Maryland's Geology: The Book

Martin F. Schmidt, Jr., the author of Maryland's Geology, (Shiffler Publishing, 2010) recently addressed our Baltimore Mineral Society with a particularly interesting program relating to his book. The clear and well illustrated presentation introduced his work to some of us and provided enlightenment to all of us regarding the geology of our state.

Eager to learn more, I ordered Maryland's Geology from Amazon.com the next day. At 164 pages, with numerous illustrations, including various maps, and 26 pages of appendix, it's a short read, but not necessarily a quick one until or unless the reader has become familiar with various geological words and terms, all of which Maryland's Geology clearly describes when they first appear. Ultimately, any serious reader will soon be comfortable with discussion of faults, folds, intrusions, dikes, orogeny, and a lot more. The appearance of such items in the index showing the page number where first defined eases the process of retention.

A table of contents specifically outlines the main points to be covered. Thereafter, 131 pages of text and drawings not only explain the unique and complex geology of Maryland, but serve as a basic primer on the subject of geology. Twenty two additional pages of appendix (not including the aforementioned index) add clarity and help to keep the reader focused.

Maryland's Geology defines Maryland in terms of five landform areas, referred to as provinces. Moving east to west across the state, the provinces are the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge, the Valley and Ridge, the Appalachian Plateaus. The boundaries of all the provinces generally run northeast to southwest across the state, following the trends of the Appalachians across the eastern U.S. The first chapter describes these landform areas. Subsequent chapters explain how the landforms of each province came to be, the processes that caused them, and historical perspective. A final chapter discusses Maryland's geological resources as well as hazards of which to be wary.

Maryland's Geology is a must read for anyone interested in Maryland's mineralogy. Readers with a bit of training, are certain to gain specific regional perspective. For those without it, the book should prove to be an awakening.

A Big Mineral Auction in Pennsylvania

The mineral collection of the late Joe Varady of Phoenixville, PA, went to auction in Hatfield, PA, at the Adlerfer Auction Company on May 7, 2011. This was six years to the day since the legendary auction of the Jay Lininger Collection. To the best of my knowledge, it was the most important mineral auction to have happened in this part of the country since.

A native of Phoenixville, PA, Joe Varady died of cancer at age 67 last August after more than a half century of collecting minerals. His roots alone, not to mention that he was outgoing, well-known, and very much liked in the region, would be sufficient to drop a strong hint regarding the minerals in his collection.

Perhaps no other collection in existence was richer both in quality and quantity of specimens from the classic localities of Southeastern Pennsylvania, namely the Wheatley, Brookdale, and Chester Mines of Phoenixville. Though Phoenxiville pieces dominated, there were plenty of lots from other Pennsylvania localities, as well as worldwide minerals. Regardless of locality, if any one particular species dominated, it was not unexpectedly pyromorphite.

Joe Dague, a prominent Pennsylvania collector/ dealer/consultant, had appraised the the collection and divided it into lots. Based on the amounts being bid, one might conclude that his numbers seemed high on the inexpensive lots and low on the more pricey ones, some of which featured world class Phoenixville material. Joe Dague knows as well as any of us how subjective the pricing of minerals can be relative to other collectables.

Quite telling were the huge amounts for which some pieces sold. Once out of money and while packing up to leave, I heard bids going as high as $2,200 for the anglesite pictured at left. A lot of bidders specialized in collecting minerals from southeastern Pennsylvania. While they know better than other collectors where and how to obtain them at reasonable prices, they also appreciate and value them more than most other collectors.

All in all, 400 lots ranging in size from one mineral to as many as perhaps 40 were sold. Pictures of them all are currently on the Internet as well as descriptions.

Maryland Wulfenite

We print this article here as I wrote it for the Spring, 2011 edition of Justin Zzyzx's quarterly publication the Vug, which is also available in print with this addition entirely devoted to the mineralogy of Maryland. Both sites are in the public domain, so posting it here as well should help to create the awareness of Maryland's minerals sought by both publications.

Though little recognized for its wealth of approximately 250 mineral species, the state of Maryland boasts its share of mineralogical anachronisms. One of the most interesting is a singular and unique find of wulfenite from the year 1975 at a Lehigh Cement Company owned crushed stone quarry near Union Bridge in Carroll County. Extracting from the Wakefield Marble of Maryland’s piedmont, the quarry remains open today, its operations much expanded. For many years, it has been totally off limits to any and all collectors.

Maryland wulfenite’s bright yellow colour visually distinguishes it from the better known East Coast wulfenites, namely the reddish orange crystals of former lead producing sites near Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, and the orange crystals from the Pre-Revolutionary Manham lead workings at Loudville, Massachusetts.

Drusy colourless and sometimes-yellow stained calcite nearly always accompanies Maryland’s usually tabular tetragonal wulfenite wulfenite crystals. Though visible to the naked eye, they rarely measure more than a few millimeters, the largest known being about a centimeter in length. Nearly always, they are best appreciated with magnification. Similarly sized colourless crystals of cerussite frequently accompany them.

The late George Brewer, a schoolteacher from Columbia, Maryland, discovered and extracted all of Maryland’s known wulfenite bearing material. Since meeting an untimely death about 30 years ago, his name has become legend to seasoned field collectors in the region. They recall that he usually collected alone during the summers when school was not in session.

John S. White, who was Curator in Charge of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History Division of Mineralogy from 1964 to 1991, had more to say:

I knew George very well. When I lived in Bowie, he used to come often to my home and show me things that he had collected, or just to visit and talk about minerals. In my view he was the best collector in the state of Maryland that I have ever known. He was always turning up amazing things and he had a knack for gaining official access to quarries where collecting was prohibited. He probably found more new species for quarries in the area than any other collector, and he also found several species new to the science. I am sure there would have been a mineral named for him if he had not died at such an early age. Perhaps the most exciting discovery that George made was that of the mineral goosecreekite. He found the very first specimen at the Goose Creek quarry in Loudon County, suspected that it was a new species, and it turned out to be just that. It was subsequently named and described in 1980 using the material that he collected (Dunn, et. al, Canadian Mineralogist, vol. 18, pp. 323-327).

Word has it among the relatively few who are even cognizant of Maryland wulfenite that every known specimen was once part of single rock. August “Andy” Dietz, an Ashland, Virginia dealer and collector who acquired from Brewer several flats of wulfenite bearing material, adds perspective: He recalls:

From what George implied about the wulfenites, they were in an exposed seam in a corner of the quarry that was probably three to four feet long and a couple offeet wide. George was only able to extract what was loose from the blast but he seemed to think he got all that was available to get. The next time he went he
said the area had been blasted away.

Brewer never found any more. Nor did Dietz, when he later collected there with the renowned Maryland collector Fred Parker. For sure this crushed stone quarry at Union Bridge is not typical of a locality where wulfenite would be likely to occur. Nor is any other locality in the state. The Union Bridge wulfenites are a scarce anachronism to be considered a Maryland classic.

