Coming Up: The 53 Annual Desautels Micromount Symposium

Micromount Hall of Fame Members, Pictured Left to Right:

Dick Thomssen, John Ebner, Sugar White, Phil Evanoff, Cynthia Payne, Dan Behnke, Neil Hubbard, Quintin Wight.

Most of the above Micromount Hall of Fame members and others, including two new inductees, are expected when the Baltimore Mineral Society holds its 53rd Annual Desautels Micromount Symposium on Oct. 2-4, 2009, at the MHA Pierson Conference Center, 6820 Deerpath Rd, Elkridge, Maryland 21075.

Here's what happens: Attendees register just inside the door at a table in a hallway where the walls are lined with dealers selling micromounts and micromounting paraphernalia. At the end of the hallway and to the left is the "giveaway room" where the contents of scores of open boxes full of typically vuggy material, all identified according to locality, are available for perusal and for the taking. To the right is the main conference room, which is lined with long tables and chairs where attendees select spots to set up their binocular or trinocular microscopes. Dinner is served on site Friday evening; lunch is served on Saturday and Sunday. Everyone goes out for dinner on their own Saturday evening. Otherwise, attendees share ideas and information, purchase and trade micromounts, and enjoy the slide shows and presentations.

The first of these events was held in 1957, at the behest of the Baltimore Mineral Society's late Founding President Paul Desautels after whom the Symposium is named. As such, Colonel Quintin Wight, author of The Complete Book of Micromounting notes that the Desautels Micromount Symposium "has served as a model for most of the rest" of the approximate score of other annual micromount symposia that now happen around the world. Col. Wight, who also writes an annual feature "The Year in Micromounting" for Rocks and Minerals, is always an active participant and serves as master of ceremonies for the induction of each year's new Micromount Hall of Famers.

Two new Hall of Fame members will be inducted this year: Marco Ciriotti and the late Vi Anderson. Marco Ciriotti is President of the Italian Mineralogical Association, and an author of the newly published book, Italian Type Minerals. Vi Anderson co-authored Monteregian Treasures: The Minerals of Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec and for many years was a well known proponent and contributor to the micromounting hobby.

Various slide shows are scheduled for Friday evening. On Saturday, at approximately 3:30 PM, after the Hall of Fame presentations, Marco Ciriotti will give a presentation entitled "Minerals of the Luserna Stone." At 5 PM, participants go out to dinner at nearby restaurants, returning by 7:00 for two more presentations. One will be by Quintin and Willow Wight on "Gems and Minerals of Russia." Mineral dealer, mineral cabinet maker, and former miner Keith Williams will follow the Wight's with a presentation on "Mining and Minerals of Bulgaria."

On Sunday, at 9 a.m., the Workshop reopens. At 10:30 a.m., Mike Skebo, President of the Canadian Micro Mineral Association, is scheduled to give a presentation entitled: "From Russia: With Memories and Minerals." Lunch will be served at 11:30 AM, and at 2 PM, the Symposium closes. As in recent past years, special recognition is due to Col. Wight, who regularly attends micromount symposia around the globe, and to BMS Officers and Executive Board Members Mike Seeds, Carolyn Weinberger, and Steve Weinberger and Al Pribula, who take on the work and planning that assures this event's continuous stature and success.

Walk-ins are welcome. Admission is $27 at the door. For more information, go to the Baltimore Mineral Society web site.

Mineralogist's Kitchen Counter Top

Cast concrete counter tops with various items embedded into them are becoming almost as popular as granite. We just had ours created. It features quartz crystals that I collected from tailings in Jessieville, Arkansas, a few relatively spectacular beach pebbles, and numerous water smoothed stones of banded trap rock. We're delighted with our new kitchen counter despite visual differences between the end result and our original vision. These discrepancies were not big surprises, much less disappointments. They resulted when the finished product was polished smooth. This removed approximately 1/16 inch of original counter top, eliminated striations and occasionally altered the outlines of some crystal faces. It also diversified the shapes of numerous trap rock pebbles

One quickly noticeable surprise was how shadows darken a clear embedded crystal even when touched ever so slightly by one's finger. By retaining their original shapes, the beach pebbles, all with diameters of less than an inch, attractively retained their shapes. The trap rock pebbles, on the other hand, which were always larger than the beach pebbles, tended toward a range of eclectic shapes with portions covered by concrete. These eclectic shapes, however, proved more pleasing than had their shapes remained as we had last seen them. They definitely proved an antidote to boredom.

