My Adventures in Rockhounding II - Collecting Quartz Points

​​As I said in last week’s article, I received my 2 boxes of ‘Dirty Quartz’ from the Jim Coleman mine. I emailed with Terri Coleman, and she could not be more helpful.    I was very excited to open the box and find some crystals on the top. The dirt settled a bit so I grabbed some of the quartz on top that looked nice and put it aside. I carefully poured the rest of the contents into a bucket so I could do a cursory cleaning of the batch.

I rinsed some of the dirt out of the bucket ‘o quartz and then took out some handfuls of crystals/mud  and put that into a large colander/strainer. I began rinsing and stirring and picking out the crystals, separating the nicest ones into a box, and the broken ones into another strainer.

​​I was thrilled at the variety of crystals, and the clarity of some were just amazing. It took at least 45 minutes to clean up that box, done in two batches. Ultimately, I had a box of ‘keepers’ to sort through, and the rest which I wasn’t sure what to do with.

​I brought the box inside and sorted the crystals onto a tray, by size, shape, clarity. Ultimately, I found some favorites which I put aside.

​All in all, I had a great time ‘finding’ these crystals. It’s quite a bit easier to find them in these bushels that they sell than at the mine itself. I loved both experiences, but Arkansas is quite a ways away from Abiquiu and sometimes you have to bring the fun to your home. I am already planning a trip to the Jim Colemen Mine to do a dig at their site. That will be next summer. I’ll save the second box I have for now, we have some grandkids coming later this summer.