COLLECTING RED JASPER, CHERT, AND SMOKY DRUSY QUARTZ AT
RINGGOLD, GA
July 15, 2009

by Ray Hill

Just recently I wrote a short article entitled “Where do you find rocks, minerals and fossils?” Well, I remembered my own preaching on this trip and it paid off!

Yesterday I drove north on I-75 from Atlanta, GA all the way to the Ringgold, GA exit, just a short distance south of Chattanooga. I got off I-75 at exit 348, which is State highway 151. (This is Catoosa County, Georgia.) I turned left across the expressway and went about a hundred yards and turned right onto a paved road, just before a Wendy’s, which is also on the right. I failed to see or find a name for this short road. It ran parallel to I-75 for about a third of a mile and then turned into a dirt road with fairly deep runts washed across it.

When I turned right off the main road I went down about a hundred and fifty yards and pulled into a large vacant field on the right. This open field was about a hundred and fifty yards square. Here I found some really nice looking red jasper, some with whitish streaks running through the material. It looked to me like this material had started out as chert nodules.

Here’s a photo of just a few pieces I picked up. This material was fairly plentiful here.

Here is a shot of the ground right as it comes out from under the roadway.

Right next to the open field there is this double drainage culvert that runs out from under the road there. Here is a shot of the ground right as it comes out from under the roadway. I scratched in this sediment here, using a three prong gardening tool, and found that there is lots more of the chert/jasper in this large wash. (See definition of chert/jasper) This open field is across the road from a business “Peach State Wrecker Sales”.

I made this drive to this site because ten or more years earlier, I had stopped and checked out this area. At that time I had picked up a few pieces of a smoky quartz drusy. Pieces from about one inch to about one and a half inches. The material looked like it had formed as a crust on a chert host rock. Well, it just so happened that after nearly an hour of looking I had not found a single piece of this smoky drusy. I was beginning to think that either others had come in and picked it all up during that long period of time, or it had gotten covered up, or something.

When I left this site, I continued on up the short paved road, more like a drive way actually. The paved road continue just a little way up a hill and then ended. Right where the paved road ended there was some kind of trucking place on the right. Just past this business the pavement stops and there is a rutted dirt road that continues from there. I only drove about three to four hundred yards past were the pavement ended. All in this dirt road and in the ruts and ditches there was my smoky drusy quartz pieces. Lots and lots of it. I reasoned that the material I had found down below, many years ago, had washed down from up here on the side of this hill. There was plenty of this material there. But, surprisingly, I did not find any of the red jasper nodules up on the hill. Not a single pieces.

Here is a photo of three pieces of the dark smoky drusy quarts specimens that can be found at this location.

I found three or four places in the dirt road where there was large areas of about two feet by two feet that had this dark smoky drusy quartz. I gathered about a cigar-box full of this material and left the rest for others. Tomorrow, I will finish cleaning my beautiful jasper pieces and smoky quartz drusy pieces and add them to one of my collection cabinets.

I must say here that I have no idea who owns the large vacant field down below or the dirt road just up the hill. It looks to me like it has been sitting, unused, for many years. I did look, carefully, and did not see any posted or keep out signs. And, I feel fairly comfortable that no one cares that a rock collector goes there. This is an easy collecting site.

Here is a link to the City of Ringgold, GA. The City of Ringgold and the surrounding area has a very rich history. Ringgold is well known as the once capitol of the Cherokee Indian nation, for the civil war battles that were fought there, and the fact that this area is a camping, boating, hiking, photography, nature, and recreation haven. It’s also a good place to go rock collecting. Check it out.

Ray Hill
Great South Gems & Minerals, Inc.
www.greatsouth.net
888-933-GEMS

Note: Only rock clubs have permission to print this article but must give credit to the author, Ray Hill, and Great South Gems & Minerals, Inc. For everyone else, please email us for permission.

Great South Gems & Minerals, Inc. www.greatsouth.net 38 Bond Drive Ellenwood, Georgia 30294 USA 1-888-933-GEMS (4367) FAX: 770-389-8095