In conclusion, we have a few tips that could prove pertinent helpful to anyone who undertakes a project similar to ours. Very important at the outset is that whatever minerals, crystals, gems, stones, or rocks are used, their hardness should equal seven or higher on the Moh's hardness scale. With respect to minerals, this could pretty much limit you to quartz, garnet, tourmaline, and corundum. Color scheming, which depends upon personal taste, also merits consideration. Early on, I was eager to to contribute about a dozen amethyst crystals and a limited amount of blue corundum sapphire, but Nina nixed it. Instead our quartz crystals were transparent or milky with the exception of a small number of dark grey-yellow citrine crystals. If we'd had some on hand some loose smoky quartz crystals, however, they also would have worked great.

While the trap rock pieces ran a gray scale, The beach pebbles, all translucent quartz, came in hues that ranged from yellowish to brownish, a few with a reddish cast. As effectively as everything worked together, our only regret was not having more of them. And now that the project is complete, I agree with Nina that including any blue, green or purple crystals would have distracted from from our desired level of cohesiveness.

Carrollite and the Cobalt Sulphides of Carroll County, Maryland

Pictured from left to right: Carrollite from the Patapsco Mines near Finksburg, siegenite-carrollite from the Mineral Hill Mine in Louisville, and linnaeite from the dumps of the Springfield Mine near Sykesville. So state the labels in my personal collection. While the information to back up these identifications have sustenance, only the Mineral Hill siegenite-carrollite identification bears total certainty. For that matter, identification uncertainties plague even the origninal carrollite that derived its name from Carroll County, Maryland, where the Patapsco Mines receive credit as the type locality.

Carrollite, siegenite, and linnaeite belong to the linnaeite mineral group---or series. They occur along with the the more prevalent copper and iron minerals in veins throughout the shists, gneiss, and ultramafic rocks that geologists refer to as the Sykesville Formation. Described in Bulletin #28 of the Maryland Geological Survey, the Sykesville Formation extends "from the Baltimore-Carroll County Line about 2 1/2 miles south of Finksburg southwestward through Sykesville and thence across Howard County."

Carrollite is the most renowned mineral in the linnaeite series. Collectors everywhere treasure the magnificent octahedral crystals from Katanga in the Congo. Maryland Carrollite, though nowhere near so visibly spectacular, is difficult to come by on the market and likely to command top dollar wherever and whenever it appears. Any remote chances of field-collecting carrrollite at its type locality were removed by the folks who fenced off, posted, and then buried the last remaining dump from the Patapsco Mines beneath tons of heavy trash.

Questions have arisen over many years regarding whether the mineral discovered at the Patapsco Mines that became known as carrollite was not in fact linnaeite with copper impurities contributed by grains of associated chalcopyrite, chalcocite, and bornite unwittingly included in the grainy mix being tested. Johnny Johnsson's feature about the history of the Patapsco Mines and the discovery of carrollite, published during the summer of 1998 in the late Jay Lininger's Matrix Journal, states that "significant doubts linger as to whether carrollite actually exists in the Patapsco Mines where it was initially 'discovered." More than a century’s worth of testing Maryland's carrollite, siegenite, and linnaeite have demonstated extensive gradations in chemical composition amongst all three minerals, particularly with respect to copper content.


Let's return now to the specimens pictured above and the cases for their identification.

• Carrollite from the Patapsco Mines: Once part of the Neil Wintringham collection, I purchased this specimen for $77 at auction on eBay. The label naming Sykesville as the locality was probably a generalization. The presence in the rock of malachite (possibly brochantite) and chalcocite was typical at and probably unique to the Patapsco Mines (Finksburg, Wildesen, or Orchard). The grayish black chalcocite, in fact, would seem to have replaced much of what may once have been bright shiny silvery colored carrollite.
• Carrollite-siegenite from Mineral Hill Mine: The Mineral Hill Mine is the only locality where the composition of "carrollite" was ever found to include nickel along with cobalt and sulphur. I obtained the specimen from Fred Parker, a stickler about accurate identification, which he personally verifies based on x-ray diffraction and microanalysis. Interestingly, Joseph Vadjke once showed Parker an end-member Mineral Hill Mine carrollite specimen that had been analyzed in Czechoslovakia.
• Linnaeite from the Springfield Mine: I found this when breaking up a rock from a small rock pile adjacent to the foundation sitting uphill from the main Springfield dump. My confidence was boosted upon reading in Lawrence R. Bernstein's Minerals of the Washington D.C. Area of "cuprian" linnaeite in"silvery to pinkish-gray metallic masses" as the only cobalt bearing mineral named from the Springfield Mine. Upon showing the piece to Fred Parker a couple weeks later and being told: "Yes, that’s linnaeite," I became convinced.

Finally, we have not mentioned a fourth cobalt bearing mineral known to have occurred at these localities, namely cobaltiferous gahnite. Mineral Bliss has that story on the backburner.

What is this?

