JANUARY 2016

THE EARTHS TREASURES MINERALS AND JEWELRY

Limonite vs. Goethite

VOL. 46 ISSUE 01

Faceting Design: The Three Muses

Royal Royston Turquoise

Ageless Gold

Field Trips:
Book Cliffs Barite
Table Mountains Zeolites

World Gold Panning

Championships

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0 1 ROCk & GEM

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Vol 46 No. 01
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JANUARY 2016
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2 www.rockngem.com

ON ThE COvER

Volume 46, Number 01

January 2016

The Age of Gold

Its contributions to civilization are ongoing.

10

by Bob Jones

Gold has a timeless appeal and

usefulness to human civilization.
This 3.9-cm-high specimen is from
the Round Mountain mine, Nye
County, Nevada. (Jeff Scovil photo/
Paul Harter collection)

Natural vs. Enhanced Gem Materials

by Helen Serras-Herman

FACETING

The Three Muses

16

A faceting design for fun

by Mark Oros

FIELD TRIP

Table Mountain Zeolites

A classic collecting site in Golden, Colorado

World Gold Panning Championships 20

Rock Chip Necklaces

2016 AGATE EXPO

FIELD TRIP

Linda Marie Plume Agate

Striking red, green, white and gold in Oregon.

by Outback Bob Schall

26

by Philip Stephenson

Older mineral names are losing legitimacy.

by Bob Jones

Collecting at the Royal Royston claim

38

by Thomas Farley

Rock & Gem Kids

42
26

Book Cliffs Barite

62

A Colorado site for collecting, geology and scenery

by Steve Voynick

The Great Goethite-Limonite Debate 32

A Nevada Turquoise Adventure

56

Making use of the bits and pieces

by Marc Davis

52

by Mark Leatherman

The annual competition draws hundreds to

Placerville, California.

16

46

Part 2: Alternatives for druzy, dinosaur bone, and

lapis lazuli

REGULAR COLUMNS
Field Notes
Lapidary of the Month
Bench Tips
Rock Science
Picks & Pans
2015 Editorial Index
On the Rocks
Parting Shot

6
8
18
36
68
70
80
82

62

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offers to sell. All prices are subject to change without notice.

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Rock & Gem (ISSN 0048-8453, USPS 486-290) is published monthly by Beckett Media LLC, 4635 McEwen Rd., Dallas, TX 75244.
Periodicals postage paid at Dallas, TX 75260 and at other mailing offices. Printed in U.S.A. Copyright 2016 by Beckett Media, LLC
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Rock & Gem

Field notes
READER LETTERS
Calcite-after-Dragonfly

I recently acquired an amazing specimen from an 80-year-old rock collection

that is very rare and unique. It is a dragonfly that is petrified on a rock covered in
calcite crystal.
In researching this piece, I could only
find five others on the Internet. They are
in museums in Japan, Minnesota, Washington, D.C. (Smithsonian), and Ireland.
I believe this piece is from California because it looks similar to ones in the Japan
and Minnesota museums, which indicate
California as the place of origin.
Research shows it may have formed in
a cave or mineral-rich environment where
the dragonfly landed and was petrified by
calcium carbonate (calcite) crystals that
covered its surface.
The museum owner in Minnesota said
that the Smithsonian took a look at their
specimen and was unable to date it be-

cause calcite can form in a relatively short

geological period of time
John Jacobs
john@pizazzworks.com

EDITORIAL
BOB JONES
Senior Consulting Editor
LYNN VARON
Managing Editor
JIM BRACE-THOMPSON
MARC DAVIS
SCOTT EMPEY
BOB RUSH
HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN
STEVE VOYNICK
Regular Contributors
EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS:
Lynn Varon / Rock & Gem
5235 Mission Oaks Blvd. #201
Camarillo, CA 93012
(972) 448-4626
e-mail: editor@rockngem.com

ART
ROBYN AUSTIN
RAVIJOT SINGH
Designers

ADVERTISING
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Advertising Director,
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Rock & Gem
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ADVERTISING INQUIRIES:
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Rock & Gem

lapidary

of
the

month
JANUARY 2016

hat can one do to commemorate the achievements of two

grandsons who earned their third-degree black belt status
in Tae Kwon Do martial arts? Their father (my son) thought that
an engraved presentation knife would be appropriate, and further
thought that their proud grandfather would be just the one to delegate the project to. I could not say no.

I used Buck Model #110 folding-blade knives because of their

ruggedness and adaptability. The blades were professionally engraved before my work began. This was a lucky move, since one
knife was destroyed in the engraving process.
To start, I pried the wood handles from the knives and removed
the brass pins, except for the heavier pins that anchor the folding mechanisms. Those were sawn, filed and riveted flush to the
handle bases. The bases were roughly scored to provide a good
purchase for the epoxy.
Accumulating the rocks with colors to match the colors of
the nine belts the grandsons had to earn to reach black belt
status was challenging. Fellow rockhounds in my area helped
with this search.
After trying a wide variety of materials, the ones I used were
Oregon polkadot jasper (white); Washington carnelian (yellow);
Turkish jade (purple); Australian mookaite (orange); Yukon jade
(green); Afghanistan lapis lazuli (blue); Oregon seam jasper from
the Biggs area (brown); Mexican Sonora sunrise jasper (red); and
Edwards black jade from Wyoming (black), with Australian black

jade for spacers. The opposite sides of the knife handles are solid
Edwards black jade.
The rock segments were sawn to an approximate size. A specially designed flat-lap unit was used to precisely size and angle
these pieces. These were then joined with cyanoacrylate glue to
form single units. The bottoms of these units were leveled carefully on a flat lap. A little touch-up gave a gap-free fit to the handles.
Two-part epoxy and clamps were used to cement a unit to one
side of the handle on each knife.
The tops were ground and polished using the several progressive Genie wheels. I anticipated that the varying hardness of the
segments would present an undercutting problem; however, a
light touch diagonally across the wheels produced good results.
The final polish was done with Zam.
The solid black jade reverses were fairly straightforward in the
cutting, fitting, cementing, shaping and polishing operations. I
bought laser-cut presentation boxes and modified them to hold
the knives.
An accomplished intarsia artist, Carol Cimolino, gave me helpful advice on this project. This was a totally new experience for me
and the learning curve was steep. The time required to complete
these knives was extensive, but it was a labor of love and a satisfying and educational undertaking.
George Downey
Stanwood, WA

Would you like to be named Lapidary of the Month?

To enter the contest:
Write a 500-word step-by-step description of how you crafted your lapidary project from start to finish. Save it as a document file.
Take at least one sharp, close-up, color digital photo of the finished project. Photos must be high-resolution (300 dpi at 4 inches
by 5 inches, minimum).
Attach your document file and digital photo (.tif or .jpg) to an email and send it to editor@rockngem.com with the subject line
Lapidary of the Month.
Make sure you include your name and street address (not a PO Box) for prize delivery should your entry be selected
for publication. Only winners will be notified. E-mail the editor or call (972) 448-4626 with any questions about these
requirements.
Lapidary of the Month winners receive a Dremel tool and a wall plaque in recognition of their creativity and craftsmanship.

8 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

Tyson Wells
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TYSON WELLS 35th ANNUAL

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www. t ys onwel l s . com

9

Its Value to
Civilization Is As
High As Ever
Story by Bob Jones

10 www.rockngem.com

IROCKS.COM

Humans began collecting gold because of its breathtaking color, and initially used it primarily for personal adornment.

THE ARKENSTONE

ivilization has gone through a

series of ages. There were the
Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the
Iron Age, the Age of Electricity, and the
Age of Computers, to name a few. Each
identifies a period of time during which
a new form of technology has given a
major boost to the development of human civilization. We often apply the
term Golden Age to periods when
stellar accomplishments were made in
music, art, theater, film, literature, and
so on, but we have never actually identified an Age of Gold. There is good reason for this: It has not ended. Civilization is still in it.
The Age of Gold started in prehistory,
when humans collected it because of its
breathtaking color and used it primarily for personal adornment. It quickly
became associated with royalty and was
even revered in its own right by some
civilizations.

These gold cubes are high in silver content, which accounts for their pale yellow color.

Rock & Gem

BOB JONES

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

This sheet of gold foil, measuring about 0.5 m2, was hammered from a gold nugget
that was 5 mm in diameter. (Toi Museum, Japan)

January 2016

All metals have, to varying degrees, the

ability to reflect light. Many nonmetals
carbon for exampleare nonreflective, or
at best quite dull. The ability of metals to
reflect light is directly related to the action
of their near-surface electrons.
Metals differ from other natural elements in that the outer electrons of their

BOB JONES

Once metal smiths began to work gold,

they discovered that it had a range of useful propertiesmore than any other natural metal. Millennia later, it seems we are
continuing to find new ones for this most
beautiful of natural metal elements.
Any discussion of the properties of gold
must necessarily start with its color. There
are about 90 natural elements found in the
crust of the earth. Of all the metals, only
twogold and coppervary in color from
the gray to silvery hues we associate with
metals. Most metals are highly reflective,
but only reddish copper and buttery yellow gold combine reflectivity with standout color.
The other colorful metal, copper, has
many useful properties. It, too, is very
malleable and can be shaped into useful
objects. Its nice, soothing, reddish color,
which sets it apart from all other metals
except gold. Because it can be alloyed with
other metals like tin, zinc and arsenic to
take on a more durable form, however,
copper transitioned from an ornamental
metal to a very important utilitarian metal. It is used to create bronze, an extremely
hard metal alloy that can be used for weapons and toolsa discovery that ushered in
a new age.
Gold has no such ability. It does alloy
with other metals, but only to the point of
making a more durable jewelry metal. Its
primarily decorative use caused it to stand
alone as a regal metal.

At the Buckhorn Mountain gold mine, nearly pure gold is poured into a cast iron mold
to create a bar, which weighs about 80 troy pounds.

This wire is a sample taken from a recently poured gold

bar. Tests will determine its purity before the bar is
sent to the refinery.

atomic structure are free electrons,

meaning they can move about and dont
seem to be bound to a particular location
in each molecule. This explains metals
very useful property of conductivity, since
electricity moves in a metal by the action
of these electrons. Metals differ in their degree of conductivity.
These free electrons also produce reflectivity. As light passes into the surface of a
metal, they absorb its energy. This creates
what are called alternating electric currents on the surface of the metal; different
metals reflect the absorbed light to different degrees. The light reflected gives the
metal its bright, silvery color.
Think of the reflectivity of a mirror. It
completely reflects the image in it when
light strikes the mirrors surface. Why is
that? The basis of the mirror is a plate of
clear glass that normally allows light to
pass through. But when the back of the
glass is evenly coated with a thin layer of
the metal element silver, the light is reflected! Silver is the metal of choice because it
is the most highly reflective of all the natural metal elements.
Something to keep in mind is that light
is made up of all the colors of the rainbow.
When the color wavelengths are in balance, no one color can dominate, so the
light appears white. When one wavelength
is absorbed, its complementary wavelength becomes dominant, and the light
takes on that color.

11

from page 11

For example, when light strikes the surface of copper, those free electrons set up
the usual alternating currents, but in doing so they absorb some of the blue wavelengths, which makes blues complementary color, red, a bit more dominant. The
reflected light now has a reddish color.
In the case of gold, green and other
wavelengths are absorbed and no longer
balance out the yellow light energy, so that
color is more dominant. But, you say, not
all gold is buttery yellow. Some of it is quite
pale, and there are such things as white,
green and red gold. Whats going on to
cause these variations in the natural yellow
color of gold?
Earlier, I referred to the aloofness of
gold; it almost never reacts chemically
with other elements, but it will alloy and
quite really. In fact, most of the gold found
naturally isnt pure, but is alloyed with silver. For example, California gold is usually
over 90% pure, with the remaining fraction of a percent consisting mostly of silver. Australian gold has an even greater silver content. The actual percentage of gold
in the mix needs to be determined before
the metal is shipped to the refinery. The refinery pays the mine owner based on that
percentage.
I observed this process at the Buckhorn
Mountain gold mine. In the secure room
of the mill, nearly pure gold was poured
into a cast iron mold to create a bar, which
weighed about 80 troy pounds. One of the
operators immediately plunged a hollow
glass tube into the molten gold. He waited for the glass tube full of gold to cool,
then smashed the glass and extracted a
thin wire of gold. When I asked about the
purpose of this, I was told the wire would
be assayed in the mines assay lab and the
results would be compared with the results
received from the refinery when they test-

BOB JONES

AGE OF GOLD

The famous gold stash from ancient Troy found by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann attests to humans longstanding love affair with the yellow metal. (Pushkin Museum, Moscow)

ed the poured gold bar. The mine would

get paid on the refinery results unless the
two results disagreed; then negotiations
would ensue.
The occurrence of red, green, and other
shades of gold, depends on which metal
is alloyed with the gold. A bit of copper
gives the gold a slightly reddish hue. Most
colored gold is called tenary gold, meaning three metals are involved: usually gold,
silver and copper. To obtain green gold,
the metal smith has to add silver and cadmium to the gold. The percentage of cadmium content affects the intensity of the
green color.
White gold may simply be rhodiumplated to resemble the look of platinum,
a metal that is more costly than gold. But
to make gold white, a couple of alloying
metals can be used. Bright-white gold may
have both platinum (Pt) and palladium

(Pd) added. Alloying palladium, nickel

and zinc with the gold produces a white
metal that is slightly less bright. No matter
which metals have been added to the gold
to achieve a color, the karat designation of
the gold remains the same: 14 karat is still
14 karat no matter what other metals are
present.
Until I began reading about gold, I did
not know there could be blue gold and
purple gold. For blue gold, the metal smith
alloys the gold with iron, and to achieve
a purple tint, a little aluminum is alloyed
with the precious metal.
Earlier, I mentioned that the properties
of gold give it usefulness beyond that of an
adornment metal. Gold has very high conductivity because of those free electrons
that can move all over the surface of the
metal. But these free electrons serve even
more important uses: They make the yel-

12 www.rockngem.com

BOB JONES

JEFF SCOVIL

This Chasing
Star Indian
kachina was
cast in 14k
gold, an alloy
thats designed
for durability.
(artist: Carol
Sues Jones)

The Yale Art Museum boasts this very ornate coach and horses done in richly colored gold.

Rock & Gem

LORTONE, inc

Manufacturing Lapidary Equipment locally for over 50 years!

Tumblers
Flat Laps
Trim Saws
Arbors
Slab Saws
Abrasives

12130 Cyrus Way, Mukilteo, WA 98275 Phone: (425) 493-1600 Fax: (425) 493-9494
e-mail: equipment@lortone.com www.lortone.com

13

from page 12

BOB JONES

AGE OF GOLD

This lovely gold from Californias Eagles Nest mine is well over 90% pure. (Kristalle specimen)

low metal very malleable and ductile. An

ounce of gold can be hammered into the
thinnest of sheets, measuring 100 feet
square. As for ductility, an ounce of pure
gold can be stretched, without breaking,
into the thinnest of wires measuring 50
miles long! This is all because of those
tenacious electrons, which hang in there
as they move from molecule to molecule
along the wire as it is stretched.
A really good example of golds malleability is seen in the death mask of the
Egyptian pharaoh King Tut. The gold of
Egypt was not mined in large sheets; small
nuggets and crystallized pieces were found
in rocks and bits were washed from alluvial sands. The mask, which is seamless and
appears to be one solid piece of gold, had
to be hammered repeatedly in a process
called cold welding. Hammering heats
the gold, which has to be annealed, cooled,
and hammered again.

14 www.rockngem.com

Again, those free electrons play a major

role. As the gold pieces are hammered together, the electrons actually cross over the
boundary between the individual pieces of
gold. This electron sharing, creates a bond
that is permanent. The result is actually
a seamless gold sheet that can be shaped
into anything the artist pleases. Properties like these are what have made gold not
only irreplaceable, but timeless.
Researchers have found new uses for
gold nanoparticles in the field of medicine, aiding in the diagnosis of HIV/
AIDS and the treatment of arthritis and
cancer. And in technology, it is part of
the circuitry of nearly every computer or
complicated electronic device in use. We
are still exploring its possibilities to learn
how far its properties will take us. For
these reasons and more, I doubt that the
Age of Gold, which started eons ago, will
ever end.
Rock & Gem

JANUARY/FEBRUARY SPECIAL:
DORAS GULLEY OPALFIELD-COOBER PEDY AUSTRALIA: CPDG2-14

Very nice gemmy classic white base Coober Pedy from Doras Gulley. As you can see from the photo there are some very large pieces in this lotlarge stone in
left foreground is 29.4 grams. $295/ounce per ounce plus $10.00 shipping. Photographed lot is 500 grams.
Ill be making another opal buying trip to Australia spring 2016. Plans are to y into Sydney and then drive NW to Lightning Ridge where I will scout around for
black opal. Then its a long 3 day drive to Coober Pedy for the white base opal that Coober is famous for. Please watch our website for new opal parcels.

Steve, climbing down a 30ft ladder, had volunteered his services to spend a
day digging opals with the miners on our 2005 opal buying trip to Australia.
Hard work but also a GREAT adventure!

THE VILLAGE SMITHY OPALS, INC.

Proprietors Steve & Darlene

P.O. Box 21704, Billings, MT 59104-1704 Phone: 406-651-4947 Mobile: 406-208-2577
E-mail: vsmithy@bresnan.net Website: www.villagesmithyopals.com

15

FACETING

The Three Muses

Three Muses cut in citrine, ametrine and amethyst.

Story by Mark Oros/

Photos by Sarah Oros

enjoy creating new gemstone designs for several reasons. It could

be a request from a jeweler, or
having inspiration from a spectacular new piece of rough gemstone, and then again, sometimes
I design a just gemstone for fun.
For the record, this gemstone design is just
for fun. It is something I have been playing with for over a year. It started with my
inclination to do something with the number three. This desire stems from being a
father of triplets.
A three-sided stone seemed too edgy and
a three-main-facet pavilion was rejected for
poor light return after I viewed it in GemRay. I then considered and moved forward
with the option of combining/replacing the
table with three low-angle facets.
I was very happy with the new design
and cut it in several types of gemstone materials and with increasingly progressive
designs. After several escalating designs,
all of them becoming exceedingly more
complexup to 171 facetsI stopped
designing and cutting variations on my
triplet theme. The process of designing
and selling this motif was fun, profitable
(becoming a favorite with my clients), and

16 www.rockngem.com

Gemstones:
Citrine - Brazil
8.29 carats
All facets are polished
Faceted by Michael Rizzo
Ametrine - Bolivia
7.87 carats
P4 facets matted
Faceted by Mark Oros
Amethyst - Brazil
8.49 carats
P3 facets are matted & P4 facets
are concave
Faceted by Michael Rizzo

educational, as the process let me explore

the nature of variations on a theme.
I wanted to share the enjoyment I had
on the journey of exploring this design
by writing an article about it, so I fired
up GemCad and revisited this old friend.
I thought about how serious the design
became over its various iterations and decided to scale back on the complexity and
number of facets. I wanted to accomplish
three things with the new design:
1. Make the stone easy to cut by providing a simpler and meet-point design

that would allow all faceters a chance

to try this fun stone;
2. Make the stone unusual and attractive
enough to provide both your friends
and mine with a fun time holding and
viewing the gemstone or receiving it
as a gift; and
3. Give the faceter the ability to make
the gemstone unique. This can easily be done by adding concave facets
and matte (frosted) facets. The most
attractive and reasonable place to put
the small concave facets is in the culet of the gemstone (P4 on the cutting
instructions). The matte facets can be
played in many combinations. Two of
my favorites are [P3 and C2] or [P4 and
C1].
After about 30 minutes of creativity on
GemCad and GemRay, I was able to produce a gemstone design that I thought was
fun to cut and beautiful. It starts with a
somewhat traditional star cut on the pavilion and moves to a rather unusual crown,
going from nine break facets to a tier of six
facets and then two tiers of three facets,
with no traditional table.
I used quartz when creating the design
because I wanted to cut large natural gemstones in several colors without excessive
costs. I hope that you have as much fun
cutting this gemstone as I had creating it.
The design is named Three Muses.

Rock & Gem

January 2016

17

Bench tips
by BOB RUSH

Choosing the Right Slab

W

This Brazilian agate slab features a small druzy pocket

surrounded by a wavy red ribbon that can be incorporated into the design of a cabochon.

I wanted this cab to be symmetrical rather than freeform. My outline avoids the small fracture in the lower
right of the slab.

18 www.rockngem.com

hen Im shopping for material

I started the layout of the cabochon by
for my cabs, I generally focus on marking the center of the pattern with a
slabs rather than rough rocks because it vertical line. I also marked the fracture
eliminates all the work of selecting and location on the bottom right. I wanted
slabbing unknown rough, even though I this cab to be symmetrical rather than
do like the mystery of finding a special freeform. I also wanted the sides of the
piece once in a while. I get most of my cab to be equidistant from the red ribbon image so that the cab would be balslabs at regional rock and gem shows
because I need to hold them in my
anced and centered.
I used a large oval template to
hand so I can see the pattern and
quality of the material. I never
mark the curved bottom of the cab
and a small triangular template
consider slabs with any fractures unless the fractures lay
form for the top. I couldnt
find a suitable template for
outside the area that Im godrawing the sides, so I hand
ing to use.
sketched them in.
Most of the time, dealers
present their slabs in conI did the outline grinding and doming on a
tainers of water so the
potential of the materiworn 100 grit diamond
wheel and did a little
al is best emphasized,
and I understand that;
touch-up on a wellworn 100 grit wheel.
however, it means
that I have to stand
I usually divide the
girdle in half and
there and let the slab
dry thoroughly in
do the dome on
the upper half.
order to see where
the fractures and
I like to have
a straight side
pits are.
Most dealers prothat tapers inward at about
vide paper towa 15 angle so
els for wiping the
that if my cab
water off the slabs.
I remove most of
is going to
the water and let
be bezel set,
the rest dry slowthe sides will
ly. The fractures
accommobecome evident
date the beby remaining wet
zel easily.
after most of the
I sanded
the dome and
water has evaporated. Quite often, if the
the back of the cab
The finished cab is 4 inches high.
material is particularly
dry while wearing
attractive or scarce, I will
the appropriate reaccept a slab with many
spiratory protection
fractures or other defects and make a small- to keep from breathing the dust, then
er cab. By the time I purchase a slab, I have sanded the girdle wet. The finished cab is 4
already pictured the shape and size of the inches high.
ultimate cab.
A Brazilian agate slab that I got at the Bob Rush has worked in
recent Stockton Lapidary and Mineral So- lapidary since 1958 and
cietys show in Lodi, California, has a small metal work and jewelry
druzy pocket that is surrounded by a wavy since 1972. He teaches
red ribbon. There is a small fracture in the at clubs and at Camp
lower right that I can avoid with the par- Paradise. Contact him at
rocksbob@sbcglobal.net.
ticular cab design that I have planned.
Rock & Gem

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19

World Gold Panning

MARC DAVIS

Championships

Competitors in the Womens Division use conventional gold pans at the 2012 California State Championships.

The Annual Competition Draws

Hundreds to Placerville
Story by Marc Davis

ome September, the best gold panners from around the globe will be packing their bags and heading to Placerville, California, to compete in this years
World Gold Panning Championships. Hundreds of contestants from more than
25 nations are expected to enter the competition. The competitors will work
through as much as 42 pounds of sand and gravel, recovering up to 12 tiny flakes of gold,
each measuring less than 116 inch across. The best panners can accomplish this in less than
a minute. If you think you have what it takes to hang with the best, you can join the competition, said Rich Uncle Fuzzy Mason.

20 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

MARC DAVIS
MARC DAVIS

Uncle Fuzzy gave speed-panning lessons using a flat pan at the El Dorado County Historical Museum on a number
of weekends in 2015.

Panners must work through a bucket of sand and gravel as quickly as possible to recover all the tiny flakes of gold.

