The Crystal Tunnel of Diamond Ledge

In November of '98 we had the final Keene (NH) Mineral Club trip of the season to Diamond Ledge. My regular digging partner, Dick Holmes and I worked together to get down to an area that finally began producing at 3 PM, but we had to quit at 5 when it got too dark to work. So, when we returned in May, 1999, we arrived with high hopes for continuing our work from the previous fall. All winter our dreams had fueled our imaginations with visions of bottomless pockets laden with crystals. Imagine our letdown when we arrived only to find the 8' high root ball from a 6" diameter oak tree from the overhanging bank had come down over the winter, and was sitting squarely on top of our spot!

Undaunted, I produced a small hand saw from my backpack and said, "Let's go for it - at least we know nobody else has dug here!" We cut off the trunk as close to the roots as possible, then with the help of several other KMC diggers, managed to push the huge root ball away from the bank and just past upright. This allowed us barely enough room to excavate the pocket area from the previous fall, but enough is enoug. We
set to with spirit. We dug all day,
whittling away at the mound of dirt and rock that had collapsed into the excavation. Once this was out we still had more to take out, since there was ledge overlaying the pocket zone. Finally, at 2:30 PM we reached the bottom level, more than 12 feet below ground level, and just even with the entrance to our pocket from last fall.

Our flagging energy was boosted by the promise of nearby crystals, and we renewed digging with a vengeance. The pocket area seemed strangely empty, but this didn't bother us until Dick pulled out a crumpled blob, shook it out and held it up: it was an abandoned digging glove. Oh, no - it couldn't be! Someone had cleaned out our pocket before the tree had fallen into the hole. We had done all that digging for nothing!!

By this time a few of our fellow diggers were heading out, shaking their heads at our foolhardy venture. I couldn't stand the idea that we had put in all this work for nothing - maybe whoever dug it out had missed something, or maybe they hadn't extended the pocket all the way to the back. So, we took up our tools again and attacked the ledge, chiseling and prying out long, thin slabs of the native schist to expose the pocket area from the top. The pocket was about 4" high, 18" wide, and ran for over 6 feet under the rock we were removing. When we reached the bottom we discovered that the back edge of the pocket was indeed the back: it turned abruptly into solid quartz. We also found that the quartz vein pinched out as it ran along the length of the pocket. And worst of all, our predecessors had very efficiently cleaned out all the crystals. There was nothing left of our pocket.

Crestfallen but undaunted, we pushed on, removing additional sections of the ledge to see if the pinched out quartz vein might open up again. To our surprise, about 2 feet above the original pocket zone, there was an isolated pocket filled with small crystals. Unlike the other huge pockets we have hit at this locality, this pocket was only about 6" deep and 15" long, and nearly totally filled with small ½" diameter crystals 1-2" long. Strangely, there were almost none of the "corncob" overgrowths Diamond Ledge is noted for, and none of the stalagmite quartz fingers that are typical of the area. (These stalagmites are usually found in the bottom of the pockets. According to some they grew around anhydrite that later dissolved away, although at the Harvard Mineralogical Museum there is a specimen labeled "after natrolite".) Other than a few loose crystals, this small pocket produced no specimens.

Disappointed, we continued to work down to the original pocket zone, hoping for a lucky break. By now it was after 3 PM, and all our compatriots from the KMC had lefte. About an hour later, after much hard work, we heaved a final large block of the native rock away, and revealed a small opening into a rubble filled area at the bottom of the original pocket layer. Here the quartz opened up, and we finally had our pocket! Working against the clock due to the failing light, we excavated the pocket far enough to determine that we had a very promising find. Filling the pocket was a mixture of quartz plates and course dirt (no clay), tightly packed into a narrow rectangular "tunnel" all of 14" high, and 22" wide. The plates had fallen from the roof of the pocket, and were lying face down in the dirt.

Careful digging with a hand scratcher and probing with a screwdriver loosened the dirt and quartz enough so they could be carefully removed. These ceiling plates were heavily coated with a near-black iron oxide coating and had an attracctive sprinkling of the little stalagmites over 1-2" diameter quartz corncob crystals. The floor of the pocket was also lined with plates, but here the large quartz crystals were nearly covered with stalagmites. The right side of the pocket was similar to the ceiling, with nice large crystals and a light coating of stalagtites, but the color was a light brown to brownish black. In an hour we had filled 3 of our 5-gallon buckets with top-quality pieces, and had penetrated in about 3 feet along the length of the pocket, but had not reached the back. At 5:30 we decided to quit, knowing we would come back. Realizing we would not be able to return for several weeks, we filled in our workings with dirt and rubble, hoping to disguise our find from all but the most determined diggers, packed up our tools, and made out way back by faint moonlight along the trail to our car.

* * * * *

Less than a week later, Dick and returned for what we hoped would be a rendezvous with destiny at the already-opened pocket at Diamond Ledge. It's a special feeling when you are returning to a partially-cleared out pocket, knowing that what you already found is fantastic, and there is more just waiting to be pulled out (unless some interloper has trespassed on your spot!). The walk out to the ledges was filled with trepidation, liberally mixed with the excitement of anticipation. This time the fates smiled on us, and the dirt we had pulled down to cover our pocket was undisturbed by human hands. We set to with a will, and by 10 AM had returned to the point where we had left off 2 weeks earlier.

Now the work slowed, as we had to wriggle into the pocket by lying flat on our stomachs and scooting forward into a narrow opening about 18" square. The pocket did not open up in width or height, so it was as if we were clearing out a dirt and rock filled tunnel, working straight into the debris. This was complicated by the fact that the debris was in fact made up of plates of quartz crystals lying every which way in the clay, dirt and stone. All was packed tightly together in a compressed mass that had to be carefully pried apart with a screwdriver, the looser dirt scratched out with a garden scratcher, and the larger plates wiggled loose with a pry bar. Because of the tightness of the quarters, we took turns digging away at the face for 15-20 minutes at a time, followed by wriggling back out of the pocket to remove good crystal plates and debris, shovel away the muck, then repeat. Though this sounds tedious, it was in fact highly exciting, as we were pulling out fabulous quartz plate after quartz plate.

The highlight of the day came in the afternoon, as a stretch materialized along the right side of the pocket where we had cleared away the debris. This 4' x 1' section appeared solidly attached, but we managed to work a chisel in behind the first section and pop it off the bedrock. Soon, 3 more foot-long sections came away, and we had a fabulous unbroken 4' long section needing only to be reassembled! Another exciting moment was the discovery of a rare floater plate, with crystals on both sides. This was the first time we had seen anything like this from this area.



By late afternoon we had followed the cavity back until I could no longer fit inside. Dick, being considerably smaller in the shoulders, kept working alone with me as outside support for a long stretch. As we continued further back, the work became increasingly difficult due to the awkward working conditions and the scarcity of oxygen at the working face, which we had pushed back 8' from the original opening (twice we had to stop and remove overburden to make continued digging possible). At this point, we hit the back of the pocket and also the wall of endurance. We were thoroughly exhausted and it was after 6:00 PM.

Unfortunately, we had one final logistical nightmare: how to get all of our finds out to the car (almost 3/4 of a mile away!). We had enough to fill six 5-gallon buckets with crystals, including 4 large plates too big to fit into a bucket! This was way too much for a single trip. So, we decided we had to make 2 trips, and didn't finish our hauling until after 9:00 PM. After dinner at the local McDonald's we made a contented ride home, satisfied that we had finally "done" Diamond Ledge justice.