Zoom in and the trays reveal crystals featured in Mineral Bliss's second post ever from Feb. 15, 2009, about collecting quartz crystals at the Ron Coleman Mine in Jessieville, Arkansas. Accompanying the crystals are various other rocks, pebbles, and crystals that I, and occasionally my wife Nina, have brought home in recent years. Bringing too much stuff like this into the house and having it usurp space where it's unappreciated is a collector's curse.

Look closely and observe that regardless of colour, every piece bears a dark spot. That's glue resembling tar with which the display! sides of the stones have been attached to the bottom of the tray. The next step will cover them with cast concrete that wont stick to the trays with any more strength than the black glue. When the cast concrete settles and dries, the trays are overturned, their content emptied. The stones imbedded in cast concrete at the bottom of the tray now become the surface of the countertops for our newly remodeled kitchen.

Within the context of Nina's and my standard of living and especially considering the awful present economy, this project is high-end out of all proportion. That's probably because it is one of the few ideas for a "major undertaking" that we both embraced from the git-go with equal levels of enthusiasm.

Though Nina and I credit ourselves with the vision for this countertop, we've entrusted the end-product's creation to Lukeworks, a Baltimore-based design-build manufacturer of products for contemporary spaces. It is a shop where the craftspeople and even the workmen hold arts and artisan degrees that relate directly to what they assemble and create.

Neither Nina nor I---nor for that matter anyone at Lukeworks---has ever seen a countertop quite like we anticipate will be dominating our kitchen in just a couple of weeks. We've seen cast concrete countertops with other kinds of items imbedded, but never crystals or rocks. Expecting soon to have the penultimate mineralogist's kitchen countertop, we'll post pictures when it's installed.

Maryland Minerals at the Harvard Museum

Never has a display of minerals rendered me so spellbound as the Harvard Mineralogical Museum in the Harvard Museum of Natural History at 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge. Some displays seek primarily to grab the attention and interest of the general public. Others seek mainly to educate. Many want to dazzle and amaze if they have the goods. Created from a frame of reference for education, research, and public display, the Harvard Mineralogical Museum does it all, albeit with but two specimens from Maryland.

The Harvard Collection is old school. Its main room consists of rows of ancient chest-high glass-topped wooden cases with the minerals displayed beneath them. The minerals, usually hand-sized, rest atop a rustic looking muslin fabric that's not always well-vacuumed. Upright glass cases with larger specimens hug the surrounding walls. The minerals are arranged systematically according to chemical composition.

My first Maryland observation was a small clear glass dish of octahedral chromite crystals from Bare Hills, where chromite was first discovered and recognized in the United States. The container of crystals was displayed amidst specimens of chromite with different morphology and habit from other localities. Once part of the L. Liebener collection, they were probably assembled in the first half of the 19th century. I would love to know how these crystals were collected. Did they occur as floaters in the soil or were they extracted from a (presumably serpentinite) matrix? Although massive chromite has always been ubiquitous at the Bare Hills serpentine barrens, crystals are most unexpected.

The other Maryland specimen that I observed was massive rockbridgeite within a concretion. It was collected at Greenbelt in Prince Georges County. This particular specimen fascinated me because my personal collection features a similar piece from this locality that I obtained a couple years ago through Fred Parker. Just like my specimen, it bears additional brownish phosphate minerals. They could include dufrenite, kidwellite and beraunite, a combination once known as laubmanite, a discredited mineral. Leaving such considerations to the Museum’s research and education components, the label heralded only the gray-black rockbridgeite, which like crystallized chromite, is not often contemplated as occurring in Maryland.

The Harvard Mineralogical Museum's web site notes that about 4,000 minerals are on display. This seemed like a lot unless I missed something, which I did, because the entire collection exceeds 50,000 specimens. Most are arranged paragenically instead of systematically and are housed in "readily accessible drawers." With over 4,000 specimens from the Franklin,New Jersey environs, and 7,000 New England pieces, it’s likely that Harvard has additional Maryland minerals. What a treat the prospect of snooping through those drawers. Next visit, additional time will be available, and I'll have researched the protocol.

More on Manham

CERUSSITE CRYSTALS (MICRO) self collected at Manhan Lead mine dumps, Loudville, MA

Our immediate past post regarding my solitary hour long stop at the Manhan dumps attracted more readers than any previous Mineral Bliss post. Depending upon when read, its content varied. That's because we shortened the original post by cutting all photographic and editorial reference relating to two finds: One was a micro-glob I'd surmised was pink cerussite, the other possible anglesite.

