This is my true account about a trip that a friend and I took to the world-famous and now defunct Elmwood Mine, in Smith County, Tennessee, back in 1994, when the mine was still in full production. We flew into Nashville, Tennessee, on the 27th and 28th
of April, for this well planned-out trip. Our intent was to visit a number of "suppliers" of fine-quality Elmwood specimens of fluorite, calcite, strontian-barite, barian-celestite, galena and of course, sphalerite. Our goal for this trip was not to
make "monetary" profit. Rather, we wanted to relax, have a lot of fun and purchase enough specimens to repay the expenses of this trip and the cost of the best specimens, which we would want to keep for our own, personal collections. Thus, this trip was
to be an "Elmwood Vacation" for us.
On the day that I arrived in Nashville, the 27th of April, my friend, who was supposed to meet me at the airport, was held up by bad weather in New York. So I had to wait for him and spend the night at a local motel.
Day One
28 April 1994
At about 9:00am, I received a phone call: My friend had finally arrived in Nashville! He had rented a 4-door sedan at the airport and was ready to drive over to the motel. He soon picked me up and promptly headed directly for Carthage, Tennessee, about
a 2-hour drive away. Once in Carthage, we were to rent a room at the Cordel Hull Motel, for the next three days.
My first experience with the Carthage "Natives" was with the hotel management, who were VERY Indian and loved spicy, Indian foods! As we approached the front desk to check in, the acrid, almost overpowering aroma of curry could be readily detected. It
resided in everything that this spice came in contact with, right down to our room key and the Elmwood specimens which covered the majority of the front desk top in this office! As my friend checked us in, I eagerly looked through the specimens on the
desk. One in particular caught my eye: It was a very old Elmwood specimen, which had a pleasing surface of lustrous, skeletal, pinkish-purple fluorites to 1/2", with a small, 1", orange calcite, which laid flat on the matrix. Now, that wasn't too
unusual, I thought. But what caught my eye about this specimen was the 1/2", lustrous galena, which had tiny, though beautifully-transparent, second-generation sphalerites growing on the side of it! I had never seen an Elmwood specimen with so many
different minerals on it before! When the time was right, I politely asked the lady at the desk about this specimen. I offered her an appropriate sum for it, and she accepted! Wow, I just bought my first Elmwood specimen in Carthage, and I had only
been there 5 minutes!
Once finished, we quickly made our way to the motel room and without hesitation, started making myriads of phone calls to all of the people that my friend knew, who might have Elmwood specimens for sale. This process turned out to be VERY successful, and
we were able to drive out and visit the first person no more than an hour after our arrival in town. When we drove out to meet this first person, we were immediately greeted at his drive way as we came in, and were quickly ushered into the house, out of
sight. Once inside, we were then given an opportunity to briefly introduced ourselves. Afterwards, we were promptly escorted to the small kitchen where we noticed several large, cardboard boxes laying on his floor, nearest the dining room table. We
soon found out that ALL of these were packed to the TOP with carefully-wrapped Elmwood minerals! He immediately started us off with the lowest-end box. As we began to unpack this first box, we discovered that most of the specimens were wrapped in what
we coined a "dim-sum" manner, as many of the specimens were wrapped together in wads of toilet paper. About 10 minutes into this unwrapping process, we decided to stop and make an offer on the whole box, without seeing the rest of what it contained. It
would have taken us another hour or more to see all of the specimens, as the pieces were quite small, most being less than 1" in size. We could only guess that hundreds/thousands of thumbnail and small miniature-sized pieces of varying sphalerite,
fluorite, calcite and strontian-barite specimens remained in the box. One particular specimen that we did unwrap, had a super-rare "fish-tail" twinned calcite, on a crystallized-dolomite matrix, with a small, 1/3" purple fluorite crystal! (This specimen
now resides in my private collection) There were also some fine, 1/8"-1", transparent fluorite crystals, with very nice cubic phantoms. These had just come from the 229 Heading, in the Gordonsville portion of the Elmwood mine. Being pleased with these
sample specimens, we made a bid on the entire box, which was quickly accepted. We then proceeded to rewrap these specimens before another box was to be opened.
