This photo below shows me digging at the back portion of the
main original pit at Jackson's Crossroads at my amethyst mine
on one of the rented backhoes I used at the time. This photo
appeared in the Mineralogical Record"s article about Jackson's
Crossroads Amethyst.
06-20-04 Soon the Georgia Mineral Society will have their field trip to jxr . I'll be doing some
work out there soon but no exact date has been set . email sio2ga@bellsouth.net to book a
visit . I have some -- NEW --- cool jxr amethyst for sale at this link :
http://stores.ebay.com/dixieeuhedrals.com Everyone that has visited the jxr dig site has
found at least something good , maybe not amethyst but at least the killer vug linings of
sparkly micro quartz druse . One guy found a 3 inch killer amethyst while many other folks
have found smaller thumbnails of smokey quartz attached to a druse coated vug lining.
06-20-04 saw some exploratory work with a 15000 pound 4 wheel drive cat backhoe . I had
some suspicion of amethyst in the area, having found some awhile ago of good facet quality
that I had dug by hand with my road dog : Mr. Glen Hay . Back in january when I had an
extra machine i had emplaced a 13,000 pound trackhoe right over the hole pictured above. I
asked my associate diggers to dig some here while I was busy in the big hole with the big
machine . They didn't find anything over a day of digging so I had the hole filled. Someting
bugged me about this and last weekend when the machine was delivered I went straight to the
same spot and commenced to digging . Within a few minutes I found a good crystal and then
with more digging came more xls . Then around noon time I hit a fairly large pocket of killer
gemmy facet grade amethysty of deep colour . This continued into the second day when I
found a second pocket which was no deeper then 4 foot deep underground ! This is well
within reach of pick and shovel hand digging . Come Sunday evening it was time to tidy up the
place and get the machine ready for pick up by the good folks at Reliable Rental in Martinez,
Georgia . A crystal from the dig is pictured at bottom of page. I found a few that was better
than the one pictured . Anyone interested in going to the new jxr site should e-mail me for
information The new Wilkes Co. pay to dig amethyst site is located in Northwest
Wilkes county , Georgia , between the communities of Rayle and Tignall in an area known as
Jackson's Crossroads ( abbreviated to " JXR" ) . IN 1920 Tiffanny Jewelers mined for
amethyst near the site and around 1970 some guys digging a hole to hide moonshine also
made a discovery of amethyst near the area. In approx. 1988 the area was clearcut logged
and a fellow by the name of Plemmons rambled across the clearing and discovered excellant
gemmy deep purple amethyst. As the pine thicket grew up , deep in the woods along a
winding path , people dug for the incredible specimens. Some had permission but most did
not . As is typicall with hand dug sites , a depth of aprox. 9 feet was reached by those that
dug . A mere scraping of the surface , but considering it was hand dug it was an amazing feat
of human strength , determination , and perseverance . In the year 2000 I was granted
permission to bring a small machine to dig. As time went on and the property changed hands I
was able to bring progressively larger and powerfull equipment to bear . Although I graded
the area flat , boulders remain near the surface and just under it . These boulders contain
vugs that are druse lined and some have gemmy deep purple amethyst . The quality of these
are sometimes of incredible water clear clarity and of a deep purple colour that is quite unique
. The quality of these specimens meet or beat any other American amethyst . The place will
be available on a pay to dig basis , perhaps as soon as this Saturday , May 22 . $15 per
person , and there will be a 20 pound limit on the amount of material that can be hauled off per
person per day ( one five gallon bucket of material ) . Anyone interested in going should
e-mail me. look in the links section and click on the yahoo photo album to see amethyst pix
from this area .