Alibates Flint Quarries

Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument is located near the town of Fritch, Texas and near Lake Meredith National Recreational Area.   Archeological traces of prehistoric Indian campsites, workshops and homes dot this area  of the Texas Panhandle and the Canadian River region.  Natives worked the area for flint for their personal use and for trade to other Native tribes for 12,000 years. The flint was of vital importance in their everyday life. Even before the Great Lakes were formed, Indains of the Ice Age Clovis  Culture used Alibates flint for spear points to hunt Imperial Mammoth.

Alibates flint is of excellent quality and beautiful in color. Colors range from maroon, cream, chocolate and gold look like candy or slabs of bacon. Flakes mottled with indigo and emerald resemble jewels. The flint lies below the surface at the ridge level, in a layer up to six feet thick.  Indians dug flint by hand or with sticks or bone tools.

  If you visit this site be sure to call the visitor center the day before to arrange a tour of the site as visits are by appointment only. On the day we took our hike up the ridge we were the only ones with the Ranger led hike.

Miller Mountain Mine

  Here is a mine worth going to if you are in the area.  If you visit the Ron Coleman mine there is a rock shop along Highway 7 next to the road you turn to go to the Ron Coleman mine. Just so you know there are two bothers named Coleman, both are in the crystal business and are bit at odds with each other. The Miller Mountain Crystal Mine is owned my Jim Coleman. The store near Ron's place is owned by Jim.  Here is another kicker, the Miller Mtn. mine is owned by Jim, but he has very little to do with the day to day operations, Bill and Faith are the care takers of the mine and pay some sort of fee to Jim to operate it. Now remember that rock shop I mentioned before? Well this is were you can pay for your digging fee for the Miller Mtn. mine, but if you do this, Bill and Faith LOOSE their commission fee. So if you want the money to go directly to those operating the mine you can pay the $10.00 at the mine.  You can get the directions to the mine at this store, just tell them you are going there to see what it looks like. By the way, DO NOT buy anything at this store, the prices are OUTRAGOUS.  You can but crystal at the mine site for 50% less.
  Anyway, after 4 hours of digging at Ron's place we went to Miller Mtn. We felt we struck gold, within 4 hours we took home some beautiful tabbies and many other specimens. We called it a day and told Bill and Faith we would be back in the morning. We showed up at 8am. Bill had turned over the previous days pile of dirt and brought two more front end loads of new material. For about 40 minutes we had the entire place to ourselves and we started hitting the jackpot. Even after three more people showed up, those folks did not want to deal with the red clay and thick Arkansas mud. That was ok with us, as we continued to pile up beautiful crystal specimens.  After 4 hours, our back started hurting, our hands were cut up so bad from getting cut by the crystals we decided to call it a day.
  It will take some time to do the clean up of these plates of crystals but when we do they will look like a million bucks. We must have found at least 100 plates and single crystals in 2 four hour days of digging.  Here are some pictures of the mine and ONLY  few of our finds.

Ron Coleman Crystal Mine

     We had two and half days in the Hot Springs, Arkansas area. For several miles around this area you can find many crystal mines. Last year we visited the Sweet Surrender mine near Mount Ida, AR, which yielded a few nice crystals. This year we decided we would try a few different ones.  Since the Ron Coleman mine also has a very nice RV park we decided to make base camp here. For $12.50 a night you get electric and water hook ups, showers and a laundry room. The facilities are a bit old but they are clean and that's all that matters. The big attraction for us was it was only about 500 yards from the digging area and there are only 26 RV spots. So at night the camp is REALLY quiet.
  Only our first full day of digging we started at Ron Coleman's. Since it was Mother's Day, Sandee slept in while I went to the mine for awhile. After about hour of looking around the site and only finding a few broken crystals I went back to camp. Sandee was up and ready to go so back to the di site we went. To say we were disappointed at this dig site would be a huge understatement. After 4 hours of digging I only found ONE crystal worth bringing home. It was a nice one, but two people digging and only one keeper is not a good investment for the $40.00 we paid.
 We had talked to others at the mine who have been coming to the site for 20 years and they said it was the worst they have ever seen it. The did recommended we visit another site at Miller Mountain about 15 miles away, more on that in my next blog.
  Anyway, here are some pictures of the site and my one and only find at the mine.