You can see it from the Homer Leg Bridge. You can see it from Wilkes County long before you get to it. Graves Mountain. Just how does Lincoln County come to have a mountain when the nearest mountain range, the Blue Ridge Mountain range, is about 100 miles away up near Clayton? The answer lies in an odd word, "monadnock," an isolated small mountain that rises abruptly from a plain.

You've seen monadnocks before. Stone Mountain, for instance. You could say a monadnock is a mountain in waiting. Imagine an enormous rock deep within the earth, covered by loose soil and softer rocks. As the millennia roll by, erosion sweeps away everything but the monadnock's harder rock and it rises as the surface wears away. It's sort of like when a man goes bald. All the hair goes away, and a bald head emerges.

Graves Mountain's story is one of complex geology. Its original rocks were deposited about 300 million years ago. Then during the continental collisions, the Lincoln County region was forced down into Earth's mantle and subjected to heat and pressure. New minerals formed and existing minerals changed. Many times heat and pressure formed different minerals until they metamorphosed into the erosion-resistant schists and quartzite we recognize today as Graves Mountain.

The dominant mineral emerging from this geologic change at Graves Mountain was kyanite—a blue silicate mineral—and it caught industry's attention. Commercial mining began in 1963, and at one point, Graves Mountain produced half the kyanite in the United States. And much of that kyanite went into the ceramic material used in spark plugs. Is there a chance you drove around at some point with Graves Mountain kyanite beneath your hood? I'd say there is.

An interesting thing happened on the way to mining all that kyanite for spark plugs and other uses. The blasting exposed rutile, a lustrous yellow gem, perhaps the mountain's most coveted specimen. At one point during the kyanite mining, the mining company prohibited gem collecting. This didn't stop collectors though, who intent on getting specimens, got the word to mine workers. Equipment operators who spotted a shiny rock would get down from their equipment to "relieve" themselves and grab the rock for an eager collector.

Gemstone collectors love Lincoln County rutile, and today people all across the world know about Graves Mountain. It's famous. Ask any rock hound where Georgia's most famous collecting site is. Your answer will be Lincoln County.

Of course, the geological community has long known about Graves Mountain. It was a famous mineral location in the 1800s. And that caught a lot of attention. None other than Tiffany's once owned Graves Mountain and its twin peaks, now blasted away by all that mining.

Back when I was at the University of Georgia, Garnett Wallace and I were taking a geology course and we went up to Graves Mountain nosing around. We figured we'd find some valuable rocks and make some cash. What we found was heat, a climb, and trouble. That was a long time ago and what I remember most is how we tried to climb a sheer face, got scared, and vamoosed.

Over the years I remember hearing a lot about Graves Mountain. In Mrs. Helen Turner's English class she said the ores being mined there would help build heat-resistant nose cones for rockets and missiles. I remember hearing about a "Lovers' Leap" there, common to many mountains by the way. Seems there was a cave there too that the mining destroyed. I've heard, too, that rattlesnakes are plentiful up there but I don't believe the habitat suits them, so that may be nothing more than a planted story to keep curiosity seekers away.

What is certain is the fact that Graves Mountain is the ultimate destination for collectors seeking worldclass gem specimens. Clarence Norman Jr. knows that. He's the caretaker in charge of Graves Mountain and he told me "the finest rutile specimens in the world come from Graves Mountain." Clarence, by the way, is holding a three-day dig and rock swap on the mountain October 3, 4, and 5. You can be sure plenty of rock hounds intent on collecting gems and minerals will be eager to explore Graves Mountain. Who knows what they will find.

None of this should come as a surprise. You can't say Graves Mountain has been right beneath your nose all these years. Just the opposite. It is famous, a Mecca for gem collectors throughout the United States. If you're tempted to check it out, I suggest you call Clarence Norman Jr. and heed his advice. It's a special place for rock hounds. But if you're just curious to check it out, you might want to pass. It can be risky. Some of the ponds are a bit acidic. It's a good hike up to the mountain, there's not a lot of shade, and some slopes are steep indeed. Garnett and I discovered that back in 1969.

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