State Line Serpentine Walks

On a relatively rare recent beautiful spring day with no commitments beyond getting from Baltimore to Wilmington, Delaware by nightfall, I opted for heading up Route 1 at midday with time to briefly explore two accessible serpentine barrens along the way: Rock Springs and Chrome Barren Reserve,both in Pennsylvania. The trail through Rock Springs heads north from State Line Road west of Route 222.

In natural history circles, these barrens are touted less for minerals than the very rare plants that thrive in their unique environment. The soil, which is low in nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorous,but rich in magnesium and chromium, is nutritionally inhospitable to much vegetation otherwise indigenous to the area, but welcoming to other rarer plant species. Think serpentine aster, glade spurge, fameflower, lyre-leaved rock cress, prairie dropseed, and arrow-feather. Not seeing much growing that seemed unusual, perhaps April 14 was a bit early in the spring. There weren't many rocks to look at either.

The only interesting rocks I observed comprised roadfill for the Rock Springs parking lot shown in our title picture. They had it all over what rocks I'd spied in the barrens. They had been quarried from the ultramafic rocks beneath the earth at barrens similar to these. Among them was the antigorite in the picture at left, with portions sufficiently translucent and gemmy to refer to as williamsite.

The 340 acre Chrome Barrens Preserve, 59 of which the Nature Conservancy and Chester County Commissioners permanently protect, was my next destination. The main trail here detoured into brambles and dead ends and was difficult to follow. Much of the Chrome Barrens Preserve is deciduous forest. The most accessible rocks were in small alluvial deposits amidst occasional erosion along the trail. I felt justified in taking the chromite in serpentine pictured at left after reading how specifically the sign shown at right exludes rocks or minerals from what must not be damaged or removed

Such a beautiful day to be out in nature, but other locations would have appealed to me more. The day's schedule had been quickly conceived the night before. Realizing that this route to Wilmington passed through Chester County, I would have stayed up later the night before with The Mines and Minerals of Chester County, Pennsylvania by Ronald A. Sloto,2009. This 470 page labor of love has it all in terms of being thorough and specific. It will be my guide next opportunity to so linger when headed in a similar direction.

Simkev Minerals: The Only Enterprise of its Kind

Maureen Campeau, pictured above, is CEO of Simkev Minerals, which she describes as "our niche." She believes Simkev to be the world's only full time business enterprise that caters exclusively to the definitive product of this visually spectacular and joyously myopic mineralogical venue. A definition from late Neal Yedlin, perhaps the most renowned micromounter ever, is quoted in Quintin Wight's The Complete Book of Micromounting, Tucson, 1993, as follows:

Micromount: a natural mineral specimen , preferably in distinct crystals, mounted, properly labeled, and requiring magnification for meaningful observation.

Since many, if not most, of the approximately 4400 known mineral species require magnification to be meaningfully observed or appreciated, the micromount aficionado likely owns a significantly greater number of different species than most mineral collectors. Of no less significance, micromounts typically enjoy immunity to the dings and imperfections borne by the vast majority of hand specimens. Even better, they cost less and usurp minimal space. A binocular or trinocular microscope and a viable light source are all that's required.

A micromount specimen must be small enough to be fit within the confines of the approximately one square inch base of a two piece plastic micromount display case that's usually 3/4 of an inch to an inch in height. While many micromount collectors prefer to mount their own pieces, much of the material they are likely to be seeking has already been mounted.

Maureen's partner, Rodney Lee, who founded the business over 30 years ago (1979), mounts approximately 85 per cent of the Simkev specimens. Maureen mounts the remaining 15 per cent when time permits. Rod then photographs a sample specimen through a binocular scope attached with an adapter to his Canon Rebel, then writes up the locality and a brief visual description. All locations are verified prior to being labeled by Maureen.

While the Internet accounts for most sales, established customers not privy to the Internet receive printed mailings heralding new inventory. Maureen noted that these mailings receive an amazingly high 95 per cent response rate. She describes her clientele as "nearly all men, about 50 per cent European-American, and the rest international.”

Maureen, who is responsible for the business end of the operation, likes to think of herself more as "chief cook and bottle washer," than CEO. She is the person who responds to all email inquires, invoicing, order processing and mailings. If you have a question that needs addressing, she will get the answer or find someone who can. Recently, she became more active in (personal) sales, and marketing in the United States as well as Canada. In the past year she attended the East Coast Gem and Mineral Show in West Springfield, Massachusetts last August, actively worked the Baltimore Mineral Society's Desautels Micromount Symposium in Elkridge, Maryland, this past October, schmoozed for two weeks in February at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, and most recently worked the Atlantic Coast Micromount Symposium April 1 and 2. The Rochester (NY) Mineralogical Symposium April 15, 16, and 17 is next.

More conventional mineral dealers and serious field collectors provide most of the minerals that Rodney trims into mounts. Acquiring inventory can be a challenge but Simkev prides itself in selecting only that material that is aesthetic and reasonable to purchase for resale. Rod and Maureen do their best to acquire new and rare material at a reasonable price. It is important that all specimens have visual appeal even if it only becomes apparent under the scope. "A lot of what we get are three inch rocks that either Rod or I will trim down," notes Maureen.

Working with a tabletop trimmer, Rod and Maureen separate and isolate pieces that best display the crystals in matrix. They try to make sure that most specimens have at least three quarters of an inch of matrix with each specimen. Crystals in matrix look much better than an individual crystal alone. Sometimes they have no choice, but in most cases the three-quarter inch rule applies. Rod uses mineral tack to mount all but the tiniest and most fragile specimens, which he glues to a cork pedestal that he affixes to the micromount case base. The only exceptions are occasional mounts to be considered "vintage" or with such added-value provenance as to have previously been mounted by or from collections of those with legendary stature among micromounters.

As for pricing, Maureen notes two factors: "The first consideration," she says, "is what we paid. The second is rarity and aesthetics.” In the past year, she and Rodney have sold over ten thousand mounts encompassing over 600 species. The highest price they ever charged was $75.00, which represents only three or four specimens in those ten thousand mounts. Many, perhaps most, sell for as little as $8.00. "What's most important, regardless of price" Maureen emphasizes, "is quality---and, of course customer service." Simkev prides themselves on quality and service.

Many times Maureen can receive a request for specimens in the morning and the "pretties" are on the way to a new home that same afternoon.

A Mineralogical Hike near Baltimore, Maryland

This is a pleasant safe hike of just over two miles through accessible public terrain, mostly in Robert E. Lee Park. It offers pegmatites, serpentine barrens, and chrome pits. The trail begins by following the former railroad bed of the long abandoned Greenspring Branch from the off-road parking area along the northbound stretch of Falls Road just past where it crosses Jones Falls.

Very recently, while I was busy writing two articles for The Vug * assigned to me by twelve year old Jessica Simonoff, her father Bob headed here on his own to check it out. He didn't get very far before making a find worthy of ---and soon to be---the subject of its own post here at Mineral Bliss. Stay tuned for that one.

