Rockhounding in Bath County, VA: 9 USGS Mineral Sites (2026)

Check access before you go. Most sites listed here are old mines, quarries or prospects, and many are on private land or active mining claims. Get the landowner's permission, check the rules of the agency that manages any public land, and never enter mine workings. Locations are approximate.

Sketch map

Past ProducerProducerProspectOccurrenceStatus unknown

5 paw pins; nearby sites are grouped into one pin. Hover or tap a pin for the site name. 2 site(s) with USGS coordinates outside the outline are not pinned. County outline: US Census Bureau cartographic boundary file (2023). Locations approximate.

Field cards: what kind of sites?

Past Producer

Produced ore or material at some point in the past.

Occurrence

The mineral was noted here, without development.

Prospect

Explored or test-dug, with no recorded production.

Status terms come from USGS MRDS records.

Minerals recorded here

Psilomelane 2Limonite 2Barite 1Manganite 1

Commodities

Manganese 3Iron 2Barium-Barite 1

Sites

Site	Commodity	Minerals recorded	Status	Approx. location
Rehobeth Church Barite Occurrence	Barium-Barite	Barite	Occurrence	38.025, -79.597
Lowmoor Et Al.	Iron	Limonite	Past Producer	37.772, -79.936
Iron Mt.	Iron	Limonite	Past Producer	37.833, -79.916
Stephenson Mine	Manganese	Manganite, Psilomelane	Past Producer	38.124, -79.753
Gillett Prospect	Manganese	Psilomelane	Occurrence	38.152, -79.733
Hodge Prospect	—	—	Past Producer	38.156, -79.783
Gillett Prospect	Manganese	—	Prospect	38.150, -79.730
Little Piney Mountain Prospect	—	—	Past Producer	38.038, -79.755
Stephenson Prospect	—	—	Past Producer	38.119, -79.752

Fossil collections

The Paleobiology Database lists 5 fossil collection records in Bath County. These are research records, not public dig sites.

Nearby counties

Highland County · James City County · Alleghany County · Rockbridge County · Augusta County

Virginia mineral guides

Back to all Virginia counties.

Is It Legal to Collect Rocks on Public Land? BLM, Forest Service and National Park Rules

How we built this page: we counted named sites in the USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) for this area, left out sand, gravel, crushed stone, clay pits and unnamed sites, grouped them by Census county, and linked every site to its USGS record. We did not visit these sites, and MRDS does not tell you who owns the land or whether collecting is allowed.

Source: USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS). USGS ceased systematic updates to MRDS around 2011, so status and details may be out of date. Each site links to its USGS record.

Updated October 2026

Rockhounding in Bath County, Virginia