Gem Crafters & Explorer's Club Bulletin, Las Cruces, NM

Affiliated with the AFMS and a member of the RMFMS

EL GAMBRISINO
October 2009 - Volume 51, Issue 10

Notes from the Previous Meeting:

On Sept. 18th, President Dave Smith started off the meeting by having our guests introduce themselves and there were quite a few; Roberto Robles, Kay Walker, Charles & Ruth Moorer and Joan Snodgrass of Las Cruces and John Ottea of Albuquerque. It was then mentioned that we need to start thinking about naming a nominating committee to select a slate of candidates for the upcoming officer's election. This was put off until October. Lee Attaway read the treasurer's report which was the same as last month - $1,588 in the checking account and $34 in petty cash for a total of $1,622. Secretary Susan Banning then mentioned that there were several membership cards that haven't been picked up yet. Faith Hutson is once again going to host a Halloween Party at her home on Saturday Oct. 24th. It will be pot luck and will start at 5:30 pm. Costumes are optional but preferred. The costumes have been outstanding in the past, something I'm always amazed at is the imagination of some people and I look forward to photographing them. For your pre planning Eric Fuller announced two campouts that are in the works, the first being in October at the Baca Camp ground in Lincoln and one in November in old Hachita. He is also trying to line up a day trip. Further information will be sent out as it becomes available. You might want to check out the latest issue of New Mexico Magazine in which there is an article on the ghost town of Old Hachita. The hosts for the evening were Jannette Hale and Al Spencer-many thanks for another good spread. There will be a Mineral Meeting next Wednesday the 23rd at Don Saathoffs. All interested in minerals and learning more about them are welcome to join. Eric Fuller announced that the scheduled speaker was ill and could not attend so he brought along a DVD which had been presented to the Westerners Corral of Silver City. It was titled "The Lost Santa Rita to Janos Copper Trail". After some sound problems it got off to a good start.

Program Notes:

THE LOST SANTA RITA TO JANOS COPPER TRAIL

This DVD was narrated by Anthony Romero - Historian - and was put together by him and a group of western historians working out of the Silver City Museum. This trail known as the "Camino Del Cobre" was used for many years by the Spanish to get the native copper from the Santa Rita mine to Janos, Mexico and from there on to Chihuahua and then to Spain and had all but disappeared from view many years ago. The historians wanted to document the trail meaning they first had to locate it, the camp sites, skirmish sites, etc. and identifying same by any traces and artifacts found. It turned out to be quite a task and this DVD is a part of that documentation. Dave Matthews, a retired miner, owned a 1959 Cessna airplane which he flew over the area looking for and photographing remnants of the trail. There were several great photos shown of this trail taken from the air. Without his observations it would have been a much more daunting task locating the trail. As it was finding it on the ground was a challenge. There was a map of the trail with the different camp sites on it but I was unable to obtain a copy in time to be inserted here. The copper was hauled by mules, 300# each and about 100 mules each trip. In the 1840s when this trail was in use that meant about $19,500 a trip (this would be $300,000 in today's money) so you can see why the Spanish thought it was worth the rigors of the trip. At 15 miles per day it was a ten day trip to Janos - that is if everything went right. This meant at the very least ten camp sites to identify. Most of these sites

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had the necessary water holes needed for the livestock but most of which have since dried up. South of Janos there was a lake where the mules were unloaded, watered and rested before resuming their trek into the interior of Mexico. It is hard to imagine the work needed to run and care for a string of mules that size and then, of course, there was the matter of feeding the men and caring for their livestock. There were many perils along the trail only one of which was the very real danger of maraudering Apaches. Breastworks were found in a number of sites along with shells and other warlike artifacts. Pieces of native copper were found in numerous sites these probably having fallen out of the canvas packs the mules carried it in. There was a photograph of a very large metal canteen that was found also. So much copper came out of the Santa Rita that at one time paying for it about sent the Spanish government into bankruptcy. They had to put a two month moratorium on receiving copper so that they could catch up. Tonnage hauled over the Camino Del Cobre during this period is estimated at anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000 tons and that my friends means one heck of a lot of mules. Another interesting item is the old copper bell in an old church in Janos - these men are trying to get a small sample of the copper to establish its Santa Rita origins. Thanks to Eric for filling in at the last minute and with such an interesting and informative program.