January 2016

Uncle Fuzzy is the president of the

United States Gold Panning Association
(USGPA), the not-for-profit organization
responsible for hosting the 2016 World
Championships, which are sanctioned
by the World Goldpanning Association
(WGA). This will be the first time in 18
years that the World Championships will
be held on U.S. soil, said Uncle Fuzzy.
The last time this happened was in 1998,
when the competition took place in Coloma, Californiathe place James Marshall
made his epic gold discovery in 1848. The
panning competition in 1998 was a featured event in Californias celebration of
the 150th anniversary of the Marshall gold
discovery, which kicked off the gold rush
of 1849.
Bringing the competition back to the
United States is quite an accomplishment,
since the WGA World Championships are
truly an international event. Championships have been held in Australia, Japan,
South Africa, Canada, and many European
countries. There are currently 20 member
nations in the WGA, but all nationalities
are welcome to compete at their events.
The WGA promotes panning and prospecting in a spirit of peace, understanding,
and fairplay (www.worldgoldpanningassociation.com), without discrimination as
to politics, gender, religion or race.
The World Championships format is
an open competition, meaning that there
are no qualifying events leading up to the
championship event. Qualifying takes
place in preliminary heats at the competition, says Uncle Fuzzy. All comers are
welcome to give it a try.
The competition will test both speed and
accuracy. The panners will work through
a bucket of sand and gravel as quickly as
possible to recover all the tiny flakes of
gold that have been salted into the buckets. There will be anywhere from five to
12 flakes per bucket. All competitors will
have the same amount of gold, but only
the judge will know how much that is. The
amount will vary from heat to heat, and a
three-minute penalty will be assessed for
each flake missed.
The competition is divided into several
divisions: Children, Juniors, Beginners,
Veterans, Skilled Men, Skilled Women,
and Steel Pan. Two-person, three-person,
five-person, and national team events are
also planned. Team events are run as relays. The competitors will do their work
in individual panning pools, measuring

21

from page 21

JOYCE MASON

GOLD PANNING

roughly 3.5 feet by 5 feet and containing

about 10 inches of water. Competitors can
either stand in the pool or sit on the side.
With a field of 600 competitors expected to participate, including the top-speed
panners in the world, the competition will
be stiff. The Canadians have thrown down
the gauntlet, said Uncle Fuzzy. They are
building a strong team and said they plan
to sweep the competition. The Finns are
also expected to do well. They have been
among the top competitors throughout
the history of the Championships.
When the WGA Championships started
in 1977, the first four competitions were
held in Finland. The Finnish men took
the gold medal in their division in all four
of those years. The Finnish women performed even better, sweeping the podium
in their division for the first seven years of
the competition. In more recent years, the
Finns have been especially strong in the
Veterans division, where they have captured 10 of 12 podium spots, including all
the gold medals, in the last four years.
The United States hasnt fared nearly as
well. In 2009, Joyce Mason captured the
bronze in the Veterans division in Italy and
Mike Sutton garnered a gold medal at the
Championships held in Australia in 2001,
also in the Veterans division. Other than
those two bright spots, the USA has been
shut out of a podium finish since 1998.
Over the entire 39-year history of the
WGA Championships, there have been a
total of 555 events categorized as skilled.
Of those many events, the United States

22 www.rockngem.com

JOYCE MASON

Competitors march in the parade of nations at the 2015 World Championships in Navelgas, Spain.

This 92-year-old beginner was thrilled to learn the basics of panning with a conventional pan at Uncle Fuzzys
panning tub.

finished on the podium only five times,

with just one gold medal.
One of the reasons the United States is
lagging behind in the medal count may
be the development of the flat gold pan,
also commonly known as the speed pan
or Ferrari pan (see R&G January 2010).
It was discovered a number of years ago

that, in panning competitions, a flat pan

with riffles was extremely efficient at capturing tiny bits of gold. The current renditions that are garnering medals are shaped
something like an oversized dinner plate
with ridges.
These pans are typically a little under
20 inches in diameter; WGA rules specify
Rock & Gem

MARC DAVIS
JOYCE MASON

Pans similar to this Swedish-made flat pan have earned a lot of medals for their owners in the last three or four years.

The United States National Team is ready to compete in the National Team event at the 2015 World Championships
in Navelgas, Spain.

January 2016

that gold pans used in competitions can

have a maximum diameter of 50 cm. There
is also a maximum gold pan depth of 15
cm (a bit under 6 inches), but there is no
minimum depth listed. Therefore, pans
can be quite flat and still comply with the
rules. Ridges or riffles can be incorporated
into the design, provided they dont exceed
the 15 mm (132-inch) maximum allowed
by the rules.
The top competitors from other countries have been using the flat pan for years,
said Uncle Fuzzy. At the [2015] world
championships in Spain, I dont think anyone made the finals or even the semifinals
with a traditional pan. A flat pan made in
Sweden, he continued, has been dominating the competition for the last three or
four years.
Uncle Fuzzy went on to relate the particulars of the Champion of Champions
gold-panning competition held in Sweden
in 2014. Only individuals who had previously won a gold medal in an individual
skilled event qualified for this battle of the
best. Each competitor was provided with
a bucket containing 42 pounds of sand
and gravel. Buried in the mix were 10 tiny,
1 mm flakes of gold. The panners had to
separate all the gold from the gravel and
put the tiny flakes in a vial in the shortest amount of time possible. Similar to the
World Championships, a three-minute
penalty was assessed for every missed
flake. The winner was the inventor of the
Swedish flat pan, who completed the task
in 55 seconds!
Most U.S. panners are still using the
traditional pan. Rules in the most recent
USA National Championships prevented
the use of the flat pan in all divisions except the Open division. By contrast, in the
World Championships, the flat pans are allowed in nearly all the divisions. Given the
fact that, in the United States, flat pans are

23

24 www.rockngem.com

Competitors in the team events can either stand in the individual panning pools or sit on the side.

JOYCE MASON

relatively unknown, expensive, and difficult to find, there is less opportunity and
less motivation for American competition
panners to switch.
In competition, the advantage that the
flat pan holds over the conventional pan
is rather substantial. A check of the times
generated in the last California State Gold
Panning Championships sheds some light
on the subject. The fastest time turned in
by a competitor using a conventional pan
was 3:58.66, by the gold medalist in the
Veterans division. By comparison, the
winner in the Open division, where the
flat pan was permitted, took the gold medal with an amazing 1:41.41more than
twice as fast. To add more fuel for thought,
in both the Mens and Womens divisions,
where the flat pan is not allowed, all the
competitors received time penalties for
losing gold, pushing their adjusted times
upward of the eight-minute mark. In the
Open division, which also allows the use
of the flat pan, all three of the top finishers captured all the gold, and all three finished in less than two minutes. With those
types of numbers, being competitive at the
world championships almost certainly requires that competitors use some form of
the flat pan.
In the United States, flat pans are both
rare and expensive. Ive had to order them
from Sweden, says Uncle Fuzzy, and the
price changes based on how the dollar
compares to the Euro. Theyve been as
high as $180 and as low as $150 over the
past few years. Anyone who would like to
order a pan from Uncle Fuzzy can contact
him at unclefuzzy4au@gmail.com.
To help potential U.S. competitors even
the score with the international panning
community, Uncle Fuzzy and other members of the 2014 USA national team have
been giving free speed-panning lessons
in Placerville. On six separate occasions
throughout 2015, Uncle Fuzzy and his
group of volunteers set up a panning tub
at the El Dorado County Historical Museum and gave anyone who was interested
a chance to try out a speed pan.
Its a different motion than using a
traditional pan, said team member Kara
Adema, who was working the panning tub
one Saturday with Uncle Fuzzy. You can
start with a large heap of dirt stacked high
in the middle of the pan, but leave at least
three riffles around the edges clear of dirt,
she said. Next, submerge the pan. The top
part of the heap can stick out above water, she said. Then start moving the pan
in large circles. As she spoke, she demonstrated the technique. The large heap of
dirt in the middle of the pan flattened out
rapidly and was soon entirely underwater. The large circular motion washed the
lighter material off the pan.
Since the water in the demonstration

JOYCE MASON

from page 23

MARC DAVIS

GOLD PANNING

Kara Adema demonstrates flat panning technique,

starting with a heap of sand and gravel in the center
of her pan while leaving the edges clear.

WGA President Arturo Ramella (left) and Spanish Gold

Panning Association president Cesar Casstano (right)
speak at the closing ceremonies in Nevalgas, Spain.

tub was rather muddy, Kara would periodically lift the pan out of the water so the
observers could see how the panning process winnowed down the amount of dirt in
the pan. Once a significant amount of dirt
had been washed out of the pan and into
the tub, Kara rapidly shook the pan left to
right about three times, followed by some
quick front-to-back shakes, shifting the
pan about 6 inches in each direction. This,
she explained, centered the material in the
pan. Then she tilted the submerged pan at
a rather step angle and lifted it out of the
water, causing much of the top layer of dirt
to be washed away.
She repeated several of these movements until the amount of dirt in the pan

was reduced considerably. On the final lift,

she held the pan at a very steep angle, causing almost all of the remaining dirt to be
removed from the pan.
She centered the material in the pan
one last time. Then, while holding the pan
flat and well above the water, she gave the
pan several sharp raps on the side with the
palm of her hand. That brings the gold
out of the grooves and into the center of
the pan, she explained. Then using the tip
of her finger, she pushed on the gold, causing it to stick to her finger. From there
you put it in the vial, she said. Dont look
at the gold on your finger, that just wastes
time. When youve got all the gold, cap the
vial and youre done.
Rock & Gem

JOYCE MASON

Joyce Mason won the bronze medal in the Veterans division at the 2009 World Championships in Italy.

For those who wish to compete or simply watch the 2016 WGA World Championships, the event will be held in Placerville at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds
Sept. 11-18. Registration begins on the
11th. Opening ceremonies and the parade
of nations in downtown Placerville will
be on the 13th. Competition starts on the
14th with qualifying rounds. The panning
competition will continue throughout the
week, with semifinals taking place on Saturday the 17th. The finals will be held on
Sunday the 18th, along with award presentations and closing ceremonies. Spectators
can attend free of charge, but there is an
entry fee for competitors.
In addition to the panning competition,
El Dorado County and other local sponsors are planning a number of activities
and events during the week of the Championships. Dubbed Gold Week, it will
feature concerts, special access to historical sites, and other events, including a gem
and mineral show at the fairgrounds on
the same weekend as the panning finals.
The United States Gold Panning Association
(http://unitedstatesgoldpanningassociation.com/) is also working with
local school districts to provide a series of
gold-related educational events for local
children, as well as visiting children and
teachers from overseas.
January 2016

Other sites of interest in the area include the historic Gold Bug Mine and Park
(www.goldbugpark.com), located in Placerville. The mine offers a self-guided tour
into a 352-foot-long underground drift,
from which gold was extracted in years
gone by. In addition, there are a stamp
mill and a working blacksmith shop on the
park premises. Not to be missed is a gold
rush museum. Visitors who have caught
panning fever can try their hand at panning for gems in a trough at the park.
Located a few miles outside of Placerville is another park of historical significance. Its the Marshall Gold Discovery
State Historic Park (www.coloma.com/
california-gold-discover y/marshallpark/), where a replica of Sutters Mill has
been constructed at the gold discovery
site. There are also a museum, a gold rush
cabin, relics, and displays related to the
Marshall gold discovery.
With so much to see and do during Gold
Week, visitors will likely want to stay for
several days. There are a number of motel
and bed-and-breakfast options in the area.
In addition, camping is available at the El
Dorado County Fairgrounds. Tent sites are
$10 and RV sites are $30 per night. E-mail
registration is currently open. A site application can be found at www.eldorado2016.
com/championships/.

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25

2016 AGATE EXPO

PHILIP STEPHENSON

Linda Marie Plume Agate

Linda Marie agate is most noted for its treelike plume structures.

Striking Red, Green, White and Gold in Oregon

Story and Photos by Philip Stephenson

fter a hard day of digging at Gene Muellers Regency Rose claim, Jake Jacobitz,
Gene, Gary McFarland, and I are sitting by the campfire. We are gazing east toward
the beautiful range of hills. Im thinking, Theres got to be some other agate out
there waiting to be discovered. So I throw out the question as I point towards the
high hills in front of us. Jake is there any agate out that way?
Jake says, Sure theres a green plume that looks like Christmas trees. I dug it years ago,
right over by that pinnacle at the top right.
My ears perk up. Green plume really? Is it worth going after?
Jake says, Sure, if a fella is willing to put some money into it.
That conversion back in April 2011 had always nagged at me. So on a cool, overcast day
in late September 2012, Jake, my wife, Linda, and I went out to the Owyhee desert to stake
a claim.
26 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

PHILIP STEPHENSON

Usually, a light tap is all it takes to makes the vein separate from the fractured basalt host rock.

Plume claim in Idaho. When I brought

up that I had been finding these, Plume
Floaters, he responded that he also has
very similar formations at his claim.
My theory of their formation, Steve
explained, is that in epithermal vein systems like the ones you and I are working,
open spaces are filled with mineral-bearing solutions that have been heated by an
intrusive body, which sets up a convective system of mineral-bearing solutions.
The circulating solutions interact with the
wall rock, producing plume structures and
other structures such as angel wing.
I suggest that the plume structures are
loosely attached to the wall rock. Evidence
of loose attachment includes the fact that
the vein matter in the deposits I am working is not frozen to the wall. Generally, in
the deposits I am working, there is a thin

PHILIP STEPHENSON

ductive and a little easier to dig than my

other claim, Feather Ridge Plume. The
location of the agate has been known by
rockhounds for years; small scratch holes
dot the land. As we were staking the claim,
Jake and I discussed how best to proceed
with the excavation. Pointing out two
small pits hed dug several years ago, Jake
suggested we start where we know the
rock is already and see what we can discover digging deeper, using the big 320
CAT excavator.
Another reason I enjoy digging at Linda
Marie is discovering the beautiful varieties of plumes and plume structures. One
plume that I find particularly fascinating I
call a Plume Floater. Recently, I had conversation with another miner, Steve Howard, who is an accomplished silversmith.
Steve owns and mines the Prudent Man

PHILIP STEPHENSON

Geologically, the 20-acre claim is located on a horst. A horst is a raised fault

block bounded by normal faults or graben. A horst is formed from extension
of the earths crust. The raised block is
a portion of the crust that generally remains stationary or is uplifted, while the
land has dropped on either side. Horst is
German for heap. The fault lines extend
north-south for about a mile and can be
recognized by the upthrusting of basaltic
extrusions.
The material from the claim predominantly has plumes of forest green, yellow,
gold and white, and in a new small discovery, of red. I named this the Linda Marie
claim, after my wife. The agate is mixed
with plumes, tubes, and a strange calicotype plume pattern set in white opal.
The Linda Marie claim is more pro-

Druzy pockets only add to the dynamic intensity of the plumes.

January 2016

Banded agates are somewhat rare and quite dramatic when mixed with plumes.

27

from page 27

FRANK MASLEY

PHILIP STEPHENSON

PLUME AGATE

A vertical wall of vein, snug against the basalt, often just needs a little pry to fall into
eagerly waiting hands.

A surge in the circulating solutions

could also dislodge the plume structures. Possibly, the mixing of the plume
structures and gel could be visualized as
a gentle easing into the gel if the plume
structures are very loosely attached. As the
gel continues to dehydrate and crystallize,
the plumes are enclosed in the agate that
is formed.
These types of floater formations are
generally common at Linda Marie and
uncommon at Feather Ridge. Some floaters are even small enough to make into
fascinating cabochons that have the look
of very small sections of jagged saw blade.
There are some other differences between the Feather Ridge and Linda Marie
claims. Botryoidal formations are more
prolific at Feather Ridge, and the pink or
yellow plumes reach up into the clear agate structures. The vein formations within
the fractured basalt host are quite different, as well. The vertical veins at Linda Marie trend either north-south or east-west,
with some feeder veins radiating off
these main veins. Feather Ridge veins are
at times chaotic, with no trending other

than finding the path of least resistance in

the host rock.
In October 2013, having gained a little
more experience digging at the Feather
Ridge claim, I decided to spend a little
more time setting up the hole for future
diggings at Linda Marie. I planned on enlarging the working pad on which the excavator sits on at this dig so I could move
and pull at the host basalt rock from different angles. This was essential; since the
agate veins were trending west and north,
I needed to enlarge the pad on the south
and east sides. When I began to close the
pit up, Id put locators on the surface: big
boulders marking the ends of the hole at
all points.
With the hole dug out and the pad set
up, I began at the ancient hot water vent
where I had left off in May. The vent is
surrounded by hard basalt, which generally has better agate in it. Green, gold and
white plume agate veins started appearing.
At the Linda Marie claim, I had found that
the big veins10 inches wide to over 1
foot wideare not as good as the smaller2-inch to 4-inch-wideones.

USGS

PHILIP STEPHENSON

alteration zone between the vein matter

and the wall rock. At the Vein One deposit, there is major alteration of the wall
rock. The wall has been completely altered
to clay at the contact between the vein and
the wall rock. It is altered to a lesser degree
moving away from the vein until the rock
is solid again. The alteration zone is more
than a foot wide in places.
I believe the plume structures are soft
when they are formed and are later silicified by silica-bearing solutions. Anyone
who has cut plume agate has observed
the sometimes-frustrating fact that some
plume structures are still soft in places
because they have not been completely
silicified.
After the plumes have formed, a highly
saturated silica-bearing solution fills the
remaining open space. As the solution dehydrates, a silica gel is formed that has a
specific gravity that is almost equal to the
specific gravity of the plume structures.
Tectonic activity could shake the plume
structures from the wall and they would
float in the silica gel, since their specific
gravity is near equal.

Green, white and gold plumes predominate in the material that comes out of the
Linda Marie claim.

Geologically, the 20-acre claim is located on a horst. A horst is a raised fault block
bounded by normal faults or graben.

28 www.rockngem.com

This Plume Floater, within mosslike structures, resembles the battleship piece in
the Monopoly game.

Rock & Gem

PHILIP STEPHENSON

Plume Floaters make attention-grabbing specimens

when found within vividly colored agate.

The large ones still have good plume

agate, but it takes too much time and effort to clean off unusable parts. I end up
with less than a quarter of what I started
with, and sore hands and arms to boot. So
I put the large ones (20 to over 50 pounds
each) into a small hole that I dug in the
pit.
Ill save them for later and work on
them with a small jackhammer.
The days at Linda Marie go quickly,
especially when the veins need extracting by hand. The excavator is a great machine, but removing the hard basalt from
around the delicate agate veins sometimes
requires more of a surgical approach.
The Boss, Linda, finally showed up,
said, Hi, walked over to the excavator,
and got in. Linda hasnt quite mastered
the excavator, but she is learning very
quickly. She wanted to get more practice,
so I spend the next few hours working
with her.
The time was well spent, since it not
only gave us great one-on-one time together, but she will be ready to be my digger in a short amount of time.
The same day Linda showed up, Jake
showed up and offered to operate the
machine for a few hours. He started off
aggressively, ripping down the north wall
with lots of banging and scraping.
I was down in the pit watching. Then
I heard yelling and whooping. Linda
was sitting on top of the edge of the pit,
looking down. Jake was ripping the crap
out of the wall and Linda was cheering like a spectator at a bloody gladiator
fight! Yeah! Yeah! Thats what Im talkin
about! she yelled.
Soon, the agate started flowing into
my buckets. Mining efficiently is a twoman job, so when Jake offered to help, I
jumped at it.
Together, in just those few hours, we
got more agate out of the mine than I had
in the last two days.
While ripping at the wall, we exposed
a 15-foot vertical vein reaching up to the
very surface. It was 6 inches at the widest
point and 2 inches at the narrowest point.
All of it was gemmy material with gold,
green and white plumes in clear agate.
January 2016

29

from page 29

PHILIP STEPHENSON

PLUME AGATE

Wood posts must be used when staking a claim. The

plastic PVC pipes used in the past trapped birds inside,
and it takes 1,000 years for plastic to biodegrade.

Jake said, With that, Ill leave you to it.

I need to hit the road. Its all yours Linda.
Linda and I enthusiastically thanked him
for helping out as he left.
The day was getting late and Linda had
to head back home tobe ready to go to
work in the morning. This was my last day
of digging. The sun was going down and I
had a 15-foot vein wanting to be free after
being imprisoned for millions of years in
the hard basalt. It looked like we'd be having a night dig.
After eating dinner, I grabbed my Coleman lantern and headed down to the pit.
The lights on the machine actually did a
better job of illuminating the working area
than the lantern, so I kept the engine running. Its a good trade: burning some fuel
to get great agate.
After digging a while, I noticed that a
certain section of rock had a red cast to it.
Digging out this section revealed fantastic
colors. I took one piece of the vein out,
knocked off the edge, and said, Wow!
The agate was colored red, green, white
and gold, just in time for Christmas!
Unfortunately, I only recovered about
two dozen veins out of this section. Since
red is a rare color for Linda Marie, Ill
keep these pieces for my collection. I
know people might get upset because Im
not sharing, but until I get more, Ill keep
these close.
It got too late that night to do any more
digging on that vein, but there was still a
good deal left to dig out, so I decided to
cover it up until the next spring.
In May 2014, I went back to retrace my
efforts from last fall and try to discover

30 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

PHILIP STEPHENSON

I just had to make one for myself. Cabochons with the

red, green, gold, druzy pockets and white plumes are
always a fantastic combination.

some more red plume agate. This time

around, Gene Mueller and Gary McFarland were there to help me out with the
dig. (Later, Id be helping Gene out at his
Regency Rose Plume claim at Graveyard
Point.) Having a three-man team is definitely a plus. Gene has vast mining experience, so I knew this was going to be a
very productive day and a great learning
experience.
Going back to where I had found the red
plumes proved to be too difficult. The basalt host rock was impossible to penetrate.
Therefore, we started digging on the west
side of the pit instead. There, to my astonishment, we found floaters in bright red
and yellow agate, along with a strange opal
resembling petrified wood and a banded
agate. The well-known green, white and
gold plume veins in this area were plentiful, and after paying my fuel and excavator
rental bills, Id make a small profit!
It was a great two weeks digging at Linda
Marie, Feather Ridge, and Regency Rose
with Gene. I have two other new claims
that I havent yet excavated. In April or
May of 2016, Ill open them up. These new
claims look very promising and appear to
have excellent plumes.
My personal collection of Linda Marie
and Feather Ridge plumes, along with my
Morrisonite collection, will be on display
in the Agate Expo Exhibit Hall during the
2016 Agate Symposium in Cedarburg,
Wisconsin.
Philip Stephenson will be exhibiting his Linda
Marie Plume and Feather Ridge Plume agate
and Morrisonite jasper at the 2016 Agate Expo.

