mining. The mine was operated by private interests as a tourist attraction from 1952 to 1972 when it was purchased by the State for development as a state park.
Over 75,000 diamonds have been found at “the Crater” an eroded volcanic pipe. Over 25,000 diamonds have been found by park visitors since 1972. In 1924, the Uncle Sam Diamond was found here – at 40.23, it was the largest diamond found in North America (and that record still stands). Averages of 600 diamonds are found each year and there are over 900 that have been found for this year alone. (Maybe we will be one of them!)
Other semi-precious stones are also found here such as amethyst, agate, jasper, quartz, calcite and barite. Hey, if we can’t find diamonds, I would love to find amethyst.
So that ends the history lesson. Here is a picture of the field:
No campfire tonight – it is a raw cold outside. So we relaxed after gathering up our equipment for tomorrow. (We will only need to rent screens.)
Stay tuned…..
