A new Rockhound is born in Hickory!

[tracey]

Thanks to some encouragement in another thread I checked out a construction site in Hickory.

I purposely wore inappropriate clothes and did not bring tools, I had a report to finish this morning and really had no time for digging.

But I just had to look and of course found a few things to pick up off the surface. I think Hickory is at least half made out of quartz, its every where, but mostly nothing too special.
Just as I was leaving a glint caught my eye and I picked up this funny little darkish rock.

After some cleaning this is what I have so far.

Does amethyst happen like this? It's not a spectacular find but enough for me to really want to look around some more.

Plus there were blackberry bushes.

maps.google.com/maps?q=1451%208th%20Street%20Drive,%20Hickory,%20NC%2028601

if that link works the A is Stanford Park (1451 8th Street Drive) which is right across the street from where I was. You can also see that this is not far from Tate Blvd and where the RR tracks run along Highland Ave.

Going back Saturday morning with my daughter, at the very worst we will get some tasty blackberries!

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[41dave]

Congrats on your first construction site find!
It is a partially oxidized almandine garnet.

-Dave

[tracey]

Finally got that work report out, so I had time to look at a few other rocks picked from the surface. Again nothing spectacular, but several with that nice glossy crystal surface!. One looks like it might have been a double terminated floater at one time (hope I'm starting to get the lingo right).

Walking around I didn't find anything that looked like an exposed vein that screamed DIG HERE. In that case do you just pick a spot and start a hole? any tips greatly appreciated. Or better yet come out and join me tomorrow. Wish I could spend the entire day, sadly the inlaws are coming, probably only there from about 8:30 till 10:30am.

Thanks for the ID help Dave, there is so much to learn!

[CrossfireBusiness]

Nice find ! Theres alot more to be found out there !!

[arappaho]

Nice find! The rock bug bites again!

Well, Tracey, since you're a little new to the sport let me let you know
that there is a Rockhound Outlaw By-Law concerning In-Laws that
specifically states that In-Law visitation SHALL NOT supersede
rockhounding activities without the consent of said rockhound.

Ya kno, there's a lot of reverse psychology used rockhounding.
You think you are out there looking for something special and
you're really just looking at and learning about what's there. After
your eye gets used to seeing what's there, it's easier to spot
things that look different or out of place. Each time you go out
you're learning something new.

Sometimes you'll find nice finds on the surface. There's nothing
wrong with that. And sometimes you want to look just beneath
the surface, so a trowel or pick hammer is helpful. Lots of times
at construction sites if you see it on the surface it may have come
from close by.
Look at the "Old Red Clay of Home" post a little further down in
this section. The first pics are of Scott digging down from the
surface. The quartz vein was visible to him to tell him where to
start poking around. The last pics of that post are of a vein I
found in a wall. Notice the layer of rain washed red clay that is
coating the whole wall. This is common. I take a trowel and poke
through this layer until I hear or feel something hard like quartz.
Then the layer is easily removed to see what's there. It usually
will just fall off the wall.

The best thing to do is just go out and walk around and see what's
there.
Hope some of this helps. Happy Hunting,
Joe

[tracey]

Thanks Joe,

The inlaws did not curtail all rock activity, I mostly cleaned what I found in the morning. I will look over that Old Red Clay thread some more, I think I have some already

That's basically what I did, scraped wash off an exposed wall area, no vein found yet but there is more to explore. Also my mom stopped by and found a very mica-y spot on the ground, so I started scraping around there. Once I was down on the ground I spotted two faces of this peeking out of a washout bed!

It's small (excuse the bottle cap for a size reference, the inlaws had just left and that was what was handy) and both ends have been broken off, BUT it is the first thing I've ever found with six sides!

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[tracey]

and this micro mini

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[tracey]

and this one found by my own rockpup (6 1/2) it didn't photo well, those flat surfaces are all smooth faces with sharp angles, more interesting in person.