January 2016

31

The Great Goethite-Limonite Debate

This is a fine example of radiating, bladed goethite on feldspar crystals from Crystal Peak, Colorado. (Groben collection)

Older Mineral Names Lose Their Legitimacy

Story and Photos by Bob Jones

hen it comes to mineral names, old habits die hard. With more accurate
methods of identifying minerals these days scientists have seen fit to make
some major changes in how minerals are named. One of the really annoying
examples of a name change is limonite-goethite. In my mind, the difference
between the two is clear enough and they should be classified separately, even though both
are hydrous iron oxide. The almost milk chocolate-brown iron oxide specimens that lack
crystal form and are usually dull and somewhat soft are limonite.
Specimens that are a lustrous dark brown to black and have a modest hardness are usually
called goethite. Now I find out Ive been wrong for about seven decades. What I used to call
limonite is now to be called goethite for the simple reason that there is no such mineral as
limonite!
32 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

These highly modified pyrite crystals from the New Years mine in Arizona have been
replaced by goethite. (Evan Jones collection)

Limonite is not the only mineral name

to lose its legitimacy. Take my favorite
form of vanadinite, which had always been
called endlichite. This name was applied to
any vanadinite that was brown or yellowbrown in color and had a fine, resinous luster. The crystals were typically hexagonal,
but in some cases formed tapering needles
of very fine mahogany color. We all knew
the hexagonal, hoppered, red crystals as
vanadinite. The present of a quantity of arsenic is what gave vanadinite its endlichite
characteristics.
As scientists got more accurate in analyzing mineral species, they began creating
more accurate names to help clarify an admittedly confusing subject. For the average
rockhound, it was simple enough to call a
brown lead chloro-vanadate endlichite
to differentiate it from the red crystals of
vanadinite. Maybe we were not quite accurate, but at least we knew what such a
specimen would look like.
Now, scientists have decided that using
the term endlichite is not accurate enough
because it isnt specific enough. So, the
same lovely brown hexagonal lead-chlorovanadate I used to collect in Mexico and at
the Rowley mine in Arizona is now called
arsenian-vanadinite. As far as Im concerned, if I collect a nice, resinous-brown
vanadium mineral, Im still going to call it
endlichite! That is the name Im most comfortable using. I know what it means and
to which vanadium mineral it refers.
Granted, calling the arsenian-rich vanadinite endlichite is not chemically accurate, and in mineralogy, it is important
that the mineral be named as accurately
as possible. The new name really does give
the collector a better idea of what he or
she has. But for us old-timers, the nowdiscontinued name endlichite is far more
acceptable simply because we are too stubborn to change!
The name-changing practice now in
vogue that really has my head spinning is
that of placing a chemical symbol in front
January 2016

Heres a fine example of a goethite pseudomorph after pyrite from Crystal Peak,
Colorado. (private collection)

of or behind the name of a mineral. Take

the lovely white-to-green mineral apophyllite, for example. If you look it up in
the latest Fleischers Glossary of Minerals,
which is the bible of mineral nomenclature, it is still listed with the A minerals,
but it is listed three times. Side by side,
these three different apophyllites sure look
the same to me. The difference is in their
chemistry.
In Fleischer, youll find one of three
different chemical symbols given in parentheses: (KF), (KOH) or (NaF). Does
that mean that if you find an apophyllite
you really like can you tell the difference?
I doubt it! To some collectors it may be
important that the specimen they chose
is apophyllite (KOH) and not the apophyllite (NaF) they expected. Will most
collectors reject the specimen? Of course
they wont!

Heres a fine example of a goethite pseudomorph after

pyrite from Crystal Peak, Colorado. (private collection)

So, putting the correct chemical designation on your label is your choice. But
theres a hitch in doing that. If you put
the specimen in your cabinet, there is no
problem. But if you enter it in a Federation competition, you may be penalized
for failing to add the chemical symbol after
the mineral name. Thus, the finer specimen may lose a point. I dont think that is
right. Call me picky but shouldnt the better specimen get the nod in judging?
Old Ed McDole, one of stranger characters in our hobby, but now deceased, used
to promote the idea that the best rocks
should win the trophy regardless of nonmineral distractions like dust, labeling,
wrinkled cloth, etc. In fact, for a period of
years, the Ed McDole Trophy was awarded
to the case that, in Eds own words, held
The best rocks in the show, with nonmineral distractions not considered. Dont
get me wrongFederation competition is
very important and has its place at shows. I
just think the minerals, which are the reason for competing, should be given premium consideration.
Im all for naming mineral species accurately and indicating the ingredients that
are chemically important in a species, but
dont toss out the old practices and names
for the sake of scientific accuracy if it is
going to create confusion among the vast
number of amateurs who enjoy collecting
minerals.
The interest collectors have in minerals
has certainly changed in the last century.
The science of minerals was always an
important factor in the minds of 20thcentury collectors. Today, however, the
attractiveness of a specimen takes precedence over its scientific appeal. The attitude toward broken and repaired crystals
has also changed. Fifty years ago, the value
of a damaged or repaired crystal was cause
to shun it, or at least reduced its value considerably. Now, some completely repaired
crystals can sell for six figures if they are
showy or rare enough.

33

LIMONITE

from page 33

Heres a fine example of Crowders Mountain goethite, labeled var. turgite, on display at Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina.

Im glad that such specimens are salvaged, since they would otherwise be cast
aside. Reassembled specimens have added
immensely to the supply of very showy
specimens. Still, I think repaired specimens, regardless of how well the job is
done, do not deserve the same monetary
consideration as a perfectly formed specimen in original, undamaged form.
As the science of minerals becomes less
important to collectors, however, scientific
accuracy is becoming paramount in the
language of naming minerals. Old terms
we all understood have disappeared from
the literature. Limonite, for years and
years, was the common name for iron hydroxide, but is now abandoned in favor of
the name of another, chemically similar
mineral, goethite. How confusing!
Here we have a situation where many
collectors are no longer interested in the
science of minerals, yet the International
Nomenclature Commission members, who
are charged with the accuracy of the science
of minerals, are doing their best to bring
scientific accuracy to mineral nomenclature. Amateurs are still using the old terms
for ease of understanding. I doubt anyone
is going to describe a specimen of apophyllite and include the more accurate chemical
symbol along with the mineral name.
The story of goethite and limonite is
a case in point. In old texts, like James
Dwight Danas System of Mineralogy, the
bible of the mineral world, I find goethite
listed chemically and limonite listed separately as another distinct mineral. Iron oxides are chemically active and very hard to
differentiate by sight. We were accustomed
to identifying specimens according to the
obvious physical properties described
above.
Limonite is perhaps the oldest name in
use to describe hydrous oxide of iron. As

34 www.rockngem.com

This vividly colored goethite, formerly called turgite, is from the famous copper mines at Bisbee,
Arizona. (Evan Jones collection)

early as 1813, it was applied to the iron oxide known as bog ore, found in swamps
and shallow waters. This material was easily smelted in open furnaces. The mineral
was described as being amorphous (lacking any crystal form). The term limonite
continued to be applied to any amorphous
tan to dark-brown massive material. This
is the common matrix found beautifully
decorated with secondary mineral species
that form when the original sulfide ores
are weathered.
When an ore deposit is exposed to the
forces of nature, the original sulfides break
down. Iron-bearing mineralschalcopyrite and pyrite, in particularrelease
iron atoms as they break down, and this
iron immediately combines with oxygen
and water in the form of the chemical
radical (OH), hydroxide. This gives the
decomposing outcrop of ore, called a gossan, a reddish hue. Gossan comes from
the French word gos, meaning blood.
The brownish matrix that forms from the
breakdown of iron minerals becomes the

These fine crystals of kttigite found a place to develop

in a vug lined with goethite from Mina Ojuela, Mapimi,
Mexico. (Groben collection)

common lining of open cavities in the

weathered ore and plays host to an amazing range of very desirable secondary minerals that collectors cherish.
In the deserts of the world, where weathering can penetrate to well over 1,000 feet,
this brownish lining is exceedingly common. It can contain some quartz, which
makes it quite hard, much to the dismay
of any collectors trying to recover minerals
in and on the brown iron matrix. At other
times, this brown lining is so soft you can
gouge it with your fingers.
The iron hydroxide lines open veins and
cavities, in which later mineral-bearing
solutions can accumulate. Given time,
these solutions begin to produce crystals.
Legrandite, adamite, smithsonite, wulfenite, mimetite, and any number of other
secondary mineral species have a brown
matrix we used to call limonite. Now, it is
called goethite. Be cautious, though, because smithsonite can also form as a brown
matrix on which crystals can form.
A lot of the massive goethite also had
other uncommon iron oxide species
names, like feroxyhyite or lepidochroite. In massive form, goethite, lepidochroite and ferooxyhyte are indistinguishable.
In fact, what we used to call limonite pseudomorphs after pyrite have been shown to
be mainly goethite, but can also contain
traces of one or more other hydrous iron
oxides, including these uncommon minerals. Talk about confusing!
Goethite is easily identified when it
forms crystals. For one thing, it does not
have the physical properties of what we
used to call limonite. It is very dark brown
to almost black. It has luster, which limonite never had. Limonite did not form
crystals, but goethite can form bladed
crystals or small tabular crystals, and even
take on needle or acicular form. In massive
Rock & Gem

Pelican Point, Utah, has long been a source of choice, sharp goethites after pyrite. (Groben collection)

form, it is botryoidal, reniform, stalactite

or fibrous. It was common for collectors
in the 20th century to refer to most brown
massive forms as limonite, especially when
no crystal form was present and the color
tended to be brownish yellow, rusty brown,
and the like. Now, it is all goethite.
There are several forms of goethite that
are well worth collecting and displaying. An odd massive, reniform variety
we used to call turgite is still labeled as
such in museums and private collections.
It is lightly coated with submicroscopic
crystals that defract light, so a rainbow
pattern of color shows up all over the
specimen surface.
Turgite is an ancient name that was applied to what is now goethite whenever the
uneven surface showed a flash or play of
colors. So, turgite, as it was called, is more
correctly reniform goethite on which hydrous iron oxide has developed in scaly,
submicroscopic crystals. These act as a
diffraction grating, splitting light into its
component colors, which reflect off the
surface of the specimen as you rotate or
rock it in your hand. The 1892 edition of
the System of Mineralogy described turgite
as a distinct species. To quote Dana, a
common ore of iron, often taken for limonite, with which it is frequently associated.
Ironically, neither turgite nor limonite is
credited as a mineral today. They are simply described as forms of goethite.
Turgite was common in many mines in
Europe. In this country, it was present in
the old iron mines around Salisbury, Connecticut. In later years, quantities of very
colorful, reniform turgite were found in
North Carolina, and even today you can see
specimens displayed and labeled turgite in
the museum on Grandfather Mountain, not
far from Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
One form of what was called limonite
is the goethite pseudomorph after pyrite.
January 2016

I cant think of any pseudomorph species

more common than this one. The beauty
of these pseudomorphs is they are found
as perfectly preserved images of the original pyrite crystals. Pyrite is cubic and very
often heavily striated. Many goethite pseudomorphs preserve the exact features of
the pyrite cubes, though dodecahedrons
of pyrite can also be replaced by goethite.
Oddly, I seldom see any goethite-after-pyrite octahedrons.
Sources of these pseudomorphs are
countless, but one localityPelican Point,
Utah Lake, Utahproduced marvelous
clusters of fairly lustrous, perfectly shaped
pyrite crystals replaced by goethite. For
decades, local collectors were able to collect in this unrestricted area, and fine
groups of specimens were recovered. The
area is, according to my information, now
closed to collecting.
Two areas in which you can still find excellent bladed goethite specimens are Florissant and Crystal Peak (Teller County),
Colorado. This region is famous for its
amazonite-smoky quartz combinations,
which also can have minor associations
of goethite and fluorite. Not surprisingly,
goethite pseudomorphs after pyrite are
sometimes found in the Pikes Peak region,
as well.
Generally, the goethite occurs as small,
bladed clusters, but at times a pocket rich
in bladed sprays of goethite with smoky
quartz has been found. Lovely specimens
of radiating blades can form what might be
called flowery arrangements. The smoky
quartz crystals associated with the goethite
can also have minor goethite inclusions.
While the change of limonite to goethite
has been made, you can continue to hear
the term limonite applied to some specimens. There is no harm in using the term.
Simply understand that it is no longer scientifically accurate.

35

rock science
by STEVE VOYNICK

Mirror, Mirror

A Maya mirror consisting of inlay pieces of polished, specular hematite.

recent exhibition of Maya artifacts at

the Denver (Colorado) Museum of
Nature & Science included a 1,400-yearold mosaic mirror fashioned from hematite. Such mirrors had great spiritual significance in the Maya culture. In a time
when science did not exist to explain the
optical phenomenon of reflection, hematite mirrors seemed to possess supernatural powers.
For the Maya elite, mirrors served as
personal ornaments, symbols of wealth,
and even fire-starting devices. In Maya
symbolism, they represented fire, water,
and the sun. But most importantly, mirrors
produced mysterious light reflections that,
in the eyes of the Maya, were divinatory
images that aided communication with
spirits, offered glimpses into the underworld, revealed the future, and provided
guidance in decision-making.
Light reflections can be specular or
diffused. In specular (mirrorlike) reflections, single rays of incident light are
reflected as single rays in one direction.
In diffused reflections, incident light is reflected as multiple rays that travel in different directions. Mirror images are therefore specular reflections that replicate the
original incident light, and creating them
demands extremely smooth, highly reflective surfaces.
Specular surfaces are rare in the natural
world. The most common of these are the
surface of a still body of water and the faces of certain mineral crystals.

36 www.rockngem.com

The highly reflective, natural crystal faces on this hematite make an excellent mirror.

In mirrors, the reflective surfaces must

be extraordinarily smooth. When surface
irregularities on a reflective surface are
smaller than the wavelengths of light, virtually all incident light is reflected. Ideally,
mirror surfaces should also be colorless,
black, or a neutral, metallic silver that will
reflect all light wavelengths equally.
The Maya, and the Olmec people who
preceded them, fashioned mirrors from
pyrite and the iron minerals ilmenite,
magnetite, and especially hematite.
Hematite, or iron oxide (Fe2O3), is the
most abundant iron mineral and the primary ore of iron. It has a Mohs hardness of
5.0-6.0, no true cleavage, and a substantial
specific gravity of 4.9-5.3. Hematite crystallizes in the hexagonal system as tabular
crystals, and occurs in earthy, massive and
botryoidal forms. Particulate hematite is
red; crystalline hematite is a metallic steelgray or black.
The specular variety of crystalline hematite, known as specularite, is excellent
mirror material. Its micaceous structure of
aligned, flat microcrystals creates a naturally reflective surface that is similar to the
crystal faces of the mica-group minerals.
Due to its hardness and structure, specular
hematite takes a superb polish. It reflects
light wavelengths equally, and is a relatively
abundant and widely distributed mineral.
The Olmec were making mirrors of
specular hematite as early as 1200 BCE.
Although these had great spiritual significance, they were also functional. Polished,

concave hematite mirrors could point-focus sunlight to start fires.

Olmec mirror-making skills had been
passed down to the emerging Maya culture by 600 BCE. Early Maya mirrors were
single pieces of hematite rarely larger than
an inch or two. These evolved into larger,
mosaic mirrors made of numerous small,
inlay pieces of polished hematite.
Maya mirrors were almost priceless because of the huge amount of time, effort,
and skill that was invested in each. Some
consisted of mosaics of many small, highly
reflective faces of natural hematite crystals.
Most, however, were pieces of hematite that
required lengthy and laborious polishing to
produce a reflective surface. Archaeologists
suggest that fine quartz-sand grit, then an
even finer hematite grit were used.
The Maya also made mirrors from pyrite, but its inherent chemical instability
caused their once-reflective surfaces to
oxidize into crumbly iron hydroxides over
centuries of burial, heat and humidity. But
as a chemically stable iron oxide, hematite has been able to preserve a fascinating
glimpseliterally and figurativelyinto
the Maya past.
Steve Voynick is a science writer, mineral collector, former hardrock
miner, and the author
of books like Colorado
Rockhounding and New
Mexico Rockhounding.

Rock & Gem

A NEVADA

TURQUOISE
ADVENTURE
Collecting
at the Royal
Royston Claim

Royston turquoise exhibiting rhyolite matrix

is featured in this Navajo jewelry.

Story and Photos by Thomas Farley

ear the western high-water mark of the Great Basins Sagebrush Sea sits Tonopah,
Nevada, at 5,394 feet. I came to this high-desert town to search for turquoise, to
experience a hunt on one of the last gem-grade turquoise mines open to the public in the United States.
A friends interest in turquoise jewelry had ignited in me a curiosity about the semiprecious gemstone. While I am normally a
gold prospector, using my metal detector to find gold in quartz,
I became more and more interested in turquoise as I researched
it on the Web.
An upcoming trip to Las Vegas would take me through Tonopah. From investigating, I knew that the nearby Royston Mining District was famous for turquoise and that the Otteson family
offered a tour and a dig at their Royal Royston claim in of Tonopah. The $100 dig fee did not deter me, since food, gas, research
books, and a hotel room would cost more than that. Besides, what
price adventure?
Tonopah is centrally located between Reno, Nevada, and Las
Vegas, a days drive from either city. I began my turquoise odyssey in Reno, principally because I was moving things from Sacramento to Las Vegas, my soon-to-be new hometown. The date was
Oct. 20, 2015.
To get into the spirit of things, I first visited the W.M. Keck
Earth Science and Mineral Engineering Museum on the campus of the University of Nevada at Reno. The museum is in the
Mackay School of Mines Building, a classical-looking structure in
Flemish-bond brick. I had read there was an outstanding display

38 www.rockngem.com

of Nevada turquoise inside, and I was not disappointed.

A large display cabinet houses the Luella Margrave turquoise
collection. It has samples from around the world, including more
than 30 specimens from different Nevada mines and localities.
The collection of mostly rounded and polished stones includes a
Blue Gem mine specimen that weighs 704 carats! The grouping
also shows stones that are often mistaken for turquoise, such as
howlite, chrysocolla, wardite, imperialite and variscite.
The Keck, as staff members sometimes call it, houses other
fine collections. Its gold and silver specimens are first-class, and
the history of the Comstock strike is well presented. Any rockhound should tour the museums displays of minerals, fossils,
mining artifacts, and ores. Vowing to come back soon, I next
drove a few miles north to visit the publication sales and information office of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG).
The NBMG maintains this outlet at the Great Basin Science
Sample and Records Library building on Raggio Parkway in
Reno. Its recognizable immediately by its insulating gold-clad
windows. During my Internet research on Nevada turquoise, I
kept coming across references to a Frank Morrissey, an inveterate
amateur turquoise collector who visited nearly every turquoise
mine in Nevada. At The Bureau, I bought a copy of Morrisseys
Rock & Gem

Group members are issued yellow bags to hold the specimens they collect on the
overburden bank at the Royal Royston claim.

seminal work, Turquoise Deposits of Nevada, field checked and published by the
NBMG in 1968. Although the document
exists as a pdf file online, I purchased the
printed work for its foldout map and, to a
degree, as a souvenir.
After some impulse buyingGeology of
Nevada, a boxed NBMG rock and mineral
collection, and a turquoise picture postcardI fueled my truck and headed east
on Interstate 80 to Fernley, Nevada. Its
necessary to go east to hook up with U.S.
Highway 95 South, which takes you all the
way to Tonopah.
As I negotiated the light traffic and rural
intersections, I kept looking at the postcard I had bought, slightly bent and yellowed on the back, perhaps from years of
waiting to be sold. Its caption, written by
the NBMG, neatly summarized what I was
starting to learn: Turquoise is a complex
mixture of copper, aluminum, phosphate
and water, and is found in veins, seams
and nodules in a variety of rocks. It varies greatly in color from the highly prized
shades of blue, green, and blue green to almost white or grey.
That correlated with my notes. The U.S.
Geological Survey wrote something similar
on the Web: Chemically, a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminum, turquoise
is formed by the percolation of meteoric or
groundwater through aluminous rock in
the presence of copper (http://minerals.
usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/gemstones/sp14-95/turquoise.html).
Water and an arid climate are key factors. As water moves through layers of
the chemically correct soil and rock, it
causes small amounts of copper to be dissolved. Evaporation must then occur for
aluminum and phosphorus to combine
with the copper. The result of this reaction is to deposit turquoise in veins. Too
much water in the soil initially would
drive out the copper, making it too dilute to react. The process would also be
doomed in a wetter climate, since evaporation must occur.
January 2016

An excavator at the Royal Royston claim removes overburden of rhyolite and kaolin
shale to expose the downward-trending turquoise vein.

Turquoises formula is CuA16(PO4)4

(OH)85H2O, in which Cu is copper, Al
is aluminum, PO4 is phosphate, OH is hydroxide, and H2O is, of course, water. The
differences in color and the shades within
a color, reflect the different concentrations
of each chemical. Chemicals that are present in lesser amounts, such as iron, also affect color, as does the host rock, or matrix,
of the stone.
Joe Dan Lowry and Joe P. Lowry, writing in Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide (Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2002),
say that, generally speaking, Stones
with more copper appear bluer, while
those with less copper and more iron are
greener. Other experts, such as Colorado Colleges Richard M. Pearl, author of
Turquoise (Earth Science Publishing Co.,
1976), are skeptical and leave irons contribution unresolved. But as I drove on and as
the country emptied, I thought less about
chemicals and more about the people who
first occupied these lonely lands and how
they worked turquoise into their lives.

This washed 3-pound, cabinet-size rhyolite rock shows

a gem-grade turquoise seam.

Turquoise mining and processing in

Nevada goes back at least 600 years. Research Geologist Joseph V. Tingley once
wrote that Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans)
mined turquoise near present-day Boulder City in southern Nevada from 300 CE
to 500 CE In 1925, George Schmidtlein
was led by a house servant to what she
said was an old Indian mine in the Toquima Range (Nye County). Fifty miles
or so northeast of Tonopah, Schmidtlein
found turquoise chips, crude stone tools,
and a narrow, 12- to 15-foot shaft. He subsequently claimed the property, calling it
the Indian Blue mine.
From their center of power in what is
now New Mexico, Anasazi traded turquoise for almost everything, including
California seashells, copper bells, obsidian, and even macaws from Mexico. But
what about this mine near Tonopah? That
is Western Shoshone country. Although I
hadnt yet finished my research, it seemed
likely that those early people also produced finished turquoise for its ornamental, monetary and sacred value.
Mine-scarred hills and tailing piles
greeted me as I drove into Tonopah. The
city is built on top of countless abandoned
tunnels and mine workings; a town alive
on the remnants of the past.
My destination was the historic and period-restored 1907 Mizpah Hotel, whose
management has an arrangement with the
Ottesons that benefits everyone. The Ottesons run rock saws and polishing equipment in the Mizpahs basement and a retail
store on the first floor. Tour participants
get a discount on their dig fee if they stay
overnight in the hotel. All dig attendees,
no matter where they stay in town, meet
their guide leader at 10 a.m. in the morning in the grand lobby of the Mizpah.
After a wonderful dinner and overnight
at the Mizpah, I got out at 8 oclock the next
morning to walk around the Tonopah Historic Mining Park. The park is right in back
of the hotel. Challenging trails lead to myriad mining features: hoist houses, a powder

39

TURQUOISE

from page 39

Tonopah, Nevada, is a high-desert town situated near the Royston Mining District.

magazine, a tunnel, and viewing areas for

many now-closed silver and gold mines. For
the less physically inclined, the Visitor Center offers easy access and plenty of parking.
The rock and mineral displays there offer a
great look at Nevadas geological resources.
It was here that I first saw turquoise rough,
and I found that sight compelling.
Previously, I had always seen turquoise
set in jewelry or as polished stones. The
rough, by comparison, had a raw and natural look that I liked very much. Royston
District turquoise was represented, including an example of the rare and controversial
white turquoise, which many argue is not
turquoise at all. I will not settle that argument here, but the NBMG did write that
turquoise colors could range to almostwhite and gray. After too short a stay, I
hustled out of the visitor center to get to the
Mizpah lobby by 10 oclock.
In the Mizpah, a small group of us filled
out paperwork, were issued yellow nylon
bags for our finds, and were introduced to
the personable Dean Otteson. He seemed
genuinely interested in sharing his life and
his love of turquoise. Turquoise mining is
a family affair; no fewer than 13 Ottesons
have active claims in the Royston Mining
District. We would caravan to the claim, he
said, so the six of us went off to our vehicles
and were soon racing out of town.
And I do mean racing. After a short
stint on U.S. Highway 95 West, we headed
northwest on Gabbs Pole Line Road at a
furious speed. We passed SolarReserves
power plant, whose thousands of mirrors
concentrated sunlight on a tower receiver
that glowed like a torch. Our small convoy
struggled to keep up with Deans truck.
After 20 miles, we broke westward over
an unpaved, but well-graded, road toward
the Royston Hills. Rain had fallen in previous days, but our caravana low-slung
sedan, a full-size camper pickup towing an
ATV, and my pickupmanaged to battle
through the occasional wallow. I tried not
to think about damaging the load of paintings and possessions in my truck, which I
was taking to Las Vegas. They would have
to take care of themselvesthis was a time
for turquoise!

