I know we have a section for the minerals of Mitchell County, NC already,
but this world famous mine deserves to be set apart and I am
quite surprised it hasn't been venerated on these pages before now.
Here is a link to Ed Speer's "North Carolina Emerald" site with a very thorough history of the Crabtree.
http://www.speerminerals.com/NC%20Emeralds/Crabtree/Crabtree.htm
I'm linking you to the Crabtree page but the whole site is highly recommended reading.
The beautiful blue-green of the Crabtree emeralds,
and the unbelievable opportunity to hunt for them in my own backyard,
was the first "gemstone" bug to bite me and I used to spend
as much time there as I could.
I realize now that I have not been to the mine since October, 2008.
I also have recently realized that all my fieldtrip pics to the mine
were lost in early 2009 when a tree in our yard was hit by lightening.
It was a ritual either upon arriving or departing from the Crabtree
to stop at the top of the hill above the mine and take a picture of the view looking north-northwest.
One of my very favorite anywhere of the Blue Ridge.
I will keep looking for some old pics, and some of the rocks!
I was trying to find good examples to compare to the Pop-Pop Point emerald
found here in Wake County.
As it is, I could only find some of my "better and best"
personal finds to share with you for a start to this thread.
The Crabtree Mine was mined by Tiffany for a while for the
"cabochon" material, the emeralds in matrix, as much as the "gemstone" emeralds.
Which is why I was mining it, too!
Here's a slabbed piece of the emeralds in matrix.