UPDATED 08-27-04   This is an old archived page . please click on breaking news or fieldtrip page . JXR IS CLOSED .  Soon the  Georgia Mineral Society will have their field trip to jxr . I'll be doing some work out there soon but no exact date has been set .  email sio2ga@bellsouth.net  to book a visit .     I have some    -- NEW ---   cool jxr amethyst for sale at this link :  http://stores.ebay.com/dixieeuhedrals.com     Everyone that has visited the jxr dig site has found at least something good , maybe not amethyst but at least the killer vug linings of sparkly micro quartz druse .    One guy found a 3 inch killer amethyst while many other folks have found smaller thumbnails of smokey quartz attached to a druse coated vug lining.          06-20-04  saw some exploratory work  with a 15000 pound 4 wheel drive cat backhoe .  I had some suspicion of amethyst in the area, having found some awhile ago of  good facet quality that I had dug by hand with my road dog  : Mr. Glen Hay .    Back in january when I had an extra machine i had emplaced a 13,000 pound trackhoe right over the hole pictured above.   I asked my associate diggers to dig some here while I was busy in the big hole with the big machine .  They didn't find anything over a day of digging so I had the hole filled.     Someting bugged me about this and last weekend when the machine was delivered I went straight to the same spot and commenced to digging . Within a few minutes I found a good crystal and then with more digging came more xls . Then around noon time I hit a fairly large pocket of killer gemmy facet grade amethysty of deep colour .  This continued into the second day when I found a second pocket which was no deeper then 4 foot deep underground !   This is well within reach of pick and shovel hand digging .  Come Sunday evening it was time to tidy up the place and get the machine ready for pick up by the good folks at Reliable Rental in Martinez, Georgia .    A crystal from the dig is pictured at bottom of page.    I found a few that was better than the one pictured .         Anyone interested in going to the new jxr site should e-mail me for information                     The new Wilkes Co. pay to dig amethyst site is located in Northwest Wilkes county , Georgia , between the communities of Rayle and Tignall in an area known as Jackson's Crossroads ( abbreviated to " JXR" ) .        IN 1920 Tiffanny Jewelers mined for amethyst near the site  and around 1970 some guys digging a hole to hide moonshine also made a discovery of amethyst near the area.   In approx. 1988 the area was clearcut logged and a fellow by the name of Plemmons rambled across the clearing and discovered excellant gemmy deep purple amethyst.   As the pine thicket grew up , deep in the woods along a winding path , people dug for the incredible specimens.   Some had permission but most did not .    As is typicall with hand dug sites , a depth of aprox. 9  feet was reached by those that dug .   A mere scraping of the surface , but considering it was hand dug it was an amazing feat of human strength , determination , and perseverance .  In the year 2000 I  was granted  permission to bring a small machine to dig. As time went on and the property  changed hands I was able to bring progressively  larger and powerfull equipment to bear  . Although  I graded the area flat , boulders remain near the surface and just under it . These boulders contain vugs that are druse lined and some have gemmy deep purple amethyst .  The quality of these are sometimes of  incredible water clear clarity and of a deep purple colour that is quite unique .   The quality of these specimens meet or beat any other American amethyst .  The place will be available on a pay to dig basis , perhaps as soon as this Saturday , May 22 .  $15 per person , and there will be a 20 pound limit on the amount of material that can be hauled off per person per day  ( one five gallon bucket of material ) . Anyone interested in going should e-mail or call 404-975-8005  .  look in the links section and click on the yahoo photo album to see amethyst pix from this area .