Mineral Meeting News:

There was a lively group of ten of us that met on Wednesday following the regular meeting. Dave Smith brought along his brother Hugh Smith who is visiting from North Carolina and the Saathoff''s guest John Ottea of Albuquerque was also there. Several people brought minerals and rocks to be identified and there was much discussion and testing done. Al Spencer has been spending time pounding rocks and exploring at the old Memphis Mine and John Ottea at the Torpedo Mine both of which are in Organ and both had samples of specimens that they had collected. John had a very special specimen that Don was excited about and that hopefully will be pictured and discussed in the next issue.

Reminders & General Info:

Next meeting will be, as usual, the third Friday of the month, October 16th, Room 189, Breland Hall on the NMSU campus at 6:30 for social and 7 PM for the meeting. Refreshments will be hosted by Pat & Bill Lawrence & Betty & Joe Sweeney. I attended the Open House at the Farm & Ranch Museum given by the USFS. It was most informative; there were huge maps with their proposed road changes in red and plenty of Forest Service personnel to help find and explain the changes. There were quite a few ranchers and 4X4 people there expressing their concerns. Dave and Joan Smith were the only club members seen. I picked up a CD of maps with the proposed changes along with some written information. Chris Adams of the FS, our speaker for the June meeting, was there and we had a nice chat. He said that this year has been very good for his projects and it could be another program for us next year. The 17th Annual Concordia Cemetery "A Walk Thru History" will be held Sat. Oct. 17th from 11-3pm. John Wesley Hardin will be there along with many other "ghosts" interred there. For those of you who haven't been yet its a real blast. The "ghosts" talk about their lives, etc. A $5 donation, seniors $3 is required. Easy to find, Copia exit off I-10, 3700 Yandell in El Paso of course. Eric sent in an article from the New Mexico Magazine circa November 1958. The subject is artifact and pot hunting and features a couple from Hurley. What a change fifty one years makes in the way things are looked at. To check it out see the attachments (Page 1 and Page 2).

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Trips & Such:

Presidents Report on RMFMS Show & Convention October 2-4 2009 in Roswell NM
First I would like to express my appreciation to Mr. Whiting (our state director) and to the Roswell society for hosting the convention; Joan and I had a grand time. Joan and I treated this trip as a mini vacation with-out children or grand children. We took our 5th wheel RV and stayed at a very nice RV park from 10/1-10/4. On 10/2 we toured the city of Roswell, a place that we had gone through many times but did not stop. One of the highlights was a visit to the UFO museum, a must if this is your first trip to Roswell, it was interesting. The next morning we enjoyed the mineral show (Joan especially enjoyed the silent auction) there were many fine minerals for sale by the vendors at reasonable prices. I was very impressed with some of the Lapidary Art displays. The displayed pieces showed fine craftsmanship, I wish that I could be so talented. In the afternoon Kristine and I attended the delegates meeting, I will summarize some of the items that I feel would be of interest to the club. Of the 73 member clubs 29 were represented in person, with enough proxy votes to constitute a forum. This, of course, made every one happy, as now they could vote on items from last year that could not be voted on as there was not enough members present or proxy vote to have a forum. Most notably was the Operating procedure that required a 50/50 split of revenues between the societies that hosted a convention and the RFMS. The directors and officers apparently felt that this requirement was keeping some societies from hosting conventions. Probably true. To correct this problem it was voted to remove that requirement from the operating procedure. So from now on the host society will keep all revenues from the convention. YEA! The only other item that I feel would be on interest to our club was the over payment of insurance. The payment was initially based on the charge of the Firemans fund; after they canceled our policy we then signed with Philadelphia insurance which has a much lower rate. The treasurer has calculated the overpayment and has applied a reserve for each club based on the number of paid members. Our reserve is $78.75, the cost of our insurance next year and future years will be taken from this reserve until it is depleted. I was happy to meet and put a face to all those people on the organizational charts. Also was good to meet the new president of the RMFMS. His name is Bill Smith; I am attaching a picture of him and his wife Janet.