This site is very close to my home so I plan to visit when I can, but there are so many others too!

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[romare]

Tracey,

I'm really close to Hickory over in Alexander County. I was gonna come over and give you a hand Saturday but couldn't make it. I have found some really nice specimens in that area and looked at the site across from the rec when it was first graded a few years ago. I have collected at a lot of construction sites in the Unifour, and as Dave or someone said it is usually allowed if you talk to the right person and maybe bring a cold sixpack for the grading crew for day's end! You just have to get a feel for folks. A couple of local companies have pretty strict no trespass rules, one of which is predicated on two of the principals in the company being collectors.

I'll be happy to come out and look with you sometime as schedule permits and show you some things I've collected from here. There are some great veins running through the county SW-NE, especially from the Tate area east and north. More toward Newton, Claremont and the Springs Road/Sipe road area. Just keep looking for new grades. At times I have seen upwards of a dozen folks collecting on some of the Tate Blvd. sites at once, some of whom I had never seen before. The newest building that went in right on Tate (north side) had a great looking vein next to the Blvd. but I was gone during most of that job so missed out on checking it.

Mark

[tracey]

Mark, I thought it looked like someone had worked that back wall a bit. I need to dive up and down Tate a bit more!

I'm actually going to stop by tomorrow morning, I went over a bit tonight and "think" I have found a quartz vein to follow. Sounds like it's going to get really hot this week and tomorrow looks like the coolest morning.

[tracey]

I may be addicted to digging, like runners get with running, my back and shoulders feel tired and sore and powerful all at the same time.

No big finds yet, can't seem to find the magic spot but I'll keep at it!

[scott]

Well you certainly have the right spirit. As long as you keep at it you'll eventually find something nice. Since you are in a good area I can't imagine that it will be too long before that happens.

Yes, the addiction is strong and possibly unbreakable, but then why would you want to break an addiction to a hobby that cost no money to do, gets you outside, provides exercise for health, and then potentially adds some beautiful specimens to your collection.

Scott

[tracey]

Scott, thanks for the encouragement.

I have a question for Scott, and anyone else - I've gotten better at locating a vein of quarts but so far it's just that chunky fractured up stuff. If digging a vein like that does it sometimes ever become more crystallized? And if that is a possibility is it more likely to be deeper into the vein or following it out in either direction?

[scott]

Jul 14, 2010 5:54:58 GMT -5 tracey said:

Scott, thanks for the encouragement.

I have a question for Scott, and anyone else - I've gotten better at locating a vein of quarts but so far it's just that chunky fractured up stuff. If digging a vein like that does it sometimes ever become more crystallized? And if that is a possibility is it more likely to be deeper into the vein or following it out in either direction?

Tracey,

This can be an easy or a difficult question to answer. The majority if not all the areas where we dig into veins with the expectation of finding crystals here in Wake County, we have already found evidence of crystallization. This evidence is usually found directly on the exposed vein itself or in the form of crystal surface finds in the proximity. Now, the skill of spotting the "evidence" is something that needs to be honed and developed. Eventually you'll be able to be pretty confident that a particular quartz vein is or isn't likely to produce something. The absolute best thing you could do is see for yourself. Nothing beats personal experience. You'll always learn something from doing it yourself that you can't learn vicariously or otherwise. Look for the evidence first as it may save you some time. Then, dig into those veins and follow them in all directions so that you can prove to yourself that something is or isn't there. When you pull out sections of a vein that doesn't produce anything then you'll learn to recognize veins that will likely not produce anything. Likewise, when you get the opportunity to work on a vein that does produce something you will learn to recognize signs of veins that will likely produce. But then there is a third case. This case is when there is a vein where all your experience tells you that nothing will come from it yet a bit of digging reveals awesome crystals within it. Although it would make it a lot easier if everything looked like the drawings in the textbooks, in reality it seldom follows those guidlines. The more you dig the more you will learn and nothing beats that real experience. Continue to explore, look for evidence, dig, rinse and repeat.

