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Post by Ryan on Dec 18, 2010 3:20:33 GMT -5
Ehhhh poop, I dont have any sales calls in your neck-o-the-woods until the second week of January. Ill be near greensboro, then down towards gastonia and shelby. If the weather gets warm for some reason, Ill holler out when Im heading down. Theres always the Ray!
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Post by writerman2255 on Dec 18, 2010 18:54:22 GMT -5
Thanks, Ryan. Just let us all know. I'm raring to go. But only if it gets over 40 degrees, or somewhere around that. Shouldn't be that hard. T.
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Post by writerman2255 on Feb 2, 2011 14:01:40 GMT -5
Okay, couldn't stand looking at these four walls anymore, had to go up to my beloved Tree! Don't go right now unless you have 4WD because going back up the hill, there's still ice on the road and it's thick. But the good news is, the winter has pounded the heck out of the ground, stuff has washed away and collapsed everywhere, and there's green showing all over the place. All I did was surface collect. This first big piece is about four pounds or more with each emerald about 3/4 of an inch, and a quarter inch wide, and it just fell out from a pile right by the truck. The second piece (the one with all the crystals in it) is about an inch by an inch, but the emeralds in it are so pretty and deep green in person. There were also a lot of crystals just sticking up out of the ground today. Enjoy!
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Post by lee on Feb 2, 2011 17:36:30 GMT -5
Tom:
Even in the winter you keep the Crabtree producing. Good finds and pretty emeralds.
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Post by Ryan on Mar 12, 2011 18:46:26 GMT -5
It was cold on that mountain. My camera didnt pick up the snowflakes the size of quarters that fell all around me Thursday at the Crabtree. It did however pick up the dreary miserable day that I had to collect on. For me, it was either Thursday or No day. Living 8 hours away doesnt permit me being picky about my WNC collecting missions. Swingin' hammer and splittin' boulder, soaking wet, in driving rain/snow, in 40 degree weather, with a gusty wind only 3000 feet of evelvation can provide is QUITE miserable. Nonetheles, I had one of the absolute BEST collecting trips of my Rockhound carreer. For those who havn't been to the Crabtree,...GO! For those who are regulars, here are my finds: We all know the schorl tourmaline here is plentiful, so I grabbed a few just to have a complete showing of the locations’ treasures. Next, I did quite well with the golden and pale green beryl. Most are small but quite pleasant to look at. The little golden one is really well formed. I love beryl. Here's a little chunk riddled with slim little beryl crystals. Theyre quite pale in color so I added some arrows. There are 5 showing in this pic and there are more on the back. These are some tiny guys. I separated these because they are small and the one has an orangy color which I quite like. I do not think it is rust stain because It broke when I was trying to cob it and the broken edge was orange despite not being subject to weathering over the millenia. Now on to the GREEN! These are some micro-emeralds. There was a debate a while back on this board concerning the chromophore of the beryl at Crabtree and whether or not certain specimins were true emeralds colored by chromium -OR- were gemmy green common beryl colored by Fe+2 or +3. The front crystal, while ridiculously tiny, has a green to it SO intense I almost HAVE to believe it is a true emerald. The one to the right of it, though larger, has less blue hue and more yellow which makes me think it is green gemmy common beryl. Perhaps this pic will serve as a good comparison between the two. I am pretty sure I hurt my right eye staring at this beauty through my 10x loupe for too long. ;D Last but CERTAINLY not least, is my favorite specimin. A bearded gentleman I ran into at the mine was very kind and took a moment of his time to educate a Crabtree newbie like myself. He showed me the contact zone between the biotite and the feldspar/quartz matrix and instructed me to take some home, soak it, and peel back the biotite where I saw "bubbles" in the mica coating. I grabbed at least 12-15 nice baseball to football sized chunks of this contact rock and took it home. I did as I was instructed and soaked it. (Time passes) Today, I was getting impatient and decided to go check on my soaking rocks. I pulled a worthy candidate out and began to poke at it with my dental pick. Lo and Behold, I saw a gemmy area...hmmm...it looks green!! I went about scraping and chipping and so far have revealed this: So far I see two big gemmy green hexagons and one smaller deep green hex beside the central large one. The color zoning on the more complete outer hex leads me to believe these are just really gemmy beryl, but Im surely no professional. I would like it if some Crabtree experts would weigh in on this. There are several more "lumpy" areas on this bad boy and it is currently soaking to loosen more mica. If it produces any more beryl/emeralds Ill re-shoot it and post it. I am so happy to have such a beautiful piece from this prolific and historic site! What has me even more pumped up is the fact I have a ton more to look through! Thank You Steve, sincerely, for your help and time educating me! Thanks to your entourage of "well known" experts as well. You guys kick Arse!! ;D ;D Here's a final shot of the "emeralds" in my big chunk. Comments welcome. The more I can learn the better. Thanks for reading! I know I have the habit of writing long posts. Happy hunting All! This was a hell of a way to start out my 2011 rockhounding year!!
