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Graves Mountain, GA
You are here: MineralCollecting.org >> Posted Articles >> Article 11

I attended a field trip into Graves Mountain on both the 28th and 29th of April. The group was small for the first day of collecting. Most of the collectors were interested in finding iridescent hematite, a couple of people were looking for green pyrophyllite, and there were also a few people looking for rutile. There were only two collectors, initially, that seemed interested in finding a specimen of Graves Mountain variscite. I was one of those two people.

I spent the majority of the first day exploring. There were a few areas that I'd not bothered to prospect for nearly three years. Most of my prospecting efforts to stir up a new find were in vain, though. Around noon, I spotted Jim Flora working in a small pit in the main quarry. I was told that the really green variscites from the last trip had been found in this small hole where Jim was collecting. He showed me several really attractive pieces. I continued around to the east quarry and left Jim to his collecting. The variscite pit (mentioned in previous articles) was filled in with about two feet of dirt and rubble. I cleaned out all the debris, but was quite disappointed with the results. I only retrieved three specimens for two hours of excavation. At the very end of the day I walked back around to the main pit to collect some of the really green variscites. I dug out several massive green-filled cavities that had nice color, but were lacking any good crystal structure. Most of the crystals, if any, were loose and tended to fall out as soon as a cavity was opened. I gathered half a bag full and called it a day.

The second day (Saturday) attracted a few more people, but the crowd was still unusually small. I headed for the main pit to dig out some more green cavities. My gloves and my water bottle had accidentally, but conveniently, been left just opposite the hole where I'd been working (Oops...). This day was much more productive. I dug a lot of material out of the hole and sorted it into one of five categories: "junk", "not interested", "if I have the energy", "that'll have to go with me", and finally (my favorite) "Oh, yes!". Most of what I collected was sorted into the first four categories. Barren quartzite went into the "junk" pile, beautiful kyanite went into the "not interested" pile, odd but not really spectacular cavities were sorted into the "if I have the energy" pile, and anything green went into the "has to go" pile. I collected two attractive specimens that sparked the interest of some of the other collectors. Only one piece bordered on the "Oh, yes!" category. This particular head-sized piece of kyanite/quartzite resembled Swiss cheese on the bottom surface. In the lower, second largest cavity there was a solid mass of crystalline variscite that was approximately one and one-half inches in diameter. The upper, largest cavity was lined with clustered variscite crystals ranging from 1/4 to 1/2 inch across. I also found a few interesting cavities with some dark brown material in them.

Towards the end of the day I walked over to a particular quartz vien where I had found rutile on a historical trip that I'd made several years ago. Dangling from the wall, I managed to chisel off a few small pieces. Three out of about eight pieces revealed six to eight rutiles ranging from a fairly attractive 3/4 of an inch thumbnail down to several small 1/4 inch thumbnails. Interesting but not entirely overwhelming.

Update: My dad has identified some small fiberous white wavellite in one of the cavitities that I collocted in the new variscite hole. This is the first time either of us has heard of wavellite being reported from Graves Mountain. Happy collecting, --Adam.

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