Huntin' Crystals at Rucks Pit

I've been waiting for the day when I could load up my girls and head off on a whole day's exertion of fossiling or hunting crystals, and until now they were just too young to take off to the river or a quarry. But when Em turned 5, I thought it's time. It's time to take my baby a diggin'.

Even though it was pouring rain when we pulled out of the driveway early this morning, it didn't stop us and we headed south to Okeechobee.


I was so proud of my little girl. When we arrived at the quarry it was still raining and chilly, but she was just as excited as I was to be there. She strapped on her tool belt, slid on her rain boots, and was off!


She used her pick and hammer, smashing into the million year old clams hoping to find something wonderful inside. We dug and sorted through piles of sediment for hours. Although we didn't find anything spectacular, this time we spent together was more than extraordinary! It was an absolute dream come true for me. I LOVE to dig, mostly for fossils, but gemstones will do to and I couldn't have been happier to be doing that today with my daughter.


....and she LOVED it too!

Our Treasure

Fossilized Clams with Dog Tooth Calcite Crystals. The fossil Clam is called Mercenaria Permagna. It is from the Pliocene - Pleistocene era. So the clams that produce these crystals were alive roughly 3 million years ago. These clams are found in Okeechobee County, Florida. A perfect mix of fossil and mineral from the Nashua Formation of Okeechobee Florida. There is no other location that produces large perfect golden calcite crystals inside shells! The matrix is a mixture of fossil shells in fossilized kelp, which is largely composed of titanium.