Nellie Flint, Ohio
January 3, 2004
By Jay Loch
jay6380@yahoo.com
I was going to stay home and catalog a few pieces yesterday Jan. 3 but decided it was way to warm to stay indoors. It was drizzling on and off but I could handle that with the weather being 60 degrees outside. I called my buddy Craig Z. and asked if he was up to a little collecting? He was, then we had to decide to go for some Wurtzite at Negley or Flint at Nellie ( both in Ohio ). We decided that since time was short ( 11am ) that we would head for Nellie and get a little bit more Flint. I was mainly wanting to bring home some pieces with drusy pockets and linings for the wife to put her gem trees on.

We got to the owners house around noon and paid our $3 to collect and off we were! I forgot to take the camera with me so all I have are shots of the Flint from there. We normally only have to walk over about an acre of pasture, but they had it gated and filled with Angus so we had to park about half a mile away and walk thru the woods and ravines to get to the good stuff. Neither of us minded as the weather was nice for a long walk.

We got to the ravine where the blue is found and we started up. My daughter Kathyrn had also come along and she stuck with me while Craig went ahead of us. The only tools that I took along was my masons hammer, a 5 gallon bucket and a 4 pronged garden tool to rake leaves off and turn stones. It sure came in handy with all the leaves right now! I normally bring a shovel and try for the real large pieces but there is alot of clay there and its not pleasent when its drizzling out!

Right off the bat we started finding lots of keepers, mostly golf ball sized, but with good pattern to it. It took Kathyrn and I about two hours to catch up with Craig, who by that time already had his bucket full. Mine was only about half full when I found a real big chunk sitting on a downed tree crossing the ravine. Since Craigs bucket was already full he had set it up for me to find! I'm hoping it will be solid enough to get a couple of decent spheres out of it. It weighs 12 lbs and is 12x8x4.

Once I reached the top of the ravine it was time to carry it all back! We took a small break and listened to a flock of turkeys having a frolick on the other side of the hill. We decided that we should go thru the pasture as there was no way we were going to be able to lug a couple hundred lbs of flint back thru the woods!

Fortunatly, the cattle were more docile then we were at that point, and we were pretty whipped. We retrieved the truck and made it back home by 5 pm. All in all it was a good trip. I did'nt find as much drusy as I had hoped for, but it is harder to find there then the pattern flint.

Nellie Flint is a blue/black flint that has pockets and patterns of clear/light blue /white chalcedony in it. It takes a high polish and is sought after in this region by lapidaries. Another interesting thing about this locale is that the hilltop is pock marked with very old indian pits. Everytime I am there I stop by the biggest pit thats around 20x30 ft in diameter and about 8 ft deep and contemplate what it was like for the Indians of that time. These pits are very old, hundreds to thousands of yrs old.

Here are some of the pics of the rocks: