Arkansas 2017

all right hello all you rockhounds I'm Scott Laborde creator of rockin lounge and in this video Joe Moylan and myself are embarking on a very awesome adventure and it's to Arkansas this is gonna be our first trip to Arkansas with the purpose of digging crystals starting from our home in Raleigh North Carolina it took us 15 hours to drive to Mount Ida Arkansas I do not like driving but this one was worth it from highway 270 we would turn south onto Logan Gap Road followed the Crystal Recreation Area signs and soon we were at the twin Creek crystal line [Music] yeah biggie first thing you have to do is sign the release form pay your money to dig for the day they'll tell you where you can and can't dig and now it's time to have fun so here we are at twin Creek crystal mine and this is a very good view from the signing area of the mine and this is the area where you will be able to dig for $25 a day and here is some aerial footage I took with my drone [Music] all right if you look closely you should see two people digging they're kind of hard to see but they're there and of course that's Bobby on the track Oh scratching away at the topsoil in hopes of finding more crystallizing veins [Music] and of course on the horizon and in the background the beautiful Ouachita Mountains once I got back home from Arkansas and started editing the GoPro footage I had taken I realized that none of the sound had recorded it was broken I sent the camera back to GoPro and they fixed it for me thank goodness but in the meantime this is why I'm doing a lot of voiceover work because the sound wasn't working on the other hand it does kind of force me to sort of collect my thoughts and choose better words to describe what I'm doing and hopefully make this a more educational experience for you so here we go this is the area that we paid Bobby a premium price so that we alone could have access to it for the entire day Bobby then roped off the surrounding area above and below us and that was to keep people from accidentally digging in our temporary claim now if you're interested in doing this yourself I would suggest calling Bobby fetch Oh at least a week in advance because that'll give him time to find the pocket for you if you show up and ask him on the same day he may or may not be able to help you because he still has to get his track hoe out there he's got to do some work moving a lot of dirt blasting some sandstone and courts open for you to find those pockets so give them at least a week and then you can also come out and do this and have a great time and if you look closely you can see all those little flashing points of light those are all quartz crystal terminations poking out of the pockets there we had this entire wall to work with we were having so much fun that day that the hours passed like minutes [Music] I don't know if it'll even focus in that close you can't tell because of the Sun [Music] here's another perspective from lower down and the mind there's Joe waving up there that's our little exclusive spot we paid for and as you can see there is a lot of potential areas to explore from our initial exploration we noticed quartz crystal veins throughout the entire property okay now here is something that's really cool a root grew down into the pocket through the crystals and look there you can see that crystals attached still hanging on that root there [Music] [Music] all right Mount Ida Arkansas diggin quartz crystal pockets riding the mountain check this pocket out [Music] you see these roots they always find the weakest point in the rock so as you can see roots seem to always follow where the crystals aren't looking at this is just wrapped all around those rings and the ride into this pocket show you what I've pulled out right here check that thing out and that one's gonna be beautiful washed off you yeah but notice the width of the quartz plate is just you know a half inch at the most out here and then it gets to be 2 inches or so here and so I'm wondering if that's an indicator that it opens up back under here yeah and so we will see Bobby said it would that's my project so here you can see that now that I've chiseled away all the hard rock that was surrounding this pocket I can dig into the center of this and I'm using a plastic tool so I don't damage him look at all those things flashing most of the material that came from this particular part of the pocket was small double terminated crystals or fractured crystals that had been healed all the way around [Music] the Ouachita Mountains finished their formation in the Pennsylvanian epoch that means these crystals could be up to 300 million years old [Music] so check this out this is a large cluster or plate of crystals that we were able to extract off the wall so after spending a considerable amount of time chipping away at that sandstone and course using a chisel and hammer and pry bar we're finally able to reveal the pockets that hide inside there and then this is the fun stuff right here to those who really aren't much into this kind of stuff I realize how silly I must look to you but to us rock hounds this is a magical experience get this great ball great cluster of crystals heard oh pretty ones in there and I'm getting ready to pull it out and we're hoping it'll stay together but it'll probably completely fall apart into separate crystals rather than hold together but made it would be nice if this was a cluster [Music] it's got a nice back on it we don't care if these little ones fall that my beer coaster [Music] I'm very excited about you see how excited I Oh a little Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] Tai [Music] [Music] you know I don't work [Music] - guys like you tabbies lying you here we're visiting our good friends Adam and Kayla this is their pocket look how large those crystals are in order to expose this fissure and these crystals Bobbi had to drill into solid sandstone and blast it apart check out how this crystallized fissure runs up the entire face of this cliff [Applause] now check it out Kayla there is sitting on the other half of the cliff that was blasted apart that's the other half of the figure all covered with crystals every Hannah and Kayla being very gracious gave both Joe and I especially to take home with us from this pocket thanks Kayla Wow you [Music] war what you do Joe and I had an awesome time at the twin Creek crystal mine and I think if you came you would too if you happen to visit Mount Ida definitely check out the Mount Ida cafe awesome food and service our next stop was at the Ron Coleman mine and Jesse Ville Arkansas and let me tell you we were very happy with our decision to come here [Music] the prices $20 for an adult 15 for senior and 5 for children as you can see they have a really cool Rock shop with a lot of variety and really neat looking stones and in the back a really cool view in the mountains and the mine area [Music] [Music] unless you've signed up for ziplining or taking the mine tour into the commercial pit then this is where you'll be going to dig in the tailings piles occasionally the mine workers will bring up mine tailings from the commercial pit and drop them here for us to dig through and look for crystals and sometimes we can find some fantastic pieces after about 20 minutes of searching I found a really rich tailings pile this one had crystals all throughout it now is having a great time look at all these crystals right on the surface there Joe began digging nearby and also started finding really nice material look what just rolled out out of this dump pile here ron Coleman mine here it is cleaned up [Music] here Joe finds a real nice one himself all right let's see [Music] thoughts moving [Music] nice whoo-hoo-hoo [Music] good sharp following your brother well I I just pulled another piece out with that all all right so I've dug down in the center of this pile here found this huge rock here with crystals all over it all over the top of this base is all over this thing but the problem is even as much as I've dug out I can't even budge these things so I'm gonna try to dig a lot more around this thing and I don't know if this thing will be coming home with you how big and finally got this rock moved but body was home behind the rock be careful and here is that big rock and cleaned off by Joe back at the end it probably took the remainder of our energy for the day just to carry that big thing back down to the car so thanks Joe for helping me do that [Music] oh it's pretty cool I would more blast eternal back home in Raleigh it's time for the cleanup [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm Scott Laborde creator of rock out lounge and I hope you enjoyed our adventure to Arkansas [Music] you

