Vulcan Morganton Quarry

Dixie Mineral Council Field Trip
Vulcan Materials Morganton Quarry
Burke County, North Carolina
June 10, 2006
Report by Mike Streeter
mcstreeter@charter.net
Photos by Bill Williams

Chrissy and I attended a field trip to the Vulcan Materials Vulcan Quarry that was sponsored by the Dixie Mineral Council (DMC) of the Southeast Federation of Mineralogical Societies and hosted by the Forsyth County Gem and Mineral Club. The field trip was also an official field trip of the Southern Appalachian Mineral Society and was scheduled from 8:00 AM until noon. Rockhounds from North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and as far away as Florida showed up for the event. Jim Stroud, who is a Vulcan geologist and Forsyth club officer, was our able field trip leader. After a brief mandatory safety meeting in front of the office, we caravaned to a lower bench of the quarry where we parked. We were free to collect just about anywhere we wanted, but were cautioned to stay clear of the high walls because of the potential for falling rock.

Morganton Quarry rockhounding pretty much involves surface collecting and boulder busting. While those of us with big hammers and sledges went about making big rocks smaller, others simply roamed the jagged boulder piles looking for specimens that had already been broken into manageable pieces by mining activities.

The following pictures show some of the terrific specimens that were recovered by the group.

With the end of the morning starting to loom, my good buddy Bill Hayward and I took turns swinging his 16-lb. sledge. We were attempting to recover what appeared to be a decent specimen of siderite, biotite and quartz, except that it just happened to be attached to a boulder that weighed at least a ton. I was banging away when a cabinet-size piece of rock broke loose. When Bill turned the rock over, we were both amazed to see what appeared to be a cluster of clear quartz crystals with a coating of some type of granular green mineral. This assemblage of crystals had formed in a vug adjacent to a milky quartz vein. It wasn't until I got the specimen home, cleaned it up and inspected it more closely with my reading glasses and a loop did I realize that the clear crystals were actually striated calcite with a coating of what is most likely some type of dark green zeolite. Cool beans!!!

photo by Mike Streeter
photo by Mike Streeter

Many thanks to Jim Stroud, Vulcan Materials, the Forsyth club and DMC for making such a great morning of rockhounding possible.

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