An email from the Editorial Board at Mindat led to my decision regarding these cuts. They were in touch quite quickly to inform me: "Your photo may not be the mineral you said it was." Prompting that quick response, perhaps, was that I'd credited a visual resemblance to photos that were posted on Mindat as the primary source of my identification, noting as well (thankfully) that these identifications were tentative. Mindat's position regarding the "anglesite" was it looked "more like growth-inhibited quartz." Regarding the "cerussite," the editors stated: "It doesn't look like cerussite at all."

I returned to my microscope and box of Manhan rocks and very quickly determined that regardless of issues relating to my "anglesite" identification, Mindat was correct about the cerussite. Within minutes, it became obvious that despite the visual resemblance of my photo to the one that had been pictured at Mindat, the pink glob wasn't cerussite. When poked with a hardness pick, it quickly disintegrated into micro-particles that more suggested an organic substance.

But alas, within a few seconds, I spotted on the same rock a vug in which a sparkle demonstrated renewed promise. After placing the rock under my scope, nearly half an hour of moving and manipulating the rock as well as two fiber optic lights were necessary before the angle I was looking for could be captured. The resulting photo is beneath this post's title, and my confidence level is quite high that no one will question the cerussite identification. I feel just as confident that within a period of time I'll uncover from within my knapsack a rock bearing a no questions asked genre of anglesite as well.

Manhan Lead Mine Dumps: A Myopic Perspective

As an unseasoned and inexperienced field collector, the story here to unfold amazes me more than any other mineral collecting experience of my life. It's all about the booty I managed to uncover within the course of but an hour on August 6, 2009, by sifting through surface material at the Manhan Lead Mine Dumps near Loudville, Massachussets. Having forgotten my loupe and equipped with but with a small hammer, my odds of getting lucky were further restricted by having to collect on my knees in just a couple little spots thanks to a condition for which my right hip was totally replaced this past Tuesday. Furthermore, the entire space available for collecting covers no more than a few hundred square feet scattered with rocks tracing to a 17th Century operation. For decades, if not centuries, the gospel has emphasized how necessary it is for one to dig deep. As an aficionado of micro minerals, I beg to differ.

Photographed at about 30x, the image beneath our title is little more than a couple millimeters across the inside of a little quartz rock I split open with my hammer. The linarite, wulfenite, and pyromorphite should be obvious enough for all to observe. Look more closely or blow up the image further, and there's evidence of a light emerald green colored mineral and a hint of something the hue of turquoise. According to a 1983 article that was published in 1999 by the Triassic Valley Bulletin, I would speculate that the light green material is brochantite. "Anything the color of turquoise, I would guess is probably aurichalcite, although it's fun to stretch the old imagination a bit in the direction of caledonite or wroewolfeite, both of which the above referenced paper acknowledges to be present here. For that matter, Loudville is the type locality for wroewolfeite.

No farther-fetched would be my speculation that the image at left could be micro plumbogummite. The same article stated that this rare hydrous lead aluminum phosphate had been reported here in 1981. Its resemblance to a micro photograph by Peter Cristofono that appears on MINDAT of plumbogummite from Loudville is my frame of reference, albeit a long shot.

A more certain if less remarkable find yielded up by the dump surface were the white blocks of barite shown at right. Regarding a more confident identifcation, I'm once again indebted to Peter Cristofono for the photograph of Loudville barite he submitted to Mindat, which is shown at right.


I confess to reservations about tooting my horn over all this and am well aware that plenty of my speculation could be subject to question if not scoffed at. The rationale, instead, is to make a pitch on behalf of how much more fun the pursuit of microminerals can render the collecting game to be. For sure, I wouldn't dare to dream of coming up with a cabinet specimen at this spot beyond perhaps the likes of some mediocre massive galena and sphalerite or weathered pyromorphite. The pyromorphite was rather common, usually in the form of a dull light brownish green crust. Often it was associated with rocks with vuggy surfaces that I busted up and then placed the least boring looking chunks into my knapsack. I had little expectation that any of them would ultimately prove to be interesting.

What a wonderful surprise to get home and peer at just a few of these pieces under my scope. I collected about five pounds worth, of which thus far, I've checked out about a pound, so there's plenty left in my knapsack.

Recent Tips on New England Collecting

The above pictured site is NOT one of the localities that Nancy Millard mentioned during her talk on August 7, 2009, at the East Coast Gem and Mineral Show in West Springfield, MA. Rather it's the accessible dumps of the Manhan Lead Mines in Loudville, MA. The image is simply posted as an example of a New England locality. I had camera problems when Nancy was addressing us and couldn't photograph her or any of the samples she brought with her. It just so happened, however, that the day before her talk, I was on location here at the Manhan Dumps. When checking out my finds under the scope a few days later, a couple pieces amazed me. You'll have the opportunity to read that story and see some unbelievable related pictures in next week's Mineral Bliss post.

