Scott,

I forgot you were shooting a video, as well as taking photos during your visit.  Thanks for posting them.  I enjoyed having everyone over and getting chance to chat about minerals.

My collections are all packed up now and waiting to be moved into the new house.  The movers will load up our belongings on August 5 and unload them the next day.

Since I had no takers on the fossil collection, I packed them up as well.  I may or may not display them after we move, but I will use the display case to display some of the gems and minerals.

I plan to post one of my quizzes before I shut down my computer for the move, so be on the look out for it.

Dennis

Dennis,
Thanks so much for the invite and hope that you love Morganton.  May see you as I visit relatives there.  Scott, the camera does put on at least 30 pounds to what you look like.  I have always heard that and seeing myself, now I know it is true. 

Scott,

Nice additional video and the photo of the lilac-colored Spodumene.

I've had that specimen since 1963, and it was collected at the old Calhoun Smith Mine, Spruce Pine, NC.  Linten B. Greene collected the specimen in the old mine dump (gone forever now) in 1957 while collecting Beryl for the U.S. Government.

The Calhoun Smith Mine or the Smith Mine is the only reported locality for the lilac-colored Spodumene (Kunzite) in NC.  Kunzite was discovered at the mine in the mid 1930s, but very few specimens were collected.  This may be the last piece ever collected from there. 

The pegmatite running through this mine is thought to be the same as that found at the nearby McChone Mica Mine.  Both mines produced Spodumene and Beryl, and as far as I know they are the only localities for Spodumene in the Spruce Pine District.

Factoid:  Linten Greene was a former beryl supplier for the U.S. government in the 1950s, and he owned Greene's Rock & Mineral Shop near the mineral museum at the Blue Ridge Parkway at Gillespie Gap.  He was my main mentor for my education of minerals, mines, and collecting in NC, and I would spend hours at his shop talking minerals from 1961 to 1967 until I went off to college.  Lee McKinney and Floyd Wilson were two others that influenced me and added to my NC mineral knowledge.

Dennis

Thanks, Joe.  That's a nice photo, too.

We closed on our house Tuesday, and will move the first week of August.  I've been working on my new office/man cave area to see how the curio cabinets will fit for optimal displaying.  The room is going to be crowded with the addition of my computer work space, file cabinets, and books. 

I made my first mineral discoveries while at the new house this week:  a piece of purple fluorite ( partial crystal), amethyst (partial crystal), aventurine, mud included smoky quartz (partial crystal), and several pieces of kyanite in matrix.  It was obvious that they were placed in the area I found them as decorative features near a bird bath. 

It pays to be cautious when finding mineral specimens near current or former human habitation sites.  You never know what you'll find anywhere humans have lived or traveled through.

Dennis

Dan,

Our house is 6 miles east of the old Burke Co. courthouse in Morganton, in the Drexel area.  Being from Burke Co. I'm very familiar with the area, and also its mineralogy.

The Brindletown area was one of the largest gold producing areas in the state before the 1849 California gold rush.  Brindletown and Silver Creeks produced a lot of gold and many varieties of minerals such as monazite (you mentioned), beryl, diamonds, tourmaline, and much more.  Walker's Knob in the northern South Mountains of Burke Co. had several mica mines that produced nice gem quality beryl (aquamarine, golden, and green [referred to emerald] by early gemologists [Kunz] and mineralogists [Pratt and Genth and Kerr].

I visited the Burke Co. Museum last Tuesday and saw a nice amethyst cluster from Burke Co. on display.  It looked very similar to Wake Co. Bowling Green amethysts.  There's at least two old mica mines near my house and the Poovey garnet locality is down NC 18 not too far away.

I'll try to do some exploring after we get settled in, and my muscles quit aching.

Dennis