As this deal progressed, each box contained better and better material. To me, it seemed that as the specimens got better, the humidity in the room increased exponentially, along with my blood pressure. At one point, I utterly couldn't see what we were
buying anymore, as I was blinded by the beads of perspiration rolling down my face. Flustered by this, I was forced to go out to the car, rip open my bags and quickly change out of the jeans and shirt that I was wearing, and into some light shorts and a
T-shirt. I don't think that I was gone for more than 1 minute! By that time, we had already amassed a spending spree of thousands of dollars, but the best was waiting for last. In the last box, which was about 2.5' on an edge and weighed well over 80
pounds, were DOZENS of 2" to 6"+ cabinet specimens of fabulous, classic Elmwood pieces! Most of these consisted of multiple, undamaged, brilliant-blue/purple fluorite cubes on fine, lustrous sphalerite matrixes! A few of these specimens even had the
highly desirable "clear-cornered" fluorites, with some single crystals being over 3" on an edge! Other pieces were either single, detached, 12", twinned, lustrous Elmwood calcite crystals or fine matrix calcites, with multiple calcite crystal on the
classic Elmwood sphalerite matrix! I was blown away! My friend did all of the talking, while I sat back in one of the wooden chairs, breathless, taking in the view:
Here in front of my eyes and within my grasp were Elmwood specimens finer than anything that I could have ever dreamt. A lightly-clothed table covered with mounds of brilliant sphalerite, vibrantly-colored purple fluorite cubes, orange "football"
calcites and white barite hemispheres lay in front of me, oddly lit by the mere crack of light peering through the tightly drawn shades, mixed with the single, incandescent bulb lighting the kitchen... I was so excited that I was perceivably shaking and
had goose bumps from head to toe. (To this very day, I can still see that table as clearly as if it were still in front of me.) I was in utter disbelief and denial: Several of these were soon to be mine!
After some trivial wheeling and dealing, we became the new owners of these unbelievably-superb Elmwood specimens! From this person alone, we received four 2'-2.5' boxes of Elmwood minerals! My friend and I hastily loaded the 200+ pounds of Elmwood
specimens into the back seat of the car and quickly departed. We were in awe! This was a great start to this first day! I couldn't wait to get back to the hotel room so that we could pick out what we wanted for our own collections! But, this would be
greatly delayed, as the day was JUST beginning!
We proceeded directly to another house and were again met at the door and quickly brought around to the side of the house. There, we were greeted by yet another table, covered with various, colorful Elmwood specimens. About one quarter of the pieces
were fine, while the rest ranged from decent to crumbs. This person really wanted to sell all of these to us, but it just wasn't worth the shipping costs to mail these low-end crystal fragments home. As my friend continued to look at the specimens on
the table, I had a nice talk with the gentleman. Intertwined within our varied conversations, he mentioned that he needed $75 more than what we had bought, so that he could pay for his daughter's recent dental bill. Not thinking much about this, at the
time, we wrapped and boxed all of the specimens that we had purchased, thanked the man and were heading back to the car, when... he said: "Wait a minute, would you like to see one more thing?"
180 pound Elmwood fluorite
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We kindly agreed. So, he brought us around to the far side of his house, away from the road, where lay "The Elmwood Specimen From Hell"! It was composed of a 2 foot by 1 foot thick plate of dolomite, quartz and sphalerite, which was capped with about
100, 3", clear-cornered, purple fluorite cubes! This man had put motor oil on the specimen to "shine it up"! So, there we were, looking at a 180 pound Elmwood fluorite specimen, sitting on the outside of this guy's house, in the dirt, covered with motor
oil... seemed kind of strange, wouldn't you say? As my friend and I stood there with our mouths gaping, the man said: "If you don't take this thing, I am going to bury it in my garden. I don't want anyone to see it!" Ok... My friend and I had a
private conference to discuss the logistics of this piece. He felt that this guy would want a lot of money for it. But, I told him that I would bet him a case of beer that this guy would take $75 for it! Nevertheless, he wanted to wait and think about
it. So, we told the man that we would come by the next day and give him an answer. Thus, we drove off, leaving the awesome Elmwood specimen behind, my face glued to the window, watching it until, alas, I couldn't see it anymore. I thought that we must
have been crazy to leave it behind! My friend's only reactions were that it would cost us a fortune to mail it home and it would be nearly impossible to clean...
