Diamond Hill Mine in South Carolina
While visiting nearby mines and quarries open to the public I found Diamond Hill Mine in South Carolina.
The location has a few pits that they use the large machines seen in the first photo to do "machine digs"
They will move large amounts of soil to allow rockhounds to find fresh gems that would be hard to get to otherwise.
Digging through these piles you will find all kinds of crystals, amethyst, smokey quartz, beryl and many other gems.
After a good rain you can also walk the areas and see them sticking out of the ground!
We found a stream and spent a good amount of time searching for gems in there, it paid off quite well.
Muscles and other river life was found too, not sure what they are.. maybe snails?
Lastly one of the crystals @ryulincoln found, crystal with iron oxide stains.. more to come!
All these adventures make me go out and dig for gems haha. Definitely have to do this - when I finally got time again.
With "rockhounds" you mean those machines, I guess - and not an animal haha?
Hah I saw these places on Youtube and made me say the same thing, so I went there.
Rockhound is a term for rock collectors. Hah not machines, though some may seem like machines but they are human :-P
Okay haha - I have never heard that word before, I think, so I googled it and only found some machines haha. Now I know the real meaning haha. Thx! :D
That is the first picture that comes up:
hah, what are the odds.. didnt know of that machine.
Cool photos and thanks for sharing!
@snowyknight
Thanks much!
Thank you!!
An interesting photo essay and commentary.
@momzillanc
Appreciated, these adventures can get pretty wild so I hope im making sense in writing about them.