Beryl - Crabtree Emerald Mine, Spruce Pine District, Mitchell Co., North Carolina

[TheOculus]

Beryl in matrix of Feldspar, Quartz, Biotite & Dravite-Schorl Tourmaline



Removing layers of Biotite Mica revealed several translucent Emerald crystals on this large cabinet specimen.



Beryl crystal extracted from its host. A frosty exterior covers a gemmy interior.







I will continue to add photos to this post as I gather them! Thanks for looking!

 

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[Jim in Idaho]

REALLY nice specimens! I enjoyed looking at them.
Jim

 

[TheOculus]

Thanks Jim! I have a lot of photos of Crabtree specimens I'll have to post.

 

[Slingshot]

Nice specimens! My family used to attend the Spruce Pines Gem and Mineral show every year back in the 60's - 70's and they would have a one day field trip over to the Crabtree mine. I found some nice apatite crystals and lots of small emeralds embedded in matrix over those years. They had a trading section in the earlier years and it was a great way to trade for samples I didn't have, but that was phased out as the show became more commercialized. We would camp at Blackrock Mountain, hazy summer days long gone but lots of great memories - and we used to get 3 months out of school back then, Memorial Day through Labor Day - what the heck happened?

 

[TheOculus]

Thanks for that info Slingshot. I wasn't really aware of the trading section you mention. I only started digging there 2 years ago and I've been three times. It's nice to hear such stories, especially of historic mining areas like Spruce Pine. The Apatite crystals are few and far between these days.

 

[TheOculus]

Removing some Mica and exposing some nice, terminated Dravite Tourmaline crystals.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Nice ones! I like the yellow one, fantastic color!

 

[Goldspeed]

Very nice!! I'll have to share my finds from Crabtree. I went back in the spring and found some pretty amazing pieces including a twin beryl crystal. Crabtree has potential to still produce a lot of emeralds. They just need to be found. I can't believe they used to just dump the good stuff like they did. When I went I took four five gallon buckets dug really deep and filled em up and took em home and sifted through the dirt with my gem screen. I went through each bucket about three times before I had found everything. There are some very small emeralds that are easy to miss.

 

[Goldspeed]

Here's some of my Crabtree finds.

 

[Molewacker]

Yummy photos! thanks for sharing -

 

[TheOculus]

Sweet! Thank you for sharing Goldspeed!

 

[Goldspeed]

I have tons of larger rocks covered in the black mica. Any idea in how to remove it to reveal what's underneath? I've tried soft wire brushes soaking and drying soaking and drying. It's really pesky.

 

[TheOculus]

I use steel picks, exacto knives and small, diamond tipped files.

 

[ncnurseryman]

Nice finds. We went on a machine dig in hiddenite, NC yesterday. Worked a large quartz vein but didn't find any crystals.

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[Goldspeed]

Nc nursery man a machine dig in hiddenite? That's my favorite place to go digging. Except I've only gotten to go to emerald hollow. I've found some nice quartz but no crystals there. I did find a giant aquamarine crystal in the creek it was attached to a giant boulder under water. It was a huge tease as you're not allowed metal tools and all I could do was look at it.

 

[TheOculus]

ncnurseryman

Did you participate in a Gemfinding dig at one of the prospects? M.A.G.M.A.'s Sharpes Emerald Prospect? Something more private?

 

[Goldspeed]

No it was the infamous tourist trap there in hiddenite. I've heard of sharpes prospect and I really need to look into joining magma. My hobby has developed into a passion. I'm still fairly new and have been rockhounding for about three years.

 

[TheOculus]

There is a guy who has a marked off area at Emerald Hollow who is digging up amazing, local material. Quartz scepters & some of the best Rutile I've ever seen out of Hiddenite.

 

[ncnurseryman]

Oculus. This was a private dig by a guy trying to get in the business. Charged 100.00 per person for ten people. Other people there who have been on machine dig in other places said this is the going rate. Problem is this guy didn't know what he was doing, wasted a lot of time and didn't produce squat. Everyone was mad and felt ripped off. I won't go out with him again and I doubt he'll be in business long.

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[Goldspeed]

Oculus it is probable john siefke. If I'm spelling that correctly. He has a section on their website and I read an article on him. I've seen him there. He is an extremely dedicated rockhound to emerald hollow. He's found some amazing materials there. I enjoy going to emerald hollow just because after hours of digging it's amazing to go walk in the creek and just enjoy the nature and glance about. Of course it's full of slated material but also a lot of native material. I found a grapefruit sized rock covered in beautiful red garnets.