40 www.rockngem.com

Low-grade green turquoise in rhyolite can be found at the Royal Royston claim.

This washed hand sample is typical of the size of stones

found at the Royal Royston claim.

Dean Otteson says that a skillful cutter could make

good use of even thin veins of turquoise.

After five or six miles on this unpaved

track through desert scrub, we came to
our first stop a few hundred yards from
our final destination. Dean pointed out an
abandoned mine that at one time supplied
turquoise for Tiffany & Co. He said the old
tunnel was safe to go into and that a mine
room opened to the sky. Regrettably, in my
haste to search, I forgot about these old
workings and did not tour them before I
left. After this stop, we followed Dean to
his Royal Royston claim. He motioned to a
bank of overburden only steps away from
where we parked. It was in these spoils that
we could search.
Deans excavator was following and
exposing a main vein. As it dug through
less promising earth, its bucket would
swing back and place overburden behind
the machine. That rock was then pushed
away from the excavator so we could look
through it. Armed mostly with hand rakes,
we pawed at the material, turning over
dusty rocks and rubble. I regretted not
bringing a spray bottle.
Dean said the overburden was a jumble
of kaolin shale and rhyolite. This state-

ment matched my research; the USGS Nevada state geologic map shows the claim
area belonging to the Havallah Sequence
of Mississippian- to Permian-age rocks
altered by volcanic activity. Fractures and
fissures were invaded by mineral-bearing
solutions, and the gemstone was deposited
as seams and veinlets.
Dean told us to simply look for color.
One big rock with a hint of blue caught
his attention. Our group had only rock
picks and hammers, nothing heavy
enough to break open the piece. I said I
had a hand sledge in my truck and went
to get it. Upon my return, however, the
group had dispersed, each of them hunting on their own.
I looked over the rock, trying to read
it. Not wanting to destroy something by
blindly flailing away, I remembered Dean
had said to hit the rock on the right. So I
did. A 3-inch piece broke away, displaying good color. I hit the rock again and
it cleaved open, exploding into a sky blue
color that matched any turquoise cabochon I had ever seen. A half-inch-thick
vein of gem-grade turquoise revealed itRock & Gem

Access and Amenities

The William M. Keck Earth Science and Mineral Engineering Museum is located in
the Mackay School of Mines Building on the campus of the University of Nevada at
Reno. Handicap accessible with restrooms. Close parking is metered and scarce when
students are in session. No admission charge. (775) 784-1766; www.unr.edu/keck
The Great Basin Science Sample and Records Library building housing the Nevada
Bureau of Mines and Geology sales office is located at 2175 Raggio Parkway in Reno.
Handicap accessible with restrooms. Plentiful parking. No charge. (775) 682-8766
The Tonopah Historic Mining Park is located at 110 Burro Street, immediately behind the Mizpah Hotel. Adequate parking for most RVs and trailers. Visitor Center
and mineral display room is handicap accessible and has restrooms. Free admission
to the visitor center, store, and mineral displays. For the most part, the grounds are
not easy for the physically challenged. There is a charge for the walking tour, which
ranges from $3 to $5. (775) 482-9274; www.tonopahhistoricminingpark.com
The Mizpah Hotel is located on 100 N. Main Street in Tonopah. Handicap accessible
with restaurant, bar and lodging. (775) 482-3030; www.mizpahhotel.net
Royston Turquoise mine tours are arranged and conducted by the Otteson family on Wednesdays and Saturdays from April through October. The claim site is unpaved, with uneven ground, and without facilities. People are escorted in, but can
leave by themselves. Bring water, snacks, goggles, gloves, a spray bottle, and a rock
hammer. See their Web site for additional items. Perhaps take a rented vehicle if you
are concerned about your car. Good luck! (775) 482-9889; www.roystonturquoise.
com/minetours.htm

self. I was so excited that I wanted to put

the rock into my bag immediately and run
off with it, but I hesitated.
Our group had found the rock together. I therefore considered it a community
rock, and wistfully placed it next to my
tool bucket. Later, we would all have to figure out who got to keep it. And while the
group had scattered, my prospecting experience taught me never to leave a productive area until it was exhausted. I was soon
rewarded for staying close with samples
that showed wonderfully what I had read
about while getting ready for the dig: turquoise veins shot through parent rock.
These new pieces showed fracture
lines and veins more clearly than the first
rock, but with much less turquoise. I told
Dean that, while they were interesting,
they didnt seem to be good prospects for
working up. He disagreed, saying that it
depended on the skill of the rock cutter;
that if done properly, a good show could
result even from these thin veins. I later
read about ribbon turquoise and how a
narrow line of color through country rock
could produce a beautiful cabochon. Dean
was clearly an expert.
Dean asked me how splitting the first
rock had turned out. He gave a big smile
when I brought it over. I told him I would
have to figure out who would get to keep
it. He regarded me with a puzzled look,
as if to say not to worry about it. Fortunately, a member of our group overheard
our conversation. He shouted, Tom, just
keep it! I happily put it in my yellow bag,
already thinking where I could display it in
my new home.
One of our company found a round,
dense green stone that looked quite gemJanuary 2016

my. I hadnt read that the Royston Mining District produced nodules or nuggets;
nevertheless, there it was. I read later in
Pearls Turquoise that when a rock cavity
is only partially filled, the surface is often
rounded. The others in our group were
equally happy with their finds, mostly
hand sample-size rocks showing green
and blue.
Having found enough rough to keep me
happy, I and several others walked down
to where the excavator was being used to
chase the main vein. Moments before, I
had seen Deans brother and another hand
leaving the mine with 5-gallon buckets
of rough. It all looked very blue. Almost
canyon-like, a high rock wall loomed over
a deep hole that the excavator was burrowing into. The mine had been producing for
some time, judging by the depth of the pit.
We spent about three hours on the
claim. It felt special to walk around a
working mine like this on such a beautiful
fall day. Dean encouraged all of us to join a
rock or mineral society in our hometowns
so we could work our turquoise and find
out more about rocks and gems in general.
Good advice. For those without access to
saws, Dean offered to cut smaller pieces
back at the Mizpah.
Feeling recharged by the experience,
I drove back to the main road at my own
pace, enjoying the countryside. The glow
of SolarReserves tower in the distance led
me to the main highway, and then I was on
to Las Vegas. I thought about the Margrave
turquoise collection Id seen in Reno at the
beginning of my trip. Perhaps I, too, could
start a Nevada turquoise collection. Perhaps my turquoise odyssey was not ending,
but only beginning. What a feeling!

MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST

GEM & MINERAL SOCIETY
presents

26th
Annual
MAGNOLIA STATE
GEM & MINERAL SHOW
Nov. 13th, 14th & 15th, 2015
Jackson County Fairgrounds
Pascagoula,MS

admission $3.00 or $5.00 for three day pass

children free with adult.

25 Dealers!
NATURAL & EDUCATIONAL
Gold, Silver, Copper
and multi-mineral displays.
MANY Educational demonstrators
to show you how to Gold pan
& Flint Nap, and many more.
Several great casinos nearby.
For information contact
show chairman Bill LaRue
wildbill2736@gmail.com; 228-229-8781

Lapidary Supplies
and Equipment
Most Orders Shipped within 24 Hours
Authorized Dealers of: Crystalite, Lapcraft,
Covington, Inland, MK Diamond, Raytech,
Diamond Pacific, Graves and more.

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email: info@arrowheadlapidarysupply.com

Arrowhead Lapidary Supply

P. O. Box 247
Wellington, OH 44090
Website: arrowheadlapidarysupply.com

41

Charoite

K(Ca;Na)2Si4)10(OH;F)H2O

Charoite is a calcium potassium silicate mineral with a complicated chemical formula that varies because of its
rocklike nature. Like such other gemstone rocks as jade or lapis lazuli, it
usually has other minerals interspersed
within it. Charoite is massive, meaning
it does not produce individual crystals.
It is easily recognizable by its distinctive
color that ranges lavender or lilac to deep
purple. It is often mixed with orange
tinaksite, green-gray microcline feldspar,
and greenish-black aegirine-augite, intertwined in fibrous patterns.
Some say charoite is named for its type
locality near the Chara River. Others say
the name comes from the Russian word chary, meaning charms or magic. It formed in a geologic setting that produced what is
technically referred to as a potassic feldspar metasomatite. Thats a big, fancy phrase! In brief, it formed from contact metamorphism
when a mountain mass intruded into and altered a body of limestone.
Charoite is a rare mineral. The only source is Murunskii Massif, in the Eastern Siberian region of Russia, where the mining season
is limited to a few months of the year. Although known locally since the 1940s as sirenevyi kamen (lilac stone), it was only formally
described in 1978, when it entered the international gemstone market.
It has no real uses beyond jewelry and ornamental products, but its color and silky luster are highly appealing. Although its fibrous
nature makes it hard to work, it takes a fine polish. A hardness of Mohs 5-6 makes it appropriate for jewelry, carvings and spheres. Flatlapped slabs or in larger cabochons take the best advantage of its vibrant, swirling patterns.
Jim Brace-Thompson

Lapidary Arts

Lapis is the Greek word for stone, and the lapidary arts involve taking rough stones and
crafting them into jewelry, sculptures, or other artistic works.
For instance, the stone in a brides engagement ring did not naturally form that way,
round and sparkling with perfectly uniform and even facets. A lapidary artist invested great skill, time and effort into evaluating a rough diamond, determining
how it might be cut to best advantage, then cutting, grinding and polishing it
with a faceting machine.
Most lapidary arts, like faceting, require expensive machines, materials
and equipment, but that doesnt always have to be the case. For instance,
with the lapidary art of wire wrapping, you can make a great piece of jewelry with a common, unpolished stone, a pair of needlenose pliers, and a
bit of wire. Gemstone trees take similar materials and techniques.
Over the next several months, Ill introduce you to some basic forms
of lapidary arts that will let you turn rough stones youve collected into
works of art. They include tumbling, cabbing, carving, flat lapping, intarsia, faceting, wire wrapping, gemstone trees, knapping, and beading.
Stones like agate and jasper are easily available and inexpensive, and
might even be self-collected at spots near you.
These lapidary techniques produce unique works of art that shine and sparkle, and that are sure to provide satisfaction and fun!
Jim Brace-Thompson

42

www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

Lucky gold rush miners boasted of hitting the mother lode. They
were referring to a major vein of gold, a type of lode deposit.
A lode deposit forms when hydrothermal (hot-water) solutions fill
a fracture in a body of hard rock and deposit some type of metal. The
resulting orerock containing enough metal to make mining profitableis mined and smelted to separate the metal.
Pieces of gold that erode out of exposed lode deposits are transported downward by water and other environmental forces until they
can go no farther. They collect in a low place, such as a river bottom or
on bedrock, as a placer deposit. The lode deposit is referred to as the
mother, or origin, of the placer gold.
Californias mother lode was a vein of gold ore that stretched 120
miles long. It marks the place in which continental plates collided,
crushing and folding rocks. Water trickled down the cracks and came
into contact with magma, which superheated it. The hot water dissolved metals, forming a rich solution. The solution was forced back
up the fissures, dropping its metal load as it cooled. The result was one
of the richest gold deposits in the country.
Lynn Varon

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Mother Lode

California mother lode ore

Gold Mine

GETTY IMAGES

You have 25 pick strokes to mine as much gold as possible. Each dirt and gold tile takes one stroke to break through; rock tiles
require two strokes. Dig only through tiles whose sides touch. Diagonal moves are not allowed. Dig multiple tunnels, if you wish.
Our top score: 12

January 2016

43

January 28 February 13 March 4 6

TUCSON, AZ
(CASTRO VALLEY)
Martin Zinn Expositions Arizona
NEWARK, CA
Mineral & Fossil Show
The Hotel Tucson City Center
Formerly The Inn Suites 475 N.
Granada, Tucson AZ Room #235
10am 6pm Daily,
Sat.(13th) 10am 5pm

Castro Valley Mineral & Gem

Society Annual Show
The Newark Pavilion
6430 Thornton Ave., Newark, CA
Fri. 10am 6pm, Sat. 10am
6pm, Sun. 10am 5pm

March 12 & 13
SAN MARINO, CA

Pasadena Lapidary Societys Fifty

Sixth Annual Tournament of Gems
San Marino Masonic Center, 3130
Huntington Drive, San Marino
CA 91108
Sat. 10am 6pm,
Sun. 10am 5pm

March 26 & March 27

Roseville, CA

Roseville Rock Rollers Annual Show

Placer County Fairgrounds 800 All
America City Blvd.
Sat. 10am 5pm,
Sun. 10am 4pm

Natural vs. Enhanced

GEM MATERIALS
Part 2: Druzy,
Dinosaur
Bone, and
Lapis Options
Story by Helen Serras-Herman

46 www.rockngem.com

M.J. COLELLA

ccording to the Enhancement Codes set

by the American Gem Trade
Association (AGTA) and the
Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) guidelines for the
jewelry industry, the term
simulants refers to natural
or enhanced materials that
simulate another natural
gemstone. They vary from
imitation stones, which are
mostly manmade materials
(usually glass or plastic) that
imitate a natural gemstone.
Disclosure by the seller is
important, both for honestys sake and so the customer
will know how to take care of
the finished stones.

The even distribution of the surface druse is an important consideration when choosing druzy gemstones for
lapidary work. In the Pink Panther pendant/brooch, pink druzy cobalto-calcite from the Congo is set in 14k
gold with garnets and a ruby cab.

Rock & Gem

HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

The meteoritic rise in popularity of druzy gemstones among designers has to do with its natural mineral surface and potential as a wearable gem (clockwise: pink cobaltocalcite, uvarovite, blue chalcedony, agate, azurite, hemomorphite, liebethenite and gem silica).

using enhanced gem materials fashioned

into cabochons, beads, carvings, eggs or
spheres, or is treating their stones with
oils, resins or Opticon fracture filler, it is
their responsibility to share that information with the buyer.

HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

NATURAL DRUZY GEMS VS. ENHANCED

Druzy quartz surfaces, just like agates, are commonly dyed in a multitude of bright colors.

Lapidaries, designers, and metal smiths

need to be aware of the hardness, durability and longevity of these stones, as does
the final jewelry client or collector, who
should know how to clean and take care
of these stones.
January 2016

According to the FTC guidelines, it is

the sellers responsibility at all levels of
commerce to clearly disclose to the buyer
at the time of the sale whether the stone is
natural or not, excepting normal fashioning (cutting and polishing). If the seller is

The term druse refers to an incrustation of small crystals on the surface of a

rock or mineral. Gem material that sports
such a crystal coating is described as druzy. The reflection of light off these tiny
crystals creates a shimmering effect that
is sometimes likened to the sparkling of
sugar or snow. Druse can occur on rock
surfaces or within veins or vugs. Rather
than being ground smooth, druzy gems
retain their rough surface of myriad crystal points.
Druzy gemstones first appeared on the
market about 20 years ago. They were first
cut as simple rounds, ovals and freeforms,
and later as fantasy cuts leaves, stars,
crosses, snowflakes or cloud shapes. The
meteoritic rise in the popularity of druzy
gemstones among designers is owed to
the appeal of the combination of a natural
mineral surface and a wearable gem.
Druse occurs in a wide variety of minerals: quartz (Brazil), pink cobalto-calcite
(Congo), green uvarovite garnet (Russia), blue chalcedony (Turkey), rainbow
pyrite (Russia), azurite (Arizona), vana-

47

from page 47

HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

DRUZY

Black psilomelane from Arizona forms with white botryoidal quartz, making a stunning
black-and-white combination.

Geodes are rarely completely filled

with mineralization. For the mineral collector, the more complex and varied the
mineralization and the larger the crystals
inside the geodes, the more pleasing and
desirable the specimen. For cutting into
druzy gemstones, however, pieces with
more uniform druzy quartz surfaces are
preferred. The even distribution of druse
against the matrix background is also an
important criterion for all types of druzy
gemstones.
Druzy quartz surfaces are commonly
dyed a multitude of bright colors. During
the last decade, technology has been developed to coat druzy quartzes with titanium
or precious metals (gold, silver, platinum).
This metal coating is permanent, and often
produces spectacular iridescent colors that
Mother Nature would envy. Therefore, we

have the categories natural drusies and

coated drusies. The cabs are often cut
with a highly polished outer layer, leaving
the druse area in the middle.
Titanium drusies are coated by two
methods: physical vapor deposition
(PVD) and chemical vapor deposition
(CVD), as described by Schiller Gems
(www.indiamart.com/schillergems/aboutus.html). The technology Schiller Gems
uses is capable of effectively and evenly
coating up to 200 mm by 200 mm of surface area. Schiller offers a large variety of
coated druzy quartzes in assorted colors or
with bicolor surfaces, shaped as crosses or
five-ray stars.
Bill Herer, from Rare Earth Mining Co.
(http://rareearthminingco.com/), Greg
Genovese from Heart of the Stones Studio (www.heartofstonestudio.com), Keith

HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

dinite (Marocco), liebethenite (Congo),

malachite (Arizona, Congo), psilomelane
(New Mexico, Arizona), blue hemimorphite (China), chrysocolla with druzy
quartz (druzy gem silica from Arizona).
The matrix on which the crystals form
varies from hard agate to softer, and more
fragile, rhyolite, sandstone or limestone.
Almost all non-quartz druzy gems are of
natural color.
Quartz druse commonly lines the inside
surfaces of agate geodes. These spherical
rocks have very plain-looking outer skins,
but when they are cracked or sliced open,
they reveal attractive mineralization:
quartz crystals, along with calcite or celestite, in various crystal shapes and sizes
and a range of colors. Druzy quartz from
geodes comes in natural colors of white,
brown, rust, tan or even orange, and black.

Magnesite (left) is dyed blue, and with added metallic inclusions that simulate
pyrite, it truly looks like natural lapis (right). (Keith Horst cabs)

Magnesite from China is also available in yellow and orange shades, imitating Cherry Creek jasper, a multicolor material from mainland China. (Cabs courtesy Keith Horst)

48 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

Spectacular specimens of azurite-malachite from Bisbee, like this carved one, with radiating malachite
discs, are sought after by collectors.

Horst of A & K Gems and Minerals, and

Mark Lasater from The Clam Shell (www.
theclamshell.net) are among the pioneers
in cutting and selling druzy gemstones.
Knowing whether drusies are coated or
not is very important for their care. Even
though the treatments are permanent, the
coating can be scratched off or chipped off
if the stone is dropped, and stones should
not be buff-polished or re-polished. An ultrasonic machine works great for cleaning
natural stones, but should not be used with
coated ones. It is best to follow the precautions and care advice given by the sellers.
Over the years, I have enjoying cutting
many druzy gemstones, and have applied
my signature engraved lines to their surfaces. Ive achieved the best visual results
in rainbow pyrite, cobalto-calcite, and
green uvarovite garnet.
When neon-blue chrysocolla penetrates
clear quartz or chalcedony, it produces the
rarest, most desirable, and most valuable
form of all quartzes, known in the trade
as gem silica. Even more desirable are fine
January 2016

49

from page 49

HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

DRUZY

druzy or botryoidal gem silica formations.

The most valuable gem silica comes from
the famous Inspiration and Ray copper
mines, near Globe, Arizona.
Smithsonite is a zinc carbonate (ZnCO3)
that is often confused with hemimorphite.
It is typically found in botryoidal masses,
which are often cut as attractive freeform
cabs, in a variety of colors, with more predominant colors being grayish-blue, pink
and yellow. It is only 4.5 on the Mohs Scale
of Hardness, compared to the quartz or
chalcedony gem silica (Mohs 6.5-7).
Gem silica, smithsonite and hemimorphite are normally not color-enhanced, but
may be enhanced with Opticon fracture
sealer, which should always be disclosed to
the customer. All three gems have a similar
look and may be confused or misidentified
by casual identification. Dont assume anything; simply ask the seller.
BLACK DRUZY GEMS

Natural black druzy quartz can be found

inside agate geodes and in rare agatized
coral tubes from Florida. Another black
druzy material is psilomelane, a rich-black
metallic mineral, covered with quartz
crystals. Both types consist of clear quartz
druse through which the black background is visible. Psilomelane usually displays a gunmetal shimmer of very fine,
alternating black and white layers, and
along with the black druse, it creates a dramatic, textured look. Psilomelane is beautiful to look at, but terribly dirty to cut,
as the black dust stains everything. Black
psilomelane from Arizona also forms with
white botryoidal quartz, making a stunning black-and-white combination.

50 www.rockngem.com

HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

Rainbow Calsilica is a manufactured material made of pulverized calcite mixed with pigments and stabilized with a polymer.

A combination of azurite/malachite is offered as compressed blocks with or without bronze infusion, which creates
a golden webbing pattern within the material.

White druzy quartz on agate from Brazil

is often dyed black, and is the most common type of black druzy gem. It is also referred to as black onyx druzy.
Natural black calcite inside geodes from
Keokuk, Iowa, has also been used as a
black druzy gemstone.
While I didnt intend to discuss synthetic stones, Ill make one exception. In 2010,
I purchased a few pieces of black druzy

synthetic sapphires, created by Chatham.

It was an anomaly rather than a regular
product. Since sapphire has a high refractive index, the druzy surfaces are highly
reflective. Chatham is a leading source of
quality lab-grown gems, founded 75 years
ago by Carroll Chatham. He was the first
to grow emerald crystals, and his son Tom
Chatham continues to create a variety of
lab-grown gems.
Rock & Gem

LAPIS WITH PYRITE VS. BLUE

MAGNESITE WITH COPPER INCLUSIONS

Lapis lazuli is a striking, rich-blue

opaque rock composed of several minerals. Lazurite is the predominant one and
the main cause for its blue color. Lapis
may also show a shade of violet. Lapis,
as it is commonly known, may include
calcite veins, pyrite crystals, and smaller
amounts of diopside, mica, hauyinte and
hornblende.
There is a fine line between enough of
these minerals to make an attractive gem
and too much. Too much calcite makes
it softer and lowers the grade; too much
pyrite makes it dull and detracts from the
blue body color.
There are only a few well-known mining areas in the world that produce fine
lapis, and they are all ancient deposits. The
Russian lapis that is often used in carvings comes from the Lake Baikal area of
Siberia, south of Irkutsk. Lapis from Chile
comes from the Andes mountain region,
near the city of Ovalle, north of Santiago,
and is often referred to as Andean lapis.
Lapis lazuli from Afghanistanthe finest
in the worldcomes from the ancient historic mines of Sar-e-Sang in the Badakhshan province, located in the West Hindu
Kush Mountains. These mines have been
in operation for over 6,500 years.
Pale and mottled material, from both
Afghanistan and Chile, is successfully
marketed as Denim lapis. Light-colored
material may be dyed to a deeper blue,
or the white veins only may be dyed. Lapis should be handled with care and kept
away from heat and chemicals in case the
stones, carvings or beads are dyed.
Manmade crushed lapis for inlays, similar in color to material from Afghanistan,
is mixed with pigments, and is available
from Natural Expressions Inc., in Gilbert,
Arizona.
Magnesite, a soft and porous material
that can be treated to simulate turquoise,
is also on the scene as a simulant for lapis.
When magnesite is dyed blue and metallic
inclusions that simulate pyrite are added, it
truly looks like natural lapis.
Magnesite from China is also dyed in
shades of yellow and orange to imitate
Cherry Creek jasper (also known as Red
Creek jasper), a multicolor material from
mainland China. The yellowish-orange
dyed magnesite also resembles the recently discovered yellow feather jasper from
Utah, which has distinct black, crisscross
dendritic patterns.