The trail passes through woodlands for the better part of a mile. To the right is Jones Falls. On the left is hillside with occasional cuts from the former train tracks. Schist comprises most of the rock displayed by these cuts. At approximately a quarter mile, a thick vein of milky quartz runs through the schist. About hundred yards farther along, veins of exposed pegmatite(see picture at left) display plenty of pink orthoclase, quartz and mica. One wonders whether beryl or apatite might linger somewhere within. These small pegnatites, however, have greater value as scenery. Taking even take a curious whack with a hammer could result in a destruction of public property rap worthy of rigid enforcement.

The trail continues to a foot bridge crossing Jones Falls. Just beyond, the stunted evergreens of the Bare Hills serpentine barrens, once one of the world's leading sources of chromite, are visible atop the hillside at right through still bare deciduous tree branches. The barrens then drop out of sight as the trail bears straight ahead through an area where old railroad ties still linger across it. Thereafter, it partially fades and divides. A trail to the right leads up to the barrens.

Upon approach, the rocks change quickly from mostly schist, quartz and feldspar to dull green brown serpentinite often dotted with chromite. The long out of print 1940 Natural History Society of Maryland Publication Minerals of Maryland by Ostrander and Price lists the following minerals as present: Chromite, talc, chalcedony, opal, baltimorite, crysolite, sepiolite (meerschaum), magnesite, chlorite, rhodochrome (pink clinochlore), gymnite in chalcedony (deweylite), dendritic wad, marmolite, williamsite, porcellophite, pyroxene, hyalite, hydromagnesite, and moss agate. Most of these minerals are said to have been collected at the barrens on the opposite side of Falls Road. For the last 40 years, at least, all of that land has been privately owned, mostly built over, and otherwise posted. Although the same serpentine barrens grace either side of Falls Road, the rocks here on this side appear duller and with less definition. Perhaps the species noted in Minerals of Maryland could be present, but little that met my eye encouraged optimism about the likelihood of spotting very many.

The intersecting trail to the right proceeds through the barrens in a westerly direction. The rocks along it appear marginally more interesting, occasionally revealing readily identifiable chrysotile, talc, and magnesite. Another attraction is the pit pictured at right.

After about a quarter mile, it ends where a trail to the right heads out of the serpentine barrens, back into the woodlands and downhill to meet the railroad bed trail near the Jones Falls footbridge. About halfway from here to the parking lot and just above a swampy area between the trail and Jones Falls, I look away from the rocks and take in the green shoots of lillies and skunk cabbage below, incipient leaves sprouting from bushes, and the incessant chirping of a myriad frogs. However wonderful that spring is upon us, it will lead to briars and brambles making the barrens above less pleasurable to navigate.

* For the past several weeks, time I normally devote to Mineral Bliss was spent researching and writing two articles for The Vug , one on Maryland carrollite, another on Maryland wulfenite. It is expected that they will be on line and in print by April 16, in time for the Rochester Mineralogical Symposium.

Chalcotrichite at Bare Hills in 2011?

I confess to having in the past mistaken micro-organic materials for minerals and only hope that this post wont give some readers occasion to question my credibility. Regardless, no other field collecting find of my life ever excited me as much as the red fibers shown in the photomicrograph above. Could they be anything other than chalcotrichite? Unfortunately, what you see, which measured about a millimeter across, disappeared almost completely as I tried using my forefinger to attach a gummed white arrow to the matrix to note its presence. After recently collecting the specimen near Mt. Washington in Baltimore City just across the line from Baltimore County and discovering the apparent chalcotrichite in it two days later under the scope, to have accidentally trashed it horrified me. I'd like to think this wasn't really chalcotrichite. After all, the rock had bounced around unwrapped in a dirty knapsack for three days before it ever got near the scope, so how likely is it that my clumsy finger, while gently attempting to affix an arrow, would be enough to cause such crystals to vanish?

My initial inclination was to retain the original title I'd planned for this post: Field Collecting Malachite and Chalcopyrite in Baltimore City during March, 2011. Finding the respective specimens shown at left along the banks of a stream about ten yards east of Smith Avenue at the Baltimore City/County line was plenty worthy of a post. Less than a quarter mile to the northwest of where these pieces were collected, the little stream had passed under an entrance to the Bonnie Ridge Apartments. Until about 50 years ago, that entrance was the site of the only remaining dumps from the long covered over Bare Hills Copper Mine, which closed for the final time late in the 19th century.

The malachite probably formed from solutions between water in the stream and ores of copper over which the water flowed. The chalcopyrite, which was the primary ore that had been mined nearby, had obviously washed down to where I found it. With nowhere to park on Smith Avenue, I'd hiked in from a nearby parking lot. The area was overgrown enough to be treacherous, even with minimal early March vegetation. Where the ground wasn't covered with brambles, branches, or soil, most prevalent amongst the few visible rocks were the meta-gabbro and hornblende schist that years before had borne numerous ore veins. The malachite, however, was on a rock mostly comprised of feldspar. I discovered the chalcopyrite upon breaking into three pieces a brown rock that looked unlike the others present around the stream area. The apparent chalcotrichite later showed up under the scope near the edge of a cracked open face of one of those three chunks.

According to the 1940 Natural History of Maryland publication, Minerals of Maryland, by Ostrander and Price, species known to occur at the Bare Hills Copper mine were as follows: amphibole-anthophyllite, cummingtonite, actinolite, tremolite, octahedral magnetite in steatite, magnetite in large masses, malachite, azurite, radiated epidote, honblende crystals, calcite, milky quartz, talc, stilbite, laumontite, albite, chlorite, chalcopyrite, bornite, feldspar, garnet, chalcanthite, blue quartz, chalcocite, chrysocolla---and in the "Lee Collection," radiated actinolite and covellite. No mention was made of cuprite, much less of chalcotrichite, which is a variety of cuprite. To the best of my knowledge, chalcotrichite has never been reported in Maryland.

My first ten minutes of examining the chalcopyrite rocks under the scope revealed some amphibole rock, a bit of massive magnetite, and some plates that looked a bit like covellite but probably weren't. What had most interested me to this point was the crystal (shown at 40x) at right. Chalcocite or hornblende, perhaps?

Then I spied that blotch of red, zeroed in on it at 40x, photographed it, and showed the specimen to my wife. By now it was time for dinner through which I all but pinched myself to be certain this chalcotrichite thing wasn't a dream. After dinner, I excitedly returned to the mineral room and began my attempt to affix the gummed arrow near the little red spot that was barely discernable without a loupe.

After two tries at getting the arrow to stick, the little red spot was no longer visible. I spent the next hour repeatedly looking at the rock under the scope and also scanning the tabletop with my loupe. The only remaining trace of anything similar is pictured at left. The colour and thickness of that one little thread resemble to the hundreds that were there earlier. However, I question whether the apparent curvature could might be something other than a crystal. That would be less distressing to me than what I think happened. Unfortunately I'll probably never know.

