Large Tennessee Agates

[BurntBear]

A quick stop at a very small stream today. These guys were right on top of the dried up stream-bed.



Here is the dry shot:

 

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[Garrett424]

Awesome.
Although I metal detect these days, I'm still a rockhound at heart.
Nice find.
Congrats.

I see your equipment is "eyes and hands". I guess I can safely assume you've picked up tens of thousands of rocks eh??

 

[BurntBear]

Maybe millions...

 

[Garrett424]

Maybe millions...

I spent about three months last summer hiking many, many miles along creeks, rivers, you name it; picking up rocks.
Funny though, while I'm metal detecting I barely notice them. Of course, I'm using my sense of hearing way more than sight.
I guess it's just a matter of shifting your focus and where you put your attention.

 

[BurntBear]

Definitely! When I'm looking for one thing in particular, I zone in and I pretty much ignore everything else, lol. When I'm sluicing for gold, the rocks don't get a second look if they don't stick out. That's why I have trouble in particular with mining for gold, I gotta look at all the rocks!

 

[Old Dude]

That first pic looks like some sort of screaming, pained alien's head lol. I am always seeing patterns or oddities in rocks. It seems every time I'd come home from a hike, I was bringing home another rock lol. Nice agates.

 

[Garrett424]

That first pic looks like some sort of screaming, pained alien's head lol. I am always seeing patterns or oddities in rocks. It seems every time I'd come home from a hike, I was bringing home another rock lol. Nice agates.

I noticed the face too. Looked like a skull to me.

I have so many rocks I don't know what to do with 'em.
I hit a massive pile of slag glass last spring and filled a shoe box with it. It looks exactly like obsidian. I was thinking that if I ever decide to take up knapping it would be great to practice with.

So far it's still sitting in the box. I did give some to a few kids who thought it was cool.

 

[Igyjastabay]

Here is a little chunk of ky agate. This is just an average piece. Ky agate can get really colorful and valuable.

 

[g-olden years]

Groovy TN & KY agates! My best rock-hounding days were when I lived in AZ & NM, but here on central CA beaches I enjoy browsing patches of tiny ocean-polished jasper rocks. Have fun & please keep showing the rocky finds! Andi

 

[BurntBear]

Thanks for the responses and that is some awesome KY Agate!!

The first pic I need to take while it's dry; it's actually nicer looking. I believe that the first pic is Onyx.

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

Hi B.B. nice rock find there =)

 

[BurntBear]

Hi B.B. nice rock find there =)

Thanks! I'm always looking!

 

[Garrett424]

Here is a little chunk of ky agate. This is just an average piece. Ky agate can get really colorful and valuable.

Awesome agate.
I WISH I had rocks like that around here.

last spring after a few days of heavy rain and a small flood, I walked the river (which is more like a very large stream where I am) and sitting upright all by itself on top of a pile of sand; gleaming in the sun, was a beautiful quartz crystal point. It's maybe 3" tall by 3/4" across but it's awesome.

It seemed like it was waiting for me. I couldn't believe that no one else had seen it. It had to be sitting there for at least three days all by itself.

They're really hard to find here too. There's quartz everywhere but most either never made it to the crystal point stage or were broken into pieces after the fact or before they ever reached the surface to be found.

There was one found not far from where I hunt, near Ellicott City MD, back in the 1800's. It was smoky quartz and weighed in at 44 lbs. no one knows where it is at this time. It was basically lost to history.
I would LOVE to find something like that.

 

[BurntBear]

Garrett424,

I'm from Maryland myself. I grew up on the Susquehanna River. There are some neat specimens there too and a lot of Native American artifacts. Look for Serpentine, it's everywhere. Floods will bring everything to the surface. Do you have a photo of the Quartz crystal you found? I'd love to see it.

 

[Garrett424]

Garrett424,

I'm from Maryland myself. I grew up on the Susquehanna River. There are some neat specimens there too and a lot of Native American artifacts. Look for Serpentine, it's everywhere. Floods will bring everything to the surface. Do you have a photo of the Quartz crystal you found? I'd love to see it.

I don't have a pic yet but I can shoot one easily enough. I'll try and get that up soon.

I'm near the upper Patapsco near Woodstock and below Marriottsville, about 3 miles upstream from the last remaining dam at Daniels. I grew up about a half mile from the river and spent as much time as I could near the river growing up. I swam, hiked, fished, hiked, camped, went canoeing, Kayaking, tubing, inflatable rafting, you name it. I still do most of those things but this year metal detecting has been my new obsession.

I still go down there regularly and all over the area ALL the time during the warm season. I was there two nights ago.
I just love that whole valley and I know every trail, stream, etc. Being out in the woods does my soul more good than any shrink could ever begin to do.

Once you hit Ellicott City (going downstream) it's still nice but not the same. It's still pretty pristine where I am for the most part. Gettin' a little too well known though. People are beginning to really trash some once beautiful spots and it just disgusts me.

As for the Susquehanna; forget about it. That's one awesome river. I've long heard that you can still find Indian relics up that way but I've never hunted the area. I need to get up there.

