At first light I stirred in my snug bed and slowly came fully awake. “ZIPPPP” “ZIPPPP” My fingers reached outside and into the chilly air. Next my head poked out, then the rest of me. I emerged next to my tent and stood with a creaky stretch officially greeting the morning. The camp was right where I left it with a lantern, a cooler, and a stove. Cups sat inside dishes and handkerchiefs made makeshift tablecloths on the enormous cement picnic table. Soon I was making coffee and camp came to life once more.

After I finished breakfast I strolled to the water spigot and filled a jug in expectation of the finds that I might come up with later. The sun streaked along the rolling foothills and chased the shadows away. A hint of warmth from the sun touched my skin, and I thought it might reach the mid eighties by afternoon. Pretty soon it was 8:00 am and time to leave. I finished tidying up camp and took a look inside the tent to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. I got into my car and drove into the desert toward the Cathedral Opal Mine.

My car was packed with mining equipment. There were shovels, picks, trowels and buckets in the back seat. I wound my way through the sharp turns, steep hills, washes, and rutty sections, tools clattering all the way. My car churned up a trail of dust that could be seen for miles. The landscape was dry and dusty with rocky soil and sage brush; there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Finally I rounded a corner and saw the homestead of the mine. I drove slowly in and pulled into the parking area. I was greeted by a group of four dogs which approached the car wagging their tails. I stepped out of the car and patted several of the dogs’ heads before going in to the mine office.

The mine was run by Ellen McCormick, a descendant of the pioneer James McCormick, who first opened the opal mine in 1916. I entered an office where the decor was made up of all kinds of antique oddities. An old washboard and basin stood in one corner, barn wood and old tack lined the far wall. An antique cash drawer stood on the counter, while small tins and old medicine bottles sat in still repose on the shelves. Over on one side of the room was a lighted cabinet filled with incredible opal specimens. Ellen made her way to the counter, and we said a friendly, “Good morning”, to one another. Ellen was a beautiful thirty something brunette with fascinating eyes. I told her I was interested in working the bank for the day and she provided me with the forms I needed to sign in. I filled in the forms and paid the ninety dollar fee. I hoped that my investment would be worth it.

The mining location was about a mile from the office. On the way I passed a herd of burros; they “heehawed-heehawed” at me as I drove by. I reached the digging site and picked out a location to start. A camper parked parallel to the bank and a couple of pickup trucks were the only other vehicles. The tools and buckets all came out of the car. The picks and shovels were stacked against the rear bumper, and everything else was laid out where I could get to it. The bank looked awesome; it was about seventy-five yards long and about seven to eight feet high. It was carved from the side of the hill by bulldozers. Around the area were tailing piles, huge mounds of dirt and clods. I examined the bank and found a good spot. I was truly ready to start digging. I put on a hat and some gloves, grabbed a pick, and went to work.

Each swing of the pick brought showers of dirt from the dry outer layer. As I worked taking the drier dirt down, I thought about how this soil was only exposed because of the work of bulldozers removing approximately 20 ft. of overburden. I was looking at dirt that was a geological time capsule. It held the remnants of life from 30 million years ago.

As I started picking at the bank, I saw a pale opaque piece of opal. I stopped and carefully pried out a small limb cast. The piece was without color, and I just noted the area it came from and continued working. When I had finished clearing away the debris from the picking, I re-examined the bank, I hadn’t found anything yet and wanted to get situated better. While I was doing this, I found a tiny piece of black opal sticking out of the bank at about knee level. I bent down and carefully removed it. It was common opal, but it got me thinking that the area could be promising.

I went to work and soon was finding more of the black stuff. This was jet black and looked a little like glass. It was exciting to be finding opal. I uncovered a little more black opal and found it had some color to it. With the sun over my shoulder I looked at the piece more carefully, and it was full of brilliant fire that looked like hundreds of multicolored pinpoints. The outer edges of it were light colored with gorgeous fire; the rest was black with fire.

This find was exhilarating. I put the piece in a plastic tub of water and set it carefully in the trunk. It was my first good find of the day, and I had only been digging less than an hour. The piece came from the bottom part of the bank. As I picked and picked searching for more opal, I slowly made an undercut. The two foot wide groove inched its way under the bank with each swing of the pick. Eventually I would have to stop and bring down everything above as undercutting was not allowed. I learned that when you make a find, everything goes into slow motion. You freeze, and pinpoint what you saw and where any pieces of it may have dropped. I hit opal a few times with the pick and it made a horrible sound like breaking glass. I discovered a few more pieces with color in the groove area, and then the opal petered out.

I dug and dug and didn’t find any more opal for an hour. As a change of pace I took the wall above the undercut down and cleared away all the dirt with a shovel. A couple of times I hit opal and had to search for pieces that fell off into the loose debris. I found a piece with bright color that was a crystal opal, meaning it has a clear body. Some pieces of it were knocked loose, and I found some of it in the dirt.

I took a lunch break and ate a sandwich and a candy bar. It had reached the eighties like I had estimated and it felt quite warm. I drank plenty of water and sodas to keep hydrated. So far I had found a few pieces with color, and I had more than made up for the fee I was charged.

I dug the rest of the day and found a few more small pieces. I found one piece when I wandered over to the tailings and searched through them for awhile.

At 4:30 Harvey, one of the mine employees, rode up on an ATV. Harvey was a friendly man with a keen eye for opal and loved to talk about the finds of the day with the diggers. He came over and said “Hello”, I said “Howdy”. I showed him what I had found. He said it was a good day’s haul and congratulated me on my finds.

It was time for the mine to close so I packed my tools back into the car, got a cold soda, and slowly drove back down to the office. At the office Ellen had just the thing I needed for my pieces; one of her glass specimen domes. She picked out a dome to house my beauties then she put the pieces inside and dipped it in a bucket of water to fill it instantly. She expertly placed the stopper and pressed it into the dome, squeezing to let the air escape. She handed it to me and it was breathtaking. In the light the opals sparkled with immeasurable beauty.

I thanked Ellen and told her what a wonderful time I had. She said “It’s always easier to find opal when you’re having fun doing it”. I laughed and said goodbye. I walked out into the sun and holding my opals up gasped at their beauty.

I went back to camp and took down my tent and packed my belongings. When I had taken a shower and changed my clothes, I was ready to say goodbye to this magical place.

The ride home from St. Mary’s Valley was filled with ideas of how I could return again. I had made such wonderful discoveries in the ancient clay, and had such a beautiful memento to show for it, that it was only natural I would want to return.

I went back to my life and my job, and it was hard not to think about the trip from time to time and to fantasize about finding the big one.