Next, we took a nice drive out to a long-time "supplier" of some really fine specimens. Once inside his house, this man pulled out some heavily-wrapped specimens. The wads of toilet paper were about the size of a golf ball. I was getting REALLY
excited! As this man started unwrapping, the wads of toilet paper got smaller and smaller, while the TP grew into an astounding pile. To my surprise, instead of fine specimens within each ball of TP, a tiny fragment of fluorite, calcite or some other
crystal crumb would appear. My friend and I looked at each other with a comical smile, twisted with horror. For token's sake, we bought a few specimens. Then, my friend popped a BIG question: "Can we get an underground tour of the Elmwood/Gordonsville
mine?" I couldn't believe it! Why would he ask such a thing? Now normally, this question would be met with ridicule and laughter, as the management doesn't normally allow tours. But, we were at the right place at the right time! It turned out that
this person had the right political connections. Success! My friend must have had some great, personal insight to ask such a question! Tomorrow night was going to be one that I would remember for a lifetime! I was ready to die a fulfilled mineral
collector! We were to meet a person at the Gordonsville Shaft, the next evening, right before the shift change, so that we could go down with the Swing Shift crew. I never knew that buying mineral crumbs and asking "dumb" questions could be so
personally satisfying!
For the rest of the day, minutes seemed like hours... waiting for that mine tour! Crazy thoughts of huge, crystal-filled pockets danced though my head; fluorites, calcites, galenas, sphalerites...! Why does a day have to be only 24 hours in length?!
With the car running oddly smooth, from the incredible weight of all of those Elmwood minerals in the back of it, we returned to Carthage for a well deserved dinner. Afterwards, we spent the rest of the evening unwrapping the specimens that I had so
eagerly waited for! We systematically looked though all of them and carefully picked out the very special and magnificent pieces that would be cherished in our own, personal collections. Then, we carefully repacked the specimens that we HAD to sell,
into new, stronger, cardboard boxes and packing material, for their journey back to Reno. There were so many specimens to rewrap, that it took DOZENS of pound of newspaper to properly wrap all of them, individually. I really got into the "crumpling" of
this paper, into usable packing material, as I was still on a "mineral high" from the days' previous, incredible experiences! I literally was crumpling so much newspaper so fast, that I had one side of the entire hotel room 3' thick with it! It was like
a great, crumpled-paper swimming pool! It was then that I received one of many of my nick-names: "The Paper-Crumpling Factory"! In the heat of this idealistic moment, I strongly considered FILLING the room to the ceiling with crumpled newspaper, as a
special treat for the management! Could you imagine it?!
This whole process of rewrapping these specimens took several hours, as there were hundreds of pieces. So, it was nearly 1:00am before we finished. I had black ink over every exposed part of my body from the newspaper! After taking an ink-removing
shower, it was at least another hour afterwards, before we, I, quit talking about our minerals and the Elmwood mine tour scheduled for the next day.
Day Two
Though I had very little sleep, because all of the excitement from the previous day, and what sleep I did get was consumed by recurring dreams of Elmwood minerals, I was wide awake, excited and ready to go for it again! What would this day bring?
The first person that we drove out to meet, had about a dozen really superb Cumberland Mine calcites, from the 12 South Heading. Some of these calcite crystals exceeded 14" in length! The one specimen that I kept and prized, had a superb, 6"+, doubly
terminated, twinned, lustrous, golden calcite, very aesthetically perched on a
matrix of crystallized dolomite, sphalerite and strontian barite. This fine specimen sat up in a manner so perfect, that it almost seemed intentional!
After purchasing these specimens, jumping up and down like idiots and drinking a beer, we decided to go back to the man with the huge fluorite specimen and make him an offer for it. As we approached, I noticed a dirt-covered shovel leaning up against the
side of his house. ARRGGGGH! Did he bury the thing, like he said he was going to? Luckily, no! I guess I was being paranoid; he was just cleaning out a flower bed.