Kristine Kitchens, Howie Whiting, Dave Smith RMFMS President Bill Smith & wife Janet By Dave Smith, Photos by Dave and Joan Smith The following 3 pages are the RMFMS Treasurer's Report and Letter from the RMFMS NM Director.

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Your Editor's Report from Roswell: Oct, 3, 2009

I attended the Editor's Breakfast Saturday, morning and met some of the Federation officer's and a number of people from other clubs. The meeting turned out to be an awards program as Linda Jaeger, the Federation Chair for Publications, announced all the RM Federation winners of the Bulletin and writing contests for 2009. It was very interesting as two clubs, the Colorado Springs, CO and the McPherson, KS clubs took most of the writing prizes. Their members are very prolific and wrote about Field Trips, Minerals, their experiences, etc. There was one surprise for me tho, I received a second prize for new editors. No one received a first as none of us made the necessary 90 plus points. The only Las Cruces people I ran into were Dave and Joan Smith and Kay Walker. Of course Kay and I did meet an Alien there at the Visitor Center. He was friendly enough but didn't have much to say.

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2009 Loveland Colorado Stone Age Fair In Search of Early Man since 1934
Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Original Cornish Stone Age Fair Saturday, 09/26/2009

By Nancy McDonald
Doug and Nancy McDonald attended the Loveland Stone Age Fair on the weekend of Sept 26/27, which was held at the Pulliam Community Building in Loveland, Colorado. The fair featured a large array of personal artifact collections, with the proud owners available for friendly discussions regarding their finds there were display cases that contained beautiful copies of Indian pictographic (or petroglyph) figures, formed with stone artifacts, using both intact pieces and broken sections. These Indian Dancer-like shapes were approximately 18 inches tall, three figures to a case, and created a beautiful display. Now I have fresh ideas for what to do with all of our aww shucks! Its broken pieces! There were several collections that were comprised almost entirely of Paleo points (Folsom, Clovis, Agate Basin, Angostura .. etc.) that were amazing to see. The collections on display were from many different states: Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Tennessee, Texas, to mention a few that were well represented. I was told there were some displays from New Mexico, but we did not see which ones they were. One display, from Tennessee, was especially unforgettable, because of the incredible length of the artifacts, and the fine flaking patterns. Although I did not take any personal photographs at the artifact fair, I was sure Id be able to find information regarding this particular find on the internet, considering its special qualities and sure enough, check out this website for an interesting read and great pictures: http://www.lithiccastinglab.com/gallerypages/2008februaryduckrivercachepage1.htm There were a couple demonstrations during the fair: Bob Patten was the resident flint knapper he had a few cases of his modern replicates on display, which showed him to be an expert at his art! Don and Vicki Seamans were giving a demonstration on how infrared spectrography is used to certify authenticity of artifacts. There was always quite a crowd around this table, with folks getting artifacts examined and authenticated.

