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I made a trip earlier this year to Tellus Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, while visiting family in Atlanta. Located about an hour north of Atlanta, Tellus Museum is an impressive natural history museum with a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. I traveled with extended family, which included young children, and found the exhibits to be very conducive to all ages. All members of my party, ranging all ages, enjoyed their visit.

One of the highlights of the museum is their outstanding hall of minerals. Aside from the abundance of quality mineral specimens on exhibit, the displays are well-lit, spacious, and have good labels and associated reading material. The museum has an extensive collection of Georgia minerals, which is in all probability the best collection of this type on public display. Georgia cases include Graves Mountain, Jackson Crossroads Amethyst, Emerson Barites, and Georgia Gold. Many fine worldwide minerals are also represented at the museum, with different themes in each display case.

Prior to November 2007, the museum was known as the Weinman Mineral Museum. The museum closed and reopened in 2008 as Tellus Science Museum, expanding the museum beyond minerals to include additional science and technology displays, as well as hands-on features. Despite the expansion of the museum into other science areas, the original theme of minerals is still very much present and a primary attraction of the museum, along with fossils and dinosaur exhibits.

I had the privilege of meeting Jose Santamaria, the executive director of the museum, during my visit. He gave me a detailed tour of the museum and mineral hall, explaining each case and some of the minerals in detail. I had the opportunity to take many photos during this trip, which I am proud to share here on Minerals.net. The museum reports will be divided into several posts, composed of the following:

• Georgia Display Cases
• Individual Georgia Minerals
• Graves Mountain Minerals
• Worldwide Collection

Continuing with the posts on Tellus Museum mineral exhibits, this article features some of the display cases of Georgia minerals. Tellus Museum has the best public collection of minerals of Georgia, represented in several different cases. Graves Mountain, the most famous mineral locality in the state, will have its own dedicated post.

Graves Mountain is a small isolated mountain in eastern Georgia featuring unique geological properties. Much of the mountain has been stripped away in mining, and the area remains a vast empty open pit quarry that is no longer active. This quarry, which commercially mined Kyanite for high-temperature ceramics, closed in 1986 when it became too expensive to keep up production.

Graves Mountain has been an outstanding producer of many interesting minerals over the years. Perhaps the most famous collectors mineral that has come from the quarry is Rutile. Considered to be the best locality of this mineral in the world, Rutile from Graves Mountain forms in large, thick crystals that are highly lustrous.

Another important mineral from Graves Mountain is Lazulite, which produced some of the best examples of this mineral in large blue, opaque crystals bipyramidal in shape. Pyrophyllite is yet another mineral exceptionally represented at Graves Mountain, in interconnected radiating crystals. Rainbow-colored iridescent Hematite, often coating Quartz, is also a unique feature of this mine.

The display at Tellus Museum features a large case of minerals from Graves Mountain, with a photo of the mine in the background and a nice descriptive caption. Minerals of Graves Mountain are well represented, with a healthy representation of Rutile and Lazulite, and some other interesting or rare minerals from this mine.