Mining for Gold of Various Kinds

One of the main recreational ways we have chosen to survive all this Covid business is to visit various mining sites for minerals and crystals.  We had bought a bit of gear 14 years ago when we lived in Los Angeles, but we only went to one site to dig for treasure, Lompoc, California.  At that time, we managed to find some pretty rocks of unknown identity and tumble them in my rock tumbler and get them smooth.  All of those tools and the rock polisher are/will soon be getting a workout.  What I like about mining in the age of the Coronavirus, is you largely have to see no one and can just go about your business and travel fairly guilt free since you will not be doing anything ill-advised when you arrive at your destination. 

Thus far, we have gone to Ron Coleman mine in the Hot Springs/Washatah National Forest area in Central Arkansas and Jacob's Geode mine in the Hamilton, IL area, a place known for Geodes that boasts a festival, a few rock shops and multiple mines.  Ron Coleman was a little bit of a challenge, largely because it pops up when you google Eureka Springs, AR which is actually nowhere near Jessieville where the mine is, another 3.5 hrs further south from St. Louis.  They had the rock shop on the main highway closed, but let you drive down the dirt road to the mine and pay a reduced fee of $10 to mine as much quartz as you want.  Because we had to drive so far, we had only an hr left, but we made it count.  We got lots of specimens large and small and managed to cover the inside of my car with orange clay dirt.  The biggest thing we got probably weighs 75 lbs and is adorning our garden as we speak.  We hope to go to the Crater of Diamonds and Twin Creek mine which are all in Arkansas as well in the near future.  Jacob's mine in IL is a wild and wooly place.  The rock shop and surrounding vicinity consist of dilapidated trailers, piles and rows of rusty junk and a truck to stash your $25 payment in for your 5 lb bucket of geodes.  You also have to drive over a creek to get to the dig site which was much easier to find than Ron Coleman's.  They let you borrow full-size pick axes so we got to feel like gold prospectors tearing down the excavated piles and chiseling into the cliff faces.  We found a large amount of geodes and felt we got our money's and time investment's worth.  They were especially plentiful in the piles that had been excavated and dumped in various places.  I hope that in addition to going to those other 2 places I mentioned, we can try panning for gold and beach treasure hunting with metal detectors in the next year or two  Will keep you updated...

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