Shirley Mine

There's a coordinate problem with this entry that's worth explaining up front. The database pin for "Shirley Mine" lands in Blount County, Alabama, near Cleveland — Cumberland Plateau terrain of sedimentary sandstone and shale, a poor geological match for the garnet-kyanite-magnetite-tourmaline suite listed for this site. Those minerals are classic products of regional metamorphism, and the documented Alabama locality that actually produces them — the Shirley-Gopher Mine — sits about 65 miles southeast, in Clay County, in the Alabama Piedmont near Lineville. That mine is real and well-documented: USGS Professional Paper 248G (Heinrich & Olson, 1953) covers it directly, and mindat carries a dedicated locality record. This looks like a name collision between two different Alabama features both called "Shirley," with the database coordinate pointing at the wrong one. We're writing this page around the documented Clay County mine, since that's where the listed specimens actually come from — but the coordinate mismatch means on-the-ground directions here are not reliable without independent verification.

UNVERIFIED. The documented Shirley-Gopher Mine sits near Lineville, in Clay County, Alabama, roughly 33°20'25"N, 85°50'15"W per USGS Professional Paper 248G — this is a different set of coordinates from the database pin (33.97938, -86.56714), which lands in Blount County instead. Do not use the database coordinate for navigation; confirm the correct location and current access status with mindat or a local source before attempting a visit.

UNVERIFIED. No current collecting-access information was found for either the historic Clay County mine or the Blount County coordinate. This was worked historically for mica, kyanite, and garnet as an industrial mineral operation, not as a hobbyist collecting site — access status today is unknown.

Land status is unverified for both the documented Clay County site and the database's Blount County coordinate — confirm ownership and permission, and confirm which location you're actually trying to reach, before visiting. Historic mica/kyanite mines in the Alabama Piedmont are frequently on private land, sometimes with old workings that are now hazardous (open shafts, unstable rock). Treat this as a locality requiring real pre-trip research, not a drive-up stop.