Years ago, I had been made aware of a mining district in Tennessee where a certain type of jasper suitable for lapidary could be collected. With this in mind, I searched the geologic literature for as much information as I could find about the area. Much of what I found was available online and I had to mail order publications from several sources. Besides jasper, the literature described in detail a host of minerals, including quartz, pyrolusite, psilomelane and hematite, just to name some. Whether or not any of these minerals were worthy of collecting would require finding them on the ground. So, I compiled maps and devised a game plan to visit one or more of the old mine workings. What follows is a composite field trip report of several trips Chrissy and I made to the area.

The wooded area is fairly open, except for scattered thickets of rhododenron, so off trail hiking was a breeze.

Chrissy Hiking Through Rhododendrons Creek Since much of the forest had been denuded by long-ago mining operations, the secondary forest is generally made up of widely-spaced relatively young trees. Chrissy Forest Shadows While hiking through the woods on an unusally warm 65-degree day in January 2020, we heard what we first thought were geese, but the sound wasn't quite right for them and what the heck would geese be doing in the middle of a hardwood forest? Our next thought was maybe the sound was coming from frogs; but frogs out croaking their little heads off in the middle of the winter didn't make sense - or did it? We advanced toward the sound of where I knew was a pond left behind from mining operations. Pond We soon discovered that the pond was swimming with many dozens of frogs. A spate of unusually warm weather in January 2020 must have fooled the little amphibians into thinking spring had sprung, so they were in full-throated reproductive mode. Although more seasonable frigid winter temperatures would soon put a stop to their spring-like antics, they seemed to be having a gay old time that warm day croaking away to beat the band. Lots of Frogs Frog Frog We found areas with large boulders of jasper on the forest floor discarded by miners who had been there to recover other commercially valuable materials. Chrissy amidst the boulders Amidst rocks big and small and scattered over a wide area, we found a host of excellent rock and mineral specimens as shown in the following pictures - Click on each picture to enlarge - - Click on each picture to enlarge - - Click on each picture to enlarge -

And speaking of lapidary, I made a handful of cabochons out of some of the rocks we dragged home (cabochon pictures do not enlarge).

The following is a simple prong-setting sterling silver pendant I made out of one of the cabochons

Chrissy and I are perhaps happiest and most at peace when we're together hunting rocks on a warm but not too warm day in a forest. We love the sun, we love the woods, we love the rocks and we especially love each other.

Mike & Chrissy Streeter

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