P.S. Evidence within a vein includes small vugs with druzy crystals, even very tiny vugs. Vugs are usually included with clay so you'll have to clean them out to spot the crystals. Where there are tiny crystals there is likely larger crystals too.

Scott

[tracey]

Thanks! I figured, dig, dig, dig. I think I've lost 5lbs. wouldn't mind another 10! dig, dig, dig

[tracey]

my first really, really dug it up from the ground find! it's so tiny, perfect little point!

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[41dave]

sweet! now....chase! chase! chase! dig! dig! dig!

[earthnhands]

yeah! good for you! it is such a thrill! it doesn't always matter what you found; it matters that you found it and dug it up...hopefully without damage.
now i need to go find that feeling! thanks for sharing.
rebecca

[romare]

Congratulations Tracey. Now you really, really have it bad...

Mark

[colorshapetexture]

Nice point Tracey. Congrats. Got herself in a dirtyrockhound hole.
And she likes it... lol Dig girl. Dig!.........Jim

[tracey]

Thanks all! it is a thrill and there is definitely more to chase when time allows.

"Got herself in a dirtyrockhound hole." oh the size of that dirty hole????for just a tiny little crystal. Luckily it's an undeveloped commercial lot that is not likely to be developed anytime soon, so I hope I have time to chase and then backfill when I feel done.

[arappaho]

Congratulations, Tracey! That's a pretty little thing.
Nice job on the picture, too.
I see lots of fissures in your future.
Joe

[scott]

Now that you have located a spot that is producing crystals. Take pictures of the vein you are working on. Take pictures of the crystals before they come out of the ground. Take pictures of everything. The more you record this stuff and have a reference to go back to, the more your brain will absorb all the subtleties -- things you may not even realize. And then when your out in the field your subconcious can help you find the best place to dig sometimes.

[tracey]

Big thrills for the newbie! water clear quartz crystals found with my daughter by my side!


this one is the one on the right side of the quarter

this one is the one left of the quarter

I call these my micro minis, the pic doesn't do them justice, so tiny, so perfect!

more small but sweet, I'm going to post a few more of that one left of the quarter, its very flat

[tracey]

Just a few more


a shot of the skinny side of the flat one left of the quarter from the last post

and the larger side, so it has 2 large flat sides and 4 really small sides, is there a name for this type?

my best buddy!

a shot of the neighboring "dirt". The crystals came out of straight red clay but the area all around the vein I've been working tends to be these wildly colorful layers and mostly very crumbly

[tracey]

Oh, I almost forgot about 2 groups attached to mica

the 2 points that look like they might be attached to each other are actually free standing, there are 2 other tiny little points that cant be seen

2 shots of the next one, the "larger" crystal looks to me like it is really 2 crystals that grew together, not sure if that comes across in the photos

[41dave]

Sweet! Although small those little guys are pristine and clear lasers!
Nice finds!

The dirt looks really promising. Scott had mentioned taking a log of what you see so that you can apply that knowledge to future digs. The 2 things I would take from your photos are the following.

The drastic contrast in clay color....that red to white/tan/yellow.

The 2nd is the mica. Granted its not going to be true 100% of the time. sometimes you'll have quartz with no mica, sometimes youll have quartz and mica and no crystals...its a case by case....

but sometimes you can apply it, Scott has been mentioning at 1 or 2 of our old sites that if you see mica, follow it, there is a 100% guarantee there will be crystal faces, might not ever get to complete crystals, but atleast its faces.

Very cool finds! Glad the youngster is enjoying it!

-Dave

[41dave]

p.s.

you guys/gals going to make it to the roundup this wknd? If so bring your finds!

-Dave

[tracey]

Thanks! I'm thrilled with my little beauties
I'll be at Crabtree tomorrow! But bringing Dad instead of the kid. I'll be bringing a mystery rock I can't id that doesn't photo well. Hope to meet you and many others.