My next move will be to further crack up the three chalcopyrite bearing pieces and examine them under the scope hoping to find more crystals. I'm neither optimistic about what that will reveal, nor enthusiastic about the prospect of trampling through those brambles again.

Jeff Nagy Visits John White

Jeffrey W. Nagy, whose work continues with putting together an updated revision of Lawrence R. Bernstein's 1980 publication Minerals of the Washington D.C. Area, is a resident of Damascus, Maryland. John S. White, who among other things, founded Mineralogical Record and served as Curator in Charge of the Smithsonian's Division of Mineralogy from 1984 to 1991, had a hand in the earlier Bernstein original publication. He lives in Stewartstown, PA.

Being in touch with both of them and situated midway between in Baltimore, it was recently my privilege to bring Jeff and John together at John's house just a few miles north of the Pennsylvania-Maryland line. Needless to say they had plenty to chat about as they observed the various suites of minerals in John's collection.

I've always been quite amazed at how John's L shaped mineral room, except for the quartz
cabinet pictured at left, appears almost devoid of minerals on display. Instead, most of his collection is arranged in suites in cabinets where the minerals, including numerous "floater" crystals as well as cabs and cut stones, rest neatly in wooden cases and pull-out drawers. John fashioned most of these himself in a section of his and Merle's garage, which doubles as a woodworking shop. A limited amount of dealer "inventory" in about a dozen cardboard flats fits neatly inside one of several enclosed cabinets lining the east wall. More visible are scores of books relating to mineralogy that fill bookshelves lining much of the wall space. To say the least, it's an impressive setting, the feng shui of which I had limited confidence that my camera could capture.

As John and Jeff shot the breeze and looked at minerals, I was busy positioning and photographing a few selected specimens from a suite that included minerals collected in the Washington, D.C. area. One piece in particular of which I ended up with an amazing and beautiful shot was a dark green prehnite specimen adorned with a few epidote crystals. It was collected at the Fairfax Quarry in Centreville, Virginia, presumably sometime in the late 1970's, by the late and legendary George Brewer. Jeff requested that I refrain from publishing this photograph as well as other pertinent images in favor of having them debut upon release of the new Minerals of the Washington, D.C. Area.

Although Jeff has finished drafting most of the content, he is still in the midst of exploring a handful of localities that were lost in time when the original work was published. As much an historian as a mineral person, Jeff has found evidence in old land records of several likely mining operations in Montgomery County dating to pre-Revolutionary times in locations that might still prove to be accessible. He expects to have completed his research and drafting together with accompanying illustrations, maps, and photographs by the end of 2011.

Jessica Simonoff's Most Recent Prodigious Feat

Pictured above at the 2011 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show's February 12 banquet is Friends of Mineralogy National Vice President Allan Young presenting to 12 year old Maryland mineralogical prodigy Jessica Simonff the award for Best Article 2010, entitled Skeletal Galena Crystals from Madan Bulgaria--Natural or Fake? Jessica co-authored this article with Dr. Lance Kearns, Professor, Museum Curator, and SEM Facilty Director at James Madison University.

Such skeletal galena crystals have been prized for several years by collectors who've paid as much as $3,000 for them from presumably similarly duped dealers. As a result of Jessica and Lance's research, the sale of skeletal galena crystals from Madan was banned at the 2011 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.

The first published suspicion regarding these crystals of which I'm aware was posted on Mindat by Pat Haynes on October 26, 2009. Within less than a year, the resulting thread had generated over 200 posts spanning 10 pages. Providing theoretical input along with Jessica were the likes of Rock Currier, Alfredo Petrov, and far too many other renowned authorities to mention. By April, 2010, and approximately 150 posts, Mindat founder Jolyon Ralph questioned why, with so many opinions, no article had been written and published regarding the authenticity of these specimens.

Having been active in the discussions, Jessica endeavored to borrow some (still very expensive) specimens to photograph under the microscope and test using nondestructive techniques. Edward Rosenzweig of Edwards Minerals loaned her several samples, which were provided to him as naturally occurring, to study. On July 30, she had put together and posted on Mindat a link to a photographically illustrated article on the findings of her research. The post also noted that she had obtained permission to use an SEM (scanning electron microscope) and XRD (X-ray diffraction) machine for further experimentation.

Jessica followed through during the ensuing months on Mindat with continuing updates to the article. When she and Dr Kearns eventually used the SEM to examine the two of the pieces that were being sold as natural, they saw conclusive evidence that the specimens they had studied were indeed man-made fakes. They wrote up their research in the December Mineral News article, and Jessica subsequentally submitted a post to Mindat with the results and SEM photos, completing her article.

Jessica has other irons on the fire. One will be a presentation on her research in early April at the Atlantic Micromount Conference in Elkridge, Maryland. She has also received informal feedback that an abstract submitted for presentation at the Rochester Mineral Symposium later that month will be accepted and ultimately published in Rocks and Minerals. In addition, mineralogy personnel at the Smithsonian have invited her to present her work. And there is more to come. Stay tuned.

Tucson 2011: the First Day

Very quickly, an explanation of what's happened to Mineral Bliss since its post of Nov. 22, 2010: The author has been using time previously set aside for blogging to engage a private tutor to help enhance his skills at mineral photography. So why isn't the title photograph for this post more relevant? The first Friday of Tucson action (Jan. 28 this year), leading up to the "Big Show" at the Convention Center (Feb. 10-14), was for me more about meeting top mineral people from all over the world and seeing first hand as many "new" minerals as possible. Plenty of time for photographing them later.

Although over a dozen shows were underway throughout town today in various motels, tents, and lots, by far, the greatest number of dealers and the widest selection of minerals were at one location. That was the sprawling Hotel Tucson City Center at 475 North Granada, historically referred to as Inn Suites. I was there by lunchtime and ventured no farther. Interestingly, the word on line and in the Tucson EZ-Guide proclaims the that this and three other shows organized by Martin Zinn were getting underway the following day, Saturday, Jan. 29. All the better for me that the action had begun a day early.

Though a significant minority of dealers had yet to set up or were in the process of doing so, the level of activity was overwhelming. Prices were all over the map with plenty of bargains. This first Friday is always a good day for buyers seasoned enough to recognize undervalued minerals and scarf them up. In some instances, these buyers are also dealers who over the next two weeks sell their purchases to other dealers around town at ever higher prices. This goes on to the point that by the time they make it to the Convention Center in two weeks, some of these specimens have changed hands and price several times. Note that bargains are to be scored as well on the final day of the show (Feb. 13) from dealers prone to unload some of their inventory quite inexpensively rather than pack it for transport to wherever.

The most attractive values I encountered today were being offered by Ray Grant of Raycin Minerals from Chandler Arizona. Lots of great material here including numerous thumbnails, especially from renowned Arizona localities such as the 79 Mine, Old Reliable Mine, and amazing yet very reasonably priced small wulfenite specimens from the Red Cloud Mine. Among the higher end dealers were the likes of Collectors Edge from Boulder Colorado, Crystal Classics from UK, and its US Counterpart Kristalle. If the prices being asked in these rooms were steep enough to boggle the mind, their dealers are among the most reliable, respected, and successful in the world with customers willing to pay for the best. Sometimes the most subtle distinctions in quality or aesthetics tend to justify exponential differentiations in price.