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CASH, CHECK OR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED

AZURITE WITH MALACHITE VS. AZURITE-MALACHITE BLOCK

Azurite is a blue copper mineral, with

the chemical formula Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2.
Azurite forms dark-blue prismatic crystals, but is more commonly found in
massive, nodule or stalactite form. It is
very soft, only 3.5-4 on the Mohs scale.
continued on page 60

January 2016

51

Table Mountain Zeolites

The Table Mountain Quarry is a state rockhounding icon that has definitely stood the test of time. Who knows which of these boulders will yield the next bonanza find?

A Classic Collecting Site in Golden, Colorado

Story and Photos by Mark Leatherman

t had only been two months since I moved to Denver, and I was already itching to explore the vast cornucopia that is collectible Colorado minerals. I dove into researching
rockhounding localities and was, as one could expect, overwhelmed by the choices.
Where should I go first? Since I still had to get used to the higher altitudes and drinking more water, I logically decided to start someplace local and easily accessible. It would
serve as a good physical warm-up for more grueling adventures in the future (i.e., Mount
Antero). I had made good friends with a co-worker, Roxana, and she was up for some
hounding herself. A trip she suggested that would meet the above criterion was a hike up
Table Mountain, just outside the town of Golden.

52 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

Some specimens of thomsonite can display different hues in the same vein, and
serve as a great visualization of crystal growing space.

We met at a small parking area next to

the trailhead on the July 4th weekend. It
took us a minute to spot the trails start,
since there was a lot of overgrowth and
the trail is quite narrow. According to our
sources, it is a three-quarter-mile hike to
the southeastern quarry where the mineralization is. The first third or so of the
trail was a little bit of a climb and started
to test my lungs early. We were also walking alongside a slope where a careless
foot could send one barreling toward
state Route 58!
The second third of the trail seemed
less strenuous, but was also a little rockier.
With both of us keeping our eyes down on
the trail (rattlesnakes can be found in the
area), Roxana came to a hard stop in front
of me. In peering around her to see what
was up, I could see the body of a slow-slithering snake. I was not able to see its head
or tail in the overgrown trail edges. Thankfully, Roxana was able to readily identify it
as a nonvenomous bull snake. Bull snakes

This small thomsonite vug-matrix specimen displays both radial fan (cross-section)
and whole euhedral spherical forms. The spherical crystal is 5 mm across.

do, sometimes, eat rattlesnakes.

The last third of the way, the trail was
steep and open. We passed lots of hikers and cyclists. One passer-by was curious about the tools we were carrying. He
asked, Are you heading to the quarry?
We said yes, and he told us to make a left
at the fork, pointing to its relativly distant
position. After a couple of water breaks, we
made it to the quarry area.
Taking a quick look around, we did not
notice any obvious mineralization. We recalled that, according to our sources, there
are two quarries on North Table Mountain: one in the north and the other in
the southeast, where the notable zeolites
are. Roxana pulled out her GPS and discovered that we had accidentally hiked to
the north quarry. With my limited smartphone signal, I managed to find the proper
coordinates for the southeast quarry. Once
Roxana got our new waypoint, we started
backtracking. The trek was nearly a mile
long, but at least it was downhill!

We knew we were in the vicinity of the quarry when I picked up a small, glistening white, trapezohedral analcime
crystal from the trail.

January 2016

When we got close, we discovered that

the trail leading to the waypoint was heavily overgrown. In addition, the trail was
easy to miss because it curved sharply
back in the opposite direction. We proceeded to a, thankfully, much shorter
hike up. It did not take long to note that
we were in the correct vicinity, as I picked
up a small, glistening white crystal on the
trail. The trapezohedral crystal habit immediately led me to identify it as analcime
(NaAlSi2O6H2O). Almost immediately
after the find, we saw boulders off to the
side, all with inch-scale vugs of white crystals. Several dozen paces later, the massive
piles of loose, vug-bearing boulders right
at the base of a cliff wall alerted us that we
had finally arrived.
These mountains serve as a natural barrier that isolates the town of Golden from
the rest of metropolitan Denver. Geology students from the Colorado School of
Mines (CSM) in Golden have frequented
the site for studying and collecting. The
first reports on this locality were made in
1873. Interest was first spurred by a mineralogical error: analcime was initially mistaken for the feldspathoid mineral leucite
(KAlSi2O6). Once the identification was
made right, interest in the mountain declined for a few years, until Arthur Lakes
provided choice specimens to the U.S.
Geological Survey. It did not take long
for word to spread, and Table Mountain
became a premier spot for zeolite minerals14 in all have been reported!in
Colorado. The place has provided around
120 years of good collecting.

Rock & Gem gives locality information for

reference purposes only. Readers should
never attempt to visit any of the sites described in this publication without first verifying that the location is open to collecting and obtaining the permission of the
landowner and/or mineral rights holder.

53

TABLE MOUNTAIN

from page 53

The hiking trail to the quarry rewards visitors with vistas of creek valleys, flat, hard
rock cliffs, and vast, open green spaces.

At one point, around 2004, the future

of rockhounding at Table Mountain was
in danger. The land was acquired by Jefferson County, which considered making
it off limits to the activity. However, a resounding voice from the local rockhounding community was influence enough to
keep the area open, with a few provisions.
A collecting group that is larger than eight
people or a collector who plans to sell
specimens commercially must obtain a
permit. Otherwise, no special permission
or arrangements are needed.
Geologically speaking, the Table Mountains are composed of four distinct basaltic lava flows. Given that Colorado was not
near a plate boundary then, the basalts are
of a continental flood origin, originating
from an intracontinental mantle plume.
Much of the volcanic activity took place 64
million years ago in the early Paleocene.
Radiometric dating indicates that all four
flows erupted within a fairly short interval
of timejust less than a million years.
The lower flows are further classified as
the basalt type of monzonite, which contains less than 5% quartz and has equal

The town of Golden, and the Colorado School of Mines rock M (top right), can be
seen from the quarry site.

proportions of alkali and plagioclase feldspars. The upper flows are classified as
latite basalts, whose composition is similar
that of monzonite, but with slightly less
quartz. Coarser crystals (phenocrysts) of
hornblende are common.
The gaseous nature of the basalts resulted in voids, or vesicles, being left in
the rock. Hydrothermal fluids later filled
the openings with zeolites and other
minerals, including calcite. Although the
original eruptive fissures are now eroded away, a separate igneous dike plug,
named the Ralston Dike (located just two
miles northwest), is thought to represent
the focal point of the eruptions. The volcanic activity creating the Tables is also
thought to be the most geologically recent in Colorado.
At the quarry, there is approximately a
50-yard stretch of boulders to survey. We
set down any unnecessary gear and started
to explore the eastern end of the quarry.
I found a couple noticeable matrix pieces
with transparent, rhombohedral, millimeter-scale crystals lying on the ground.
The crystals were later identified as chaba-

zite (Ca,Na2,K2,Mg)Al2Si4O126H2O. As
the formula suggests, chabazite has a more
complex geochemistry than analcime and
is classified further into four mineral species based on the dominant cation: chabazite-Ca, chabazite-K, chabazite-Na, and
even rarer chabazite-Sr.
I put the chabazite specimens with my
bucket, to avoid carrying them up piles
and not risk having them break. Roxana
started investigating at the top of a nearby
pile closer to the cliff base, and I went on
over to show her my chabazite finds. She
then presented me with some loose and
matrix pieces of cream-colored crystals
that show a fan, or radial, pattern. My eyes
about lit up, as this is a variation of thomsonite (NaCa2Al5Si5O206H2O), a wellloved mineral from where I used to live,
only 100 miles from Grand Marais, Minnesota. Extremely colorful thomsonite is
found there.
Specimens here can also form thin,
fragile branches. After snapping some
pictures, I traversed the piles to the west,
while Roxana stayed put. Loose matrix
pieces became harder to be had, and I

The least-found zeolite on our trip, chabazite, is easily recognized by its rhombohedral crystals, which typically occur in colorless and light tan to cream hues.

54 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

Fresh boulders filled with lens-shaped zeolite vugs, found along the trail, indicate the quarry is near.

didnt find any loose crystals like I had

back on the trail. I approached the other
end of the quarry and proceeded toward
the cliff base. I had a hypothesis that there
might be specimens closer to the base, in
harder-to-access crevices.
I found a couple narrow openings and
slithered my way in, hoping that I would
not find any slithering reptiles occupying
the same space! It did not take long at all
to realize that my hypothesis would not
be proved. It seems that most of the better
zeolite crystals are found in the central and
eastern portions of the quarry.
I climbed down toward the trail and
headed back to our starting point, where
I could hear Roxanas hammers at work. I
asked if she had found any more collectible specimens, but she had not recovered
much else since I was first there. Despite
her strength, the large, unforgiving basalt
boulders would not yield themselves to
her efforts.
Deciding it was time for lunch, we collected our finds for the morning and headed back toward our vehicles. The morning
was definitely an ideal time for this kind of
hike, as I could definitely feel the increasing heat of the noon sun over us.
A little over a month later, I decided to
re-visit the site. Only this time, I decided
to bring in some heavier artillery in the
form of a gad pry bar and a 10-pound
sledgehammer! After my first visit, I had
read on another rockhounds blog that he
was rewarded, after working on a single
big boulder with a sledge for a few hours,
by finding a nice seam of crystals. Naturally, I wanted to see if I would have the
same luck.
I arrived early on a Sunday morning
and found my way back up to the quarry.
January 2016

(Thankfully, no snakes were sighted and

no backtracking was needed!) I surveyed
just the large boulders, looking for ones
with a good number of external crystalline
vugs. I spotted a seemingly promising one
near where Roxana and I had started on
our first visit, and I started the long and
tiring process of splitting it open.
Three hours, and several breaks later, the
choice boulder creaked open with a sweet,
progressive splitting sound. However, the
newly revealed insides were not as sweet as
I had hoped. Like the outside, there were
a few small, scattered vugs of crystals that
were not worth chipping down to more
manageable sizes. After just one boulder,
I could feel the increasing heat. With my
water getting low, I decided to call it a
hike. I know the very durable basalt boulders hide plenty of sparkly treasures to be
found. I thought it would probably be best
to revisit during spring and fall months,
where the cooler temperatures will allow
for more bouldering and, hopefully, an
impressive seam or vug of zeolites!
The Table Mountain locality has long
persevered as a living classic due to the
twofold cause of the local government
getting involved, in a way that is fair and
enjoyable for all rockhounds, and the resistant nature of the basalt host that only
rewards the very heartyand lucky! There
are multiple paths to take to get to the
parking area (39 46 12N, 105 12 1W),
marked by a metal clothing donation box.
Cross and walk alongside the road 80 m
westward to the start of the trail heading
northwest, up-elevation. Hike approximately a half-mile to the switchback (39
46 12.5N, 105 12 35.5W), then head
east a quarter-mile to the quarry (39 46
16N, 105 12 21W).

55

Rock Chip Necklaces

Rock chip pendants are a way to use small pieces that are too pretty to just throw away.

Making Use of the Bits and Pieces

Story and Photos by Outback Bob Schall

m a great believer in trying to use up all the bits and pieces of natures bounty that
come into my possession. I go from my home in Illinois to Arizona each winter and
spend a lot of time rockhounding. Ive been quite lucky at finding a great number
of really interesting slabbing rocks in the last few years. After slicing these rocks
into slabs for display pieces and so forth, I often end up with some small pieces or bits that
are still too pretty to just throw away. Many of the leftover slabbed pieces contain brightly
colored, swirling patterns. Ive also found quite a few very small (usually broken) quartz
geodes and desert roses on my trips to the desert.
I bought an old, 10-inch rock saw from a friend a couple of years ago, and promptly did
what any self-respecting rockhound with a new toyI mean toolwould do: I went nuts
cutting up every rock in sight to see what the innards looked like! Some of these experiments resulted in surprisingly pretty, but small, specimens. I soon found myself asking,
What do I do with this pile of pieces?

56 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

I bought an old, 10-inch rock saw and started cutting up rocks to see what the innards looked like.

This solid geode, cut in half, and then cut into a slice, will make an interesting pendant.

I know that people with talent might

carefully cut and shape these pieces to an
exact outline, round out and polish the
tops, and make nice cabochons of them,
but how many belt buckles can one person use? Others, with even more talent,
might shape and polish them, and then
artfully wrap them with silver or gold
January 2016

wire to make beautiful jewelry.

The problem I run into here is the talent part of the equation. When I was just
a kid, I was told that you needed some special talent to successfully make it in life. So
I asked my folks what special talents they
thought I had. After a long (and embarrassing) silence, they both said, Well, you

are a pretty good eater! Unfortunately,

things really havent improved much since
then on the talent front.
That being the case, I am a great proponent of the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
principle. I ran into this dictum when I
was building home-built aircraft with my
buddy, Kenny. When designing and building something, the simplest solid design is
usually the best and safest.
Ive come across the word freeform
and decided it is my favorite artsy term
when working with rocks. To a lapidary
artist, it means shaping an item into a random, but pleasing, shape. To me, it means
just leave the danged chip the shape it
came out when you sliced it! I might break
off an odd corner or protrusion and cut a
short flat across the top where the necklace eyelet (the bail) will go. (A bail, by the
way, is the sticky-uppy eyelet thingy that
a necklace chain goes through to hold up
the hangy-downy thingy so that it doesnt
fall down into your sweethearts cleavage.)
In this way, I have come up with quite a few
artsy-looking necklace pendants.
A person can get fancy and drill holes
for attachment loops or, again, do some
fancy wire-wrapping for the necklace attachment. However, applying the KISS
principle, I ran into an easier solution. I
discovered glue-on bails.
These glue-on bails are actually a very
good solution to the attachment problem.
While building airplanes, I was surprised
to find that a lot of parts on many planes
(including jetliner control surfaces) are
actually glued together. The next time you
are traveling at 30,000 feet and 450 miles
per hour in turbulence, try not to think
about that!
Actually, if you use the right glue and
technique, your pendant and your glue-on
bail should never part company. The glue I
used is called E6000 clear adhesive, and it
can be found in craft stores (even Walmart
has it).
I tried two-part epoxy and actually had
pendant failures with this miracle glue.
The E6000 seems to stay very tough, but
somewhat flexible, so it wont let go.
My wife, the computer expert, ordered
the bails for me from Amazon. You can also
get these bails at hobby stores, like Hobby
Lobby, with possibly even better quality.
The most-used size will usually be the 27
mm by 8 mm size (8 mm eyelet). Smaller
sizes will fit only very small-diameter necklaces. You may also want to try glue-on earring clips to make up matching sets.
Glues can be great if you take the time
to do the job right. Even if your rock seems
porous enough to accept the glue, rough it
up a bit with fine-grit sandpaper where the
glue will go. Also, make sure it is as flat as
possible in that area. You probably should
rough the glue area on the bail also, to
give the glue more bite. Then, thoroughly
wipe all sanding dust off both pieces.
Apply a small amount of glue to both
pieces and press them together. I leave

57

ROCK CHIP

from page 57

Use a 2-inch by 2-inch block to make a new cut parallel to a previous one.

them overnight before I handle them

again. Keep it simple, but do it right, or
you could watch a beautiful pendant fall
off and break in two as it hits the floor!
Now comes the rocky part. This can be
any piece you have left over that is pretty
enough. If it is too small, or too thin, for a
normal cabochon, it can be ideal for this. If
it is too big, find the section with the most
interesting patterned on it and break the
chip down to the proper size using pliers
or tile nippers. If your leftover cut piece is
too thick and heavy, take it back to the saw
to get the ideal thickness. Usually, your
should cut it parallel to the front side, although there are times you might want to
taper the thickness for a special effect. Use
your judgment.
Here is a handy trick to use if your rock
saw has no guide to help you cut your slabs
at a uniform thickness: After you have cut
the rock once and gotten a nice surface for
your pendant, use a 2-inch by 2-inch piece
of wood to hold your piece perpendicular
to the saw deck. Then you can hand-feed
the rock into the saw so that both sides are
parallel.
Normally, you will want slabs to be
about inch to inch thick. Sometimes,
more thickness gives a nice, solid feeling

Use a template pattern cut out of cardboard to locate the best design in your slab.

to the piece, but it could be too heavy. Cutting them too thin can lead to the catastrophe of breaking along a stress line or
make them fragile in use. Necklace pendants will probably be dropped at some
time, and very thin pieces have a habit of
breaking. Again, experiment, and use your
judgment.
I have a lot of what I call mini-geodes,
which I found in the Western deserts.
Many of them are half-geodes, already
broken by nature.
They can be cut in half, then cut again
into a -inch-thick slice with an open
center, resulting in a very pleasing quartzlined hole through the resulting pendant.
This can be very striking.
Other things that work well are chalcedony desert roses. Many pleasingly colored rocks of the proper size can simply be
cut to the right thickness, and the flat side
becomes the back of your pendant. Then,
either polish the front side or, if it is too
rough, use my KISS-principle polish
(described later).
You have to determine where to place
the glue-on bail to allow the pendant to
hang to the best effect. Often, this will require cutting a short, flat spot across the
top of the piece. Remember, these are usu-

ally small, broken pieces of rock, so you

can nip off an awkward protrusion or
sharp corner to make it look better or hang
better. Use the nature supplied random
shape as much as you can.
Before we go on, Ive got another KISS
principle tip for you. Most rockhounds,
when searching for good polishing rocks,
get into the habit of licking their finds,
thereby wetting them, to find out what
they will look like when polished. I often
find that, out in the desert, my mouth
gets too dry for this. I found a simpler
method.
My old dog, Jake, slobbers like a leaky
fire hydrant, so I take him with me and
wipe the rock across his muzzle when
necessary. If this didnt work thoroughly
enough, I used to ask my hunting partner, Jack, to lick it some more. I forgot to
tell him I had tried Jake first. For some
reason, he wont hunt with us anymore.
Some people really are sooooo touchy!
Now, if you have the equipment, the
very best finish you can give your rock
pendant is to polish it. This beautiful effect cant be beat when properly applied
to flat or domed specimens. Polishing
on the various polishing machines takes
many steps, but you will get better and

p Small, hollow geodes can be cut in half and then sliced to make
fabulous-looking pendants with open centers. These slices are ready for bails.
u Some of these chip pendants are finished, while
others are ready to have bails attached.

58 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

Glue-on bails and E6000 clear adhesive provide a simple solution to the attachment problem.

Lacquering works especially well on items that would

tarnish with age, like native copper in matrix.

better at it with experience. However, this

brings up the two ugly subjects of talent
and work again.
Getting the perfect shiny finish on the
many different kinds of rocks takes a
learned talent. Remember, some of us
have a distinct problem in this area. (I also
have a problem in the work area: I really
think it is a four-letter word!)
Luckily, I have also discovered an easier
way to come up with almost as good a finish on most rocks. I simply spray them
with clear lacquer from a spray can. Make
sure you lay the pendant flat, so that the
lacquer does not run to one side or the
other of the piece. Then apply as many layers as needed to get the proper depth effect you want.
I have discovered an aerosol product called Clear Glaze, made by Krylon.
(Again, available at Walmart.) This gives a
deeper-looking finish, and lets you apply
additional coats only three minutes apart.
Spray your glaze onto the pendant under
a bright light so that you can see when all
areas have run together and dried smoothly. Often, the rock will be porous enough
to absorb a few coats before leaving the
glossy finish.
This finish will closely replicate the gloss
of a polished stone, but doesnt take as
much talent. Always experiment on a few
sacrificial stones to learn the technique
before going to your good stuff. The finish
probably cannot be quite as good as a really professional rock-polish job, but certainly comes very close.
Im sure it will not last as long, either,
because it will become scratched or hazed
after a few years of handling. The good
news, though, is that it can be brought
back to its proper luster simply by applying another coat of lacquer.

I always spray the front side of the pendant first and let that dry overnight. Then
I glue the bail onto the back of the stone so
that I am not gluing onto a layer of lacquer,
but to the stone itself. After the glue dries,
I spray the back of the pendant to seal it.
You can cover the bail with a piece of tape
to keep overspray off it.
This lacquering process works especially well on pendants that have a rough
or uneven front surface, which you cannot properly polish anyway. It is also good
for items that would tarnish with age, like
native copper in matrix. This is the way
to keep many metals from becoming dull
with exposure to air.
If you wish to put a little more effort
into your pendants, you can trim them
on the saw into definite shapes. Ive found
the easiest shapes are made with straight
saw cuts: crosses, rectangles, triangles, etc.
You can make rounded shapes, such as
teardrops, ovals and circles, but they are
definitely more work. You have to nip off
the excess rock and then finish smoothing
the edges with a sanding drum. Ive done
a few of these, and they definitely dont fit
the KISS principle.
If you want to make your pendant into
a definite shape, cut a hole of that shape
and size out of a piece of cardboard. Place
the cardboard on your slab and move it
around until the most pleasing part of the
slab shows through the window. Mark
the template shape on the slab with a pencil, go to your saw, and cut it out.
Ive already made quite a few of these
simple necklace pendants. Most have
come out as pretty darn nice. Im sure you
can do as well.
I suppose then our new motto should be:
If you want a simple jewelry design, dont
lick it. Just KISS it instead.

January 2016

59

Specimens from the legendary Bisbee

and Morenci mines are the most sought
after; they make great cabs and freeforms
with a combination of druzy and polished
surfaces.
Azurite is habitually found with malachite, which is often a pseudomorph replacement of azurite. The two minerals
make a stunning visual arrangement when
cut together as a gemstone.
A combination of azurite-malachite is
offered as compressed blocks created by
Colbaugh Processing Inc. (www.colbaugh.
net). Small natural nodules of azurite and
malachite are compressed with resin into
blocks. These blocks are also infused with
bronze, which creates a pattern of golden
webbing within the material.
Plastic resin imitation blocks are also
available on the market; they are an inexpensive option for lapidary materials.
MALACHITE AND MAW SIT SIT VS.
GREEN MAGNESITE

Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the chemical composition Cu2CO3(OH)2. It usually comes
in opaque, massive form with bands
often concentricin multiple shades of
green. It also forms botryoidal surfaces,
and rare stalagmitic formations. Cutting
the stalagmites perpendicular to the formation creates stunning radiating stalagmite disks.
The dyed magnesite from China is also
available in green with golden webbing,
imitating the appearance of green and
cream-colored bands in malachite.
Maw sit sit is another gem material
imitated by this green-dyed magnesite.
Maw sit sit (NaCrSi2O6) is a rare material
from a village called Maw-sit-sit in upper Myanmar (Burma), the same location
where the famous jadeite mines are. Maw
sit sit is a metamorphic rock composed of
at least six different minerals, among them
kosmochlor, chromite and chrome rich
jadeite, which gives it the bright, almost
fluorescent-green color, often with black
inclusions.
Due to its low content of pyroxene and
its different chemical structure, maw sit
sit was not considered a type of jade (Jade
and Maw Sit Sit of Burma, by S.K. Samuels, SKS Enterprises Inc., 2004), although
it was often considered a jade simulant.
Recent standards in the Hong Hong
Council for Testing and Certification,
however, are including kosmochlor and
omphasite in the jade categories (Gems &
Jewellery, March 2013).
Famed gemologist Edward Gbelin
identified maw sit sit in 1963. It is opaque,
unlike jadeite, which can be highly translucent. Specimens vary in depth of color,
and consequently in hardness. In recent
years, maw sit sit has become very scarce
and expensive.

60 www.rockngem.com

HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

from page 51

One of the most valuable botryoidal gem silicas comes from the Ray copper near Globe, Arizona.

HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

DRUZY

This beautiful malachite specimen from Russia on display at the Natural History Museum in London shows multiple
concentric green bands.