We made the man an offer of $75, which he quickly accepted. Lets, see, that's about ~$0.42 a pound, for a huge Elmwood fluorite specimen... I picked the 180 pound specimen up, like it was nothing, due to my excitement of purchasing it. I put it in the
trunk of the car, which caused a considerable lowering of the vehicle, and we drove off, ecstatic over our newest acquisition!
We continued to visit other people's houses, throughout the rest of the day. We bought a few specimens, here and there. Nothing was super spectacular, and most specimens were quite small.
Suddenly, it was getting time for our tour! Skipping dinner, we quickly drove over to the Gordonsville Mine Shaft! We arrived about 15 minutes before the shift change. It was very dark and quiet. No one seemed to be around. So there we sat, in the
dark... Then, a person came out of nowhere and escorted us to a building, where the mine lights, hardhats and self-rescuers were housed. We donned the appropriate/required safety equipment, were given a detailed safety awareness lesson and then headed
for the mine shaft! The headframe was an enormous, metallic monster, with a just-as-impressive hoist house. The pungent smell of diesel and machine exhaust caught me by surprise, as the gusts of hot, humid mine air blew by us, caused by the rapid,
downward motion of the hoist cage dropping 1400' into the earth. Dripping water, blurred levels, loud noises; they were all part of the experience of this "trip" down to the main working level of the mine. This whole trip down only lasted about 5
minutes, but my ears must have popped a dozen times. Finally, the cage slowed, bobbed up and down at least 5 feet, from the stretch in the hoist cable, then stopped. The door open and we became witness, first-hand, to the Elmwood mine! Within this
mine, hundreds of miles, of "Room and Pillar" workings occurred. It wouldn't be hard at all to get lost in there. We walked through mud puddles, acrid diesel exhaust and the ever-present 100% humidity, towards the underground motorpool, where our
transportation sat, parked. We climbed aboard this vehicle and began a 20+ mile, 2-hour guided journey through this mine, visiting the 229 Heading along the way, where some of the most recently-exposed sphalerite and fluorite mineralization occurred.
2-3/4" tall calcite crystal from the 2078 Heading.
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Along the way, we drove by a sign pointing the way to the 2078 Heading, famous for its production of exquisite, glassy, totally-transparent, cognac-colored calcite crystals. These calcites were easily among the very finest that were found from this mine
and are still, easily the finest calcites from North America, and to me, the world. This was a holy moment for me, to see this; My Mecca! This simple sign would be a sight in which I would never forget.
As we went on, we passed LHD's, trucks and miners. We stopped off at various places within the mine to bear witness to the huge, cathedral-like hallways and immense, eery stopes. From these deep, underground chambers, rich pods of sphalerite ores were
produced, as well as world-class mineral specimens, which now dazzle fine collections around the world. Along the pillars in these areas, veins and pods of sphalerite were still exposed.
Author collecting from pillars in Elmwood mine. Note the sphalerite pods in the pillar.
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We were allowed some modest collecting in the muck and along a few, stable pillars. Thus, I have self-collected Elmwood specimens in my collection!
All too quickly, it came time for us to leave, and for our host to go back to work. With my samples in hand and a gallon of sweat clinging to my clothes, we began our last Elmwood mine adventure; riding the hoist cage back out to the cool, dry air at the
surface. We returned our borrowed safety equipment and left the mine, which was just as quite and dark as when we arrived, leaving no trace of our great, lifetime adventure that we had just experienced.
We returned to the hotel room and proceeded to get REALLY plastered, in celebration of our wonderful tour! We had many a drunken laugh and vivid flash-back about our experiences from that day. I looked through and cleaned my Elmwood specimens that I had
collected. I had two very nice sphalerite miniatures and two specimens with 1/3"-1/2" purple fluorite crystals on a sphalerite matrix! Though modest, these represented my purest interest and fascination in minerals: Self-collecting!
Day Three
This day started out slow. Hung-over and with no one available to go see, we stayed at the hotel room into the late afternoon, wrapping minerals and preparing boxes for mailing. I "oodled" again and again at my self-collected Elmwood specimens, feeling
very privileged to have had this wonderful experience.