Another reason this first day is so special for me relates to a penchant for rare and obscure minerals. There are only so many to go around, and every day, especially today, the selection will diminish. One rare species dealership I visited was Middle Earth/Cal Neva from Sparks, Nevada. Plenty of thumbnails here as well as the widest selection of Mount Saint Hilaire material I've ever observed being sold in one place at the same time. Famous in the rare minerals niche is Jaroslav Hyrsl from the Czech Republic, who co-authored with Jan Bernhard the already classic book Minerals and Their Localities. While mingling about later in Jaroslav's room, I recognized and introduced myself to Jordi Fabre, the iconic Spanish dealer/collector, and producer of the renowned international FMF Minerals Forum. Earlier while walking through the courtyard, I'd passed Jordi's room where a sign on the closed door noted he'd begin selling on Tuesday, Feb. 1. "It's just too much to have to be in that room every day all that time," Jordi explained.

From Jaroslav Hyrsl's room, I headed to that of the German dealer Gunnar Farber. As with the selection of Hyrsl, the extent of rare and newly discovered minerals being offered was sufficient for more than a year's worth of weekly Mineral Bliss posts. Here are just a few particularly intriguing ones that were particularly unusual or recently discovered:

• Chromian lawsonite from Cape Marmari, Grammata Bay, Syros Island, Greece.
• Blue nyboite crystals with crystallized jadeite also from the same Syros Island locality.
• Askagenite from Askegan Quarry, Filipstad, Varmland, Sweden.
• Anatacamite (epitactical triangular wings on atacamite) from Lavendida mine, Caracoles, Sierra Gorda II Region, Chile.
• Strontiodresserite from Dielengraben, Stein, Drautal, Gailtaler Alpen, Carinthia, Austria.
• Vertumite from the Eifel Mountains, Bellenberg, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany.
• Anhydrite crystals!!! from Kohnstedt Quarry, Niedersacswerfen, Nordhausen, Harz, Thuringia, Germany.
• Ammineite, blue crystals on halite, from Pabellon de Pica, Chanabaya, Punta Colina, Iquique I Region, Chile.
• Mejillonesite from the Mejillones Mine, Mejillones, Chile, which Gunnar discovered.

While enroute to Gunnar's room, I encountered Alfredo Petrov, who on quick visual inspection, can identify a species as well as anyone in the game. Deliberately placed in my handbag to show him was a specimen labeled teallite acquired several years ago from an old collection that I suspected was actually frankeite. Alfredo assured me I was right.

Alfredo's room was the last that I visited before leaving. Since I'd paid $5 a few years ago for my chunk of frankeite mislabeled as teallite, it heartened me to observe that Alfredo had for sale a frankeite with a price tag of $320. Alfredo's specimen, however, was attractive enough to represent the better value. He also was selling a huge specimen of fluoropotassic-hastingsite (type and only locality). Last September, I acquired from Alfredo what he believed---and knowing him I would take that to mean is the largest piece of this rare amphibole known to exist. However, what he had for sale today was larger, so I asked him about it. "Yes," said Alfredo, " it's a bigger rock, but it's mostly magnetite. You've still got what has the biggest amount of fluoropotassic-hastingsite." Alfredo's big rock was priced $180, which is more than the $145 that's being asked for that "largest piece piece in existence" being offered by my Jake's Minerals. Three days from now, if it's still unsold, that asking price at Jake's minerals will be going up to $220.

Tomorrow, I leave Tucson for visits to Death Valley, Los Angeles, and San Francisco before returning for the big show at the Convention Center. Expect the first of at least two more Tucson related Mineral Bliss posts to appear the second week of February.

Mr. Tyson's Chrome Pit

Perhaps Maryland's best known claim to fame in the mineral world is having been one of the world's leading producers of chromium in the mid 1800's. Responsible for most of the production was Isaac Tyson, the Baltimore businessman who after having studied mineralogy in France, discovered and began to mine chromite on his farm at Bare Hills in Baltimore County near the Baltimore City Line.
Soon thereafter, he was mining it not only at Bare Hills and Soldiers Delight in Baltimore County as well as at various locations in Harford and Cecil County. Less chronicled was the chrome mining activity for which he was responsible in Montgomery County near Patuxent State Park.
Ostrander and Price's Minerals of Maryland, published by the Natural History Society of Maryland in 1940, recognizes the Etchinson Chrome Mine as having "not been worked in many years," and notes "little of interest remaining at the site.” Minerals known to have occurred there were listed as "chromite, chrome ore (a chrome spinelo-picotite?) green chrome tourmaline, fuchsite, green margarite, rutile in reddish brown encrustaions, magnesite, amesite? manesioferrite?. (Shannon)." The Etchinson Mine also received mention in Lawrence R. Bernstein's 1980 Maryland Geological Survey publication, Minerals of the Washington, DC Area as having been "completely paved over." Also noted was the nearby "Lyde-Griffith property," referenced by footnote to Heyl and Pearre from a 1960 U.S Geological Survey Bulletin. Bernstein noted that the "mineralogy of the deposit was not described but probably similar to that at the Etchinson Mine, as both are in the same serpentine body."
Jeff Nagy, who is several years into updating Bernstein's work, visited the site of the Etchinson Mine several years ago and noted a nearby outcrop of serpentinite rock. Around the same time, he also found his way to the site of the Lyde-Griffith property.
Through research entailing nearly as much history as mineralogy, Nagy has determined that circa 1830, Washington Waters leased this locality from its property owner. Later, the owner sued Waters when the market for chromium declined drastically and Waters was unable to pay royalties. The contractual dispute focused on whether or not Waters was obligated to remove the ore he had mined from the property or simply from the ground.
By no later than 1869, the locality was known as Mr. Tyson's Chrome Pits. Nagy believes that an underground mine once existed and that Isaac Tyson's company operated the locality through pit mining. When Nagy last attempted to visit the locality during late spring, the briars and brambles were too thick to penetrate.
On a recent mid-November Friday, I had the privilege of accompanying Jeff on his second visit. Though even in late fall, the briars and brambles were formidable, we were able to access the remains of four pits, each between 300 and 400 feet long. They are south of the Patuxent River near where woodlands extending from Patuxent State Park meet a grazing field on private property. The only rocks not covered by more than a century's accumulation of soil and leaf mold were limited to an approximately 10 foot by 10 foot area.
Amidst these rocks were talc schist, quartz, and a grainy serpentinite. We found little that interested either of us with the exception of one handsize piece of quartz bearing a single quite weathered most likely cubic metallic brownish black metallic crystal about five millimeters in diameter that was embedded in quartz. Its identification stumped us a bit. For now, I'm going to guess "chrome ore," namely that "chrome spinelo picotite."
Though we had hoped to check out the nearby site that was once the Etchinson Chrome Mine, our time was running short. Of more interest to us was "an adjacent hill just south of the Etchinson site, " where Minerals of Maryland had noted that "quartz crystals are found in the soil." No mention of this hill appeared in Bernstein's book, and Jeff Nagy may have been unaware of it on his earlier visit. I hope that Jeff will take me along when he returns to check it out.

