Category: Rockhounding

Wrapping with Muskrats and Rock Nuts

On By thinkcarebelieveIn Jewelry & Lapidary, Rockhounding2 Comments
I had the best day with my Missoula friends Tom and Debby and Helena friend Diane.  As Diane put it, it was like spending the day with Santa Claus in his workshop.
We had the table completely covered with beautifully tumbled Montana Agates, cabochons of all shapes and sizes, gold and silver wire, tools, and several styles of wire wraps.  
We compared styles and shared tips and techniques. Angie particularly like the fact that Tom keeps a big box of dog biscuits in his rock workshop.

We wrapped some beautiful Montana material and Tom gave me some tips on finding some rocks in Montana. 

Like this.
And we all kinda fell into a rock euphoria.

Just as some (very) early trick-or-treaters arrived.  LOL, those were some of Tom and Debby’s neighbor girls stopping by to say hello. 

Gem Mountain

On By thinkcarebelieveIn Gem Mine Visits, Rockhounding2 Comments

Spent a day at Montana’s Gem Mountain with fellow rockhounds Tom and Debby.  This is the place that was featured on an episode the Travel Channel’s Cash and Treasures.  We got there bright and early before they opened.

The gigunda sized sluice box was just begging for action.

Our friend Tom, who is an expert god panner, checked to see if there were some sapphires in the muck in the bottom of the sluice.

Finally, we got our buckets of gravel that hopefully contained some of Montana’s beautiful sapphires.

We carefully put little shovel fulls of the gravel into our screen.

And washed them in the sluice.  That takes skill, working it from side to side, washing off the dirt and moving everything to the center of the screen.

Then pick out the sapphires.  They look like glass or a little glob of gelatin.

There’s one in there… do you see it?

There it is!

We found a few good ones!

Deb and Tom were wonderful and helped many new gem hunters become proficient so they wouldn’t become discouraged.

So, off we went with our treasures and headed for the little town of Phillipsburg, MT.

On the way, we spotted a herd of elk crossing a hay field.

And headed for the Doe Brothers Restaurant & Soda Fountain.  This was our ambiance.

What a treat!  Huckleberry shakes!

And got some treats at the Sweet Shop.  Bill kept saying that he felt like a kid all day.  Now he really felt like a kid!

Well, we ended up with four flawless, cuttable Montana Sapphires and took them to the Sapphire Gallery in town to have them heat treated, faceted and mounted in a ring.  Sorry we didn’t get pictures of the them before we dropped them off, but when we get them back in about 9 weeks, we’ll show it off.  What a way to remember a wonderful day with two special people.

Trash Pick-Up

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Picked up a fossil in limestone on that drive.  Turns out it is called a “Death Plate”.  Just a hunk of the graveyard that forms when dead animals settle to the bottom.

The closeups show that it’s full of little critters that may have been on sea and land and must’ve been from a long, long time ago.  There is some crinoid material along with pelecypods and gastropods.

This piece seems to be a part of the Madison Limestone formation (or Madison Group) that stretches from the Black Hills to western Montana and eastern Idaho and and from the Canadian border to western Colorado and the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Most of the Madison Limestones were deposited during Early to Middle Mississippian time (Tournaisian to Visean stages), about 359 to 326 million years ago. (info from Wikipedia)

Spencer Opal Mine

On By thinkcarebelieveIn Gem Mine Visits, Rockhounding3 Comments

  We traveled to the town of Spencer, Idaho today. It’s a small mountain town, tucked in the hills.  There are only two mines but they are privately owned, and not open to the public.  But, there are several opal shops in Spencer.

Bob and Susan Thompson own the Opal Mountain Mine.  They are very knowledgeable and friendly and don’t hesitate to spend time with you explaining about how opal is made and how it is worked.  They showed us how they make triplets where a backing of black basalt is applied and a clear domesply is applied to the top to create a dazzling gem.
Their not for sale/ display only specimens are incredible and I delighted in finding some buckets of lesser quality rough to pick through that would make good specimens. We also saw gem quality trimmed rough in jars for those of us who like to try their luck at creating a gem or two.

Bob and Susan explained that some of their specimens are in the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.  This one is the largest solid piece they have ever found.  It’s simply awesome. 

Here is a triplet that is surrounded by Montana (yellow) sapphires…

… and a huge triplet opal set in sterling….

… and this rarity.

You can visit Bob and Susan’s website at: http://www.idopalmine.com/  if you are ever in Idaho and passing through Spencer, look them up!

By the way, the mine business is for sale… so if you ever dreamed of having your own opal mine business and don’t mind working REAL hard, here’s your chance!

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Hot Potatoes in Idaho

On By thinkcarebelieveIn Jewelry & Lapidary, Rockhounding1 Comment
Kat Jo
Lowayne

Camping here at Aspen Acres for a whole week, the second time we’ve stopped somewhere for a week, has been a fascinating education.  Met two couples who used to be neighbors and now come here annually to golf and camp and have fun.  Norm and Lowayne, Martin and Kat Jo invited us to brunch at their campsite to sample breakfast burritos and cornmeal mush.  Bill and I never had mush before and we must say, it is out of this world!  The recipe is on the package of cornmeal and you mix it up and cool it in bacon drippings…. yes, that’s what I said.  Oh man, how good they are.
It was my immense pleasure to create custom pendants for these beautiful ladies according to their specifications.  Here they are modeling the pendants and here are the pendants, close up.  The pendant on the left is White Jade, wrapped in sterling silver.  The one on the right is Amethyst, also wrapped in sterling silver.  They looked beautiful on this sweet, fun-loving pair of friends.

