Your history behind Tower Rd. makes this prospecting trip even more exciting.  Thanks for sharing that with us.

I was able to get off on the 14th so I'm definitely in.

Scott

Scott,

Yeah I hope you don't mind me spilling all my "knowledge" (lol) about Tower Road. I like knowing about a site as much as I can, its history, mode of occurrence, etc. Seeing all those giant crystals many years ago at Mr. Cagles house will always stick in my memory. Can you imaging a pocket big enough to produce xls in excess of 300lbs up to 3 and 4' long! James said when they hit the pocket there was a glassy sheet of solid quartz(a plate) in the hillside about 8' across that was discovered after blasting removed tons of waste rock. James said that the plate was about 1' thick and they drilled a hole and the drill bit went in and hit nothing. so they broke a section and peered in with a light to see crystals hanging from the walls. The floor was littered too with xls and much pocket clay which they hosed out with water pumped from the nearby creek. James said they spent two days removing the loose crystals on the floor by hand, laying them outside and then broke the others off the walls as best as possible. If I hadn't seen the crystals myself, I wouldn't believe that such a pocket could form in NC but it did. One thing you all you should know is that after the discovery, the mine pit was filled in since that section of the forest was turned into National Forest. BUT..when I was there some years ago, you could still see the depression of the pit and it was surrounded by numerous dumps that were covered in leafs and vegetation. At that time the mine road was clearly visible and lined with huge boulders from the original dig (this is how I found the large smoky xl, on one of these boulders). The potential for there to be sizable xls to 8" or so is there in the dumps and there were many small xls that the mine folks just discarded that were say 1" to 3" in size. When we do relocate it, I expect that it will yield allot to those willing to hike in and put time into digging. Rob Whaley, a good friend use to go over there with me, you can ask him.

Food for thought......my cell number is 910-206-7629 if you want to contact me or run into any problems. Heck, you never know, I could run into problems and this way someone could reach me since I don't know how to reach any of you guys. Guess I'm getting paranoid the older I get. What in the heck did we all do before cell phones!

I just wanted to thank Mike (rockytoprockshop) for setting this trip up and getting us all out there together.  Although we didn't locate it we now know where it is not.  This means that on the next trip, I believe it will turn up.  Sometimes we have to pay our dues to get the good rocks and this Sunday was no exception.  I know Laurie has definitely paid his dues with the amount of land he has covered looking for the location.

Also, thank you Laurie for your hospitality in offering a warm place to sleep and pulling out the mattress for a comfortable nights sleep.  The check will go into the mail for the beautifyl Nambia amethyst crystal.

Looking forward to this coming Friday.  Maybe we'll have some better luck.   

Scott

Rob,

That's fine, I'll let Lee know that there will be 5 folks total in our group. They were ok with up to a dozen or so so we should be fine. I don't know what if anything we'll find but the quarry is huge and has been operating since the early 70's and expanded to three pit areas. I'd look for calcite, unakite, and sunstone. These seem to be the most common things encountered. I've heard of hyalite opal in very thin crust that appear as a white coating on some of the granite. There are black intrusive dikes in the quarry that I hear may have zeolites. I've got a piece of radial pectolite from there. Who knows? Very few rockhounds have ever been in there. Just be sure to bring a hard hat, safety glasses, and steel toe shoes (Vulcan's rules) to get in. See you there. Oh, afterwords to those interested I have a friend in the area that has nice epidote xls on his land. I found about a dozen nice pieces there several weeks back with pistachio green fanning sprays covering feldspar xls. Some of the feldspar is in sharp xls of almost moonstone grade. There are several other spots nearby as well.

Cheers, Mike

Dave, from the anecdotal evidence I have garnered, it seems the original outcrop was a hill of quartz and it was mined away, leaving a relatively flat area.  I do not have the technology you mentioned, but I have utilized topos and arial photos of the area.  Your suggestion couldn't hurt though, perhaps the white of the quartz would show up.  By the way, I have suggested we all start calling it the Lost Quartz Mine as opposed to the Tower Road Mine, any objections?

Dave,

Laurie is correct, the mine was a small "knob" that was mostly milky quartz outcroppings that was mostly "lopped" off and left flat and the dumps surround the mine. There is a low depression where it was partially filled in. If you do use this system you could also look for two creeks coming together, there you might see allot of "white" through the trees and the old road bed which was white with crushed quartz going east from the mine. There has to be allot of good crystals still there as the remoteness and recent logging have made it so difficult to find thus not prospected in years. I am planning another trip very soon, Laurie hopefully will come and I have a much clearer idea of where to look now thanks to the recent trip and Laurie's previous attempts. It will turn up soon I feel. It frustrates me that we haven't found it since there was time years ago that I could walk to it without fail, but years of logging and storms have changed the layout from Tower Road to the mine and whole roads and natural markers have been lost. When found again, with diligent digging should produce allot of crystals. Who knows what lies around the dumps and boulders which have only been scratched. Thanks for the help.

Mike