Maryland's Embarrassing State Gemstone

Six years have passed since then Governor Erlich signed legislation naming "Patuxent River Stone" as Maryland's State Gem. Meanwhile, many who are prominent in state gemological, geological, paleontological and mineralogical circles continue to express outrage. While the stone itself has merits, the grievances focus on a misleading official description of Patuxent River Stone as both agate and dinosaur bone. "An embarrassment to the State of Maryland" is the kindest language I've heard regarding the misrepresentation of a material that is in truth quartzite. Even the Maryland State Archives erroneously describe Patuxent River Stone as "agate, a cryptocrystalline form of quartz."

A look through the microscope at the slab of Patuxent River Stone featured in our title picture makes clear that despite appearances, it is neither agate nor fossilized dinosaur bone. Immediately apparent is an obviously textural rather than cryptocrystalline structure of sandstone metamorphosed into quartzite through tectonic compression.

The official web site (link provided in first paragraph) for this material, which labels it as Patuxent River AGATE, proclaims that a state gemstone should be beautiful, colourful, take a fine polish, be able to be fashioned into jewelry, and very notably be "rare but findable, existing in sufficient quantity to allow for a reasonable source of supply for local artisans." Agatized dinosaur bone is nowhere near that abundant in Maryland if it exists at all. For that matter, as the person responsible for the Maryland Minerals web site, I've never seen any kind of agate that was collected in Maryland and am unaware of any literature regarding its occurrence in the state, except in conjunction with "Patuxent River Stone."

To help me research this post, a prominent local gem cutter drove me to a pebbly stream not far from I-95 in White Marsh. Twenty years ago, most of this area consisted of sand pits where quartzite pebbles were extensively quarried for construction material. White Marsh lies on the Arundel formation, which runs diagonally through the center of Maryland extending even to the Eastern Shore. Dinosaur fossils have been reported in Arundel Formation deposits, but they consist of neither agate nor quartzite.

We crawled about the stream bed on hands and knees looking for
colourful quartzite pebbles. They were scarce enough that searching for them proved an enjoyable but very easy challenge. Pictured at right are a few that we picked up. A presence of iron speaks for their colour, and no doubt they would polish beautifully.

Meanwhile, Maryland, unlike numerous other states, does not have a State Mineral or a State Rock. Since Maryland was once the world's second leading producer of chromium, a good choice for State Mineral could be chromite. Yet, what better choice for a Maryland State Rock than quartzite? And who is to say that quartzite should not qualify as the State gem if sufficiently graded for colour?

So why does our State Gem continue to be incorrectly touted as agatized dinosaur bone? " Those not into the hobbies could care less," my gem cutter friend replied." Then, requesting for political reasons that I not use his name, he added: "To guys like you and me it's an embarrassment, and even worse, you've got all this false information being passed on to school kids."

Southwestern Maine Gem and Mineral Localities

Two days of a recent New England vacation largely devoted to food, foliage, and hiking, were booked to collect minerals in Maine. On the first of those days, rain fell in torrents that made seeing for more than a few yards while driving a challenge. Needless to say, it deterred me from collecting, but not from six hours of driving through the southwestern part of the state to plan an itinerary for once the weather cleared. This driving ultimately spared me from time-consuming wrong turns the next day, when conditions had become conducive to collecting. They were so bad that first day that I even managed to drive by, look for, and not even see the little sign along Route 26 near the high school heralding the Poland Mining Camps.

Founded by the late Irving "Dudy" Groves (1919-2005) and taken over by his widow, the engaging and hospitable Mary Groves (left), it is the ultimate destination for anyone serious about collecting the gem and mineral bounty for which Oxford and Adroscoggin Counties are renowned. Though tourmaline is king, a myriad mines, prospects and quarries in this part of Maine offer up a vast variety of minerals desirable for just about any collecting niche. My friends Robert and Stephanie from the Baltimore Mineral society spent a week at Poland Mining Camps during the summer of 2009. They were kind enough not only to load me up not only with printed material about the local mineralogy, but also facilitate my visit to the camp and an opportunity to confer with Mary Groves.

My agenda was to visit the Tamminem and Harvard Mines mentioned in our Mineral Bliss post of August 15, 2009, which was based on a talk by Nancy Millard at the recent Atlantic Coast Gem and Mineral Show in West Springfield, Massachusetts. The two pegmatite localities are in walkable proximity to one another and among a minority of localities in this region that are open and accessible to the public. Even before I arrived at Poland Mining Camps, Mary had placed a call to assure that I would be welcome to collect.

While both The Tamminem and Harvard Mines are destinations for the Camp's field trips, they have been mined to a greater extent than other localities that Poland Mining Camp either owns (Mt. Apatite is one of them) or enjoys exclusive access. Information that also lists the minerals known to have been collected at each locality and even includes a map is available through a link on the the Poland Mining Camps' web site. A Collector's Guide to Maine Mineral Localities by W. B. Thompson, D.L. Joyner, R.G. Woodman, and V.T. King is also available on line, courtesy of the State of Maine. It offers additional information that includes specific instructions on how to reach many of the localities.

From the Poland Mining Camps, I found my way to the parking area for Tamminem and Harvard Mines on Richardson Hollow Road less than a mile from its intersection with Greenwood Road in Oxford County. The Tamminem Mine is but a short walk downhill from the parking area. It yielded me plenty of unremarkable schorl and some decent clevelandite. Because Mary had specifically instructed me to look for it, my most rewarding find was the micro blue apatite pictured at right. Knowledgeable collectors with properly trained eyes stand a chance of finding rare pollucite crystals here along seams in petalite, which though said to be common, can be difficult to visually differentiate from feldspar.

A visit to the Harvard Mine entails a hike of about a half mile up the side of a mountain on a blazed trail that sets out directly across across Richardson Hollow Road from the parking lot. Although known for having produced fine fluorapatite crystals as well as some lustrous cassiterite, I found not a trace of either. A magnificent view and abundant pickings of showier schorl than at the Tamminem along with plenty of reasonably attractive almandine crystals made collecting at the Harvard a lot more fun than the Tamminem.

My destination for the evening was North Conway, New Hampshire, to which I headed via a circuitous route that passed not far from the Lord Hill Mine near Stoneham in Oxford County. It is open to the public and is known for giant quartz crystals, large blue as well as colourless topaz crystals, and also many of the rare phosphate species for which the Palermo Mine in North Groton New Hampshire is famous. Getting to Lord Hill entails navigating a potentially confusing array of dirt roads and then hiking for a little more than a mile. I did not reach the vicinity of Stoneham until too late to get to the mine and back by dark.