Nancy Millard is a former full time professional miner of Herkimer diamonds, seasoned collector, and proprietress of "Natures!" in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Prior to her presentation, she handed out copies of a 1963 publication I'd never heard of that struck me as priceless. Mineral Guide to New England provides pertinent information and concise directions to just about all the great New England localities. What it doesn't tell us is which of these localities still exist nor any updated particulars as to where permission to collect is necessary. Trespassers subject themselves to danger, and their lack of protocol has predicated the closing of many wonderful collecting spots. They are considered pariahs within the mineral collecting community.

Here's a summary of the localities Nancy Millard mentioned:

NEW HAMPSHIRE

• The best means for visiting the greatest number of localities is to join whatever mineral societies sponsor field trips to them. That's the only way to visit the great Palermo Mine in North Groton, NH.



• To collect at the Wise Mine in Westmoreland, NH, either contact and locate Bob Borosky to obtain permission or join the Keene (NH) Rock and Mineral Club, which sponsors field trips there. It's said that yttrium makes the fluorite from this famous locality green. Ms. Millard noted also that on "the other side of the mountain," the fluorite is blue and purple.



• In Surry, NH, on Old Walpole Rd (Exit 12A off Rt. 10 going north from Keene), look for a tiny bridge. Cross the bridge and check out the botroydal hematite covering the stones over the embankment.
  

MAINE

• In Greenwood Maine, the tailings of Tamminen Mine continue to be rich in pegmatite minerals. (Mineral Guide to New England notes "cubic! quartz crystals," spodumene, amblygonite, and pollucite.) It directs collectors to the Tamminen residence 100 yards north of the mine to obtain permission. Presumably the Tamminen Mine is still on private property, and permission must be obtained.


• Ms. Millard also recommended the Harvard Mine, also at Greenwood, and located at the top of a mountain reached by hiking a trail leaving the town road at a point a little above the Tamminen residence. The cut is on a face of the mountain from which the dump slides down the hill. Mineral Guide to New England described purple apatite , manganapatite in dull green rounded crystals, and bottle-green tourmaline as being common here.


• She noted that the Deer Hill Mine in Stow, Maine, continues to be a great locality for amethyst. Based on the extensive information available by searching the Web, I would assume that the Deer Hill Mine is easy to find and readily accessible.
  

VERMONT

• The great Eden Mills locality is now closed.


• Ludlow, VT is great for gold panning. While Ms. Millard did not discuss the specifics, I determined with just a little bit of web searching that supplies (and presumably information) are readily available in downtown Ludlow. From the web site of a Bed and Breakfast that takes its guests gold panning, I learned that a good place to go was in Plymouth State Park in a stream called Gold Brook, about 3/4 miles upstream and uphill from where the road crosses it.

MASSACHUSSETTS

• Here we all were in West Springfield, MA, so needless to say it was disconcerting to learn that the Lane Quarry in Springfield had closed. Other than that, Nancy had no word on any Massachussetts localities. Next week, check our upcoming post about the dumps from the Manhan Lead Mines in Loudville.

CONNECTICUT

• She rated Greens Garnet Farm in Roxbury, CT as "the number 1 place in Connecticut." It's all about almandine garnet. Everything you need to know is at John Betts' web site.
  
• Nancy also highly recommended a great locality for quartz crystals and quartz after natrolite in Stafford Springs CT where a trail heads out from a "parking lot behind a school." Web research convinces me that this school and parking lot is on Highland Terrace, just past the Hyde Duck Pond. The trail heads uphill. Start climbing, go right, and after about 20 minutes, listen for water, and upon hearing it, you're there.

NEW YORK

• OK, New York's not in New England, but if you'd like the scoop from a former professional full time Herkimer diamond miner, here goes: Nancy noted that in the Herkimer, New York area, there were three mining locations, all of them open to the public for a fee. The one known as the Ace of Diamonds she said would definitely be the most appealing to any field collector.

The Colburn Museum in Asheville, NC

Curious to see what I presumed to be the best of its "4,500 mineral specimens from around the world including examples of the more than 350 minerals found in North Carolina," I visited the great Colburn Earth Science Museum in Asheville prior to the excursion to Franklin, NC described in last week's post. It's important for me to have opined the adjective "great" before confessing to being somewhat underwhelmed by some---though not all---of what the museum had on display.

On the other hand, the Colburn offers more than a dozen earth science courses that fulfill the North Carolina Student Course of Study to kids from first to twelfth grades. It holds field trips for thousands of students. An after-school program, the Junior Rockhounds Club, is so popular that two separate sessions are necessary each month to accommodate all the students who sign up. The Colburn also has a week-long summer camp for kids in grades 1-4, the last day of which is spent collecting at a nearby quarry. And each year on Fathers Day weekend,the Colburn holds a three day gem and mineral fest.

Nearly half of the display area consists of cabinets of worldwide minerals categorized according to sulphides, carbonates, oxides, etc. In their place, I would have preferred to see more material from North Carolina, some of which was quite spectacular. The photograph beneath this post's title fails to do the 1445 carat "Star of the Carolina" star sapphire justice. I was also particularly impressed with the large specimen pictured above left of hyalite opal on feldspar from the Chalk Mountain Mine in Yancey County, NC and a similarly sized lazulite on pyrophyllite specimen shown at right from an undisclosed locality in Randolph County.

The Crystal Pocket, as the Colburn's gift shop is named, has a better though somewhat limited selection of minerals at more attractive prices than I'm accustomed to seeing at other museums. I consider my two purchases of herkimer diamonds in matrix and several Mexican topaz thumbnails to be real bargains. A volunteer shared with me that they "go to Tucson" every February. My hunch would be that they purchase by the flat and mark up their costs very little if at all.

The Colburn Gem and Mineral Museum is located in the lower level of the Pack Square Education, Arts and Science Center at 3 Pack Square in Asheville. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $4 for adults and $3 for students and seniors.

Gemboree Time in Franklin, NC

On my previous visit to Franklin, North Carolina, in early May, while at the Franklin Gem and Mineral Museum, John and Mary convinced me to return the last weekend of July for the 43rd Annual Macon County Gemboree sponsored by the Franklin Gem and Mineral Society and the Franklin Chamber of Commerce. John had even mentioned the possibility of an excursion to a little known off the beaten track digging site, but I've since become resigned to the fact that my right hip will need to be replaced before attempting such activities. Regardless, my schedule permitted but one day in the Franklin area. I wasn't aware until arriving that the 43rd Annual Macon County Gemboree was just one of three shows happening simultaneously on the last weekend of July in Franklin. A bigger surprise was that two of the three shows featured gems, jewelry, beads, and lapidary to the point that minerals seemed little more than an afterthought.

Though billed as "one of the largest and oldest gem & mineral shows in the southeast," I spotted only one dealer selling mineral specimens at the Franklin Gem and Mineral Society event at the Macon County Community Building. My only recollection of them was that many of the labels pitched metaphysical properties. A much larger extravaganza was the Gem and Lapidary Wholesalers Show at the Watauga Festival Center. It featured approximately 175 wholesalers of gems, jewelry, beads, and lapidary in a large tent. Nearby in smaller individual tents, a couple dozen dealers were selling more diverse merchandise that included a lot of rough material.

The only one of these three shows with enough minerals sufficient to attract my interest was the Highlands Road Gem Show on the Highway 441 Bypass at Highlands Road. Here, at least several dozen dealers, some of them selling minerals, were set up in tents. Most of the minerals bore neither labels nor price tags. I observed a preponderance of Arkansas quartz crystals and quite a few individual specimens of Indian zeolites of the sort that go for $15 a flat in Tucson. Prices were all over the map. Only a couple of dealers had any of the kind of material that prompts Franklin, North Carolina to bill itself as "the gem mining capital of the world." From one of these dealers, I purchased the two corundum pieces pictured at left for $20. They were collected at the Proctor Farm in Lincoln County, North Carolina.

The highlight for me was a tent where several young Mexican men were selling minerals from the Ojuela Mine in Mapimi, Durango, Mexico. What most grabbed my attention were several flats of adamite, a few pieces of which showed a curious visual resemblance to legrandite. In fact, had they been so labeled and displayed elsewhere in the tent, I could easily have ended up paying handsomely. When I asked the sellers if any of this really could be legrandite, they insisted that if so, I could "get rich." My gamble on two pieces, one of them pictured at right, cost another $20. Later, on the way back to Asheville, I stopped at a rock shop displaying similar flats of Ojuela Mine adamite and spotted a couple of more pieces of the same genre. All the proprietor could tell me was that he'd purchased his material as adamite from an Arkansas dealer with whom he'd been doing business for 40 years. Under the circumstances, the odds would seem to suggest that that my Ojuela Mine suite now has two additional adamite specimens, but I'm not yet finished checking the two pieces out.

Coming Your Way: The Mineral Bliss Podcast

Within a week, we're anticipating that an icon in the top right hand corner of each blog post at Mineral Bliss will invite you to click and subscribe to the new Mineral Bliss podcast.

Also, you should be able to access our new podcast directly from iTunes . If you have iTunes, click "iTunes Store" at the left of the iTunes main screen. When the iTunes Store screen comes up, click "podcast" at the left of that screen. When the podcast screen is up, click "browse" or "power search" at the right of the podcast screen. In the next screen to come up, type in"Mineral Bliss" for title or Jake Slagle as author, and hopefully you'll be there.

Sometimes we'll name the topics in the current issue of Rocks and Minerals or Mineralogical Record. Other podcasts will herald events of mineralogical interest within a 100 mile radius of Baltimore Maryland. Very likely, we'll also be doing podcasts that feature pronunciation and vocabulary pertinent to mineralogy and related earth sciences.

This past week, after preparing for the launch of our new podcast, I split for Asheville, North Carolina to catch the earth sciences exhibit at Colburn Museum before it closes for
Bele Chere. Soon thereafter, we'll be visiting the three extravaganzas associated with the annual Franklin, NC, Gemboree. Next week's post will share the highlights of that trip.

Fred Parker: A Maryland Mineral Perspective

Fred J. Parker grew up in New Jersey, where he became renowned as a second generation collector, dealer and expert specializing in Franklin/Sterling Hill material. His focus expanded to Maryland mineralogy after he moved here in 1983. With an eye to history as well as to the present and the future, Fred shared his Maryland perspective with the Baltimore Mineral Society at its July 15, 2009 meeting.

Upon arriving in Maryland, he was told that our state had little to offer in the way of minerals and that that all the action happened in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Within weeks, he joined several mineral societies and met a few key "local characters" with different ideas and more extensive knowledge. He soon accompanied some of them on a visit to the LeFarge (Redland-Genstar) Quarry in Medford. Access was wide open at the time, and great calcite crystals were everywhere.

Even so, Fred Parker didn't become completely "hooked" on Maryland minerals until 1987. That happened when he and Maryland's "Mr. Garnet," John Ertman, uncovered a major pocket of gem quality grossular at Hunting Hill in Montgomery County. Twenty two years later, Fred still likes to refer to this locality as "my baby." In 2005, when The Mineralogical Record published the definitive Fred J. Parker piece, "The Minerals of Hunting Hill Quarry, Rockville, Maryland," the mineralogy of the Free State received a level of recognition not seen in decades

This article, of course, figured prominently into an arena long a Parker passion, namely the history of mineralogy in Maryland. In his personal collection, historical Maryland mineral specimens are understandably ubiquitous. They include pieces that once belonged to such noted collectors as Don Fish, Mike Elwood, and Dick Grier. His biggest recent score was the Maryland suite from the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences Collection after its sale in 2006 for millions of dollars to two mega-mineral dealers. Thereafter, following lengthy but quiet negotiations with Collectors Edge, the suite became part of the Parker collection.

When addressing the Baltimore Mineral Society, Fred described history as where "the real adventures begin." He mentioned two long out of print books as especially relevant: They were Minerals of Maryland, by Ostrander and Price, published in 1940 by The Natural History Society of Maryland and Minerals of the Washington, DC Area by Lawrence R. Bernstein, published in 1980 by the Maryland Geological Survey.

Numerous sites mentioned in these books now lie beneath shopping centers or apartment complexes, but a few remain accessible. More important: Who's to say what's under the ground where "progress" has yet to claim accessibility? To find out, knowledge of Maryland geology could obviously be helpful, but isn't entirely necessary. Another approach that Fred has also embraced is visiting and questioning the locals in areas near where great specimens were collected in the past. Most important, he says: "Check every road cut, excavation, and blast along the way!"

To share the anecdotes that made his point would extend beyond the allocated space for this post. Just about every story deserves its own post. For example:

• The road cut near Columbia where autunite and torbernite ! covered the pegmatite.


• Rediscovering a long forgotten smoky quartz occurrence (check out our title picture) near Clarksville in excavations making way for future McMansions.
  
• The amazing amethysts near Laurel that the workmen threw into the pit to permanent burial.


• The man who took home a quartz boulder laden with gold from the Cabin John Bridge excavation and used it as a door stop.


• Buck Keller's major gypsum find in 2007 amidst excavations for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.


• The presence of quartz crystals in soil beginning just south of Thurmont and extending almost to Harpers Ferry.
  

These stories are history now. But others are in the works. And there should be plenty more before too long.

Metaphysical at the Beach

Somewhat oddly and with good humour, while on vacation last week at the beach, I found myself with The Book of Stones: Who They are and What They Teach by Robert Simmons and Naisha Ahsian. Its thesis is that quite a variety of different rocks, minerals, crystals, and gems, are "a catalyst for inner healing, self-discovery, and/or a deeper connection with Spirit."

In the introduction, co-author Robert Simmons explains the rationale as follows:

When we bring a crystal or stone into our electromagnetic field, two things occur. First the electromagnetic frequencies carried by that stone will vibrate with related frequencies in our own energy field through the physical law of resonance, creating a third, larger field of vibration. Your nervous system is attuned to these shifts in energy and will transmit this information to your brain, where the frequencies stimulate biochemical shifts that affect the phusical body, trigger emotional experiences, and shift brain function to open you to spiritual experience.

