We made it to the Mountain at around 8:00 AM Sunday. I was a bit
stiff but not crippled as I had feared I might be after ignoring my neck and back the previous day.
Knowing that Ron and Faye didn't have much success on Saturday, I asked Ron if he would like to
help me dig out my hole. After helping Faye set up some tables near the entrance to sell some of
their rocks, Ron joined me at my spot where I had already begun tearing down the wall. After a
couple hours of digging, we finally got down to where I had left off the day before. Our
hope that the pocket continued further into the wall was soon dashed as it completely pinched
off. Only slightly deterred and still optimistic, we followed the vein in search of the next big
pocket. Within a short time, we managed to find a small pocket. Although not nearly as large
as the previous pocket, this newer one contained a fair amount of excellent material that was
good enough to satisfy Ron. When this pocket closed off, we decided to call it an early day. Just
as we were starting to wrap our stuff, Chrissy showed up to help out. It was just around noon
when we made our way back out for lunch and to visit with friends.
Sunday morning, while Ron and I were digging in the east pit, Chrissy scratched
around in the west pit in her never ending quest to find rutile. She discovered a large rock made
up of mostly fine-grained pyrophyllite and mica with small rutile crystals. Chrissy transported
the rock back by golf cart and left it in the care of Charlie and Greg while she headed back to see
what Ron and I were up to. It was her plan to have me break up the rock to see if there were more
and larger rutile crystals inside when I got back from what I was doing. The rock ended up
producing a number of specimens containing rutile crystals from micro up to around 3/4-inch wide.
Click on each specimen picture to enlarge
After having another great lunch and visiting for a while, we bid farewell to everyone and
headed for home. We had spent another great weekend at the Mountain and looked forward to the next
event in April 2006!
Many thanks to Melissa and Junior Norman and for hosting the Graves Mountain
Rockswap and Digs! We appreciate the incredible amount of dedication and hard work required by
them and their family and friends to make each event better than the last.
Junior and Melissa Norman
CLICK THE LITTLE MINER TO RETURN TO THE FIELD TRIP PAGE