Then, the action began, again! We were finally able to contact a person, who had just returned home. He was a simple man, in worn overalls and a greasy hat, who spoke with a thick, southern accent. After inviting us in, he showed us some specimens, up
to 4" in diameter. We purchased several pieces, including a fine, 3" long, undamaged, very lustrous calcite, which was doubly-terminated and aesthetically perched atop the gray, shale-like matrix! After a pleasant conversation and a beer, the man then
pulled out his big surprise...
This specimen consisted of two major calcite crystals on a matrix of silicified dolomite, quartz and huge, single sphalerite twins. The largest calcite crystals measured about 22"(!) long and was completely undamaged. It presented itself in a horizontal
fashion, with one termination pointing towards to viewer, and the other being opposite of such. Off to the left of this crystals, sat yet another gigantic calcite, measuring about 18" long. It had a single, slightly damaged termination pointing straight
up, off of the matrix. At the base of these two hugs calcite, lay dozens of the largest single, twinned sphalerites that I have ever seen from this mine. The largest much surely have been almost 2" in width. Around the largest calcite crystal were a
few, 2-3" hemispherical globs of creamy-white strontian-barite. This specimen, must have weighed well over 80 pounds!
The gentleman only wanted a modest amount for it. But, my friend decided against buying the specimen, as he felt that we simply had no room in the car left for such an enormous specimen. So... I denied his generous offer, as well. Thinking back now, I
wish that I had personally bought it and carried it on my back, to get it home. What a wonderful specimen it was...
After returning to the motel, we once again separated the fine specimens that we personally wanted from the specimens that we were not going to keep. Since we had not nearly as many specimens to wrap, compared to the two days before, we got to bed by
midnight.
About 1:00am, we were jarred awake by the blaring rings of the telephone. Half asleep, my friend answered the call. About 15 seconds into the conversation, he told the caller to come right over! "What was going on?" I thought. We got up and waited for
our visitor to come by. Half an hour later, a grungy, grease-covered worker knocked on our door. In he brought several, still-wet boxes, full of very large, exquisite specimens of HUGE, light-purple fluorites and huge, golden calcites on matrix! The
largest calcite, though detached from matrix was at least 14" long, and had multiple terminations on either end of the C-axis twin that it represented.
This single crystal must have weight 6 or 8 pounds! Another, super-fine specimen had over a half-dozen ~4", light-purple fluorite cubes on a sphalerite matrix. This fluorite plate was over a foot wide! My favorite specimen was one that had a very fine,
nearly undamaged, 8" golden calcite with good luster, which naturally stood straight up. Along the front of this large calcite crystal, sat two, incredible, 3" cubes of light-purple, transparent fluorite, attached to the front base if it, holding the
calcite up in a manner which optimized both the calcite and fluorite crystal's display angle! My friend and I were in awe! As we offered him a good price of these specimens, he quickly cut us off, stating that his friend told him that he should ask for
$40 more that what we offered him. To us, this offer was more funny than serious, because of the way he presented it. We happily paid the man and took possession of the fine specimens. Needless to say, it was well into the twilight hours before went
got back to sleep. I had some VERY sweet dreams that night!
The next day, we had to leave Carthage and drive back to Nashville. In our car, over 500 pounds of fine Elmwood minerals sat, along with two very excited men! Heavy boxes of minerals were stacked on my lap, in the front passenger's seat, with all of our
luggage at my feet! The entire back seat and trunk spaces were all tightly and completely packed for a maximum mineral load... The poor rental car faithfully droned on...
In Nashville, there were some, how should I say, less enthusiastic mailmen who had to load all of those heavy, mineral-laden boxes into their warehouse, for transportation to Reno! The 180-pound fluorite specimen had to be mounted on a full-sized wooden
pallet, covered with cardboard, tightly strapped down with metal bands and moved with a forklift, as it greatly exceeded the maximum weight for the standard mail service delivery. This shipping escapade was to be our last Elmwood adventure in Tennessee.
Today, because of this trip, I now have many, exquisite Elmwood specimens gracing my mineral cabinet. And even more important to me, I still and always will have very fond and vivid recollections of those three days at Elmwood.
Scott Kleine
Reno, Nevada
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