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Post by stevebarr on Mar 12, 2011 19:48:36 GMT -5
You did good, Newbie! I believe that last find behooves us to bestow the honorary title of "True Rockhound" upon you. Sweet specimen. I bet there are more crystals lurking beneath that black coating. Keep poking at it (gently!).
I've read elsewhere that "the Crabtree Mine is no longer worth visiting". Finds like this make that kind of statement sound just a little bit ridiculous, don't they? I don't know of anywhere else in the Continental U.S.A. where the public can access a site and have a chance to find something like this. You did good. Well worth braving a little snow and cold weather, wasn't it?
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Post by Ryan on Mar 12, 2011 21:19:36 GMT -5
Whoever said that is sadly misinformed. Even if you dont find an emerald, theres still a ton of other stuff worth looking at there. I found gemmy garnets in sparkly sandy feldspar/quartz, more schorl than anyone could possibly want, more beryl in 3-4 hours than Ive found in the last 2 years, and the history there makes it feel like youre someplace really special. Im also thinking I got a lot more beryl to uncover. Ive only been through about 10-20% of what I brought home. Im being really thorough, dont want to miss or overlook one of those gemmy emeralds!
Im hooked.
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Post by Barrett on Mar 12, 2011 21:39:19 GMT -5
Some nice stuff there, Ryan! That bottom middle one is classic emerald color and a good find. Great post with good pics! Well done!
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Post by arappaho on Mar 13, 2011 8:39:51 GMT -5
Yeah Ryan, thanks for the report. Good job and nice finds! That one little piece of emerald is SWEET looking! I like the orange one, too. I believe you are all ready aware of this, but a word of caution; The Crabtree can be highly addictive! Joe
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Post by Ryan on Mar 13, 2011 20:32:28 GMT -5
*scratch scratch* *twitch* WHATTYA MEAN MAN!?! I dont NEED the Crabtree!! I just..er...like the way it tastes!! *twitch* I can stop whenever I want!! And Im sweating because its HOT in here! ...........Anyone got a spare emerald???
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Post by mitch on Mar 13, 2011 20:37:02 GMT -5
Super cool Ryan!! I have to get up to the tree soon. When you gonna be back down this way, maybe we can get together for a tree dig.
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Post by Ryan on Mar 14, 2011 2:43:17 GMT -5
End of March as of right now, Mitch. Ill PM you when I know for sure. All joking aside, I can see how one would get hooked on that place. I know Id go back again.
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Post by rocksmarsandstars on Apr 9, 2011 13:19:47 GMT -5
I can tell you-they're here! I'm guessing the surface collecting's going to be sweet here in about 15 mins...all 3 of us have had cool emerald/golden beryl(?)/shorl/smoky goodies so far...I'm working a hole into the tailings about 20' from the entrance, in a depression already there. I loves me some 'tree! Attachments:
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Post by rocksmarsandstars on Apr 9, 2011 13:20:47 GMT -5
um...the attachment should read 'crabtree'-d'oh!
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Post by andyeatsrocks on Apr 10, 2011 16:46:16 GMT -5
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Post by Ryan on Apr 11, 2011 15:54:38 GMT -5
Nice Emerald!!! Is that a small broken colombite on the bottom left of pic #3 or schorl?
