Second Nature

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If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Places to Dig 

           Digging Quartz Crystal
Planning a trip to dig for quartz crystal?
Here are a few things you need to know.
Wear old clothes, take buckets, shovels, small hand digging tools, lots of water to drink, pack a lunch, sunscreen, take a truck if possible, and plenty of good gloves.

Starting with the top picture is the rock shop at Coleman's Miller Mt. In Arkansas near Hot Springs. Next is the mud you will be digging in, this is why you wear old clothes, you may want to change there when you are done and then throw them in the trash.

The next three pictures are rocks from this location. First is how you find them. This is how you want to transport them, with the mud on. This helps to preserve the points. You will then clean this off with time and a water hose set on stun the plants. When you get them clean and the vugs no longer have mud in them you are ready to clean them with oxalic acid. You can buy this on site or order from off the internet. For instructions go to Cleaning Quartz Crystal.

The last picture is one of my best clusters, I'd sell it, but not for less than 500.00.

Cost to dig as of 2003, 10.00 per person per day, no limit on what you can haul out.

             Digging Geodes
Planning a trip to Keokuk before they demolish the famous Shefflers Rock Shop?
If so, do it soon! The highway improvements that our Missouri government thinks is worth destroying one of the neatest sites in Missouri is only about 40 miles away.
Betty Sheffler and her son Tim Sheffler are still in business and will continue to be, but the famous shop will be gone. Pleas to our government to save this unique shop have fallen on deaf ears. They not only will not change their plans,  they will not pay to move the shop. Worse yet, the Missouri Government claims to be short of money, and there is not enough traffic to warrant a double lane highway in that area. Write your congressmen and senators!

We recently discovered that we live just down the street from this great rock shop, about 300 miles. The trip was well worth the 5 hour drive. We met Betty in person and talked with her about how she got started. We spent the better part of the day digging for geodes that they are famous for. We got our limit and a few pounds over! The digging was fairly easy and the rewards great!

To get there drive straight up highway 61 from our house and your there! It's the unique home and shop made of every rock  you can think of, and a few you can't get any more!

Tim Sheffler and his rock-hounding friend checking out our finds for the day! That's the back of our trusty Toyota!

Things you will need:
Buckets, lots of water, gloves, pickaxe, a good shovel, chisel, hammer, pack a lunch, OFF or Repel…, sunscreen, and a truck if you got one.

The old site is closed to the public, but the new one they have is easier to dig in. The geodes in the old mine are imbedded in hard shale and it doesn't give up it's prizes as easily as the clay and soft shale at  the new mine.

Currently for year 2003, it costs 15.00 per person for up to 50 pounds each and 75 cents a pound for any that you want to keep over that.
We managed 128 lb. on our trip and paid the difference! It was well worth it!

Here are a few of the geodes that we unearthed from Shefflers Mine.
Several of these from the new mine have Kaolinite in them, a white powdery mineral.

Calcite on this side and on the other side there is sphalerite. This is a double geode.

Dog tooth calcite with stilpnosiderite,
visible with a 10x loupe only.

Unusual formation, blocky xls coating calcite?


This one broke open when I was washing it, it was already cracked and that's why it's stained, calcite.

Mostly sphalerite with a few  calcite clusters.