Mississippi Gem and Mineral Society

Florence, Mississippi
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The Rocky Echoes is our award-winning club bulletin. The Rocky Echoes is published, from January to May; the editor gets a hiatus during the months of June, July, and December. The Rocky Echoes carries news about the Society, Field Trips, and Classes, articles about the Speaker of the month at the Club Meetings of the Society and articles from the Society’s membership.

 

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Excerpt from the

November 2010

issue of Rocky Echoes

 

October 24th Field Trip to Hammett Gravel

 

Hammett Gravel pit has become a field trip that I look forward to every year. If you don’t find something nice to keep then you aren’t looking hard enough. This pit is featured in David Dockery’s Mississippi gravel books. If you have the books then they will give you a good idea of the size of this area and what you might find.

 

The morning started out with a meeting at the local Texaco. Everyone standing around talking about past week’s events and adventures; and it was a little nippy so a few elected to sit in their cars. The crowd was pretty good but not as large as I would have expected, being the last field trip of the year, but that’s ok.

 

The adventure began with the normal caravan from the meeting point to our destination. The weather was cloudy and windy at times. Every time the sun would peek out I would stop and enjoy the warm rays. Considering the amount of rain that we have had over the last several weeks the pit wasn’t so nasty. At the end of the day we all came out with several good finds such as coral, agates, petrified wood and jasper. Chris hauled in the most beautiful piece of jasper. I think that pretty much made his day and made everyone else envious of his find. My daughter Shelby had a good time following him around earlier that morning because he always has good luck finding petrified wood. She didn’t find the wood but found several agates. My other daughter Chelsea was at home recovering from foot surgery, so I loaded up a couple of buckets for her to search through at home. She was a little upset missing the trip, so I brought the trip to her. I hope that throughout this year I could lend a little insight into the field trips by writing these articles. I’m not a writer as most of you should know by now, but I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts with you almost every month. I can’t wait to see what next year will hold.

 

Keith P. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following is from the the Rocky Echoes

 

Jeff and Sharon H’s report on the “Crater of Diamonds State Park” near Murfreesboro, Arkansas….

 

This is a firsthand report on our one and only visit to the so called park.  Grade wise, I give it a C-.  Realistically, there is a better chance of finding dirt than there is of finding diamonds…  I really enjoyed the opportunity of searching for the “mother-lode” of all diamonds.  It’s kind of like buying a lottery ticket, fun to dream big, but in the end, we left very disappointed that no matter how hard we tired, we just couldn’t see well enough to know what we were looking for.

 

First of all, the Diamond “Park” is nothing more than a big open, (37.5 acres) dirt field that is regularly plowed, leaving deep furloughs as high as 2 - 3 feet high in places.  There is no protection from the elements, so you had best prepare for the weather.  We purposely chose a cloudy, fall day to hunt.  The day we attended was rather cool (43 degrees) and moist.  Even though we wore our rain gear, we both chilled to the bone.  On the other hand, we could see where summer heat and humidity would take all the fun out of the ‘hunt”.  Secondly, what you are told to look for is a shiny little dot about the size of the head of a sewing pin.  Since brown diamonds are the most common, you are looking for tiny little dots of shiny specks of brown rocks about the size and color of the DIRT that is abundantly everywhere.  Not only that, this dirt has a trace of mineral (probably mica) that shines just like, um, little brown diamonds.  First we tried ‘surface mining’ (walking with head down), which is the most successful method.  But we both found that even with expensive bifocals that we just could not see well enough to spot ‘diamonds’… We then tried using the wire screen method.  All our dirt rolled into little clumps of tiny mud balls the size and color of brown diamonds… that didn’t work either. At some point late in the afternoon, we had to realize, that like most visitors, we would be leaving empty handed.  Would we do it again? – No.  Do we regret going in the first place – not at all.  Bottom line, unless you have 20/20 vision, you probably will not see the most common, little brown diamonds, that are mixed in with all the dirt in the field.  Yes, a few lucky folks have found some rather impressive finds, but they are the exception, not the norm…. 

 

Here are my recommendations:  Plan on going on a sunny day with the day time temperatures between 55 and 75 degrees.  (The sun shine helps with spotting the “sparkle” of a diamond).  All the necessary “mining” supplies are available at the park for a moderate price… but hats, sun screen, and bottled water are a must.  Wear clothing that is loose and comfortable and WASHABLE as you will be covered from head to toe with dirt.  We found a small spade and a light weight chair most useful.  We stayed just off site at a nice Mom and Pop hotel.  All in all, it was fun and exciting.

 

2 good web sites on the park are:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_of_Diamonds_State_Park or https://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/   

 

If you are a rock hound, then this is definitely one trip that should be on your “bucket-list” just to say…”been there, done that”.