Hey Gang,

Me again . . . .

I spent last Saturday at the Little Pine Garnet Mine in Madison County, North Carolina. I went there to meet up with the Aiken Gem and Mineral Society of which Chrissy and I are members.

I arrived at the mine pretty early so I headed inside the mine to find a likely place to collect while I waited for the rest of the crowd to arrive.

Little Pine Garnet Mine Adit


Inward view from just inside the adit taken in 2002


Outward view taken in 2002

I banged away on a section of wall for about a half hour before my friend, Steve, showed up. He worked on one area in the mine while worked another.

About an hour later, Walt Kubilius and Jim Stoops with the Aiken Club made their way into the mine. I listened for a few minutes to Jim giving Walt the scoop on the place before chiming up to say hello to them from across the darkness. We talked for a few minutes before I asked them where the rest of their crew was. Jim told me that he, Walt and Walt's wife, Kathleen, were it! I guess that it was a bit too much of a drive for the rest of Aiken club members. We made out way out of the mine so that I could visit with Kathleen and her dog for a bit.

After chatting for a while, I made my way back to my spot in the mine and continued to work a section of wall that was producing very nice and well-formed garnets. By the end of the day, I had two half-full buckets of singles and matrix pieces.

The following are pictures of what I found on Saturday followed by a couple pictures of cleaned-up specimens that I brought home from earlier visits to the Little Pine.



One day's take



Close-up of some matrix pieces



Some of the loose crystals



Cleaned up matrix specimen from an earlier dig



Another cleaned up matrix specimen from an earlier dig

I hope that this field trip report serves as a good preview for all of you who are planning to go to the Litte Pine during the McRocks get-together event in June. There are plenty more garnets where those came from, believe me!

KOR

Mike

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