We attended one of the lectures, presented by Dr. Pegi Jodry (Field Director, Paleo-Indian and Paleoecology Program, Smithsonian Natl Museum of Natural History), and her topic was Sacred Perspectives from Horn Shelter. The Horn Shelter is a rock shelter, along the Brazos River, in Texas. During the excavation of this shelter, a double burial was found, with the skeletons of a man, aged 30 to 45, and a young girl, perhaps only 9 or 10 years of age. The mans head was resting on three nested turtle shells, and the young girls head was also in close proximity to the turtle shells. Covering the mans face was an additional turtle shell, and interestingly enough, some curious items were placed inside his mouth: the jointed foot of a bird of prey (perhaps symbolic of connecting his spirit to the heavens?), and the claws of a badger (connecting his spirit to a creature of the earth?) A drilled bone needle was found in close proximity to the young girls waist, quite likely it had been in a skin pouch, long since disintegrated. Alongside the mans skeleton were found a collection of pieces used by these early people for flint knapping interestingly, these tools were relatively unused, as determined by archaeologists examining the burial artifacts. These tools were also quite likely contained in a skin pouch at burial, ascertained by the stacking of the pieces when they were excavated. There were several shell beads found near the chest areas, and it appeared both individuals were adorned with jewelry at the time of their burial. This fascinating lecture really demonstrated the important data points and information that can be gathered when an important archaeological site is investigated and documented by trained individuals. The projectile points found at the same stratification level as the burial were of the San Patrice style; radio carbon dating of materials excavated at this level provided an 11,100 year BP (before present) age. This artifact fair was very interesting, and well worth the drive to the Denver area the snow on the Rockies was beautiful! Next years show in September 2010 -- is celebrating a 70th anniversary since the Stone Age Fair moved to Loveland, CO worth a return trip for us! The original fair was held in Cornish, CO, in 1934, thus the 75th anniversary this year. As a side note, and personal observation it was interesting to see some notices posted at the entrance to the displays, warning against any

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selling of artifacts, even any MENTION of the possibility of selling artifacts any person(s) overheard in the discussion of the sale of artifacts would be escorted from the fair. Also, since the room housing the displays of artifacts was extremely crowded we found ourselves very close to others conversations and I heard one fellow referring to the recent sting operation (Four Corners area) in which a large group of individuals were arrested and charged with various felonious counts of illegally digging on Federal lands, selling artifacts, violations of the NAGPRA .. etc. This gentleman whose conversation I overheard had been a dealer, and was glad that he no longer was involved in that business, citing his lack of desire to be awakened by FBI agents, with automatic weapons pointed at

his nose. Its my thinking that the artifact shows (fairs) around the country will be going overboard in attempting to keep an appearance of legally collected and documented artifacts, especially until all the hoopla of this large, Federally-funded bust dies down. There has been a lot of backlash regarding this particular sting operation, since two of the indicted individuals committed suicide within days of their arrest and some of the individuals are from southern Colorado, even one from New Mexico. Here is a website with some of the specifics of the arrests, back in June of this year. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=7805598 #

Mystery Location?
Last months location should have been an easy on for all. It is of course Santa Rita Copper Mine taken from the overlook on NM152 just east of Hanover. I received not one email for this well known location so have decided to put this feature in the "been there, done that" bin to be seen no more due to the lack of participation. I do want to express my thanks to those of you who participated in the past. Maxine

WHERE DO FOREST RANGERS GO TO 'GET AWAY FROM IT ALL?'

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Upcoming Show Dates:

Nov. 7 Nov. 7-8 Nov. 13-15 Midland, MI: Annual show; Mid-Michigan Rock & Gemcraft Society; Midland Resort Convention Center, Sat. 9-7; free admission; rocks, fossils, gems, jewelry, lapidary, contact Deb Acord, (989) 430-4471; e-mail: jackdanred1@aol.com Oklahoma City, OK: Oklahoma Mineral Gem society, River of Gems Show. Besides many dealers there will be demonstrations of faceting, knapping, beading, wire wrapping, engraving & more. For more information visit www.geocitires.com/oklahomamgs New Mexico Mineral Symposium, NMT, Socorro, NM - This is a must for all mineral lovers. It is a 2 day symposium held at Macey Center on campus and filled with lectures, a tour of the museum along with a free breakfast each morning. Friday evening at the Comfort Inn in Socorro there is an informal tailgating and social hour in the individual rooms. There are dealers and collectors from all over - lots of fun with many bargains to be had. For details and registration form go to: www.geoinfo.nmt.edu/museum/minsymp/home.html Terlingua, Texas: Show; "Rock & Gem Fest"; Chihuahuan Desert Gem & Mineral Club; Big Bend
Motor Inn Conference Room, free admission; dealers, rocks, gems, jewelry, Kids' Corner; contact Mary Brogan, (432) 837-3824; e-mail: marybrogan@rocketmail.com; Web site: www.agates123.com.cdgme/ Colorado springs, Co: 46th Annual Pikes Peak Gem & Mineral Show hosted by the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society. Almost 40,000 SF of vendors, exhibits, gold panning demos, etc. Featured mineral will be Agates. $5 for adults and $3 for seniors. Phil Long Expo Center. For additional info www.csms.us

Nov. 27-29

Dec. 5-6

For further information or shows please go to www.rockngem.com There just might be a good rock show in the area of your travels.

Thought for the Day: Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you. Letters to the Editor: Maxine, Here is an item for the G&EC newsletter for October. The following is the publicity I will be sending to the newspapers. It should be an interesting program, LeRoy Oct 2009 DAAS Publicity The Doa Ana Archaeological Society will meet at 7 PM Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at the Good Samaritan Auditorium, 3011 Buena Vida Circle, Las Cruces. Martin Hoffmeister, former NMSU University Architect and avocational archaeologist, will give a presentation titled The Architecture of Fear. His presentation will illustrate the defensive architecture of many of the ancient cites and islands of the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean for protection against piracy and invasion. The meeting is free and open to the public. Info 575-524-9497. Some Interesting Web Sites for you to check out:
Members occasionally send me web sites to check out and pass on plus the ones that I run across. Please send me any of your favorites that you think our members might be interested in. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090911134624.htm Article on Stone Age tools found in Africa. You have to see to believe - outstanding. http://www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/extra/2009/mayjune/lake_superior_copper.html Great piece on Michigan Copper and Early Indians. www.snopes.com/fraud/identity/census.asp Info concerning census fraud - a must read www.osomin.com Need to find a rock shop while traveling - this is where to look.

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Gemcrafters & Explorers Club, P.O. Box 3091, Las Cruces, NM 88003
Member of: American Federation of Mineralogical Societies: www.amfed.org Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies: www.rmfms.org Blue Ribbon Coalition: www.sharetrails.org

2009 OFFICERS:
President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Refreshments Historian Programs Newsletter Dave Smith Kathy Fuller Lee Attaway Susan Banning Pat Mauer Don Saathoff Eric Fuller Maxine Wyman 521-3103 524-0204 523-4017 532-9612 526-4939 382-3464 524-0204 649-4900 joandaves@msn.com kathyf@nmsu.edu leeretired@comcast.net skstauffer@aol.com mpmauer@comcast.net auagte2@comcast.net ghosthiker@gmail.com max4680@fastwave.biz

We meet on the third Friday of the month at Breland Hall, Room 189, NMSU campus at 6:30 pm for social and 7 pm for the meeting. There is no meeting in July. Dues are $10 per person per year and each additional family member is $2 per year. They are due Jan. 1st of each year. A membership form will be emailed to you to fill out and to be returned with your check BY MAIL to the treasurer.

Info for the Newsletter:

If you have information, articles, pictures or a website related to gem crafting, rock collecting or exploring and would like to share please give a call or email me at max4680@fastwave.biz. If you have a good idea or story to tell I will be more than happy to help you write it up. Also if you have minerals, outdoor or camping equipment, etc. that you would like to sell please let me know for our free "Classifieds."

NOTE: All articles and photographs by the Editor Maxine Wyman unless otherwise stated. Gemcrafters and Explorers Club "EL Gambrisino" Volume 51, Issue 10 October 2009 - 10 -