Next summer, I hope to return to this part of Maine and if a long enough time frame proves feasible, look forward to the Poland Mining Camps being my base. Either way, a visit to Lord Hill will be on the agenda.

The Franklin-Sterling Hill Gem and Mineral Show

The 53rd Annual Franklin-Sterling Gem and Mineral Show, at least during my four mid-day hours there on Saturday, Sept. 25, drew serious mineral aficionados from far and wide. The most extensive action was out-of-doors. Ambiance was friendly, almost festive.

My only previous visit to the Franklin, Sterling Hill, Ogdensburg area in New Jersey was three years ago while heading home after squeezing as many different New England pleasures as possible into a week. All too briefly, I had toured the great Franklin Mineral Museum with its 5,000 minerals, then hammered away at a few rocks on the dumps below. Two years later, I became more intrigued with Franklin/Sterling Hill after inexpensively acquiring the micromounts pictured in the photomicrographs at left. Note that the accompanying contents of their labels declare combinations of such incredibly rare Franklin treasures as jarosewichite, flinkite, sclarite, and gageite. Do NOT hold me accountable for these identifications. I'm hoping that knowledgeable attendees at the 54th Desautels Micromount Symposium next weekend (Oct. 2, and 3) will share their thoughts. Meanwhile, input from readers relating to accuracies/inaccuracies are welcomed and solicited.

Before heading to Milford, PA, to spend Friday night, I first detoured through the Franklin, Sterling Hill, Ogdensburg area to gain bearings. At Franklin School, the show's site, a few vehicles were parked in a closed off parking lot. One was a van with its open rear hatch encircled by hunched over men, most likely dealers. In less than an hour, you could have found me hunched over the Bar Louis beneath the Hotel Fauchere in Milford, sipping a cocktail made with rye, stone pine liqueur, apricot cordial, pine buds, and lemon oil while waiting for my dinner of codfish stew and watercress/duck salad to arrive.

Saturday morning, dealer tables lined the paved area behind the school and extended well into the field adjacent to it. Nothing fancy, but reasonable prices and plenty of Franklin and Sterling Hill material for those passionate collectors who specialize in this niche---and plenty else of course. Indoors, the dealers were equally busy and would probably have been busier except for the unseasonably summery weather outside.

There was additional action at the Sterling Hill Mining Museum: it's garage sale with areas of $3 tables, $5 tables, and $10 tables. Most of the specimens laid out on these tables in old boxes and dusty plastic cases appeared to have long been in storage. Many were sans labels. Amidst a lot of junk were numerous true bargains awaiting collectors and low end dealers aware of what to look for.

Dinner with an auction was slated for Saturday night with the show resuming on Sunday. I missed all of that. So did Fred Parker, the only other Baltimore mineral person I encountered. He had set up shop with other dealers along the paved area behind the school. Later in the afternoon, he planned to leave in order to work a table closer to home the next next day at the Gemcutters Guild of Baltimore's 46 Annual Atlantic Coast Gem and Mineral Expo at the Howard County, Maryland Fairgrounds,

That's where I was at some point this final weekend of September the last two years and would have been again on Sunday morning except for not wanting to share a cold that came on overnight. On Sunday afternoons, however, I'm refusing to allow minerals to usurp whatever the Baltimore Ravens are up to, at least for the time being.

Unique Collector: Amazing Breathtaking Collection

Words fail me in describing this recent interlude from a family visit to San Francisco. It all started back in Baltimore when my friend Harold Levey played for me a DVD commemorating Jack Halpern's 90th birthday. Loaned to Harold by our mutual friend John S. White, it was about a man proud of his "addiction to beauty." In addition to an endless variety of roses and orchids gracing not only the entire back yard of his West Portal home, but that of a next door neighbor, is his mineral collection. To simply say that it's "world class" is an understatement.

The sole premise of this extensive collection is beauty on a level exceeding that of any other assemblage of minerals I've enjoyed the privilege of viewing. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, you say? This collection clearly goes far beyond any such cliche. Aesthetically, Jack Halpern's collection is mind-boggling. If the tanzanite that graces the cover of the September-October, 2009 Mineralogical Record and the California gold next to it speak for the high end, nearly all the myriad specimens (catalog numbers approaching 4,000) are comparably breathtaking in different ways. I didn't observe a single piece that failed to impress.

Despite appearances of extravagance, this isn't a collection that was driven simply by money. Over lunch in a nearby restaurant to which we drove in Jack's aging Buick, he even shared that his income was "not much." He credits the financial acumen of his late wife, Leslie, in managing what spare cash they accumulated over the years for his ability to purchase such minerals. Like the $15,000 home now worth nearly a million dollars that they purchased together over a half century ago, the blue chip stocks into which that money went fared just as well.

None of the specimens in this amazing collection are labeled. Labels would usurp additional display space and distract from the beauty of the minerals. Instead, all are marked with numbers pursuant to which they're catalogued in files bearing current as well as any previous labels that previously accompanied them. In glassine pouches with these labels are the names and contact information of potential future owners who one day will be given the first opportunity to buy specimens in which they have expressed interest,

Over the years, Jack has donated many fine minerals to the much renowned California Academy of Sciences, from which he laments that many of the best have been pilfered. He also laments that this museum's wonderful mineral collection is neither on display nor are photographs available for viewing. "I've written to the chairman of their board about this," Jack informed me, "but nothing has happened." During this recent trip, I had planned to contact the California Academy of Sciences with hopes of devoting an upcoming Mineral Bliss post to the Academy's collection only to be informed that "environmentally controlled cases must be constructed" before the minerals could be shown.

Perhaps I could have persisted and showed up at the California Academy of Sciences to inquire in person. However, after after seeing Jack Halpern's collection, I suspect the fruits of such an effort would at the very best have proven anti climatic.

Minerals at Roanoke, Virginia Farmers Market

In just about any city or town, I tend to link the presence of a downtown farmers market to all that's positive regarding its vibes, heartbeat, and bounty. My first impression, while typically paramount, was particularly so on a recent Saturday morning in Roanoke, Virginia. Located front center at the intersection of Campbell and Market Streets and visible from more angles than any other location in the Roanoke Farmers Market was Ben Crooks and his Hanging Rock Mineral and Fossil Company. That’s Ben wearing the blue T shirt in our title picture. Both visually and verbally, he presents a colorful persona, but requested not to be photographed at closer range.

If the weather is good, you can count on seeing Ben for sure on Fridays and Saturdays, and often on Thursdays when the crowd size picks up in October. He’s been at it for 14 years, having previously been “a geologist working as a mining inspector at quarries, coal mines---if you put a hole in the side of a hill, I was there.” His selection of worldwide minerals and fossils, mostly in
flats, includes its share of specimens collected by Crooks himself in Virginia and North Carolina. He sells them at bargain prices.

