Early August
of this year, the opportunity to leave New York temporarily presented itself. I
had been committed to supporting New York through the COVID crisis, and had
adapted to a professional and personal life that mostly took place over Zoom,
while praying for the safety of fellow New Yorkers and family. However, the
chance to stay in a cabin in Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, with the Chattahoochee
National Forest outside the cabin door, was pretty compelling. So after taking
a detour north to Chester, Massachusetts, for a job, and the chance to
rockhound near the abandoned emery mines of Chester (another story), my better
half and I moved to a cabin outside of Cleveland, Georgia.
One of the very first things I
did, after registering to vote, was to contact the nearest gem and mineral
club. I found the Northeast Georgia Mineral Society, https://www.negms.org/, and sent an email to the President
announcing my desire to find out what they were doing, and then I waited. I did
not have to wait long before Claudia Barton, President of the club reached out
to me over the phone for introductions. She invited me to the next meeting,
that take place the first Thursdays of every month, reminded me to wear a mask
and that the meeting, while in person, would be socially distanced, and to
expect a meeting that starts on time and includes announcements, a lecture, a
raffle, social chit chat, Eastern Federation news, and a meeting that would end
on time. All of that proved accurate!
The club is very supportive of
each other. Presently some members are in the hospital, and each meeting
includes an update on their progress, and a way to send a card or message. We
are very lucky that Joe Cooper, the Eastern Federation Region 7 Vice President
is one of our members, as well as our Field Trip Coordinator. Joe always share
any news, updates, matters from the Eastern Federation, and as the club’s Field
Trip Coordinator, has arranged some field trips that are a rockhound’s DREAM!
My real-life job is in antiques
and fine art. In the 18th century, people of means would visit the
finest cities of Europe, seeing the sites and collecting souvenirs (now quite
valuable antiques and works of art) along the way. This trip to see the finest
cities of Europe was known as the Grand Tour. Well, our Field Trip Coordinator
Joe Cooper arranged a rockhound trip that I immediately started referring to as
the “Grand Tour of Rockhounding!” Joe, club members Robin and Jennifer Findley,
and members of another Georgia club visited the finest mines of Arkansas, the 2
different Coleman Mines, and another near Mount Ida to collector minerals and
crystals, and what impressed me most was that They Took a U-HAUL! While I was
not able to attend this field trip, at the November meeting they showed off a
fraction of their finds, and they were so good, personally, I would have
preferred an armed guard to accompany them to and from their cars! So, the club
likes to arrange rockhound field trips, and as another member of the club
shared with me, “in this part of Georgia alone, you can find just about every
North American mineral.” I am personally indebted to Joe Cooper as well
because, as (due to work projects) I could not attend the Grand Tour of the
Finest Mines of Arkansas trip, I was eager and anxious to get out in the field
and rockhound. Joe was kind enough to share a local site with me for quartz
crystals, and while it took me 3-4 phone calls to Joe , including Facetime
visuals of where I was so Joe could guide me, I found the unusual, small quartz
vein exposure, and was able to accomplish some rockhounding on my own.
Another leader of the club is
Richard Walter, who, in addition to giving great lectures (I have only heard
Richard speak once, but I consider myself a tough critic of public speaking),
is also the club’s newsletter editor and Recorder and Secretary. Richard puts
together monthly a newsletter that I really enjoy because he includes detailed
notes from the previous month’s lecture. That is so valuable as we do not
always have pen and paper with us to take notes at a meeting, and there are
always nuggets of gem and mineral information one wants to research independently.
As well, like a paparazzi, Richard is able to catch some photographs of the
meetings that add great context to his descriptions. Not every member of the
club uses email on a regular enough basis to rely solely on an electronic
newsletter, so I find Richard’s commitment to mailing the newsletter to those
members very commendable. Richard was the speaker at the first meeting I
attended. The topic was “The Lazurite Minerals,” and from Richard’s very
welcoming style of speaking, to the specimens he had to pass around, to the
interactive aspect of his talk, I was very impressed, and when I came home that
night I said to my better half, “I just heard a lecture about lazurite and
sodalite minerals that I would have paid $50 to see!” It was just that good a
lecture, and I don’t think it was meant to just impress me.
Other leaders in the club I have
met include Robin and Jennifer Findlay, who have held various board roles. At
the last meeting I attended in November they shared a fraction of their finds from
the “Grand Tour” of Arkansas Mines that I can not stop talking about. They
brought back museum worthy specimens, admitted they will be cleaning crystals
for “at least a decade,” and shared stories comparing and contrasting one mine
to the other. As someone new to the area, that was a very valuable part of
their November talk. We all have limited time, and with the investment in time
required by any rockhound trip, knowing where to go is invaluable. Robin and
Jennifer have also both been responsible for the club’s messaging outside the
monthly newsletter, so I welcome all of their emails to my inbox.
There are many other members I
have not met yet, but I hear very good things about them, and look forward to
2021 when we can all assemble together in fellowship and celebration. COVID has
kept the meetings to a minimum, albeit responsible group, and, coming from New
York, the tragic epicenter of COVID, I was very comfortable, grateful, and
thankful for the COVID safety measures I found at the Northeast Georgia Mineral
Society.
In summary, the club President,
Claudia Barton, leads a club that I have found educational, interesting,
friendly, and welcoming. Keep in mind I come with a very high bar of excellence
having been a member for many years of the New York Mineralogical Club led by
the late Mitch Portnoy, a friend whom I miss, and also as a member of the
Island Rockhounds, led by Janice Kowalski, and by Cheryl Neary, both dear
friends of mine whom I love hanging out with and also miss.
I recommend a membership to the If
any members of the Eastern Federation, or the AFMS, have plans in 2021 to visit
Georgia, whether that be a business trip to Atlanta, or for a holiday to North
Georgia for hiking or rockhounding, please get in touch with the North Georgia Mineral
Society. You will find you have friends there, as I discovered.
Join the
Northeast Georgia Mineral Society, and find fellowship, field trip
opportunities, and gain gem and mineral knowledge at https://www.negms.org/
Charles
Snider continues to post rockhound adventures through the rockhounding blog
American Geode, at http://www.americangeode.com