What we learned was that Idahoans have a deep affection for their state and its diversity.  The state is very conservative, although not quite as much as Utah or Texas.  Apparently, most of the potatoes are grown in the southern portion of the state. The northern portion abounds with mountains, canyons, hot springs, lakes and rivers.  The northeast portion (eastern, really) of Idaho is part of Yellowstone. 

Potatoes Being Irrigated

Last night we were invited to sit around a campfire with another pair of neighbors.  Jack and Patty, Trad and Darby explained that the northeastern part of Idaho is really part of the dormant Yellowstone Supervolcano.  There are two calderas in the volcanic field surrounding the outer rim of the Yellowstone Caldera that are in Idaho.

The effects of several eruptions can still be seen today. Craters of the Moon, national monument in Idaho is a vast ocean of lava flows with scattered islands of cinder cones and sagebrush. The most recent flow in eastern Idaho is the Hell’s Half Acre lava flow which erupted about 4,100 years ago and is 125 square miles.  Crater Rings are two adjacent and symmetrical pit craters that are among the few examples of this type of crater in the continental United States. The pit craters, which are volcanic conduits in which the lava column rises and falls, were formed by explosions followed by collapse.  Those ancient eruptions have helped create the eastern part of the Snake River Plain from a what was once a mountainous region.

On the outer rim of all this heated upheaval, in a little mountain town called Spencer, ancient geysers deposited encapsulated silica in layers which formed into something special in the volcanic rock there.  Out of the fiery volcanoes, came opal.

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Red Sioux Quartzsite: What’s in a Name?

On By thinkcarebelieveIn Jewelry & Lapidary, Rockhounding1 Comment

When we were first in Sioux Falls, I got a hint there were actually some falls here.  Well, we came back for an appointment to fix our RV, and since we didn’t have a house for a day, we took care of some errands and decided to investigate the falls. 

Here the Big Sioux River charges over beautiful red rock that is native only to this area.  The rock was uncovered 14,000 years ago when the last glacial ice sheet redirected the river and exposed the hard Red Sioux Quartzite bedrock which was formed from sediments which formed on an ancient sea floor.

The name came from a journal entry by Louis & Clark describing the falls and calling it the “Sous River”.  Settlers soon followed and spent the first winter here at the falls but encountered problems with local Indians and the deaths of two prominent townspeople occurred.  Settlers abandoned the town until the establishment of Fort Dakota in 1865, and the town grew from there around mills powered by the river.  The town boomed with the arrival of the railroad and the only thing that paused its growth was the depression and a plague of grasshoppers. :-/

The Red Sioux Quartzite is found to be very resistant to weathering and is used as building stone.  It’s color ranges from pink to dark red to burgundy to purple and you see it all over Sioux Falls and surrounding areas.  I had the chance to grind and polish some of this pretty stone.  It reminds me of Raspberry Aventurine, and takes a polish nicely. 

Repairs have been made and our South Dakota plates are on our home on wheels and truck.  Today we head out to western South Dakota, to the Buffalo National Grasslands and the agates there waiting for us to discover them.

Pit Hounding for Lakers in Minnesota

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Many, many years ago up here, the glaciers melted into rivers and dropped slews of agate and jasper that you can see in lines about 10 feet down in the Earth’s crust. So, rockhounding for the good stuff usually happens in eroded areas like hills, streams, lakes and pits where digging has taken place.  Fellow rockhounds Steve and daughters Kayla and Salena took us on a tour of “The Pits” of Minnesota’s North Shore.  
 The hounding was terrific.  We found some beautiful Red Jasper and Jaspellite (Red Jasper and Hematite) in their stunning array of variations.  
There was also a great variety of Chinese Writing stone (Porphyry).  So named for the rectangles of material in contrasting color at odd angles resembling Chinese characters.
And of course, there were the Lakers, which are the multicolored, banded agates.





And some beautiful material that we don’t know, so we are calling it “Idontknowite”.  

Update:  Steve tells me the Idontknowite is Banded Flint



Angie played in a mud puddle with Boomer, their happy doggie. 
 Steve, Bill and Angie 

Boomer, Salena and Kayla

On The North Shore

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On the North Shore of Lake Superior is a string of parks.  We visited visited the shore of Lake Superior at Leif Erikson Park. They have a beautiful rose garden there lovingly cared for by volunteers.

 .

 We took the pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks where the North Shore Scenic Railroad runs over to Lake Walk, a 3+ mile walking/biking path. 

We made our way down to the rocky shore.  Boy there were some beautiful rocks there.  Angie enjoyed a cool dip in the water.


Found some real beauties there.  Lakers get their unique characteristics from early volcanic action, the repeated heating and cooling which caused fissures in the rock.  Mineral carrying groundwater deposited silica and other minerals into the cracks.  Glaciers then carried the rocks across the area and dropped them as they melted.  Such a unique set of circumstances creating beautiful natural works of art.


Good Gifts

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Two years ago, while walking Angie, I discovered an area of pristine babbling streams, abundant ferns, and beautiful rocks.  I found Bronzite, Serpentine, Amazonite and Moonstone there.  As my research of the area continued, I learned that plans were in place for it to be developed, that there was little hope that the abundant minerals would be saved.  I loved the countless hours I spent walking the woodland trails and clear streams, but always felt sad when I imagined its future.  I recently met a wonderful woman named Lorraine who sits on a board that is working to raise the funds to purchase the land and preserve it.  I took her on a hike and for two hours, we got lost in a world of beautiful rocks and peaceful surroundings.  She took some samples back to the board.

In this our final week here, Lorraine told me that the funds had been raised and the effort will be successful… the area is going to be saved and preserved.  Tomorrow, Bill, our boys, Angie and puppy Toby and I will all have a birthday lunch picnic on a big rock overlooking a stream to celebrate the perfect culmination of my time here in Media.  Can’t think of anything more perfect than being with the ones I love in a place that has meant so much on my birthday.