Channel: Rock Hound Lounge

Views: 139,161

Rating: 4.8684363 out of 5

Keywords: Arkansas, crystals, gemstones, jewelry, rockhound, treasure hunting, quartz, rock crystal, prospecting, digging

Id: f9GyKKeyOiU

Length: 22min 47sec (1367 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/synapsesynopsis]

Are those chlorite phantoms in that cluster @22:00?

Nice video, thanks.

[u/jmonty70]

If your ever back that way you should check out Crater of Diamonds in Murfreesboro. My wife visited there and had a great time. We didn't find any diamonds but had a great experience.

[u/woopigsmoothies]

Arkansas is seriously underrated as a geology spot. Besides the world class quartz crystals, there is the igneous intrusion in magnet cove and all of the minerals associated with that, the diamond bearing kimberlite in Murfreesboro, the best Ouachita exposures that show the transition from stable shelf to orogeny and foreland basin formation, and in northern Arkansas you have nearly all of the Carboniferous exposed with some great exposures representing the transition from mississippian carbonates to Pennsylvanian clastics. The Ouachitas and northern Arkansas exposures are utilized by big oil and gas companies for field trips. Nearly all of the rocks being drilled in Oklahoma outcrop in Arkansas and provide a great place to study them. Also from a paleontology perspective, lots of cool ammonoids and nautiloids to be found in the Fayetteville shale and let's not forget the dino footprints in South Arkansas. What a great state!