Arkansas Quartz Trip #Ouachita #Quartz

Arkansas wildlife--jackalope

I went a bit far afield from the Rocky Mountains this month and traveled all the way to Arkansas in search of crystals.  My digging partner (Bob) and I left Colorado Springs with 3 inches of snow on the ground and winds gusting to 40mph.  The forecast for Hot Springs Arkansas where we decided to stay was forecast to be in the 60s with no rain. Geology: Most of the quartz veins in Arkansas are restricted to a belt about 30 to 40 miles wide that extends a distance of about 170 miles west southwest from Little Rock, Arkansas, to eastern Oklahoma. 

https://www.fs.usda.gov/ouachita/ 

This area corresponds to the core region of the Ouachita Mountains. The quartz veins were formed by the filling of open fissures. Milky quartz crystals and associated vein minerals of the Ouachita Mountains were deposited from hot waters during the closing stages of a mountain building episode, ranging from the Late Pennsylvanian 300-286 million years ago into the Permian 286-245 million years ago. For more information about the geology of the Ouachita quartz fields see the attached link.   

Bob checking out some of the for sale quartz items

We left Colorado Springs and planned to travel as far as Oklahoma City the first day which is about 600 miles. The second day we arrived in Arkansas and made our first stop at a commercial claim by the name of Wegner.  We arrived around 12:30 and they said they had an organized tour of the open pit mine with digging at 1:30 for $20 a person, we waited for that and explored the on-site store. 

Large slabs primarily yard rock in my opinion on Wegners

Wegner’s also rented tools though I don’t know what that fee was.  We were hoping to trade some of our Colorado minerals for Arkansas minerals but all the folks we approached seemed to be overstocked in minerals and only wished to make cash sales.  Wegner’s store had a lot of product, but much of the indoor store material was not local quartz nor of very high quality.  I think we could have added some nice specimens to their inventory but they weren't even interested enough to look.  The specimens outside the shop were large and for the most part damaged.  I purchased one purple fluorite purported to be from Hardin County, Illinois along with my mine pass.  When I got home I removed the price tag from the fluorite and noticed a fairly large crack in the specimen hidden under the tag… sigh.  At 1:30 we got a safety briefing and then a group of about 12 of us got on a flatbed truck.  There was no tour of the mine nor any explanation of the local geology or history.  After a 10 minute ride to the mine they let us loose to dig in the dirt and cautioned us to stay away from the sidewalls dug into the hillside.  The driver suggested we dig in the dirt that had recently been overturned and look for crystals by raking the dirt.  

Going through the dirt gleaning for crystals was the
recommended approach though not very fruitful

We spent about an hour and a half digging through dirt and found very little.  Every once and a while we would hear a hoot or hollar from some of the folks on the other side of the hill so we wandered over there. We found a number of folks had drifted over to a cliff and were digging at it’s base.  Of course that’s where the nicer crystals were found (where we were told not to go in the safety talk).  By the time we figured that out the bus was back to pick us up and close the mine for the day. One digger showed us a bucket with 3 inch clear crystals on plates.  He was happy with what he had found but unfortunately he didn’t know to wrap any of the crystals and they were getting their terminations chipped up as they banged against other rocks in his bucket… sigh.  Evidently the owners of the mine did not enforce the rules, they just wanted to make sure you signed off on the rules and then left you to your own devices. A few boys appeared to have had a really good time. I think the more cuts they had on their hands the happier they seemed to be.  I didn’t see anyone wearing safety glasses either which can really turn into a problem with kids pounding rock hammers on quartz.

Primary drawback to the Wagner site was the limited amount of time given to dig.  Between the safety talk the ride to and from the site and organizing the affair you only got about 1.5 hours to actually dig.  I also thought the cost was too high for the time allotted to dig. There was some good stuff to be found here, but you had to ignore their rules to get to it.

On day 2 we visited the Sweet Surrender claim.  We met the claim owner and I could tell he just wanted our $20 and signatures on his disclaimer and safety information.  When we asked where would be the best place to dig he said near the anticline in the pit but that will cost you $250 each.  We paid him our $20 as a few more folks arrived.  Randy the owner also said don’t forget to close the gate to the mine when you leave.  So the only restriction at his site was to stay away from the recently dug area which was strictly off limits.  A limited supply of tools was available but no help was to be expected or available from the proprietor.  Randy left around noon as another lady (partner?) arrived.  There was some yelling between the couple before Randy left with our money. The lady Becky checked on folks to see how we were doing but left within an hour of her arrival. We met a couple folks at the dig including Benjamin pictured here.  Benjamin

I got a good chuckle out of this kid hard
at work and just had to take his picture

started strong but finished the day on his back. I found an area that we were allowed to dig on which held some promise while Bob drifted around a bit looking for a good spot. I pretty much stuck with the same spot all day as I had found a quartz seam with some small crystals.  I wasn’t finding much but decided to work that quartz seam within the wall and was eventually rewarded with some small glassy crystals and a couple crystal plates.  The digging was quite tough with shale and quartz surrounding the crystals. 

