Playin' in the Dirt

I think that one of the requirements to be part of our family is that you must love rocks. You must look for rocks, clean rocks, place rocks in your yard, and share rocks. This all began when my oldest  grandson was small. He loved rocks, therefore I loved rocks. Now there are five grandsons and they all love rocks, so their moms and dads grew to love rocks, too! I'm sure their moms found many a rock in their jeans pockets. That being said, spending a gorgeous spring day digging in red dirt looking for crystals was the perfect outing for all of us. We did give Mr. H a pass, he really doesn't even like rocks, but we'll let him be part of our family if he allows us to keep as many rocks as we want!!

In the first photo we're in an old military truck getting ready to tour the Ron Coleman Mine near Jesseville, Arkansas. 

The tour begins at the top of the mine pit.

As we descended about 250 foot to the pit bottom there were crystals everywhere. You could see white veins of crystals in the side of the mountain and crystals beside the road or stacked on other rocks. It's hard to see the depth of the mine, but if you look closely on the left one-third of the picture toward the bottom, you can see an orange piece of excavation equipment. It was big! They have been mining near the pool of muddy water on the right third of the picture. 

The area we were able to dig in was on the other side of the white truck. You walk under the excavator to get to the piles of dirt and stones we dug in. Arkansas is know for having the world's finest quartz crystals. One particular area named The Quartz Belt is know to be the single largest quartz deposit in the world.

The temperature was mild the day we were there, so we were able to mine right out in sunshine for several hours.

One of the attractions at the mine is a zip line. Some of our family loves zip lining. On the left side of the picture is my grandsons, Jake, Drew, and Aaron, after they put on the necessary gear. The top right picture is Drew and Aaron zipping along and the bottom picture is Aimee (my daughter-in-law) and Jake. The 1/4 mile zip line crosses the mine pit. Our guide mentioned that you can sail across the pit going up to 30 miles per hour! 

I must give credit to my daughter and daughter-in-law for the above pictures. My old, small camera that I took wouldn't take a decent picture that far away.

Here are some of the crystals I brought home. I wasn't fortunate enough to find a large clear quartz crystal point, but I found several small ones. The white quartz crystals are more abundant. I was fascinated by how the crystals were layered in the sandstone rock.

My favorite find was a sandstone rock about the size of a baseball. The top was covered in crystal points. I think the best find in our family was made by my grandson, Aaron. He found a gorgeous clear quartz point. He took it to the front desk, where they congratulated him and then weighed it. It weighed almost a quarter of a pound. He also took it over to the table full of crystals for sale and found one similar. It was selling for $100. Needless to say, he was very proud of his find.

I never knew it could be so much fun to just did in the dirt, but it was! It was a day where the mindless act of digging and the time spend with family took away all my troubles. We honestly had the best time!!