NATURAL DINOSAUR BONE VS. BLOCK

Dinosaur bone is natural, fossilized (petrified or permineralized) bone. A very small

percentage of bones become, and an even
smaller percentage are of gem quality. The
original cell structure has been replaced by

minerals, most commonly silica. Agatized

dinosaur bone shows pronounced honeycomb cell structure or polka dots. Red
colors in dinosaur bone are rare and highly
prized. Since it is an agate, it has a hardness
of Mohs 7, and it takes a high polish.
Rock & Gem

There is another block on the market,

which consists of natural dinosaur bone
that has been crushed, screened and
washed, pressed into a block under 250,000
pounds of pressure, and then stabilized.
This material is offered by Natural Expressions Inc. As of October 2014, the wholesale price was set at $160 per pound, or $10
per ounce.
RAINBOW CALSILICA

Rainbow Calsilica is a manufactured

material created and sold by Colbaugh
Processing Inc. Tests were undertaken
on samples of this material by researcher
Lori Kiefert at the SSEF Swiss Gemmological Institute lab in Basel in 2002. The
Renishaw Raman 1000 analysis showed
that the white grains are calcite, and that
hematite is present in the red layers and
celestine in the black areas. It was also
noted that synthetic pigments and a paraffin-type wax have been used to stabilize
the material.
The final report on the material states
that the samples examined appear to
have been made of pulverized carbonate
rock that was mixed with pigments and
stabilized with a polymer (Gems & Gemology, Winter 2002).
In spite of the fact that Rainbow Calsilica is manufactured, it is a very popular lapidary material. It is sold in blocks
and slabs and as finished cabs and beads.
I purchased a small amount of it over a
decade ago, and the material sold out
quickly.
Rainbow Calsilica imitates a type of
natural material that is found in or near
copper mines in Arizona. The natural
stone consists of quartz with blue veins of
chrysocolla and red veins of jasper running through it. This color combination is
not found commonly in nature, so these
natural pieces are highly prized.
As lapidaries, designers and collectors,
we all look for new gem materials to incorporate into our artwork. The list of allnatural materials is shrinking daily, and
the variety of enhanced lapidary materials
on the market today is almost overwhelming. The better we understand these materials, the better well be able to sell them to
our customers.
Todays gem and jewelry consumers are
educated, and they look to the artist to
educate them even more about the natural origins of the materials in the jewelry
they buy or the technological enhancements that made possible these lookalike
gem materials that are more affordable,
but just as durable and attractive as the
real things.

Were displaying a wide variety of faceting rough, cabbing rough, cut

gems, mineral specimens and fine stone carvings.

Helen Serras-Herman is a gem sculptor and

jewelry artist with 30 years of experience. She
was inducted into the National Lapidary Hall
of Fame in 2003. See her work at www.gemart
center.com or Facebook/Gem Art Center/ Helen
Serras-Herman.

January 2016

61

Book Cliffs Barite

The gravel section of Mesa County Road 25 heads northeast to a popular barite-collecting area at the base of the Book Cliffs.

A Colorado Site for Collecting,

Geology and Scenery
Story and Photos by Steve Voynick

ravelers on Interstate 70 in western Colorados Grand Valley should be prepared for

a fascinating geological show. Just east of the city of Grand Junction, the interstate
skirts the base of the Book Cliffs. One of Colorados iconic topographical features,
the Book Cliffs soar 2,000 vertical feet above the valley floor, combining spectacular scenery
with exposed sedimentary strata that represent 40 million years of geological time.
The Book Cliffs are also one of Colorados most popular barite-collecting localities. The
others are Stoneham, in Weld County, and Hartsel, in Park County, which both yield tabular
crystals of translucent, blue barite. But barite from the Book Cliffs is distinctively different:
Usually colorless with a water-clear transparency, it occurs as well-developed, terminated,
prismatic crystals.

62 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

Rock & Gem gives locality information for reference purposes only. Readers should
never attempt to visit any
of the sites described in this
publication without first
verifying that the location is
open to collecting and obtaining the permission of the
landowner and/or mineral
rights holder.

Book Cliffs hoodoos are created when

sandstone boulders fall and compact the
underlying shale sediments, protecting
them from erosion.

The Stoneham and Hartsel sites are on

private land, and permission is required
to collect there. Almost all the land at the
Book Cliffs, however, is administered by
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
and recreational mineral collecting is
permitted.
As the worlds longest continuous geological escarpment, the Book Cliffs extend
northwest from Colorados Grand Valley more than 150 miles to Price Canyon,
Utah. While passing through the region in
1853, U.S. Army explorer John W. Gunnison named the cliffs for their prominent,
vertical erosion features that reminded
him of a long row of books on a shelf.
The Book Cliffs are built of a massive,
1,500-foot-thick formation of Mancos
Shale capped by a much thinner formation of Mesa Verde Group Sandstone. The
Mancos Shale consists mainly of shale
with intermixed strata of mudstone and

calcareous limestone. It was deposited 90

million to 80 million years ago during the
mid-Cretaceous Period by the Western Interior Seaway, a vast, shallow sea that then
covered much of what is now Colorado.
During the late Cretaceous Period some
20 million years later, after the sea had receded, the Mancos Shale became covered
by river sediments that eventually lithified
into the Mesa Verde Group Sandstone.
Eons of subsequent uplifting, faulting,
weathering and erosion have sculpted the
Book Cliffs into their present form. Their
distinctive appearance and sharp gradients
are explained by the radical differences in
durability and erosion resistance between
the Mancos Shale and the caprock of Mesa
Verde Group Sandstone.
Unlike the durable sandstone caprock that resists erosion, the underlying
Mancos Shale is soft and unstable, and
weathers readily. Although the sand-

stone protects most of the underlying

shale, the vertical shale exposures along
the cliff faces decompose rapidly to form
steep, massive gray fansthe cliffs
namesake booksthat extend to the
valley floor.
These fans have both alluvial and eluvial
origins: alluvial because some weathered
shale is washed down by water from snowmelt and rain, but also eluvial because part
of the downward movement is due to in
situ weathering and gravitational force.
At I-70 mile markers 40 through 42,
near the town of Palisade at the east end of
the Grand Valley, these fans extend all the
way to the shoulder of the interstate. The
fans in this section of the cliffs are marked
by numerous rock spires called hoodoos.
Each hoodoo (a word with an African root
that is believed to refer to fancied resemblances of animals or embodied evil spirits) consists of a column of Mancos Shale

Book Cliffs barite crystals usually show small inclusions

of calcite and water.

Float crystals did not originate within nodules, but in

thin, gypsum-rich layers in the Mancos Shale.

These two barite crystals grew atop a calcite rhombohedron.

January 2016

63

BOOK CLIFFS

from page 63

capped by a boulder of Mesa Verde Group

Sandstone. These sandstone boulders were
originally part of the caprock atop the
Book Cliffs. After eroding free, they tumbled down more than 1,500 vertical feet
and came to rest at the base of the fans,
where they compressed and stabilized the
underlying, soft shale sediments.
As subsequent erosion reduced the
surface of the fans, these compacted sediments directly below the boulders remained in place to form hoodoos as high
as 60 feet. Some hoodoos are short and
blocky, others tall and slender. Many have
fantastical shapes; all have a distinctive
sandstone boulder perched at the top of
the shale spire.
The Book Cliffs are well known to rockhounds as a source of barite crystals. Barite, which is the natural mineral form of
barium sulfate, crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, usually as tabular crystals
or short to long prisms with complex terminations and distinctively beveled edges
on the termination faces. Barite crystals are
usually translucent to transparent; some
are colorless, but most exhibit a range of
either pale blue or golden hues.
Barites unusually high density is due to
both the close atomic packing of its crystal lattice and the high atomic mass of the
essential element barium (137.33). With a
specific gravity of 4.5, barite has roughly
twice the density of quartz. Few other
light-colored, transparent minerals can
match barites density, which can be easily appreciated simply by hefting a barite
crystal in the hand.
At the Book Cliffs, barite crystals developed as nodules in the Mancos Shale.
These nodules formed when organic matter decayed to create vugs within the original marine sediments. After the sediments
lithified, groundwater bearing barium,
calcium, iron, carbonate and sulfate ions
collected in the vugs, where organic remnants caused them to crystallize as barite,
calcite (calcium carbonate), siderite (iron
carbonate), and gypsum (hydrous calcium
sulfate). The nodules are cemented together largely by microcrystals of calcite and
particulate hematite (iron oxide).
The Book Cliffs have no X-marks-thespot collecting area. Barite has been collected along a 10-mile-long section of the
base of the cliffs where the fans of weathered Mancos Shale spill onto the valley
floor. The barite occurs within intact or
partially weathered nodules and as loose
crystals in the surface gravels.
Despite their very short alluvial travel,
these loose barite crystals are almost always substantially abraded. At Mohs 3.03.5, barite is too soft to survive much alluvial travel at all.
Successful Book Cliffs collectors search
the lower parts of the shale fans for intact
or partially weathered and exposed nod-

64 www.rockngem.com

The uppermost, light-colored stratum of Mount Garfield is the caprock of Mesa Verde Group Sandstone.

Barite-filled nodules are found in the shale sediments and boulders at the base of the Book Cliffs.

Barite crystals found loose at the base of the Book Cliffs are typically abraded from short alluvial travel.

Rock & Gem

This cluster of half-inch barite crystals grew atop a patterned coating of tan siderite.

January 2016

Nodules can also contain small sprays of

colorless to white gypsum crystals.
Loose gypsum, usually as twinned, micaceous blades, is found in the gravels.
These float crystals did not originate within nodules, but in thin, gypsum-rich layers
in the Mancos Shale. Some nodules also
contain siderite as tan to brown, textured
coatings atop which crystals of barite, calcite and gypsum later developed.
In the Grand Valley area, the Book Cliffs
can be reached from both Palisade and
from Grand Junction. I-70 Exit 42, at Palisade, is 10 miles east of Grand Junction.
Here, the north shoulder of the interstate
is literally built on the base of the fans.
For alternative access to the Book Cliffs
from Exit 42, take Elberta Avenue south
for a quarter-mile, then follow G.70 Road
west for 1.5 miles. A narrow underpass
beneath I-70 leads to a trailhead parking
area at the base of the cliffs, a good area in
which to search for barite and to explore
and photograph the hoodoos.
From this trailhead, two trails lead to
the summit of Mount Garfield, a regional
landmark and the highest point in the
Colorado section of the Book Cliffs. Although both summit trails are only about
two miles long, they make an ascent of
2,000 vertical feet through a steep expanse of weathered Mancos Shale. These
are not trails for novice hikers; they are
steep and rugged, and require hiking experience, stamina, and a plentiful supply
of water.
The 6,670-foot-elevation summit of
Mount Garfield offers a superb view of the
Grand Valley, the town of Palisade directly

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ules. Nodules vary greatly in size: Some

are football size, while others can be 10 or
more feet in length. Because of their relatively high iron content, the nodules are
harder and more resistant to weathering,
and they tend to form noticeable bulges
in the surrounding shale. Most are also a
rusty-brown color that is somewhat darker
than the color of the host rock. These subtle differences in shape and color are key to
identifying the nodules.
Not all Book Cliffs nodules will yield
barite crystals. Some contain only crystals of calcite or gypsum; others contain
no collectible crystals at all. Collectors
spend roughly half their time searching
for nodules and the other half working
with bars, trowels, and rock picks to expose their interiors.
Most Book Cliffs barite crystals are not
more than 1 inch in length; exceptional
specimens are 2 or 3 inches long. They
occur as blocky to somewhat elongated
prisms with complex terminations and
the beveled termination edges that are
typical of barite. Most Book Cliffs crystals
are colorless; some have a pale, smoky to
yellow hue. Terminations and the termination ends of the prisms usually have a
water-clear transparency. The bases of
some prisms exhibit a milky translucency.
Almost all the crystals have small, colorless, bubbly inclusions that are thought to
consist of water and calcite.
Book Cliffs barite crystals are frequently
associated with calcite and gypsum. The
calcite, which is white, colorless, gray, or
pale yellow, is usually massive, but sometimes occurs as well-formed rhombs.

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65

BOOK CLIFFS

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from page 65

below, the city of Grand Junction to the

southwest, and the crest of the Book Cliffs
that trails away to the northwest. The floor
of the Grand Valley consists almost entirely of weathered Mancos Shale. When irrigated, this shale makes an excellent soil.
Combined with the regional warm summers and long growing season, it makes
the Grand Valley a major fruit- and grapegrowing area.
As the center of Colorados winemaking industry, Palisade has a dozen wineries and tasting roomssomething to keep
in mind after youve searched the cliffs for
barite or descended from the summit of
Mount Garfield.
Most rockhounds drive to the Book
Cliffs from Grand Junction. At I-70 Exit
31, take Horizon Drive south for one-half
mile, then turn right (west) onto G Road
and proceed for two miles to Mesa County
Road 25. Turn right (north) onto Road 25
and continue for three miles. The road then
turns to gravel, enters BLM land, and continues northeast for six miles to the cliffs.
In dry weather, the gravel section of this
road is usuallybut not alwayspassable
with a highway vehicle. Numerous unmarked and unmaintained dirt roads and
tracks branch off from the county road and
access different areas of the cliffs. All these
roads and tracks require high-center, fourwheel-drive vehicles. Experienced barite
collectors believe that the Book Cliffs, because of their sheer expanse, have never
been fully searched for new collecting sites
and thus present a fine exploration opportunity for adventurous rockhounds.
Except for several small tracts of posted,
private land, the Book Cliffs are administered by the BLM and open to recreational
mineral collecting. Before collecting, be
sure to check detailed collecting regulations and the list of roads and trails where
mechanized travel is prohibited. Maps and
information are conveniently available at
the nearby regional BLM office at 2815 H
Road in Grand Junction.
Because of hot summers and cold,
windy winters, spring and fall are the best
times to collect. The Book Cliffs are bone
dry most of the year, but occasional heavy
rains, especially summer thunderstorms,
combined with the steep cliff gradients
and the nature of the shale-based sediments, can turn the cliffs into a spectacle
of water erosion in action. Torrents of
muddy water cascade down the shale fans
carrying tons of mud and gravel and sizeable boulders. All these gravel roads can
become extremely slippery and even wash
out in flash floods. Near Palisade, thunderstorm runoff has occasionally blocked the
westbound lanes of I-70.
The pastel earth tones of the Book Cliffs
are sometimes brightened with flashes of
color, such as the springtime blooms of
bright-magenta claret cup cactus. And
throughout the warmer months, there is
Rock & Gem

This 2-inch specimen of barite from the Book Cliffs is displayed at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

always a chance of seeing collared lizards

which, with their green bodies and brightorange collars, are Colorados most colorful reptile.
Barite collectors should also be alert for
wild horses. From Palisade to Grand Junction, the Book Cliffs are part of the BLMs
Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Range, which
is home to as many as 150 wild horses and
one of only three wild-horse ranges in the
country.
Because of their well-defined strata representing coastal plain, estuarine, riverine,
delta and shoreline paleoenvironments,
the Book Cliffs have attracted much scientific study. In the 1980s, Exxon geologists
conducted regional research that founded
the new geological field of sequence stratigraphy. Unlike conventional lithographic
stratigraphy, which emphasizes qualitative
rock layering, sequence stratigraphy focuses on the estimated duration of deposition of individual strata. Sequence-stratigraphic data obtained at the Book Cliffs
has been successfully applied to oil and gas
exploration worldwide.
Along with the Book Cliffs, the Grand
Valley has another major geological attraction: Colorado National Monument,
which is immediately southwest of Grand
Junction. As seen from I-70, the monument appears as an imposing wall of reddish cliffs, deeply indented canyons, and
towering monoliths.
From the monuments scenic Rim Rock
Drive, the Book Cliffs can be seen 14 miles
away to the northeast across the Grand
Valley. Although the top of the Book Cliffs
and Rim Rock Drive are at the same 6,600foot elevation, the rocks in the monument
are 130 million years older. Due to a sharp
displacement of a nearby fault, the monuments 220 million-year-old Triassic rocks
January 2016

have been thrust upward about a mile

to the same elevation as the Book Cliffs
much younger Cretaceous rocks.
Near the west entrance of Colorado National Monument and the town of Fruita,
the Grand Valley also has exposures of
Jurassic rock, notably of the 170 millionyear-old, fossil-rich Morrison Formation
that has long been a prolific source of dinosaur fossils.
The history and heritage of local paleontological excavation is preserved and displayed at the Dinosaur Journey museum
in Fruita. The museum, whose entrance
is dramatically marked by near-life-sized
models of a platy-spined Stegosaurus and
a Ceratosaurus, is immediately south of
I-70 Exit 19. Exhibits include full skeletal
mounts of giant, plant-eating sauropods;
remarkably realistic, robotic dinosaurs
that move and roar; and artifacts from the
early days of local fossil excavation.
A few miles south of Dinosaur Journey
is another point of paleontological interest: the BLMs Fruita Paleontological Area,
where Morrison Formation exposures have
yielded an unusual diversity of Jurassic fossils. Dinosaur fossils excavated here include
those of such plant-eating behemoths as
Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus and Stegosaurus and the carnivores Ceratasaurus and
Echinodon (one of smallest known dinosaurs). The Fruita Paleontological Areas
easy half-mile-long loop trail passes 20 detailed, illustrated geological and paleontological interpretive signs, two major dinosaur quarries, and a dinosaur tracksite.
So whether in search of barite crystals,
dinosaur fossils, remarkable geology, or
spectacular scenery, both rockhounds and
amateur earth scientists will enjoy a visit
to Colorados Book Cliffs and the Grand
Valley.

67

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2015 EDITORIAL INDEX

FIELD TRIPS

MINERAL COLLECTING

Rock & Gem Kids/Oct.

Roswell Pecos Diamonds (NM)/Mar.

Rock & Gem Kids/Nov.

New Mexico Garnet (NM)/Apr.

10 Things to Consider before Collecting

Fine Minerals/Feb.

Praise for Prairie Agates (SD,NE)/Apr.

Field Trip Facilitator Teri Smith/Sep.

Gollar Mine Barite and Sulfides (MO)/Apr.

Little Florida Mountains Manganese
(NM)/June
Black Hills Pegmatites (SD)/July
The Pendleton Quarry (IN)/Aug.
Champion Mine Specular Hematite
(MI)/Dec.

AGATE AND JASPER

Rock & Gem Kids/Dec.

monthly issues to Rock & Gem Subscriptions, 4635 McEwen

MUSEUMS
The North Star Mining Museum/Jan.

IF YOU HAVE PAID FOR YOUR SUBSCRIPTION

2016 Agate Expo:

Idar-Oberstein in Focus/Nov.

The Natural History Museum of Utah/Mar.

BUT STILL RECEIVE A BILL: The check and the

Idar-Oberstein Agates/Nov.

FOSSILS

2016 Agate Expo: Orienting Agate/Dec.

Turkish Purple Jade/June

weeks to process your check, so if you wrote the check less

Ghughua Fossil National Park/May

than four weeks ago, disregard the bill you received. If you

Tracking Utahs Dinosaurs/Aug.

Dinosaurs of Massachusetts/Aug.

Opal in Focus/Oct.

Nevadas Berlin-Ichthyosaur
State Park/Nov.

Minerals of Western Europe/Feb.

ECO-FRIENDLY JEWELER

Dinosaur Fossil Park at Balasinor/Dec.

The Sulfosalt Group, Part 2/Mar.

Reduce Environmental Impact/Jan.

The Other Copper Minerals, Part 1/May

Reduce Toxicity in the Workshop,

Part 1/Mar.

The Sulfosalt Group, Part 1/Feb.

The Impact of Meteorites/July

Radioactive Minerals/July
Petrified Wood Identification/July
My Favorite Minerals, Part 1/July
My Favorite Minerals, Part 2/Aug.
My Favorite Minerals, Part 3/Sep.
Collecting Vanadium Minerals/Sep.
The Paragenesis of Minerals/Oct.

Reduce Toxicity in the Workshop,

Part 2/May
A Gold Mine in Your Studio/July
Recycling Bench Scrap in the Studio,
Part 1/Oct.
Recycling Bench Scrap in the Studio,
Part 2/Dec.
PROJECTS
Chameleon Jewelry/Apr.
Old Ones Inlaid Cuff/May

Lapis Lazuli/Oct.

invoice may have crossed in the mail. It may take up to four

To Collect and Preserve/Apr.

Boulder and Matrix Opal/Aug.

Rare Elements Hold Chaos at Bay/June

Road, Dallas, TX 75244.

The Jaspers of Biggs Junction/Mar.

GEM MATERIALS

Sassy, Brassy Chalcopyrite/June

subscribe online using our secure server at www.beckett.

com. Or send a check or money order for $27.95 for 12

Save the Rice! (Museum, That Is)/Jan.

10 Places to Pan for Gold/Jan.

The Other Copper Minerals, Part 2/June

Customer Service

TO ORDER A SUBSCRIPTION: For fastest service,

Mary Ellen Jasper/Mar.

GOLD

MINERALS IN DEPTH

ROC K & GE M

DO IT YOURSELF
The Tuscarora Miter Slide/July
Clean Cutter/Aug.

paid for your subscription more than four weeks before you
received another bill, send a copy of your cancelled check
along with your bill to Rock & Gem, 4635 McEwen Road,
Dallas, TX 75244 or e-mail subscriptions@beckett.com with
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TO SOLVE A SU BSCRI PTION PROBLEM:
Remember, it may take up to eight weeks to change an

INTERNATIONAL

address and 6-8 weeks to start a new subscription. Please

Thailands Gemstone Triangle/Apr.

give us time to get your magazine to you, and if it still

The Munich Show/Apr.

doesnt arrive, please e-mail us at subscriptions@beckett.

Imilchil, Morocco/June
Rocks and Minerals of Pompeii/July

com or call (866) 287-9383. If you are receiving duplicate

The Rocks Found Us!/July

subscriptions, e-mail subscriptions@beckett.com.

Cappadocias Stone Houses/Oct.

RENEWALS: It can take 6-8 weeks to process your

Touring Cananea, Mexico/Dec.

renewal, so dont wait! Renew early so you dont miss an

Alexandrite: Chrysoberyls Royal Gem/Nov.

LAPIDARY ARTS

Datolite/Nov.

Master Inlay Artist Jesse Monongye/Mar.

MISCELLANEOUS

issue. You can renew online at www.beckett.com using the

Hematite/Dec.

Tumble with the Masters/Mar.

The Rocks and Minerals of the Maya/Apr.

Cabbing the Uncabbable/Nov.

Inet number listed on the address label of your magazine,

Wildacres 2015/Apr.

MINERAL SOURCES

Russian Folk Life in Stone/Nov.

Lamps of Enchantment/Nov.

Poetry Pages/May

The Windy Ridge Mine/Mar.

Colorados Yule Quarry/May
Silver Reef Utah/June
The Homestake Mine/June
Mountain View Chromite/Sep.
Franklin-Sterling Hill Minerals/Oct.
Californias Crystal Cavern/Oct.
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The

R&G Shopper

Welcome to the ROCK&GEM Shopper, the one-stop shopping place for your rockhounding and lapidary needs. Every month
many thousands of shoppers will browse through this convenient shopping section.
To be part of the Shopper, call Priscilla Torres at: 972.448.9131 or email: ptorres@beckett.com

MONTANA AGATE
Rough, slabs, cabs, freeform carvings,
Specimens, Jewelry and Books
on Montana Agate.
Harmons Agate & Silver, Inc.
11295 Hwy. 16
Savage, MT 59262

www.LotOTumbler.com
Belt Inc. 2746 Hoffman Dr. NW Owatonna, MN 55060
(507) 451-2254 Molly1385LTS@Yahoo.com

www.harmons.net

MINERALS, FOSSILS, POLISHED

STONES & GEMS
New & Used books on: Geology, Rocks & Minerals,
Fossils, Gems, Healing Stones, Caves & Cave Exploring.

