big quartz questions.

[turkeychefadam]

hey friends. just wondering if there is anywhere in nc to find really impressive big (over 5 inches) quartz. Saw some cool pics of some stuff from hiddenite. I figure there is no way im gonna get in on that though. thanks and everybody have a wonderful day

[scott]

If there were a place like that it would have been closed by now due to the environmental damage caused by all the rockhounds swarming the area. If there were a privately owned place where 5 inch quartz crystals were being found the owner either wouldn't tell anyone, or they wouldn't let anyone in. Spots like that have to be either discovered yourself, else told by some legendary rockhound in his/her dying breath. Not to say you should give up looking for a place like that, but obtaining a location like that would be incredibly fortuitous and very rare. The best place to find 5 inch quartz crystals would be Arkansas within the Ouachita Mountains. You would have to find them in the dump piles at those mines. There are several quartz crystal mines in Arkansas, but because I've never been and I wouldn't be able to tell you which were the best ones. Good luck.

Scott

[Dicky the Rockhunter]

big quartz crystal, oh I thought you ment diameter



only weighes 439 lbs. that is the claim owner in the background - RIch Fettered



to bad it has those ugly calcite spots on it.



just for giggles that came from the same area I was in yesterday , infact I was on the same claim. See other post today, did I say it is a smoky

[gonzo]

Montgomery and Randolph County has produced crystals of that size and nice clusters. They were available back in the 60's and 70's however I would think most if not all is on private property. I have a friend here at work that deer hunts out that way and has told me of lots of quartz on the leased land. I am thinking about folllowing him out one day and doing a different kind of hunting ;D. My guess is the material is still there just another lost/closed or private land location.

[robwhaley]

At the quarry in Eldorado (Montgomery Co., NC) there were 36 inch, 90 pound clear quartz crystals found in the 1960s. I saw them at the home of the mine operator (now deceased). There are still decent quartz xls to be found there, but plenty of rattlesnakes too! Around 1998 on Crow Creek, off the Uwharrie River, some gold prospectors found 18 inch crystals with very odd terminations. The longest I found is about 9 inches. I found a pocket the size of an old fashioned washtub at Shingletrap Mtn. in the 1980s. One of the clusters from it weighs about 5 lbs and has 3-4 inch crystals on it. Shingletrap could be VERY productive if we could get a group together to move some of the debris boulders that cover some untouched crystallizing veins and pockets. Because I started collecting there in 1979 when the present digging area was untouched, I have a pretty good idea of where some good stuff might still be.
Rob Whaley

[morishidol]

.

[arappaho]

Well Dang Jason, Something there must've left you speechless!

Sign me up for that Shingletrap trip, Rob. Have pry bar, will travel.
Ofcourse, 1979 was a long time ago. The mountain may have moved
since then!
BTW, A Very Happy Birthday to you, sir, And many more to come!

Joe

[lauriesrocks]

The problem is where can you NOW find large crystals or clusters in NC. With the exception of the Shingletrap Mtn. mine and some closed locations, there is not much. But in the past there have been at least two dozen NC localities that have produced large specimens, with crystals as long as 2 feet and 20 inches in diameter. If you want to find big stuff at Shingletrap, plan to spend a couple weeks of hard digging at minimum. Good luck! (I have a 20 x 20 inch cluster from NC for sale- $500.00 if anyone is interested)

[robwhaley]

Hey Laurie,
What is the location for your 20 x 20 cluster and when was it dug?
Rob Whaley

[morishidol]

well if you find them toBig ,how would you ever get it home,LOL!!!

[baehron]

Is that a real cluster or a photo-shop special?

[morishidol]

This is a real photo,the only phot shop I did was to the womans face,cause I do not like posting pics of other people on the computer with out their permission,,you think thats big you should of saw the one at the tucson show in arizona it is from the Ron coleman mine in Arkansas it was a cluster that weighed in at 12,000 pounds!!

[Basketweaverz]

I have a picture of me taken beside individual crystals as tall as me, 5'8". This was in Austria and was underground in a salt mine near Bergstagaden (Hitler's Eagles Nest). For a rockhound, that was more interesting than Hitler history!!!

[leonardo]

That one looks like calcite....there is one in Murphy's Ca. that big with leaf and wire gold in it.I have a piece of it in my collection that came out of the mine where it was found.

Leonard

[lauriesrocks]

Rob, my cluster was dug at the Rougemont Quarrry about 20 years ago. And Ron Coleman is wrong. There were specimens 3 times that size dug at the Puiva Mine in the Polar Urals, Russia.

[baehron]

Though I love specimens of any size, it's hard not to be impressed and awed by x-tals of such size. Thanks for the photos.

[travelafar]

I've got some North Carolina mined Quartz clusters I've been selling recently!