Digging into a narrow quartz bench between shale

Quartz seam I was digging

We both got a few crystals but were overall unimpressed with site management and the restriction imposed on where you could dig at Wegners. Many folks came and went with very little.

The owner left early, so anybody arriving after that could dig for free I suppose.  Many of the kids seemed to have a good time just running around and banging on rocks.  We finished up the day and made sure we closed the gate when we left.  You’re welcome Randy wherever you are.

Day 3 in Arkansas was our last day there so after digging two days in a row without any show pieces, we decided to check out some of the stores.  We went to a place called Coleman’s and were shocked by the prices for quartz crystals.  One plate was priced out at $24,500 it had several nice clear quartz crystals with some size, but if I were to price it I would have estimated its value at more in the range of $2,500.

Nice crystal group but overpriced by a factor of 10... note
the fancy stand for this high-priced gem

We walked around the site for a while and checked out their outdoor tables which were loaded with many different minerals though primarily Arkansas quartz.  Many of the large quartz plates were damaged.  I purchased one large plate for $25 and figured I could trim some of the poorer parts off the plate with my chop saw and make it presentable. I also purchased a couple of nice well formed  purple fluorites.  The fluorites were reasonably priced and I was told they were from Hardin County, Illinois. These fluorites were larger, gemmier and less expensive than what I had seen at other places. 

We found the Coleman sales ladies to be somewhat aloof and unfriendly which had not been our experience in the rest of Arkansas. When I mentioned how well the lady behind the counter wrapped and packaged my crystals her response was “I do it all day long dearie!”  My friend Bob could not find anything within his price range and quality restrictions so he passed on Coleman’s and we decided to try a few roadside vendors. On the way out of Hot Springs we took state highway 270.  We had done some research and knew there were a number of small rock shops on the way from Hot Springs to Mt Ida.  We kept our eyes open and saw a private residence that appeared to have a lot of specimens in their side yard.  We had been to another private residence earlier and were met with 3 barking dogs with attitudes.  We waited there for a bit but after nobody showed up we left the dogs and the rocks on the other side of the fence.  We had hardly parked the car this time when a friendly gent (Bill Phipps) welcomed us and started telling us about his crystals.  While he had a number of fine specimens not cleaned there were also a bunch or sorted specimens indoors, cleaned, priced and ready for display.  

Bill's private home and rock emporium

Bill told us a little about his history and interest in rock hounding as well as the geology of quartz collecting area. The extent of Bills collection/minerals for sale was very extensive and I would say overall very fine.  The quality of his crystals was considerably better than any of the commercial sites we had been to, except for the pieces that we saw at Coleman's which were way overpriced. Bill invited us into the basement of his house where we took in even more crystal clusters.  There were many displays of all kinds of quartz including phantoms and some twins.  Bill seemed to warm up to us quickly as he learned we were fellow collectors and knew a bit about quartz. We even got access to his employee only room which housed a couple hundred flats of crystals of various types.  My goal this day was to purchase a couple of nice pieces for my collection and a discounted flat to sell at cost to the folks at my Rock Club back home.  Bill gave deals to me as well as Bob and we left with some nice crystals and good memories.  Bill’s crystals were more reasonably priced than the larger commercial sites and the quality of his specimens was nearly unmatched, and he gave us some deals on top of it.  Many thanks to Bill for helping to cap off an interesting rock hounding road trip. I would stop here and shop from Bill again in a heartbeat--just don't let your prices creep up too much Bill.  

Musings:  I think for the most part (but maybe not all) the commercial operators are ripping off tourists.  Tourists are only allowed for the most part to sift through piles of dirt already gleaned through multiple times by other tourists.  The specimens of quartz offered are either broken or set at astronomical prices.  Most tourists have no idea what a good quartz crystal is and purchase a lot of what I would call yard rocks.  The spirit of caveat emptor is alive and well around Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Fortunately there are a few honest, reasonable folk like Bill who can make the serious mineral collector happy.  Bill will also work with you on pricing and at least make you think you got a good deal :-)  I’m not sure I would drive to this destination again anytime soon, but It was fun to do once and I enjoyed the experience. Perhaps flying out and back would be more productive. Sorry Okies and JayHawks, there's just not much to see along the highways in your states but billboards. The satisfaction of digging out some nice quartz crystals on your own appears difficult unless you know someone in the area. Perhaps a little more planning and reading more articles might have helped us. The commercial digs we went to are not worth the trip (maybe there are better ones). We did hear about another tour where you could get phantom quartz crystals and I would like to check that out another time. If you add in meeting new people, seeing a different part of America and enjoying some of the local cuisine you can make a rock hounding vacation out of it. If you happen to run into somebody like Bill the whole trip becomes much more satisfying and worth-while. If getting a few Arkansas quartz crystals is your only goal you might be better off looking at a few internet sites where you can probably get what you want. Perhaps you'd pay a bit more for specimens but save you a lot of gas money, lodging costs and time.  Bill also has a website at www.blueMoonCrystals.com. 

Some of the more outlandishly priced crystals at Colman's rock shop

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