The renowned Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum in downtown Marion was our host. As I have stated before, the Clement contains the world's largest collection of fluorite; an untold number of specimens that would be the envy of any collector and even the Smithsonian. In addition to guided tours of the museum, the Clement conducts fee-based field trips to local fluorite mines and prospects, including the Columbia Mine and Eureka Prospect. Be sure to check the museum's web site for more information (see above link).

Knowing that there are many other McRockers who are enthusiastic about the prospect of collecting at the Eureka and Columbia and wanting to continue to support the Clement, James Johnson and I arranged to conduct a three day field trip for April 2-4, 2010. Since first-hand knowledge of current collecting conditions is necessary before I will lead a large group to any location, we contracted a track hoe operator and invited a handful of experienced rockhound friends to expose fresh rock the weekend prior to the McRocks group dig.

A total of 8 people (James Johnson, Everett Harrington, Celia Harrington, Ernie Walker, Jeff Deere, Bill Hayward, Phil Koble and Mike Streeter) were on hand for what was essentially an "exploratory" and "preparatory" machine dig. The costs for the track hoe, bulldozer, water pump and other miscellaneous equipment and services were split evenly between the participants. A machine dig of this sort can be a bit of a gamble because there is no way to guarantee we will recover anything worthwhile. But, "you can't win if you don't play" and just being in the woods rockhounding with the aid of a large machine is a hoot in itself and anything recovered was a bonus. After all, how often do most of us get to direct a monster track hoe to dig down and remove many tons of soil and rock from precisely where you point - wheeeeee! I wish I could invite everyone to one of our machine digs, but since safety is paramount, it is not a good idea to have too many rockhounds, especially children, bounding about when a large machine is running. Everyone who participated in this machine dig is highly experienced and thus familiar with the many dangers and behaved accordingly while I supervised the track hoe operations.

James and I were first (and second) to arrive just after sunrise Saturday morning. After looking around, we realized that it was a darn good thing we had decided to perform a machine dig prior to the McRocks group field trip as there appeared to be slim pickings on the surface. The prior collecting season, extending from spring to late fall, had left relatively few decent rocks on the surface, so exposing fresh material would be necessary for the McRocks group's and subsequent rockhounds' success - at least that was our plan.