is a river bank worth looking at ?

sorry...it's the ogeechee river in georgia.

do people actually tumble granite?..the reason i'm asking is there is a spot on the property...that has granite walls..6 foot up either side of the bank..and is hundreds of feet long...it is a beautiful spot...the bottom of the river is even granite in this spot...we can actually drive across it.. in this spot if need be..i would never take anything from here...but there is plenty of granite around it.

I've tumbled Granite, and had good results.
Slabs don't seem to turn out too well though (not the ones I tried anyway)

Rivers are excellent places to look. Find a gravel bar or gravelly shore and wander slowly along, looking for rocks that catch your eye, anything colourful or appealing. Try to collect a mix of rocks, that way you will learn which ones take a polish and which don't, so the next trip out you will be much better at knowing what to collect. If you tumble something and it won't shine while others in the barrel do, there are different polishes you could use to maybe get a shine, but unless it is really special I would say just chuck it and stick with what does shine.

Bring along boots and wander along where the gravel is just underwater -- the wet rocks show off their colour much better. Try to get the sun at your back to avoid glare -- ie, wander with the sun at your back while you are looking underwater, on dry land facing the sun on your return walk. Polarized sunglasses help you see through the water much better too. Looking for rocks in a light rain or just after a rain is good on dry land because the rain wets the rocks and shows off the colours and patterns. I don't know the geology of Georgia at all, but avoid areas of sedimentary rocks like sandstone and limestone, and stick with areas where the rivers drain from areas of igneous or metamorphic rocks (such as your granite areas). Don't go when the water is high as your gravel bars will be submerged and the water murky.

Not familiar with your river characteristics, but here's a pic of the kind of river area I collect in -- for me it yields granite, feldspar, quartz, quartzite, and petrified wood. But you have to spend a couple of hours wandering to select the good stuff and avoid all the rest.


Here's a pic of some tumbled red granite -- works out fairly well. Avoid granites with a lot of black "flecks" as that is mica and it will form pits. Basically whatever pattern the rough granite has is the same pattern your tumbled stones will have, just shiner!

I love checking out rivers and the large ones with major drainage areas can carry lots of stuff downstream, so surprises are sometimes there.
"Don aka RS," , MO is sedimentary with rare exceptions, limestone is the name of the game, and we certainly have agates -- sedimentary agates that form in the cavities dissolved out of the limestone the same way agates form in the open spaces in a volcanic deposit. Think cave formations, travertine, etc., which are formed by deposition of minerals out of solution. The small area of the our part of the state that favors granite is not the best for rocking, except for mine dumps which contain a variety of stuff.

Keep in mind that getting there is half the fun.