Lexington, KY - I have had a love affair with fossils, Native American stone artifacts and semi-precious stones since I was a child. I've purchased stones but I haven't gone on a lot of rock hounding ventures. I discovered the Clement Mineral Museum and their monthly mineral dig and decided to take my chance to find a few pretty crystals. The museum is in western Kentucky, in Marion, where I also stayed the night before at the Myers Bed and Breakfast, just a few blocks away from the museum.
The museum is open 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. I arrived on Friday afternoon before the scheduled Saturday dig, which are scheduled between April and October. The museum offers a morning dig and an evening dig. Manager Tina Walker took me and other visitors on an educational and fascinating tour of what truly seems to be the "largest and finest collection of fluorite specimens in the world,"
as the Clement collection has been called.
The descriptor from the brochure matches the reality of thousands of awesome specimens of fluorite crystals in a rainbow of colors, as well as countless additional mineral samples. The Museum displays mining equipment; case after case of fluorite octahedrons; amazing hand-carved critters created by hand by a night watchman (and tempts with a pretty nice gift shop as well). There is much fascinating history about founder Ben E. Clement on their Web site (www.clementmineralmuseum.org).
I stayed overnight at the Myers Bed and Breakfast (124 E. Depot St., Marion, Ky.). Jim and Merle Myers have opened their home to travelers from around the USA and world for 15 years. After visiting with my hosts in the restored 1880s Victorian main house I opted to spend the night in the cottage in back. There I found a cheerful bedroom with fridge and microwave, bathroom off that room and spiral staircase to an additional loft with more beds. Jim even loaned me one of his books of local history for my reading before bedtime. For more info on the bed and breakfast, call (270) 965-3731.
The next morning I was ready to get dirty and join fellow rock hounds who were waiting at the museum. We were led by Bill Frazer, president of Heartland Materials, who gave us a friendly introduction and talked about safety. Diggers must make reservations and sign a waiver. We brought buckets, shovels, gloves and some folks had rock hammers and chisels as well. The weather was sunny as we followed Bill's pickup a few miles away to the Columbia Mine. You could feel the excited tension amongst the diggers, some of whom were seasoned rock hounds. There were families, too, including children, amongst the group of about two dozen.
We drove the last stretch on graded gravel road and parked near a creek in a grassy field. Bill led us up a short incline to the big pit, which is likely always filled with mud and water. Folks scattered around the piles to look for easy surface pickings, quickly finding little fluorite crystals. I clambered down into the side of the pit but held back from entering the sweet spot where the main fluorite vein was located. One man did go there, he worked hard for hours, knee deep in water, and came up with some really nice crystal clusters.
Fluorite is not as hard as diamond or even quartz; it's only a "4" on the Mohs scale of hardness. Some folks were prepared with newspaper or paper towels and wrapped their crystals. I tagged along with a man from Albuquerque who walked to another mine site past the grassy meadow. He searched for galena, sphalerite and other minerals I was just then learning about.
Back at the Columbia mine I chatted with Ed Clement, the son of founder Ben E. Clement, who handed me four little crystals, including what he called "acid grade fluorspar." Both he and Bill Frazer seemed to constantly circulate among the diggers, offering help, little specimens, tips, encouragement and friendly advice. I wish I had more time to hear first hand about the history of the mines. I do know that fluorspar was mined there in Crittenden County since the 1800s, peaked in the 1930s and faded by the 1950s. The fluorite mined had numerous industrial uses including the processing of nuclear materials.
To Get There
To Get There
To get there from Lexington you can take Versailles Road to the Bluegrass Parkway west to Elizabethtown. Take I65 South with the parkway ends to get on the Western Kentucky Parkway toward Paducah. After 132 miles, take Exit 4 and turn right on US 62. Shortly, turn right on US 641, then eight miles to KY 70/91. Follow that for a little over nine miles to Marion, Ky., where you will turn right on East Bellville Street. Finally turn left North Walker Street. The drive takes a little under four hours. The Clement Mineral Museum is located at 205 N. Walker St., Marion, Ky. Call (877) 965-4263 for more information.