The hitch is that not a single specimen is accompanied by a label. "We did that one year," he tells me, "and it just got expensive." Somewhat more to his credit, he added: "We try to price a lot of stuff so kids can buy it. Kids are 75 per cent of my business. A lot of what's here goes for 50 cents and on up from there." For sure he's doing more than most of us mineral people to lure youngsters into a constructive hobby that we all wish would engage them in greater numbers.

Despite no labels, Ben's prices were too reasonable for me to resist making a few purchases, while taking notes on his verbal information regarding their localities. You may have noticed how more time than usual has elapsed since the last Mineral Bliss post. That's because I've been trying to reach Ben by telephone---he doesn't do computers or email---to confirm the contents of my notes. As best I can decipher from them, the two pieces at left, running top to bottom were given as peridot and dog tooth calcite, both collected near the village of Copper Hill in Floyd County, Virginia. Though not yet tested, the latter piece looks to me more like sphene or axinite/ferro-axinite. Neither R.V. Dietrich's Minerals of Virginia nor MINDAT notes a presence of any of the aforementioned minerals in Floyd County. Thus it would seem that either I misread the notes scrawled into my pocket sized day-timer---something that happens all too often---or that Ben is in on a very significant Virginia find.

No less fascinating to me were the two slabs of fluorite pictured below at right. As Ben tells it, while driving through Cherokee, North Carolina a few years ago, he found himself behind a truck that was dispersing road ballast. Amidst the rocks being scattered were chunks fluorite of which these were pieces. Ben does not know where it was quarried. With a wink, he confesses: "I stole about 200 pounds of it."

Ben also had several boxes of doubly terminated Virginia quartz crystals resembling Herkimer diamonds such as shown at left. Most were quite large for the genre with a few scepters thrown in. He claims to have collected them from the wash in a gully near Bath County, Virginia. Of less eye candy appeal, but great for lapidary enthusiasts were extensive quantities of massive Virginia blue quartz being sold at giveaway prices. "It's all over the place around Boone's Mill in Franklin County, Virginia," Ben told me, and I feel confident that my notes recorded this bit of information correctly.

Discovering Quartz Crystals Near Burkittsville, Maryland

Increasingly when driving, I’ve taken to pulling over when feasible and safe for a quick look at roadcuts, rockpiles, construction sites, and whatever else relating to rocks arouses my curiosity. The practice hasn’t yet led to many interesting finds.

This past Friday, however, during a quick trip to Roanoke, Virginia, I enjoyed the good fortune of finding myself parked adjacent to a field where the soil yielded a few quartz crystals. The original attraction had been the presence of several small piles of excavated rocks and dirt in the northwest quadrant where Route 340 meets Route 17 (Burkittsville Road) in Frederick County, Maryland. Burkittsville is the named locality for some of the most spectacular quartz crystals I’ve ever seen from Maryland, such as the specimen pictured in the image below at left. Collected many decades ago, it is currently in the collection of Fred Parker. Although the specific spot in or near Burkittsville that yielded it is a big question mark, I know that Fred and others have collected near Burkittsville in recent years. Fred has shared two significant pieces of information about the area, both which were quoted in a previous Mineral Bliss post: first that "quartz crystals are present in the soil beginning near Thurmont and extending soutwesterly (past Burkittsville) almost to Harpers Ferry;" second "that paleozoic sediments beween the Wakefield marble and the precambrian metavolacanic Catoctin and Braddock Ranges are a souce of excellent quartz veins near where these mountains approach the Potomac River." It appeared that I was in a good place to take a look

After exiting off 340 to 17, the presence of a wire fence and a steep embankment ultimately discouraged me from checking out the rockpiles. Meanwhile, the recently harvested cornfield on the other (south/west) side of Burkittsville Road beckoned quite invitingly. Just about all of the rocks protruding from the soil in this field were quartz, an occasional few showing evidence of crystal facets. Within ten minutes, I'd pocketed the approximately one inch long crystals shown at right and a severely plow damaged larger piece of quartz that suggested a previous presence of small crystals, some colorless, some smoky, with many features similar to the one shown and others in the Parker collection.

This was not the first cornfield in the Burkittsville area where I've briefly paced back and forth with my head down in the past year, but it's the first and only that's demonstrated any promise. Though broken rocks speak for a myriad destructive plowings, the general location shows potential and deserves to be explored farther---with permission of course from the landowner.

Checking Out the East Coast's Biggest Show

Though a far cry from all that goes on in Tucson, the East Coast Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show, which happened August 13-15 at the Better Living Center in West Springfield, Massachusetts, is as big as it gets here in the eastern part of the United States. A great overview of what the show was like, expressed mostly in photos, is the subject of John S. White's 597th post at Jordi Fabre's FMF Minerals Forum and Discussion Board. Photography has to be the quickest and easiest way to communicate the essence of a show. As for me, once through the door and past the 50 case exhibition of minerals from Bill Larson's (Pala International) collection, I quickly became too loaded down with rocks for dealing with the camera.


My favorite of the 50 Bill Larson cases appears in our title image featuring topaz and aquamarine crystals from Burma (Myanmar). Because of a schedule that limited my attendance at the show to Friday, I had to miss Bill's talk on Satruday entitled "Mining, Minerals, & Gems from the Legendary Valley of Rubies, Mogok Burma." Much of the mineralogy---and for that matter the cuisine---from that country fascnates me. I'd be curious if Bill discussed when and how such a seemingly endless supply of great stones get out from under the oppressive military dictatorship that rules.


It's easy enough to imagine, though, how someone could smuggle out the faceted .047 carat johachidolite pictured at left. Purchased from my friend Cassandra at the Dudley Blauwet Gems booth, it reflects my penchant for acquiring species I've never heard of and still intrigues me more than a week later.

Despite emphasizing gems thus far, one of my favorite aspects of the East Coast Mineral, Gem and Fossil Show is its preponderance of mineral specimens over gems and fossils. On occasion and for a variety of reasons, even ugly minerals sometimes grab my interest. Should anyone deem it to be ugly, the reason for my most sizeable purchase this year, the 5" x 5" x 1" chunk of fluoro-potassichastingsite shown below at right, was that Alfredo Petrov convinced me that it could be the biggest specimen ever collected of this rare amphibole. Its type and only known locality is the Greenwood Mine, an old magnetite mine about a three mile hike through the woods near Woodbury Township in Orange County, New York. Fluoro-potassichastingsite is not, by the way, the longest mineral name I've ever encountered. Last October, my eBay store, Jake's Minerals sold a protomanganoferroanthophyllite micromount to a collector in France. Such rare amphiboles are generally not very expensive. Alfredo was also selling a protoanthophyllite piece of which the only known specimens were taken from a Japanese drill core sample. "Much of the value," says Alfredo, "is in getting it tested."

Meanwhile, and as this is written, another Martin Zinn Show, about which people in West Springfield were expressing tremendous enthusiasm, is happening in Cartersville, Georgia. Much as I'd like to be there, my office is in the process of becoming buried under rocks. I don't understand how the collectors and dealers who do so many shows with such frequency find the time to sort out all the booty that inevitably results.