BCA Minerals, E. Arlington Antique Center,

E. Arlington, Vermont. Open 7 days 10am-5pm.

WHOLESALE
OFFER

Shortwave & Longwave UV

Field Light $59.99!
www.UVTools.com/RGPromo
Phone order: 512-590-4949

M . E .T . E . O . R . I .T . E . S
Rare Rocks From Space

I have many excellent specimens at great prices.

Send for a FREE paper list, OR sign-up for
FREE periodic e-lists at:.
brMeteorites_list under Yahoo-groups.
Blaine Reed - Meteorites
P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416

www.marzeetutorials.com

WAX PATTERNS
AU-RUS Wax Patterns

5500+ Patterns Online

302 Main Street, Kellogg, Idaho 83837
(208) 786-9301
website: www.auruswaxpatterns.com

A Gem and Mineral Advenure like no other!

http://topazmountainadventures.com
844-77-TOPAZ

71

Mark Your Calendar!

HOW

Show Dates

DATES

Submit show date information at least four months in advance using the electronic form at www.rockngem.com.

January 2016
1- 3 HILLSBORO,

OREGON:

Wholesale and retail show; Gem Faire Inc,

Washington County Fairgrounds; 873 NE
34th Ave; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; $7
Admission, Children Free; Fine jewelry, precious & semi-precious gemstones, millions of
beads, crystals, gold & silver, minerals & much
more at manufacturers prices. Exhibitors from
around the world will be on site. Jewelry repair
& cleaning while you shop. Free hourly door
prizes. ; contact Yooy Nelson, 503-252-8300;
e-mail:
i n fo @ g e m fa i r e . c o m ;
Web site: http://www.gemfaire.com

8-10LARGO, FLORIDA: Annual show;

Pinellas Geological Society, Largo Cultural
Center; 105 Central Park Drive, Parkside
Room; Fri. 10 am-5 pm, Sat. 10 am-5 pm,
Sun. 12 Noon-5 pm; Admission is Free; 40th
Annual Show Drawing $1.50, Silent Auction;
contact Leona Sheffield, 2655 Nebraska Ave
#247, Palm Harbor, FL 34684, (727) 7093236; e-mail: sheffieldleona@gmail.com
8-10SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA:
Wholesale and retail show; Gem Faire Inc,
Sonoma County Fairgrounds; 1350 Bennett
Valley Rd; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5;
$7 Admission, Children Free; Fine jewelry,
precious & semi-precious gemstones, millions of beads, crystals, gold & silver, minerals & much more at manufacturers prices.
Exhibitors from around the world will be on
site. Jewelry repair & cleaning while you shop.
Free hourly door prizes.; contact Yooy Nelson,
503-252-8300; e-mail: info@gemfaire.com;
Web site: http://www.gemfaire.com

15-17GLOBE , ARIZONA: Annual

show; Gila County Gem & Mineral Society,
Gila County Fairgrounds; 900 E. Fairgounds
Rd.; Fri. 9 -5 , Sat. 9 -5 , Sun. 9 -4 ;
Single Admission $3, Couple Admission $5,
Free Admission for students/children; contact Jodi Brewster, P.O. Box 487, Miami,
AZ
85539,
(623)-810-9780;
e-mail:
jodibrewster66@gmail.com; Web
site:
http://www.gilagem.com
15-17DEL

MAR,

CALIFORNIA:

Wholesale and retail show; Gem Faire Inc,

Del Mar Fairgrounds; 2260 Jimmy Durante
Blvd; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; $7
Admission, Children Free; Fine jewelry, precious & semi-precious gemstones, millions of
beads, crystals, gold & silver, minerals & much

72 www.rockngem.com

more at manufacturers prices. Exhibitors from

around the world will be on site. Jewelry
repair & cleaning while you shop. Free hourly
door prizes. ; contact Yooy Nelson, 503-2528300; e-mail: info@gemfaire.com; Web site:
http://www.gemfaire.com

16-17FREDERICKSBURG, TEXAS:
Annual
show;
FREDERICKSBURG
ROCKHOUNDS, LADY BIRD JONHSON
PARK; HWY 16 SO., 3 MILES SO. OF
MAIN ST.; Sat. 9:00 am-6:00 pm, Sun. 10:00
am-5:00 pm; Free Admission!; 47 th ANNUAL
HILL COUNTRY GEM & MINERAL SHOW
40 + DEALERS TEXAS & SW.....MINERAL
S,FOSSILS,METEORITES,GEODES,CARVI
NGS,JEWELRY FREE ADIMSSION, FOOD
SERVICE HOURLY SILENT AUCTIONS &
DOOR PRIZES, RAFFLE PRIZES COME
BROWSE,COME BUY, OR JUST COME AND
HAVE FUN ; contact JIM GEDEON, 1156
OLD WILLOW RD., FREDERICKSBURG,
TX 78624, (830) 456-5419; e-mail:
gedeonjim1@gmail.com;
Web
site:
FREDERICKSBURG ROCKHOUNDS

16-17DELAND, FLORIDA: Annual

show; Tomoka Gem & Mineral Society,
Volusia County Fairgrounds,Tommy Lawrence
Building; State Rout 44 , (1 mile East of I-4,
Exit 118); Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; $4 Admission
, Children Free; 45th Annual Gem & Jewelry,
Minerals & Fossils Show & Sale Demos &
Classes in Faceting, Lapidary, Wire Wrapping
and lots more Over 50 Vendors Free parking Dont forget to stop by the Coquina Kids
table for great demos for the kids ; contact Rosemary van Wandelen, 3051 Keyport
St, Deltona, FL 32738, 386-479-1509;
e-mail: rrborzoi@yahoo.com; Web site:
www.tomokagms.org
16 -17EXETER,

CALIFORNIA:

Annual show; Tule Gem and Mineral Society,

Exeter Veterans Memorial Building; 324 N.
Kaweah Ave.; Sat. 10-5, Sun. 10-4; Free
Admission; Demonstrations, Door Prizes,
Free Parking, Gems, Grab Bags, Snack
Bar, Jewelry, Lapidary Supplies, Minerals,
Outstanding Displays, Raffle, Rocks,
Silent Auction, Ten Dealers, and Wheel of
Fortune.; contact Margaret Buchmann, 5215
W. Nicholas Ave, Visalia, CA 93291; e-mail:
margaretbu03@gmail.com;
Web
site:
www.tulegem.com

22-24SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA:

Annual show; Gem Faire Inc, Marin Center; 10

Avenue of the Flags; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun.

10-5; Free Admission; Fine jewelry, precious &
semi-precious gemstones, millions of beads,
crystals, gold & silver, minerals & much
more at manufacturers prices. Exhibitors
from around the world will be on site. Jewelry
repair & cleaning while you shop. Free hourly
door prizes. ; contact Yooy Nelson, 503-2528300; e-mail: info@gemfaire.com; Web site:
http://www.gemfaire.com

22-24TYLER,

TEXAS: Wholesale
and retail show; East Texas Gem & Mineral
Society, Tyler Rose Center; 420 Rose Park
Drive; Fri. 9-5, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; $5
Admission, Students/Children $1; The 19th
annual show will feature the rock food table,
lapidary & equipment sales; fossils, minerals, jewelry and cut and uncut stones. There
is a large variety of dealers, activities and
displays, along with the popular wheel of
fortune booth and a silent auction table.
School day is Friday with several educational demonstrations but is also open to
the public. ; contact Keith Harmon, Hwy 84
West, Rusk, TX 75785, 903 316-2967; e-mail:
whizgnat@netzero.net

2 3 - 2 3 N E W T O N ,
MASSACHUSETTS: Annual Auction;
Boston Mineral Club, American Legion
Nonantum Post 440; 295 California St.; Sat.
9-5; Free Admission; The Boston Mineral
Club Annual Mineral Auction features a voice
auction of quality mineral specimens and
related items for every price range. Running
simultaneously, a silent auction of over 150
flats offers a wide range of items, from mineral
specimens to lapidary rough, books, maps,
tools, and more. As a 501(c)(3) organization, the club will be accepting tax-deductible
donations for the auction until 11:00 a.m.
the day of the event. Registration: 9:00 a.m.,
Donation Drop Off: 9-11:00 a.m., Specimen
Viewing: 11:30 a.m. till Noon, Voice Auction:
Noon-5:00 p.m., Silent Auction: Noon-2:30
p.m. ; contact Nathan Martin, 7816740017;
e-mail: rocknate@gmail.com; Web site: http://
www.bostonmineralclub.org/annual_auction

23-24PANAMA CITY, FL 32404,

FLORIDA: Annual show; Panama City
Gem & Mineral Society, Central Panhandle
Fairgrounds; 2230 E. 15th St.; Sat. 8 -5 ,
Sun. 9 -4 ; Free Admission; Minerals, Fossils,
Wire wrap Jewelry, Beads & Beadwork,
Super Door Prize. We would love to see you

there.; contact Steven Shipton, 5113 E. 13th

Ct, Panama City, FL 32404, 850-867-0586;
e-mail: shipton3@comcast.net

January 2016-February 2016

29 -14 TUCSON,

ARIZONA:

There is a $1 off coupon on our website as

well as in the Florida Today newspaper.;
contact Roz Mestre, FL, (321) 431-0159;
e-mail: roz.mestre@att.net; Web site:
www.centralbrevardgems.org

12-14PORTLAND

OREGON:

Wholesale and retail show; AS Shows, Kino

Sports Complex; 2500 E Ajo Way; Daily
10-6; Free Admission; A world class collection of vendors.; contact Jim Gehring,
2003 Viscount Row, Orlando, FL 32809;
e-mail: Jim@as-shows.com; Web site:
KionGemShow.com

Annual show; Oregon Agate and Mineral

Society, OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science
and Industry); 1945 SE Water Avenue; Fri.
9:30 am-5:30 pm, Sat. 9:30 am-5:30 pm,
Sun. 9:30 am-5:30 pm; Admission is Free;
contact Ginny Deppa, (503) 232-0970;
e-mail: ginnydeppa@gmail.com

30-13TUCSON, ARIZONA: Wholesale

and retail show; Martin Zinn Expositions,
L.L.C., Three locations: InnSuites Hotel,
Ramada Ltd., Mineral & Fossil Marketplace;
475 N Granada, 665 N Freeway, 1330 N
Oracle; Daily 10-6; Free Admission; 400
Dealers in three locations, selling minerals, fossils, meteorites, gemstones, cutting material, decorator items, and more.;
contact Regina Aumente, PO Box 665,
Bernalillo, NM 87004, 505-867-0425;
e-mail: mzexpos@gmail.com; Web site:
www.mzexpos.com

12-21INDIO, CALIFORNIA: Annual

February 2016
5-7ROSEVILLE,

CALIFORNIA:

Wholesale and retail show; Gem Faire Inc,

Placer County Fairgrounds; 800 All America
City Blvd; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; $7
Admission, Children Free; Fine jewelry, precious & semi-precious gemstones, millions of
beads, crystals, gold & silver, minerals & much
more at manufacturers prices. Exhibitors from
around the world will be on site. Jewelry repair
& cleaning while you shop. Free hourly door
prizes. ; contact Yooy Nelson, 503-252-8300;
e-mail: info@gemfaire.com; Web site:
http://www.gemfaire.com

6-7MERRITT
ISLAND
32952,
FLORIDA: Annual show; Central Brevard
Rock and Gem Club, Kiwanis Rec Center;
951 Kiwanis Island Park Rd ; Sat. 10:00
am-5:00 pm, Sun. 10:00 am-5:00 pm; Adults
$5.00, Children Free under 11 Yrs old; This is
our Symphony of Gems, our annual fundraiser for our club. There will be about 26 vendors
selling rocks, slabs, minerals & specimens,
finished jewelry, handcrafted silver and gold
jewelry, used and new equipment, lapidary
tools, beads, pearls, findings. There will be
a sluice for the kids to pan for varied sized
stones. A silent auction, demos for cabbing
and faceting will also be available. Hourly
door prizes will be given away and chances
can be purchased to win a beautiful grand
prize handcrafted by one of our members.
We will have food trucks on site as well.

show; San Gorgonio Mineral & Gem Society,

Riverside County Fairgrounds & National
Date Festival; Gem & Mineral Building, 82-503
Hwy 111; Daily 10 am-10 pm; Adults $9.00,
Seniors $8.00, Students $7.00, Children 5
& under free; We have 16 dealers in the
building featuring jewelry, beads, crystals.
precious & semi-precious gemstones, mineral specimens and geodes. There are 108
displays featuring the gem, mineral and fossil
collections of guest and member exhibitors. In addition demonstrations of sphere
making, rock grinding and polishing, and
cutting of geodes. Free polished rocks for
the children. Lots of fun for adults & children
alike.; contact Bert Grisham, 1029 N. 8th
St., Banning, CA 92220, (951) 849-1674;
e-mail: bert67@verizon.net

1 3 -14 O A K
HARBOR,
WASHINGTON: 51st Sweetheart of Gems
Show; Whidbey Island Gem Club, Oak Harbor
Senior Center; 51 SE Jerome Street; Sat.
9 am-5 pm, Sun. 9 am-4 pm; Admission
is Free!; Member exhibits, demonstrations,
dealers, jewelry, specimens, beads, rough
and finished rock and gems, slabs, a silent
auction, door prizes, kids corner and food
sales.; contact Keith Ludeman, (360) 675
1837; e-mail: rock9@whidbey.net

13-14ALBANY, NEW YORK: Annual

show; capital district mineral club, New York
State Museum; Empire Plaza, 222 Madison
Ave; Sat. 10:00 am-5:00 pm, Sun. 10:00
am-5:00 pm; Admission is $5.00, Children
are free; contact Michael Hawkins, (518) 4862011; e-mail: michael.hawkins@nysed.gov

19 - 21 SA N TA
BA R BA R A ,
CALIFORNIA: Wholesale and retail show;
Gem Faire Inc, Earl Warren Showgrounds;
3400 Calle Real; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun.
10-5; $7 Admission, Children under 11 Free;
Fine jewelry, precious & semi-precious gemstones, millions of beads, crystals, gold &
silver, minerals & much more at manufacturers prices. Exhibitors from around the
world will be on site. Jewelry repair & clean-

ing while you shop. Free hourly door prizes. ; contact Yooy Nelson, 503-252-8300;
e-mail: info@gemfaire.com; Web site:
http://www.gemfaire.com

20-21LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO:

Annual show; Friends of the Museum, NM
Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum; 4100
Dripping Springs; Sat. 9-5, Sun. 10-5; $5
Admission, Children under 5 Free ; The
admission also includes entrance to all current exhibits and to the grounds of the
museum which happens to be a real working
farm too. There will be educational displays,
jewelry repair, appraisals, childrens activities
and food vendors selling a nice variety of
items for a snack or lunch. The majority of our
exhibitors are repeat ones from the previous
years. Gems and Minerals from Tasmania,
Australia is returning for his second year. He
was so impressed with the show and was so
well received by the people from the southwest that he is coming back! He will be in
the Ventanas Room. We are honored to have
vendors come from near and far. Examples
are Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Texas, Oregon
and of course from all over our great state of
New Mexico and our neighbors from Texas
too.; contact Diane McMellen, 250 Cotorro
Ct., Las Cruces, NM 88011, 575-522-1232;
e-mail: diane@lascruceseventplanning.com ;
Web site: www.lcmuseumrocks.com

20-21ANTIOCH,

CALIFORNIA:

Annual show; Antioch Lapidary Club, Contra

Costa County Fairgrounds; 1201 West 10th
Street; Sat. 10:00 am-5:00 pm; Adults,
Seniors + Students $5.00; Children under
12, scouts in uniform and active military
with ID cards are admitted free. The show
features Jewelry, Gems, Findings, Supplies,
Auction, Grab Bags, Exhibits and hands on
projects for kids. ; contact Brenda Miguel, P.O.
Box 91, Antioch, CA 94509, (925) 301-6957;
e-mail: brenda.miguel@yahoo.com

20-21GEORGETOWN,

TEXAS:

Annual show; Williamson County Gem and

Mineral Society, Community Center- San
Gabriel Park; 445 East Morrow Street, P
O Box 82472; Sat. 10 am-6 pm, Sun. 10
am-5 pm; Adults + Seniors $3.00, Students/
Youth 6-12- $2.00, Children under 6- Free!;
Rollin Rock Club Meeting Sunday Feb
21,2016 9 A.M. We will have a food concession the whole shiw; contact Bill Medford,
Georgetown, TX 78628, (512) 930-2768;
Web site: wcgms.org

20-21MESA, ARIZONA: Show and

sale; Apache Junction Rock and Gem Club,
Skyline High School Gymnasium; 845
South Crismon Road; Sat. 9-5, Sun. 10-4;
continued on page 74

73

Show Dates from page 73

$3 Admission, $1 Students, Children Free;
Apache Junction Rock and Gem Club 50th
Annual Jewelry, Gem and Rock Show Plenty
of free parking in the south parking lot
(Cross-streets Southern and Crismon) One
mile north of the Route-60 Freeway Exit192 Activities for kids and Food service
Dealers will be selling jewelry, gems, beads,
opals, purple jade, cabochons, slabs, rocks,
minerals, fossils, jewelry-making supplies
and equipment. Included will be a raffle, a
great silent auction, hourly door-prizes, a
gem-tree-making activity for all ages, and
a free egg-carton rock collection for kids;
contact Phil Gadd, 503-705-3933; e-mail:
mmpdg16@msn.com;
Web
site:
www.ajrockclub.com

26-28 GOLDEN,

COLORADO:

Annual show; Denver Gem and Mineral

Guild, Jefferson County Fairgrounds; W 6th
& Indiana; Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5;
Free Admission; Fine jewelry, wire wrapping,
Fossils, gemstones, opal, minerals, lapidary
rough, cabochons and more. Educational
display cases, mineral grab bags and door
prizes. ; contact Joe Payne, (303)-783-0221;
e-mail: jgpayne007@outlook.com

26-28COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA:

I really appreciate the care and kindness that you show

your customers. It is rare these days.
Martha Burnett, Baltimore, MD

The Facetron is a tool of perfection. Precision is the key.

Floyd E. Hoskins, Carrollton, GA

Wholesale and retail show; Gem Faire Inc,

OC Fair & Event Center; 88 Fair Dr; Fri. 12-6,
Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; $7 Admission, Children
under 11 Free; Fine jewelry, precious & semiprecious gemstones, millions of beads, crystals, gold & silver, minerals & much more
at manufacturers prices. Exhibitors from
around the world will be on site. Jewelry
repair & cleaning while you shop. Free hourly
door prizes. ; contact Yooy Nelson, 503-2528300; e-mail: info@gemfaire.com; Web site:
http://www.gemfaire.com

27-27LLANO, TEXAS: Show; Friends

of the Llano Red Top Jail, Llano County
Community Center; 2249 Ranch Road 152;
Sat. 8-6; Free Admission; This fun, educational and free public event is for Prospectors,
Rockhounds, Treasure Hunters, and Metal
Detecting enthusiasts to get together, to
share ideas and experiences. Gold panning, metal detector and rockhound demos
and lessons.; contact Frank Rowell, 805
Berry St., Llano , TX 78643, 1-325-248-1067;
e-mail: frank@enchantedrocksandjewelry.com

27-27LAKELAND, FLORIDA: Annual

show; Imperial Bone Valley Gem, Mineral &
Fossil Soc., Inc., First Presbyterian Church
of Lakeland; 175 Lake Hollingsworth Dr; Sat.
9-4:30; $3 Admission , Students/ Children
Free Admission, Free; Door prizes, spin
& win mineral wheel, kids treasure dig,
demonstrations, educational displays, silent
and Chinese auctions, rocks, minerals, fos-

74 www.rockngem.com

sils, jewelry, gifts, hobby supplies, lapidary

demonstrations, wire wrapping, cabochon
making.; contact Kim Price, (863)-412-9156;
e-mail: IBVGMFS@gmail.com; Web site:
www.bonevalley.net

27-28BOISE, IDAHO: Annual show;

Idaho Gem Club, Expo Idaho; 5610 North
Glenwood Street; Sat. 10 am-6 pm, Sun. 10
am-5 pm; Adults $4, Children 12 & under free;
contact Brent Stewart, (208) 342 1151; e-mail:
rocksbybrent@gmail.com

27-28VALLEJO,

CALIFORNIA:

Annual show; Vallejo Gem & Mineral Society,

Solano County Fairgrounds, Mc Cormack
Hall; 900 Fairgrounds Drive, ; Sat. 10-5, Sun.
10-5; $5 Admission, Children under 12 free;
Vallejo Gem & Mineral Society presents its
annual Spring Bling. Jade, turquoise, amber,
fossils, opals, minerals specimens, beads,
crystals, silver jewelry, rough rocks, slabs,
demonstrations, prize drawings; contact
Dan Wolke, VGMS 900 Fairgrounds Drive,
Vallejo, CA 94589, 707 334-2950; e-mail:
dncwolke@sbcglobal.net;
Web
site:
vjgems.org

2 7- 2 9 SA N
F R A N C I S C O,
CALIFORNIA: Show and sale; Pacific
Crystal Guild, Fort Mason Center ; 2 Marina
Blvd., (at Buchanan); Sat. 10 am-6 pm;
Adults$8, Children 12 and under are Free!;
There is an amazing event taking place at
Fort Mason in San Francisco. It\s the Great
San Francisco Crystal Fair. On the weekend of February 27-28, you\ll find the Fort
Mason Conference Center filled with gems
and jewelry and crystals of all shapes and
sizes. Each booth, and there are many, will
tantalize and tempt you with beautiful shapes
and colors. Included among this array, are
some very fascinating metaphysical healers. Crystal healers, aura readers, pendulum
dowsers, massage practitioners, and other
purveyors of arcane arts. Sure to entertain
you and help you to see beyond the veil, as
it were. Here are the vitals. The 29th Annual
San Francisco Crystal Fair February 27-28
Fort Mason Center, Building A 2 Marina
Blvd. at Buchanan, San Francisco (415) 3837837 Website: www.crystalfair.com Hours:
Saturday 10-6; Sunday 10-4 Admission $8.00
( Children 12 and under free) Come and
enjoy this amazing event. You\ll be glad
you did.; contact Jerry Tomlinson, PO Box
1371, Sausalito, CA 94966, (415) 383-7837;
e-mail: jerry@crystalfair.com; Web site:
www.crystalfair.com

March 2016
4-5COLVILLE,

WASHINGTON:

Annual show; Panorama Gem and Mineral

Club, Stevens County Fairgrounds; Columbia

Avenue; Fri. 8:30-6, Sat. 9-5; Free Admission;

contact Bill Allen, 509 935 8779 or 509 936
2446; e-mail: sagostore2@plix.com

4-6NEWARK, CALIFORNIA: Annual

show; Mineral & Gem Society of Castro
Valley, Newark Pavilion; 6430 Thornton Ave.;
Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; Admission
$6, Free Admission for children under 13; 40
Dealers selling jewelry, gemstones, minerals,
fossils, beads, faceted stones, books, tools.
Visit fluorescent room, exhibits, demonstration room, kids spin Wheel, geode splitting.
Participate in live auction, raffle, door prizes.
; contact Elizabeth Milam, 1176 Thiel Road,
Hayward, CA 94544-6319, (510)-732-6717;
e-mail: solidcedar@comcast.net; Web site:
www.MGSCV.org
4-6NEWARK, CALIFORNIA: Annual
show; MGSCV - Mineral & Gem Society
of Castro Valley, Newark Pavilion; 6430
Thornton Ave.; Fri. 10:00 am-6:00 pm, Sat.
10:00 am-6:00 pm, Sun. 10:00 am-5:00 pm;
Admission $6 /3 day pass, Children under
13 Free, w/adult; Local Irvington District
Fossils. Large Fluorescent Mineral display.
GIA Gem Identification. No.CA Geological
Society Rock ID. 40+ Dealers. 40+ Exhibits.
Live Demonstrations. Geode Splitting. Kid\s
Spinning Wheel. Opal Pendant Raffle. Live
Auction. Door Prizes. Free Parking. School
tours welcome, scheduled on Friday from
9:30am.; contact Cathy Miller, 20948-A
Corsair Blvd., Hayward, CA 94545, (510)
305-4196; e-mail: showchair@mgscv.org;
Web site: mgscv.org
4-6RICHMOND IN. , INDIANA:
Annual show; Eastern Indiana Gem &
Geological Society, Wayne co Fairgrouds; 861
N. Salisbury Rd.; Fri. 10:00 am-6:00 pm, Sat.
10:00 am-6:00 pm, Sun. 11:00 am-4:00 pm;
$5.00, $3.00, $1.00, under 7 free; Jewelry,
Fossils Minerals , Silent Auction, Displays,
Demonstrators, Children\s Activities, Food
Available Over 29 Dealers & Demonstrators,
Scouts in uniform -free!; contact Judy Burton,
912 Kent Lane, Troy , OH 45373, (937) 3391966; e-mail: jleeburton@woh.rr.com

4-6DEL

MAR,

CALIFORNIA:

Wholesale and retail show; Gem Faire Inc,

Del Mar Fairgrounds; 2260 Jimmy Durante
Blvd; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; $7
Admission, Children under 11 Free; Fine jewelry, precious & semi-precious gemstones,
millions of beads, crystals, gold & silver, minerals & much more at manufacturers prices.
Exhibitors from around the world will be on
site. Jewelry repair & cleaning while you shop.
Free hourly door prizes.; contact Yooy Nelson,
503-252-8300; e-mail: info@gemfaire.com;
Web site: http://www.gemfaire.com

5 - 6 ARCADIA,

CALIFORNIA:

Annual show; Monroia Rockhounds, L.A.