The Susquehannock tribe was obviously big in that area, not to mention far to the North as well as the South. It's a shame but they were completely wiped out. The last small group were all murdered.

They, as well as the Piscataway and a few lesser known tribes hunted my area but had no settlements. No tribe did. It was basically unclaimed but used by several different tribes in different seasons, hence the rarity of any relics. When I found my hand ax least year I almost had a heart attack. It took me over 40 years for me to find that piece. It's pretty eroded because it was in a stream bed buried in rocky mud for who knows how long but to me it's incredible. My son thought it was just another rock when I showed it to him. He wasn't too excited but he loved the fossil I found around the same time.

I also know of a cave that was used for centuries as a hunting camp by many Indians. One guy, a self proclaimed "Indian" who lived the native lifestyle, did an amateur archeological dig back in 1960 and found a few projectile points and pottery pieces. He claimed to know of six more spots but took the locations to his grave. I have a hunch I know where at least one is but I've never really hunted the spot. I just never realized where I was. I'm gonna' try to hike in there before it gets too cold. It's maybe an hour hike one way.

I also found a pretty cool stone core fossil last year as well. I actually posted it here to get it identified a while back. I think that one could be millions of years old. It wasn't far from an old granite quarry long since closed and filled with water.

The town of Granite (which is no longer a town by any stretch), where I grew up was a quarry town and my grandfather on my dad's side was a stone cutter.



So, I can definitely relate to you picking up all of those rocks. I've been doing it for a very long time myself. It's way more work than most realize, not to mention the miles and miles and miles of walking, wading and stomping through God knows what.

That's one reason I love metal detecting so much. I always find something be it junk or something really cool. The gratification is way faster and far more frequent.

I still like my rocks though.

 

[BurntBear]

That's an awesome fossil!

Few people know about the diversity of Geology in Maryland. It's pretty unique. Unfortunately, I never paid much attention to it all when I lived there; at least not the way I do now. The waterways there flow consistently year-round. I'm sure some of the streams of southwestern and western Maryland would yield some interesting specimens.
Well, I studied the Susquehannocks pretty extensively in my own time as a teenager and still do a little. The last remaining residents of Conestoga were brutally murdered by the Paxton bunch. There were others that were taken back into the Iroquois nation as warriors, some traveled south to North Carolina with the Cherokee and blended with other tribes from Ohio and even out west. But for the most part, they pretty much got wiped out; especially by smallpox and a fierce battle with the Mohawks. It seems that all of their towns were next to major water sources, but I'm sure they hunted out your way!

 

[Garrett424]

That's an awesome fossil!

Few people know about the diversity of Geology in Maryland. It's pretty unique. Unfortunately, I never paid much attention to it all when I lived there; at least not the way I do now. The waterways there flow consistently year-round. I'm sure some of the streams of southwestern and western Maryland would yield some interesting specimens.
Well, I studied the Susquehannocks pretty extensively in my own time as a teenager and still do a little. The last remaining residents of Conestoga were brutally murdered by the Paxton bunch. There were others that were taken back into the Iroquois nation as warriors, some traveled south to North Carolina with the Cherokee and blended with other tribes from Ohio and even out west. But for the most part, they pretty much got wiped out; especially by smallpox and a fierce battle with the Mohawks. It seems that all of their towns were next to major water sources, but I'm sure they hunted out your way!

Ironically, I used to spend quite a bit of time in Tennessee when I was in my 20's.
I had a girlfriend from here whose Mom moved her down there when she was still a teenager. She lived in Jackson. As I recall there was an awesome river running through there as well. I caught quite a few huge Bass and Catfish there. Can't remember the name of the river though.
Those catfish were so big many people were using deep sea rods. It was incredible.

I got on a kick a few years back where I began looking for gold in my part of MD. I found everything but gold. I dug and I panned. Found lots of black sand but never a trace of gold.

I know there are some areas where you can still find it such as the Great Falls area but I wanted to find some on my own turf. There were a few a working gold mines less than ten miles from my home in two directions but I've never found so much as a tiny speck(yet).
That's also some really back breaking work. Those guys who left it all and went out prospecting back in the day really worked like dogs and most barely made wages and most never struck it rich.

 

[Old Dude]

Good thread. I live on the Susquehanna now but up in Pa. Lots of Indian artifacts in the fields by it and up creeks leading off it. My buddy found this in one~

 

[Garrett424]

Thanks for the responses and that is some awesome KY Agate!!

The first pic I need to take while it's dry; it's actually nicer looking. I believe that the first pic is Onyx.

I cannot tell you how many rocks I've picked up wet and thought they looked awesome, then put them in my pockets only to get home and look again once they're dry and see that they're not all that special.

This may sound dumb but about a month ago I got rid of a few of those. Rather than just tossing them anywhere I took them back to the river where I found them. I sorta' took them back "home". To me it just seems like the proper thing to do.
I was going there anyway.

Gotta' respect the river and the rocks. To me they each have kind of a "life" of their own. When I really think about how they've traveled and moved around for millions; if not billions of years to find their way to me, it's the least I could do.

Like I said, it probably sounds dumb but that's the way I see it.