Category: paleontology

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Rockhounding, Hiking, and Exploring the Geology of North Georgia

Yonah Mountain

Since moving back to North Georgia in late 2024, American Geode are loving and appreciating the chances for rockhounding, hiking, and exploring all the geology and geologic wonders of North Georgia. The North Georgia geology is a lot of metamorphic, so while there are few fossils to be found, North Georgia is full of quartz, some garnets, some amethyst and the rare gold discovery in Dahlonega that kicked off the first American Gold Rush and the infamous “Trail of Tears” for the Cherokee Indians (http://www.americangeode.com/blog/dahlonega-gold-rush-museum-review/). One of the benefits and advantage of living in North Georgia are that we are in the middle of dozens of state and federal parks, with plenty of variety for hiking experiences in the mountains.

We recently visited the Charles Smithgall Woods, https://gastateparks.org/SmithgallWoods, for a day hike to see Mount Yonah. The Smithgall Woods were gifted to the state of Georgia by philanthropist Charles Smithgall who also started a dog and cat shelter that American Geode supports, https://charlessmithgallhumanesociety.org/. This hike is just under 2 miles and can be completed in less than an hour unless you stop to smell the Georgia mountain laurel and take selfies in front of one of the best views of Mount Yonah. American Geode hiked the trail called Laurel Ridge Trail, and it was a delight.

The American Geode team hiked it during the week, so the crowds were a little lighter than on the weekends. While rockhounding is technically not permissible, we enjoyed so much admiring the geology of the hike as it descends up and then down a mountain. We took so many pictures and spotted numerous varieties of butterflies and saw a copperhead snake from the distance, whom we did not approach but seeing a copperhead was magnificent and a thrill. Hiking is a great workout, and we look forward to hiking all the trails of Charles Smithgall Woods. See our pictures of Mount Yonah (aka Yonah Mountain around North Georgia) and imagine what a gorgeous landscape you will see depending on the day, weather, and time of year.

Contact American Geode directly for any advice or questions, and enjoy rockhounding North Georgia!

Yonah Mountain
Yonah Mountain
Yonah Mountain
Yonah Mountain
Yonah Mountain
Yonah Mountain
Geology of Yonah Mountain, North Georgia
Geology of Yonah Mountain, North Georgia
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Paleoart collection of Original Vintage Artwork used for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 Calendar

Paleoart Original Artwork used for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 Calendar

American Geode are also paleoart, art, and antiques appraisers, dealers and collectors, and we very recently acquired the entire vintage private artwork collection of PaleoArt that was used in the 2002 calendar of the American Museum of Natural History, New York. The artist who had lived in New York City and worked at the museum, moved to North Georgia, which is also the homebase of American Geode now, and we have had the chance to become friends with her and share our love and appreciation for the museums of New York City, especially the American Museum of Natural History. Here is an article and review about AMNH from our most recent visit: http://www.americangeode.com/blog/tips-for-visiting-the-american-museum-of-natural-history-amnh-in-new-york/

These sketches are preserved under wax paper with the annotations and notes on the wax paper. The paleoart sketches themselves are so charming, educational, and cool; they speak for themselves. We are cataloguing this collection of PaleoArt and will offer it for sale sometime this year.

Please contact American Geode directly if you would like more information. We will also be posting images on social media, https://x.com/AmericanGeode. Below is just a portion of this magnificent special PaleoArt collection.

PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
Paleoart Original Artwork used for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 Calendar
Paleoart Original Artwork used for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 Calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
PaleoArt for the American Museum of Natural History 2002 calendar
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Knoxville Gem & Mineral Society 2021 Show!

Knoxville Gem & Mineral Society 2021 Annual Gem Show

Rothchild Conference Center 8807 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37923

Friday, October 15, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Saturday, October 16, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Sunday, October 17, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm

As a precaution for Covid masks will be required for admittance.

The show will feature 23 vendors with a wide variety of jewelry, fossil and mineral specimens, meteorites, gemstones, and decorative objects. There will also be educational activities and gem and mineral ID tables. Admission Adults: $6.00 Run of Show Pass: $10.00 Children Under 12: Free

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Summerville, Georgia Agate Rockhounding Trip 2021

Summerville Georgia lace agate

Through one of the gem and mineral clubs to which we belong, we were invited to rockhound for lace agate, banded agate, moss agate, and druzy quartz from a private mining site near Summerville, Georgia.

I arrived and was lucky to have the entire mining area to myself except, over the course of the morning and afternoon, 2 different couples stopped by to collect agate, and a family was out on a rockhounding trip.

American Geode takes that attitude that if you can, take a lifetime supply. We filled up every bucket and bin we brought, and also picked up many large and heavy agates. The stone was plentiful. The only time we used our tools was to break apart a behemoth stone into more manageable sections. We found moss agate, lace agate, banded agate, and our favorites had druzy quartz pockets.

The beauty of these stones were not easy to see without being splashed with a little water, but we ran out of water, so started collecting more than enough to overcompensate as we expected to have some stones better suited for the garden. On a recent gem and mineral meeting over Zoom, when I was showing off these fine agate specimens, I learned that the agate, and the stone formation containing covers a lot of Northwest Georgia, even into Tennessee, but it is on private land, or federal park land, so not available or accessible to the general public.

This agate tumbles well, but it loses a lot of surface area during the tumbling. It is beautiful however, and we are sure that a cabochon or lapidary person would have even more fun with this agate.

We are selling this agate here: https://www.ebay.com/usr/americangeode

  • Summerville Georgia lace agate
    Summerville Georgia lace agate
  • Summerville Georgia lace agate
    Summerville Georgia lace agate
  • Summerville Georgia lace agate
    Summerville Georgia lace agate
  • Summerville Georgia lace agate
    Summerville Georgia lace agate
  • Summerville Georgia lace agate
    Summerville Georgia lace agate
  • Summerville Georgia lace agate
    Summerville Georgia lace agate
  • Summerville Georgia lace agate
    Summerville Georgia lace agate
  • Summerville Georgia lace agate
    Summerville Georgia lace agate
  • Summerville Georgia lace agate
    Summerville Georgia lace agate

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Gardening Benefit for Cabochon and Rock Tumbling Rockhounds

We have been tumbling North Georgia river stones, and most recently the Summerville Agate, in a 20lb barrel from MJR Tumblers. Each stage of tumbling takes about a week, and at the conclusion of each tumbling stage, I have been dumping the grit and the agate and river stone grit into the flower garden. The flowers LOVE IT! The rose bushes are more plentiful than ever before, and deeper colors than they were last year. One small rose bush that was red last year, was almost tie-dyed looking with streaks of white. The red impatiens are now a shade of orange. The mint and parsley plants are overgrowing! While this is not fertilizer, I can only guess the plants appreciate this concentrated mineral content in the otherwise mostly red clay soil. After I do dump the tumbling grit sludge into the garden I dilute it, and that happens naturally because I need to clean the tumbling barrel before the next stage, and also need to rinse thoroughly the stones before starting the next tumbling phase, or polishing phase, so I am hosing down the barrel and stones over the garden too, and that helps dilute the sludge and make it run over more of the garden to be soaked up.
I am sure that the sludge mix from a cabochon workstation would have the similar effect on your outdoors flowering plants. Never dispense of tumbling or cabochon grit down a drain, and no never, dispense of that valuable mineral sludge, but add it to your garden. For any questions about gardening, or rock tumbling, feel free to contact Charles at charles@americangeode.com.


Hope this is helpful!