The Mount Ida Chamber of Commerce welcomed over 100 crystal miners to Montgomery County for the World Championship Crystal Dig with Dale Amond and Angela Poor walking away with top honors in the competition.
Participants in the world championship dig had two days to find the best crystals the area has to offer. They could either dig at the Twin Creeks Mine east of Mount Ida, or Sweet Surrender which is located near Washita, North of Mount Ida.
Competitors had to stay with one mine each day, but could choose to change mines from one day to the next. Points and clusters were collected by Master Diggers at each mine and turned over to members of the Montgomery County Center for Performing Arts who volunteered to deliver the crystals to the judging area. Judges then evaluated each crystal, or cluster and assigned a point value based on the monetary value of the crystals. Judges included Jeff Burrow of Collier Creek Crystals, Fuzz Robins, formerly of Robins Mining Company, and Larry Teske of Atlantis Found Crystals. Doug Hanson of the Arkansas Geological Survey served as a guest judge.
Persistance seemed to pay off with winners of the biggest point and cluster each choosing to work only one mine for the duration of the competition.
Dale Almond won the best point competition with a point measuring a whopping 90.32 points. He chose to work out of Twin Creeks Mine owned by Dixie and Bob Fecho.
Other diggers awarded prizes for best point included:
second place: Angela Poor (73.66)
third place: Sheryl Kuelper (73.66)
fourth place: Nathan Luetjen (68.99)
fifth place: Nicole Chervenyak (68.66)
In the best cluster division Angela Poor walked away with top honors with a score of (162.32) She worked both days at Sweet Surrender, which is owned by Randy and Becky Skates.
Other diggers awarded prizes for best clusters included:
second place: Charles Burton (154.99)
third place: Karla Bruntzel (143.33)
fourth place: Brendan Baldwin (130.00)
fifth place: Brett Bergquist (125.99)
The young miners division was open to all diggers age 17 and younger. They were scored on both point and cluster.
Kyla Smith won the young miners division with a score of 218.99, followed by Kayli Myers with a score of 135.65. Third place went to Kinley Garrigas with a score of 89.66 and fourth place went to Hannah Bruntzel with a score of 74.98.
Twin Creeks sponsored the “K-6 Kids Dig” Saturday morning of the festival. The dig was held at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds and was open to young people from kindergarten through sixth grade.
There were 25 children who participated with Isabella Thompson, age 8, winning the K-3rd grade division and Mikayla Ellison, age 10, winning the 4th-6th grade division.
Second place in the K-3rd division went toTomie Barnett, age 8, and second place in the 4th-6th division went to Harlee Votra, age 12.
The Mount Ida Area Chamber of Commerce would like to thank everyone who helped with the World Championship Dig this year, with special thanks going to Bear State Bank, Action Realty, Mount Ida 1010 Mall, Real Earth Creations, Collier Creek Crystals and dixie Crystal mining Company. They would also like to offer a special thanks to all the volunteers who helped make the dig the largest in recent history.