Arboretum, Ayres Hall; 301 N. Baldwin Ave;
Sat. 9:00 am-4:30 pm, Sun. 9:00 am-4:30
pm; Admission is Free!; Admission FREE
with paid admission to the Arboretum. Free
tumbled stone for each guest. Over 20
Dealers, Display Cases, Geode Cracking,
Kids Corner, Teachers Resource Center,
Treasure Wheel, Raffle Prizes and our famous
$2.00 Grab Bag and we will identify the rocks
for you.; contact Jo Anna Ritchey, 224 Oaks
Ave, Monrovia, CA 91016, (626) 359-1624;
e-mail: joannaritchey@gmail.com; Web site:
www.moroks.com

5-6NEWARK, DELAWARE: Annual

show; Delaware Mineralogical Society,
Delaware Technical & Community CollegeStanton; 400 Stanton-Christiana Road ; Sat.
10:00 am-6:00 pm, Sun. 11:00 am-5:00 pm;
Adults $6.00, Seniors $5.00, Students $4.00,
Children are Free w. adult; educational exhibits of mineral, lapidary and fossil specimens,
displays from regional and university museums, a roster of fine dealers of minerals,
fossils, gems, jewelry and lapidary supplies,
door prizes, demonstrations of gem cutting and polishing and a childrens table,
where youngsters may purchase inexpensive mineral and fossil specimens. ; contact Wayne Urion, (302) 998-0686; e-mail:
wurion@aol.com
;
Web
site:
www.delminsociety.org
5-6ISSAQUAH,

WASHINGTON:

Annual show; East KingCo Rock Club,

Pickering Barn; 1730-10th Avenue NW;
Sat. 10 am-6 pm, Sun. 10 am-5 pm;
Admission is free; contact Cindy Smith,
PO Box 2203, Redmond, WA 98073;
e-mail: cndysmith@gmail.com

5- 6 MERIDEN,

CONNETICUT:

Annual show; Lapidary & Mineral Society of

Central Connecticut, Maloney High School;
121 Gravel Street; Sat. 9:30-5:, Sun. 10-4;
$5 Admission, Children under 12 free; Our
45th Annual Show & Sale features minerals,
gems, jewelry, fossils, meteorites, crystals,
17 Vendors plus Wholesale Dealer, educational exhibits, beads, lapidary supplies,
lapidary demonstrations, wire wrapping, free
kids games and activities, hourly door prize
drawings, food & refreshments available, and
a free mineral and free ticket for Grand
Prize Drawing with each paid admission.
Free admission for Scouts in uniform! ; contact Rich Kupisz, LMSCC, P.O. Box 476,
Meriden,
CT
06450;
e-mail:
MeridenMineralClub@gmail.com; Web site:
www.LMSCC.org

75

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

BOOKS AND VIDEO

COLLECtIONS

Out of print & new books on

rocks & minerals, geology, caves
NYS Publications. USGS books,
back issues Rocks & Minerals,
Free list. Bill Cotrofeld, PO Box
235. E. Arlington, VT 05252 AL15
Jaws, Claws, and Carbonates Oh
My! What a deal, $20 per DVD
from notable scholars. All the titles
of these DVDs are as follows: The
Beauty of Carbonates by Jeff
Scovil Collectable Carbonates
By Dr. Carl Francis Teeth Jaws
and Claws by Dale Gnidovec
Again only $20 each, choose
one or get all three, profits will
benefit Geosciences Education.
These gems wont last forever! No
cash please, order today you will
not be disappointed satisfaction
guaranteed. Please include $3.00
for postage for each send your
request to 107 Deer Creek Road
Rochester, Il. 62563. Please make
the check payable to Geosciences
Education.
B u S I N E S S O p p O rt u N I t I E S
FOr SALE- On-line rock shop:
rocks/minerals/fossils/carvings/
books/etc business. Huge inventory. In business 25 years. On-line
continuously for 16 years. Retiring.
Inventory, displays, shelving, website, name, domain, 5,000 + customer email list. $40,000. Ray Hill
770-474-8290 www.greatsouth.net

1950s 60s Vintage Mineral

Collections. In display boxes or on
cards. Free list. Bill Cotrofeld, PO
Box 235, E. Arlington, VT, 05252
XX15
Classic Mineral Collection
Available. Thirty years of collecting displayed in two glass-fronted
cabinets (each 98 W x 55 H
x 17 D). Call 830-928-3135 or
email gems4funtoday@earthlink.net
for details.
IB16
FINISHED GEMS

CABOCHONS

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Lithocanis americanus: clothing
items, selected with the rock hound
in mind. Fluorescent minerals and
UV lights. www.tlzenterprises.com
FE16
JADE
top quality nephrite jade from the
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Amber, ammonite, chrysocolla, or if you need parts contact: Ray
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agate, unusual garnets, jades jas- AZ (928) 859-3493 GL15
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moonstones, opals, parrot wing, SALE! I have a huge assortment
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minerals, metorites, slabs, cab Satisfaction guaranteed. Call Tom
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items and more. Open Tues-Sat, Blvd (Hwy 95N), Quartzsite, AZ;
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from New Mexico and Arizona. Orlando FL, Mineral, Fossil and
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OpAL
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tHE rOCKDOC WILL NOt BE and unique toggles. Robert Hall
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yahoo.com, 253 Southlake Road, Indianapolis Area (Lawrence).
Saratoga, Ar. 71859 or USA Findings, supplies, minerals,
Facebook; Jerry Anja Mullin BA16
fossils, equipment, rough and
Lightning Ridge, Coober Pedy, finished stones. No list. JOX
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Were the largest and most Indianapolis, IN 46226. Hours:
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the industr y. Free Catalog. through Saturday. (317) 542KNIGHTS, Box 411, Waitsfield, 8855.
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50-95 Rock Shop, 645 N. Central 614 E. 3rd Street. (307) 276-5208

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

email: graysrocks@wyoming.com online precious and semipreFacebook: JL Gray Rock Shop cious gemstones. 7, Ganesh
AL15
Darshan, LT Road, Borivali(W),
Austin, Texas: Natures Treasures Mumbai 400092, India. For pric14,000 sq. ft., campus includes a elist worldvingems@gmail.com.
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tools plus cutting, drilling and a Week 11:00am-7:00pm. 8317
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& Airport) 512-472-5015; Rock Facebook.
GL15
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AL15
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World Vin Gems. Delivering Comanche, OK 73529. Southwest
Quality, Building Trust. Buy Oklahomas largest! Tons of rough

CLASSIFIED

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agate, fossils, onyx and finished Rough, different sizes, large to tumproduct. Wednesday through bling-sizes. Slabs also $5 each.
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (580)
Call Chuck at (928) 792-7599 FK15
439-4186 or (580) 439-5347
World Leader in Kentucky agate.
XX15
Products for sale: polished
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Eudialyte, large new shipments and rough. jleedsjewelry.com
email: jleedsgold@aol.com cell:
arriving!
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N a m i b i a n B l u e P i e t e r s i t e , 859-582-7406
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Free Catalog. The largest and most
High grade Chrysocolla / Shattuckite
from Namibia. Mtorolite, Stichtite, competitive selection facet or cabochon rough in the industry. The
rainbow Fluorite, and more!
( 9 0 9 ) 9 1 5 - 9 5 6 1 . E m a i l : Source. KNIGHTS HOUSE OF
jeff@barnhouselapidary.com
FINE GEMS, Box 411, Waitsfield,
arizona Jasper for Sale!
VT 05673. (802) 496-3707.
Red, purple, mixed colors: $5 lb.
E-mail: knights@madriver.com XX15

Now you can reach Thousands of Readers

Worldwide who want to Buy and Sell.
1.

Write Your Ad in your email message, or

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77

Index to Advertisers

ROC K & GE M
Customer Service

TO ORDER A SUBSCRIPTION: For fastest service,

Amateur Geologist ....................................................... 44

MarQui ........................................................................ 67

Arrowhead Lapidary & Supply ...................................... 41

MarZee Lapidary Tuturial DVDs................................... 71

Au-Rus Wax Patterns ................................................... 71

Middle Tennessee........................................................ 66

monthly issues to Rock & Gem Subscriptions, 4635 McEwen

Mineralab .................................................................... 66

Road, Dallas, TX 75244.

BCA Minerals ............................................................... 71

Barnhouse ................................................................... 19

subscribe online using our secure server at www.beckett.

com. Or send a check or money order for $27.95 for 12

Montana Agate ............................................................ 45

IF YOU HAVE PAID FOR YOUR SUBSCRIPTION

Minnesota Lapidary Supply Corp............................ 25, 65

BUT STILL RECEIVE A BILL: The check and the

Bill Egleston................................................................. 45

Mississippi gulf coast. ................................................. 41

invoice may have crossed in the mail. It may take up to four

Cabstar ........................................................................ 71

Museum Rocks ............................................................ 74

Celestial Earth Minerals ............................................... 19

New Era....................................................................... 61

Copper Agates ............................................................. 71

Optima Gems............................................................... 55

Covington Engineering ............................................. 9, 19

Pioneer Gem Corp........................................................ 65

along with your bill to Rock & Gem, 4635 McEwen Road,

Raytech Industries ....................................................... 31

Dallas, TX 75244 or e-mail subscriptions@beckett.com with

Joseph Stachura Co, Inc. ............................................. 25

the copies attached.

Barranca Diamond ................................................. 30, 79

Blaine Reed. ................................................................ 71

Crystal Cave ................................................................ 71

Deming........................................................................ 15
Desert Gardens. ........................................................... 51

weeks to process your check, so if you wrote the check less

than four weeks ago, disregard the bill you received. If you
paid for your subscription more than four weeks before you
received another bill, send a copy of your cancelled check

Shows of Integrity.................................................. 35, 79

TO SOLVE A SU BSCRI PTION PROBLEM:

Easy Steps Video ......................................................... 68

Superior Agates ........................................................... 71

Remember, it may take up to eight weeks to change an

Facet Shoppe .............................................................. 65

South Pacific ............................................................... 30

Feather River Lapidary ................................................. 44

Stevens ....................................................................... 67

Fire Mountain Gems .................................................... C3

The Agate Shop ........................................................... 45

John E. Garsow Gems & Minerals ................................ 45

The Gem Shop ............................................................. 51

Diamond Pacific Tool Corp. .......................................... C4

Gem & Lapidary Wholesalers, Inc. ............................... 14

Gem Center USA Inc. ................................................... 45

The Mineral Gallery...................................................... 71

address and 6-8 weeks to start a new subscription. Please

give us time to get your magazine to you, and if it still
doesnt arrive, please e-mail us at subscriptions@beckett.
com or call (866) 287-9383. If you are receiving duplicate
subscriptions, e-mail subscriptions@beckett.com.
RENEWALS: It can take 6-8 weeks to process your

Tom Courtright ............................................................ 45

renewal, so dont wait! Renew early so you dont miss an

Topaz Mountain Adventures......................................... 71

issue. You can renew online at www.beckett.com using the

Highland Park Lapidary .................................................. 7

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show ................................... 15

Inet number listed on the address label of your magazine,

Hughes Associates ...................................................... 59

Tru-Square Metal Products .......................................... 49

or just return the renewal form with your check or money

Jarvi Tool Co. .............................................................. 74

Tyson Wells ................................................................... 9

Jesco........................................................................... 59

U.S. Geological Supply ................................................. 79

Johnson Brothers .................................................. 51, 66

Ultra Tec ...................................................................... C2

Gem Faire, Inc. ............................................................ 29

Gilmans ...................................................................... 67

JS Gems ...................................................................... 61

order. Please do not send cash! If you renew your subscription before your expiration date, well extend your existing
subscription. Providing your Inet number will ensure that a
duplicate subscription will not be entered. You wont lose

UV Tools ...................................................................... 68

any issues by renewing early, and youll guarantee that you

The Universe Collection ............................................... 35

wont miss any!

The Village Smithy Opals, Inc....................................... 15

REPLACEMENT COPIES: Send a photo of your dam-

LotOTumbler ................................................................ 71

Whittmore Durgin Glass Co. ......................................... 71

aged copy and a request for a replacement to subcrip-

Lortone, Inc. ................................................................ 13

William Holland School ................................................ 31

tions@beckett.com or Rock & Gem, 4635 McEwen Road,

Martin Zinn Expositions, LLC.......................................... 5

World of Jaspers.......................................................... 44

Kingsley North, Inc............................................. 3, 49, 68

Kristalle ....................................................................... 13
Lasco Diamond Products ............................................. 19

Dallas, TX 75244.
BACK ISSUES: Back issues can be ordered at www.
beckett.com.
MOVING? Have the Inet number listed on your magazine label ready and call (866) 287-9383 or e-mail subscriptions@beckett.com. It can take 6-8 weeks to get an address
change processed, so make sure you contact your local post
office and ask them to forward all your mail.
HOW TO PLACE AN AD IN Rock & Gem: Please
contact Brian Roberts via e-mail at broberts@rockngem.
com or at (623) 327-3525.
TO SELL Rock & Gem IN YOUR STORE: Please
contact Amit Sharma via e-mail at asharma@beckett.com
or at (972) 448-9003.
VISIT US AT www.rockngem.com.

78

79

on the rocks
by BOB JONES

Red Cloud Revival

T

heres good news about the famous

Red Cloud mine, in La Paz County,
Arizona. After being worked diligently by
specimen mining groups for over 20 years,
the mine was shut down simply because it
was getting too difficult to work. Now, a
group headed by Wayne Thompson, who
initiated the first major open-pit mining
operation in the early 1990s, is back at it
again. He has formed a group to work the
known specimen-producing vein, but this
time they will work underground, following the major vein that produced the finest
wulfenite in the world.

The Red Cloud mine has been producing spectacular red crystals of wulfenite
for over 130 years. After extensive mining
for crystal specimens in the mid-1990s
and several years that followed, most
collectors thought this classic source of
world-famous crystal groups had finally
been exhausted. They were wrong! In
2015, a serious effort was begun to mine
specimens from the great Hanging Wall
Fault. Only time will tell if this latest venture will be successful.
The 1990s effort was very productive
because an open-pit mining operation
was developed to follow that specimenproducing fault to depth. Eventually,
the open pit reached its depth limits and
specimen mining had to stop, not because

the fault had reached borrasca, but because the overhang had gotten far too big
and threatened the safety of the miners.
Removing the overhang would have been
prohibitively costly, so specimen mining
ceased, seemingly for good.
This time, instead of attacking the
specimen-bearing fault from the surface,
miners are digging deep underground to
access that fault and follow it to the surface. Currently, the limited number of fine
red crystals recovered during this nascent
operation suggests miners are on the right
track. They may well hit another Red
Cloud mine wulfenite bonanza as they
proceed in the really difficult task of mining up toward the surface from depth.
The Red Cloud mine was started in
the second half of the 1800s as a silver
prospect. Most of the silver ore was cerargyrite and other species. By 1880s, the
mine had become known for its red wulfenite crystals; Yales Benjamin Silliman
Jr. wrote about the mine in 1881. This
may have been prompted by an earlier
visit by A.E. Foote, a famous Philadelphia
mineral dealer. Foote had obtained some
remarkable red wulfenite crystal specimens, which ended up in the Harvard
University collection.
These stunning, bright-red wulfenite
crystals, the finest known at the time, en-

The 1990s mining project recovered a quantity of very large Red Cloud wulfenite specimens.

80 www.rockngem.com

Collectors from all over worked underground at the

Red Cloud in hopes of breaking into a pocket of this
mines famous wulfenites.

couraged a noted itinerate specimen collector, Ed Over, to visit the mine in 1938.
Over was the collecting partner of Arthur
Montgomery, a Lafayette College professor, who collected with Ed during his
summer hiatus each year.
The story of Eds find is very interesting.
When he got to the mine in 1938, it was
being worked by a couple of contract miners, who were extracting silver species. Ed
went underground and began working. To
his amazement, he opened a vein that was
full of loose material, which trickled out
of the opening he had made.
Along with this loose material came
several bright-red, individual wulfenite
crystals measuring up to 2 inches on an
edge. The crystals were undamaged and
brilliantly lustrous. Ed dug more and
got a few superb crystals on matrix. He
worked the seam, extracting a number
of these red beauties. But he now had a
problem.
Some years ago, Art, who is a friend of
mine, told me what happened. Ed realized he could never get these breathtaking
wulfenites to the surface without being
stopped by the miners above. He gathered
all the junk crystals and broken specimens
he could, put the red jewels in the bottom
Rock & Gem

of his collecting boxes, and covered them

with the trash minerals before heading to
the surface.
Sure enough, the men wanted to see
what he had collected. When they looked
in Eds mineral box they simply laughed at
this novice collector and sent him on his
way. Little did they know!
Because of Eds 1938 find, local collectors have tried their luck at Red Cloud
again and again. This collector certainly
did; I camped at the mine more than once,
going underground again and again in
hopes of stumbling on a significant find. I
searched a deep as the 600-foot level, with
only minimal success. Only small, relatively insignificant wulfenite crystals were
found by most collectors. A few collectors
opened small pockets that did produce
nice specimens, but nothing remotely resembling Eds find.
In the early 1990s, local collector Wayne
Thompson, whom Ive known since he
was a teenager, put together a small group
of investors who obtained ownership of
the Red Cloud mine. Wayne has probably spent more time underground at the
Red Cloud than any other collector. He
had even coined the phrase Wulfenite is
Love. He painted it on the mine shack and
put it on bumper stickers.
His experience at the mine probably
gave him a good grasp of the specimen
situation there. Once his group got control of the property, a serious study of the
geology of the property was made. It was
decided to attack the hanging Wall Fault
from the surface rather than work underground, where rubble and tough mining
would be required.
The reason for this decision had to
do with the vein itself. Earlier work dating back to the late 1800s had followed
the fault in two parallel workings along
the edges of the wide vein. The vein itself
was thought to be some 20 feet wide, and
pockets could be anticipated along the entire width, but most work had been done
on either edge of the vein.
As the miners opened the vein, they
discovered that the width of the vein was
much greater than thoughtupwards of
35 feet. This increased the potential for
crystal-lined pockets.
During the initial effort to open-pit the
vein, a fine pocket of red wulfenite crystals
was opened. It yielded the first of what was
to be a cornucopia of fine collector-quality
wulfenite. Crystals measuring an inch or
more on an edge were found on matrix.
Because the miners were working in an
open pit, the removal of matrix specimens
was a little easier than it would have been
underground, and specimens exceeding a
foot across could be mined. This was a first
for the mine.
Working the open pit at the Red Cloud
was exceedingly productive, but specimen
mining finally had to stop due to the dangerous overhang. In addition to the cost
January 2016

Wayne Thompson, who organized the

1990s Red Cloud specimen-mining project, is directing the current one, as well.

of removal, disposing of all the rubble

in accordance with
federal regulations
created a roadblock. Therefore,
the mine operators decided to go
underground.
They had a good
idea where the
vein was at depth
so work was started
down deep, just above
the 500 level, to which
the main shaft reaches.
Years ago, I climbed down
to that level to collect. It was
really filthy work, as expected,
and we were only modestly successful in finding crystals: small, dark-brown,
tabular crystals seldom reaching a quarter
inch in length.
This latest venture had an initial bit of
success when the miners hit a small pocket of rich red, half-inch crystals in small
clusters. Hopes were high as they continued to work the vein up. Then problems
struck. They broke into a stope created by
mining years ago. There was a huge accumulation of waste rock, much of it from
rockhounds breaking rock and shoving
it aside in their search for the elusive red
crystals.
As of this writing, the miners are still
working through tons of rubble in hopes
of hitting pockets of crystals. Only time
will tell if they will be successful. We certainly wish them well!
STORAGE ISSUES

Rock & Gem magazine had its beginnings in 1971, and Ive managed to hang
onto a copy of just about every issue that
has been published. One corner of my
office has a large bank of shelves loaded
with well over 500 copies of the magazine.
Needless to say, this has presented something of a storage problem.
People who approach the Rock & Gem
booth at shows often ask if we have back
issues and old copies for sale. The main
office of Rock & Gem gets these requests,
and so do I.
Imagine the kind of space that would
be required to store only 10 copies of each
issue. Thats almost 6,500 magazines! Recent issues can usually be found at our
show booth, but with every day that goes
by, the chances of finding a back issue,
especially the very early ones, diminish
significantly.
I have to keep my old magazines ready
to hand, since I often find myself referring
to an old article when Im writing a new

one, but maybe you dont need them for

more than a couple of months. If youre
running out of storage space, one solution
is to donate your back issues to your local club. Every club should have a small
library of reference materials for its members. If your club holds a show, it can offer
them for sale. Or you might find someone
in your rockhounding Facebook group
who would be willing to pay shipping to
obtain a particular issue.
One of the better storage ideas Ive
heard is to save just those articles you
particularly enjoyed. Keep a file of photocopies or remove the relevant pages and
store them in plastic sleeves in a binder,
organizing them by topic. If you are a
mineral person, you might want to hang
onto articles and columns written by Steve
Voynick and myself, since we tend to write
in depth about minerals and gems. If your
club takes field trips, you can save the field
trip articles.
In a much larger sense, the other storage problem collectors have is the accumulation of rocks and minerals theyve
collected over the years. Having been a
collector for over 75 years, I am well aware
of that problem. I must admit I solved my
problem rather easily. My son Evan and
I shared a home for some years until I
moved out. That solved my mineral storage problem. Think about how you can
solve yours!
Bob Jones holds the Carnegie Mineralogical Award, is a member of the
Rockhound Hall of Fame,
and has been writing
for Rock & Gem since its
inception. He lectures
about minerals, and has
written several books
and video scripts.

81

Parting shot
MINERALS and JEWELRY

Ocean Jasper Pendant

Ocean Jasper is a multicolor stone from Northwestern Madagascar, most often found with spherical
patterning. The mining was originally done at low tide, since the deposits were at the edge of the sea.
Currently, Ocean Jasper is no longer being found.
SALLIE BOLICH CRAWFORD PHOTO
WIRE WRAPPING BY SALLIE BOLICH CRAWFORD/LAPIDARY BY JANICE CRAMER

82 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem