MINERAL EXPLORERS | S1 | Ep5 | ARKANSAS

it's one of the most abundant minerals on the Earth's surface the quartz is anything but ordinary my name is Thomas Megan and I am a mineral explorer for the last 35 years I've traveled the world in search of the finest gems crystals and minerals now I'm taking you along with me visit some of the richest mines and discover just what it takes to unearth these natural treasures is gonna be one heck of an explosion it's okay come on my job takes me all around the world in search of rare and natural gems and minerals but my favorite stone is found right here in my own backyard Hot Springs Arkansas is best known for its healing waters which have attracted Native American tribes legendary baseball players notorious gangsters and even presidents but in the mineral community this area is famous for producing some of the world's finest courts prized by collectors and decorators for its beauty it's one of my most popular minerals most people don't really know this but because of its chemical structure every single quartz crystal naturally grows with six sides these aren't polished they're not cut they're naturally form like this I think they're amazing what most people look for is a clear crystal with a nice termination or point and no damage but quartz is more than just beautiful when electricity passes through quartz it vibrates an exact number of times per second this highly accurate frequency makes quartz an ideal mineral for radios watches computers and many other electronic devices but in the metaphysical community quartz energy is used for a more spiritual purpose touted by many cultures for its healing properties quartz is used in a variety of treatments I've been dealing with quartz for over 35 years and I've never had any kind of quartz treatment my friend Brenda convinced me to come in and give it a try hi Brenda good to see ya okay all right I'm excited I've never had a quartz treatment before I'm a registered nurse and I work for hospice I also am a certified Reiki Master teacher I'm a certified hypnotherapist and I'm a certified crystal healer okay I want you to start taking some deep breaths now that's right I believe there is a healing vortex here it's called the valley of healing because for thousands of years the Native Americans came here this was one of their sacred sites and they came because of the courts and the healing waters what the courts does is it amplifies your energy back to you it helps you to feel whatever energy you're holding within you so when you feel something from the courts you're really feeling your own energy your own self that was really restful really yeah it was really nice so very retired no I wasn't it was just yeah I wasn't really tired no I was kind of energized so I came in here but it kind of just really mellowed me out yeah that sweet cute little snow or going did we get the snore on Phil the best Arkansas quartz is found in the Ouachita Mountains surrounding hot springs nearby Mount Ida has dubbed the quartz crystal capital of the world and home to the annual world championship quartz crystal dig it's a competition dig and this year they've asked me to be a judge the competition is held in conjunction with the quartz quilts and Crafts Festival a showcase of locally made arts and crafts and all things quartz the competition diggers have two days to hunt for crystals at participating mines and are competing for the best cluster and point there are small family operated quartz mines all over this area the majority are open to the public who can pay a small fee to come in and dig for the day the two mines that are participating in this year's competition are the sweet surrender and the Wagner mines good morning welcome everybody to sweet surrender thanks for choosing us we're going to do our best to get you down in there digging some good rocks have a good time the mine is operated by Aaron skates and his dad Randy whose own sweet surrender for the last 14 years did anybody dig here before you guys were here yeah Randy said that whenever he opened it up he saw some hand digs some older ones and what looked like he said was ancient ones prospectors from you know 100 years ago or so and then even further back with the Indians you know it's just hot hole and it's all over this Ridge here for the Native Americans quartz was used to craft arrowheads and has even been found in burial sites thousands of years later people are still captivated by Arkansas's favorite mineral had two different kinds of water run over it two different kinds of minerals and there's a line right there that differentiates between the two colors so it was formed at different times during the years so there's different minerals in them this year's competition has attracted mineral enthusiasts from all across the country including seasoned rockhounds and first-timers you've never done for any kind of Chris I'm always wanted to do it I just collect rocks okay so have you found anything here so far that much I'm kind of digging here just trying to that's a really good crystal yeah [Laughter] glass points out of here and there's nicely these some different shape cabbies they're the flat crystals and then the normal crystals and some doubles this is I like this guy right a double term one yeah right now nice big double yeah nice big DT you know that's that's a good DT there yeah so this one is terminated on both ends that's why they call it a doubly terminated one did you find a pocket of them are you just finding them here and there it's it's the same it opens up a little bit just minor flat pockets we're hoping for a wider pocket but yeah it beats the office that's for sure yes we are finding that in the dirt is like wow that's pretty cool I just hit that there's a thrill to that it's like digging for treasure I think so yes [Music] on day two of the competition at the Wagner quartz mine many participants were finding loose quartz crystals right under their feet yeah they're pretty nice and glassy but former state geologist Mike Howard explains why the best crystals take a little extra work this is the sandstone right old rock and these are fractures that have been filled with quartz a little larger a little smaller these filled in rapidly and didn't have any pockets but this is the kind of thing you're looking to find where the junction or the intersection of two or more of those veins or open places came together because then you often have crystals that are formed in those larger open spaces so when you get two or more veins together it's more likely you're going to get a bigger space right and therefore nice crystal so with the people here that mine do is they follow these veins right right they hit one of these veins they'll follow it till it till hopefully it hits another vein on this side of the mine more serious competitors use tools teamwork and most importantly elbow grease to find the bigger harder to reach specimens some of the returning champions have their own tactics for finding the very best specimens I mean this let's see what else what else you digging out over there on the left that's all part of this oh okay that's part of that vein oh did you think we just made a hole oh I had blood all day that tore when it's raining your gloves get like this it's like wearing glass sandpaper you're grabbing these bars so but those quarts of wounds heal up pretty quick don't think I like to use the clay yeah I take this one out right here deeper than I thought which is good that's a nice piece you bet they weren't hooked together but that's aways a lot of times it comes out of the ground let's call a chisel point when it's square on top like that yep that's great you guys decent one right there but and it just keeps going down pain does yeah I see every time you loosen a whole life did he could just open right up into another one that's the bottom of the pocket huh yep when it comes out white quartz right there with time winding down we checked in with a few of the other competitors most found some pretty good rocks others not so good the big yard rock digging for crystals can be really tiring but with a little bit of patience and a lot of hard work there's often a big reward did you just Nick that yes I did oh great digging for Cuba two days the same same fit down there I know I've been seeing this part the whole time for the last two hours so I had the price why it's cracked a little bit right here so have you ever won a prize at a big deal everybody I bring here wins this time well your luck might have changed believe that's a great piece congratulations win or lose everybody leaves with a little piece of Arkansas at the end of the day the miners turn in one cluster and one point for judging the champions not only get to keep what they find but also win cash prizes and bragging rights besides myself this year's judges include local mine owners Judy Morton whose judged this event for over 20 years and Jeff borough of Collier Creek each judge gives the crystals of monetary value based on factors like condition clarity and form both of the points are perfect they're large it's not as clear as the last one that we were looking at but I think a little bit sighs I think when this cleans up all this mud will come out of here it'll be a really nice cluster it'll look totally different when they're playing the scores are then combined and those with the highest scores win looks to me like you're the highest one on there so cool I can't I can't wait to tell my brother he didn't come this year getting to dig your own that hasn't seen the light of day ever maybe it just means so much our first-place winner ie Doug it's a sweet surrender mine both days it rained very very hard and as I was walking down back down from my car wouldn't quit raining just a little tiny corner was sparkling in the Sun and I got so excited because this was just beautiful from Nelson Missouri [Music] yeah I was digging in at the Wagner mine and I found this the tip of this one and then I took another two hours to dig this out without damaging it at all I won first place track and then $250 check just friends and smiles it's against the rules for the competitors to clean the courts before they're judged once they take their treasures home they can really make them shine Tim Godwin has been working with me for over 20 years and he's a master at making courts look its best these are courses that just came out of the mine and still have the mud in this piece here for example is full of clay this is how it looks after it comes out of the mine and it's been rinsed once or twice but as you can see there's clay down in between the crystals now Tim could you rinse this sucker off for us here the crystals all get a high-pressure wash before going into an oxalic acid bath to remove the orange iron stains and the black bits of manganese well now that we have the basket full we're ready to put them in oxalic acid which we're going to heat up and boil overnight and then when we pull them tomorrow we'll have beautiful clear quartz a good long soak up to a week or so will also do the trick but the industry standard is to heat the acid almost to a boil to speed up the cleaning process then let it cool and give it a good rinse removing the stains really shows off the clarity Arkansas quartz is famous for making these pieces showroom ready looks good huh while clarity is king for some collectors and decorators it's all about size and the legendary Coleman's mine and Jesse Bill produces some of the biggest and best most visitors to the Coleman's mine dig their own crystals in the overburden that's been removed from the mine below but we've been granted special permission to go down into the pit to see how the big boys play with the best rocks they've recently uncovered a large pocket of course but it takes some heavy lifting before they can really get into it he's kind of tapping on the crystals down and when it sounds kind of hollow he can tell that it's it's kind of loose and it's ready to come off of the wall so you'll take the loose ones off first is that right yeah and by taking those ones that sound hollow off it makes it easier to take things out without damaging it so you get them out of the way and then you can take out the ones that are solid sound and afterwards oh look at that I can see that that sucker is really clear there's a really nice one that's terminated all the way around the Colemans have been working this mine for five generations beginning with Charlie Coleman today it's owned and operated by his grandson Ron Coleman who carries on the family tradition this pocket here it was just totally filled full of clay we pulled most of the clay out of it down to here this is just solid clay because it's just a big pocket those kids yesterday for helping me oneida that we're digging they love this Wow [Music] it looks like it's gonna be really clear all right this is a good size crystal and it would probably win a prize in Mount Ida but here it's just really a mediocre one it's still pretty nice all right wow that's a nice one it's got a little one growing on the side it's gonna be pretty when it's cleaned up wrapping them up and paper helps them stay protected until they get them out of the mine and they could clean them because just two of them bumping together will chip both of them their value can be diminished by 90% just by a little chip on the top termination with the majority of the loose crystals removed they can now bring in the bigger equipment to extract the large cluster how big is that thing it's gonna be a pretty good chunk to come it's a pretty good chunk all right [Music] getting ready to lift this baby out of there I can't wait to see what it looks like [Music] Wow oh these are fin these are fantastic crystals here and they're really clear oh yeah this is gonna be a fantastic cluster I can't wait to see what this looks like when it's all cleaned off you can see the points sticking out here all this mud will come out see there's some loose crystals in here like this when all of these come out and all the clay comes out they're gonna be really beautiful to get an idea of what these large clusters look like once they've been cleaned we met up with Ron nature is the world's greatest artist and the natural beauty of quartz was the inspiration for our last destination a once popular tourist attraction the Crystal Cave has been closed to the public for decades but the owner was kind enough to invite us in to document a piece of Arkansas history Wow Wow I bought the cave because it was an opportunity to protect it and to preserve it it's part of hot springs that I could not see destroyed this is a fireplace they actually had guests here looks like an altar there it isn't yeah that's one him she is the goddess of healing and compassion she's like the Dalai Lama she went to the gates of nirvana and turned back so she could help mankind and I find it fascinating that she's here so Quan Yin is the goddess of healing how appropriate that they should use Quan Yin and a cave that's filled full of crystals because crystals are also known as being a healing stone look at these crystals here these crystals are incredibly clear some of them especially you can see them all the way through them and you can see the striations on the back side of them and some of them are long and some of them are thin and some of them are big and stocky and they've put them together in a magnificent way that's really artistic they've mixed the clusters and the individual crystals together to make a room that's really a piece of art can you see through there it's amazing the number of really nice clusters and really nice points that are in them that are set in the walls here one thing I've seen is that quartz brings out the passion in people built by a father and son from their own collection this monument to quartz is an example of just how infatuated people are with this unique mineral just takes your breath away [Music] if you want to see more episodes or check out our mineral collection click the link in the description and of course like and subscribe to our channel thanks for watching and we'll see you next time on mineral explorers [Music]

Channel: Mineral Explorers

Views: 49,403

Keywords: MINERALS, GEM HUNTING, MINERAL HUNTING, MINERAL COLLECTION, ROCK COLLECTION, ROCK COLLECTING, TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, MINES, CAVES, EXPLORING, JEWELRY, GEM DEALING, JUNGLE, MINERAL EXPLORERS, SOUTH AMERICA, MINING, TREASURE, SPELUNKING, GEM POCKET, GEMS, NATURAL TREASURE, ROCKS, CRYSTALS, CRYSTAL COLLECTING, QUARTZ, ARKANSAS, COLEMAN MINE, QUARZ, METAPHYSICAL, CRYSTAL HEALING, MOUNT IDA, WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTZ CRYSTAL DIG, RON COLEMAN MINING, ROCKHOUNDING, MINING GEM HUNTING, CRYSTAL CAVE

Id: 9zdHEPtcT-8

Length: 26min 13sec (1573 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020