We were told about a Virginia calcite collecting location by friends. We were asked to not divulge the exact spot to others because of its somewhat sensitive nature, so I won't tell you where we were. But, since the material that we found is unique and incredibly beautiful, I thought that you might enjoy reading about our experience and seeing some specimen pictures.

While I was working where we been directed, Chrissy headed off as she often does to see what she could find in the general area. After about an hour or so of heavy duty banging with no specimens to show for my effort, Chrissy stopped by to show me a couple dinged up calcite specimens that she had found exposed on the ground surface. They were pretty beat up so I didn't give it much thought at the time as she headed back to her spot to continue scratching below where she picked them up.

After another 45 minutes of fruitless labor on my part, I headed over to see what Chrissy was digging. She had found and was working an attached boulder covered with undamaged brown calcite crystals in an area completely removed from where we had been directed. OK - now she had my attention. I abandoned my spot, brought over some tools and started digging next to Chrissy and soon discovered a virtual treasure trove of calcite crystals. After about a half-hour, I realized that she had somehow managed to uncover the beginning of a very large calcite-filled pocket. Chrissy has shown over the years that she has an uncanny knack as a mineral locator – lucky me!

We recovered a huge pile of amazing specimens - at least to us. Much of the calcite is covered or included with iridescent hematite, the likes of which we have never seen before. Rather than drone on about our experience, I’ll let the following specimen pictures tell the rest of the story.