Quartz crystals that have been exposed – they grew in what was once a crack in the stone. Notice they’ve been chipped away by rockhounds like me.

I’ve been driving the 5 hours from Dallas to the quartz mines in the middle of Arkansas off and on for 10+ years, as well as rockhounding around the world (as previously posted). I heard this relatively new mine, the Twin Creek, offered one the ability to pay to dig an intact pocket. Cool.

The main mine pit where I would dig. Note the water pit next to it – Bob scoops the water from the working pit and moves it to the water pit.

Here I am in Arkansas for the hundredth time, but at a new mine, the Twin Creek Quartz Mine near Mount Ida.

I dished out the minimum ($300) and Bob showed me my pocket – which to me looked like a solid hard sandstone wall with a little tell-tale orange clay here and there. He explained that he’d loosened the layers of stone with his long-neck excavator, and showed me how to pry off the layers with the crowbar to expose the crystals that had grown in the cracks. So I was to dig not so much a pocket (or vug, as I had done at Spruce Mountain in Washington State), but large cracks.

Bob the mine owner next to my quartz “pocket”

Took me a couple hours to pry off a number of slabs. I got several small points from the clay in the cracks, and a half dozen interesting clusters.

Small cluster I pried out.

Mostly though I enjoyed the morning taking pictures and digging these clear pointed miracles from the earth! Like the true rockhound I am!

One of the better clusters I dug out – cleaned up a bit.

Medium-sized clear points that were loose in the clay in the pocket

Another cluster I dug, about 6 inches tall, with small crystals. Note how the blue from the blanket somehow made it to the face of one of the crystals.

I like driving to mines, back in the woods, on iffy roads – yet soothing.

Be sure and check out my Spruce Mountain blog post.