Quartz is big in Arkansas. I had no idea how big. There are commercial mines and find-your-own tourist mines. Out of the several touristy mines, Wegner Quartz Crystal Mine had the best reviews.

There are tours at certain times, something I didn’t know about because I literally did no research beyond, where-is-this-place. Luckily, we were just in time for the 11 o’clock tour.

We went to the bathroom because when I asked if there was a bathroom at the mine (we’d be spending two hours there), I was told, “Well, we have trees up there.”

We got on the back of a pick-up truck that had seats built into it, and warned each other as low hanging branches appeared. On the tour was a 80 year old woman who travels the world with her dog. She was awesome.

The mine looked like a plowed field with a pit to one side. The dirt was bright orange and the quartz glinted in the sunlight. Our guide taught us how to hunt for crystals while the previous tour group waited in the back of the pick up truck to be taken back.

Basically, you dig until you find a crystal. Our tour guide said he was a little bit of a snob and only went after crystals that had perfect points to them. He found a couple of tiny ones and showed us.

NOTE TO ADVENTURERS: Call and ask when the last time the field was overturned. It had been awhile since the field was overturned and all we found were the tiny crystals other tour groups had disregarded as being too small.

We found two types of quartz: thick clusters that were opaque and looked like white rocks, and small crystals no bigger than our pinky fingers.

Two hours was a little long to be hunting for crystals in the searing sun. We were a little disappointed in our finds, but we didn’t want to use the emergency cell phone to have him pick us up. It wasn’t an emergency; we were just ready to go. We ended up sitting in the shade for about 20 minutes until the truck came back.

All in all: I wouldn’t recommend it. Maybe if they had just turned over the field, it would have been better. All our crystals are so small, we’re not sure what to do with them. If we had found bigger pieces, we could have put them on the mantle or something. Instead, we have small pieces we are afraid the cats are going to play with.