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Post by andyeatsrocks on Apr 11, 2011 17:10:53 GMT -5
Ryan, I believe it to be schorl
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Post by andyeatsrocks on Apr 11, 2011 19:34:35 GMT -5
Thanks Rick. I will try to make the dig, that mine keeps on calling me back. I wish I could get the use of an ROV to go down and poke around
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Post by Ryan on Apr 27, 2011 0:58:51 GMT -5
Hi all! Had a great time last Saturday with some club members at the Tree! I saw an impressive emerald with one member. It was quite large and deeeeeep green. I didnt have that kind of luck this day but I did hit into a lot of beryl. These beryl were quite translucent as well. I tried to take pics that show the beryl in normal light and then with light passing through the crystal. Theres always something good to be had at the Crabtree it seems! This is my favorite from the day shot from two angles in two different lights. sharp yellow green beryl in pegmatite: Keep your eyes peeled for the green hexes! Three nice translucent beryls: Another: And another: Thanks for lookin!
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Post by Barrett on Apr 27, 2011 8:56:31 GMT -5
Ryan, those do have some good translucency. Well done!
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Post by CrossfireBusiness on Apr 27, 2011 12:13:19 GMT -5
sweet!
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Post by racermon on May 1, 2011 19:37:05 GMT -5
what s your favorite area at the crabtree?
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Post by Ryan on May 2, 2011 2:01:54 GMT -5
Hmmmmm... If I told you that.... Youd find all MY beryls... LOL... Behind the truck... Good spot. Also, go down the hill and look there. Less people go down that far.. Less picked over. BTW, Im a rock whacker. I almost always work by splitting boulders and rocks. I get bored screening gravel. I find most of my beryl in the middle of rocks that show no outward signs of beryl. I just learned to "let the rocks tell me" if they contain beryl. I have four distinct types of pegmatite identified in my head at the Tree and they have different beryl containing properties. Theres the hard white, the crumbly off-white, the sandy white w garnets and the biotite contact quartzy. I look in the second and fourth the most. Thats just me though. Others might think Im weird or have no idea what Im talking about...but I am posting beryl pics, aint I.
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Post by mitch on May 2, 2011 11:33:56 GMT -5
Ryan, I haven't been to Crabtree yet but am dying to get up there. I have found the same method works at the Ray. Some of my best specimens have come from pegs that have nothing showing on the outside. I have learned which rocks have the best prospect for beryl just by the way it looks.
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Post by writerman2255 on May 2, 2011 20:11:19 GMT -5
Hello! I went up the The Tree today, very early, and settled in to a particular area, and lo and behold, I found more there than at any spot I have ever been at! I found the flourite shown, along with the huge boulder shown with a two inch, bigger than my thumb beryl sticking out of it, along with more "in the matrix" specimens I can cab into pendants than I have ever found at any time. I had to make four trips back up to the top, one for the tools, one for the specimens in my bucket, and two more for those huge rocks I found, the one shown, and another filled with emeralds. I found over forty separate in the matrix pieces, and there's no telling how many more are there. Funny thing is, they were all only two to four feet under the surface, not that hard a dig! That beryl specimen weighs over 60 pounds, and the emerald specimen weighs over 65 pounds. Whew! As usual the disclaimer is that my photography skills do not show the emeralds the bright green they really are, and some of the specimens have emeralds all the way around them, and inside of them too. I have never found so many at one time, ever.
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Post by writerman2255 on May 2, 2011 20:19:29 GMT -5
Here's the flourite. Had to resize it. Should have done that with the others, but that's life, you are always learning something. At least, it seems I am! Enjoy!
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Post by writerman2255 on May 3, 2011 9:25:38 GMT -5
Okay, here's two more. One, of emeralds in matrix, and the other with emeralds in matrix and flourite on top. I love the emerald/flourite combination! Enjoy. Tom.
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Post by writerman2255 on May 4, 2011 12:21:24 GMT -5
Okay, here's a better picture of the beryl in matrix I found, which has two inch thick biotite up top, with small, very green emeralds all throughout it. This beryl is golden at the bottom, and very clear, much better than the pic. shows. What shows here is 3 1/2 inch. with maybe a half inch more in the stone. Enjoy!
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Post by Dicky the Rockhunter on May 4, 2011 16:19:05 GMT -5
are you realy that good at finding emerald or is someone salting for you? Just joking nice specimen, wish some of that was out here!
Dicky
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Post by HeadieRocks on May 25, 2011 17:24:34 GMT -5
Tom, you definately have to have the best collection of Crabtree material out there. Your finds never cease to amaze me. Thanks for all the pics over the past few years
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