Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Scufflin Acres Farm Amethyst


This weekend I had a chance to participate in a MAGMA (Mountain Area Gem and Mineral Association) dig in Prospect, Virginia for amethyst.  Prospect, VA is located a few miles from Appomattox, Virginia and the Appomattox Court House National Historic Park in the rolling hills of central Virginia. The dig site is located on a dairy farm known as Scufflin Acres just off highway 460.

  I arrived Thursday afternoon around 1pm after setting up camp at Holiday Lake State Park about 30 miles away.  I wanted to get a lay of the land and see if there might be a chance to get an extra day of digging, I was in luck.  After paying my fee, I headed down into the new trench the MAGMA members had opened up with the backhoe.  This was the first time I had been to a site that was freshly opened and was anticipating huge plates of amethyst. I one of my dreams I had visions of a 1500 pound plate of pure purple.  Of course it was only a dream but a rockhound is entitled to those dreams so one might as well dream big.

   There was plenty of digging room and the choices to pick a spot to dig was a bit overwhelming. So I grabbed a spot and started digging. After three hours I packed up my goodies and headed back to camp for a little clean up. My finds did not reveal any purple, but there were a few points that promised better pickings ahead.

    I woke up the next day, about 3am, to the sound of rain hitting my camper. When I opened the door I discovered it was not rain, but SNOW. And not just snow, the icy type of snow that when it hits you in the face it stings. So I went back to bed hoping that it would let up, which was not the case.  After arriving at the dig site around 7:30am the snow had changed to those soft flaky type.  With temps around 20 degree's  I had to start digging to stay warm.   It snowed all day and did not let up until around 3pm. The ground was covered in the white stuff, but the digging was good. I found some nice plates that that had some points and just might show some purple.

  Over the next two days I dug allot more and finally came away after four days of digging with five, 35 gallon cat litter containers of material. All of which looked very promising. Oh and did I mention after all the snow, we had two days of 70 degree temps. Which caused the red clay  to turn into a nice gooey mess. In the end several of us at the dig had to be towed out of the dig site, me included. But I had loads of fun, the highlight being with like minded rock hounds.

 Once I got home and started the cleaning process of my finds I was very surprised to finds loads of the purple.  The one thing about this site is you can find amethyst but most of the stuff I found crumbs in your hands which leaves you with small pieces, but I did find a few nice ones that held up to cleaning.  Once I get these cleaned up a little better I will add some pictures.

 Here is some pictures of the dig site that will give you an idea how cold the site was for a few days.
 
 
 
                   
 
                      Me in the middle with my back to camera near the red and yellow bucket        




 
 
                                                      To the victor goes the spoils
 
 
 

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