The main body of the book relates to approximately 200 different stones arranged and discussed in alphabetical order. The first is adamite, described as a source of energy, sexuality, joy, child-like wisdom, and several other major virtues. The final stone in this alphabetical arrangement is zoisite , which is said to relieve not only a wide range of unpleasant mental and emotional states but to be "one of the foremost stones for healing in the experience of terminal disease and death." Photographic images by John Goodman, Jeff Scovil, or Rob Lavinsky accompany every stone mentioned in the book.

While extra-terrestial moldavite is the only species to be named the "Holy Grail," an even more glowing description is reserved for a stone known as Azeztulite. Through "manipulation and alteration," the authors claim that this particular brand of quartz is imbued to carry the energy of "The Nameless Light," which Simmons equates with "Divine Love."

At one point in the introduction, the authors raise the question: "What do I Do with My Stones?" Among the possibilities mentioned are holding and carrying; wearing stones in pouches and jewelry; meditation with stones; dreamwork; body layouts; grids; stone oracles; energy tools; even oils and essences. Conspicuously absent were buying, selling, trading, or pursuits related to any of the earth sciences.

Interestingly, with his wife Kathy, Simmons owns the mail order business Heaven and Earth. With a strong presence on the Internet as well as each February at Tucson, the enterprise offers to both individuals and other businesses a wide variety of stones ranging from rough material to rings, pendants, beads, sacred symbols, and polished shapes. In one form or another, Heaven and earth carries most of the stones covered in the Book of Stones, Azeztulite included.

On The Price of Micromounts and Extremely Rare Minerals

The above pictured haynesite micromount measures but .8 millimeters across. Just last week, I paid $51 for it from one of my favorite dealers on eBay. Haynesite is a rare uranyl selenite, one of a very few minerals bearing the uncommon element selenium. As a selenite it's in no way to be confused with the ubiquitous crystallized gypsum variety also known as "selenite," which has nothing to do with selenium. Haynesite was discovered in 1991, by the eminent geologist and field collector Patrick Haynes at the Repete Mine in San Juan County, Utah. Now closed and sealed, the Repete Mine is both the type locality for haynesite and the only locality from which haynesite has ever been reported. A logical enough assumption would be that availability will dwindle and the price to acquire a specimen of haynesite will rise in the future. Interestingly, last night while while researching haynesite on the web, I found an excellent and much larger thumbnail sized piece being offered at another site for $10 and purchased it in a wink.

This all relates to the issue of how much any given mineral is worth. Though rarity, and especially beauty are usually big factors, major exceptions exist. Micromounts displaying magnificent views of an enormous variety of minerals, both rare and common, can often be had for just a few dollars because they're tiny and a microscope is necessary to appreciate them. Many other extremely rare minerals, regardless of size, occasionally go for less money if they are ugly or if the market for them is limited enough. In the March-April, 2009 edition of Mineralogical Record, Rock Currier described it this way:

If the mineral is so rare that only two or three specimens were ever produced, most collectors may never be aware of them, and thus a market value for them cannot establish itself. Rather than pay a high price, the average collector will be merely puzzled by the specimen and view it as a curiosity rather than a valuable rarity. After all, if this is a highly desirable specimen, why don't their friends or local museums have one and why haven't they seen one in pictures? An absence of knowledge discourages purchasing. They have no yardstick by which to measure the desirability of the specimen.

As one who loves, collects, and acquires both rare minerals and micromounts, I'm often elated with this state of affairs. When selling them, however, the going sometimes gets tough. On both ends, the bottom line is the price for which one is willing to part with a mineral and what an able, willing, and available buyer who wants it will pay. The number of both sellers and buyers for extremely rare minerals is relatively limited. Knowledge and experience in this niche are key.

Regional Minerals at the Smithsonian

Early this past week while in Washington , DC, I learned that my key interviewee for this week's scheduled post would not be available. With the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History and its mineral collection close at hand, I knew where to look for something else to cover.

With a time frame restricted because of other business to but an hour, I would seek out minerals on display from localities within a couple hundred miles radius of the DC area. The Montgomery County gold in quartz pictured above has long been one of my Smithsonian favorites. I've also similarly admired the Lynch Station Virginia turquoise crystals on quartz pictured at left as well as the pyromorphite shown below at right from the Wheatley Mine near Phoenixville, PA. All three are classics and the best specimens of their kind that I've seen or known about.

From the Hope Diamond right on down, classics are ubiquitous in the Museum of Natural History's gem and mineral rooms. Other specimens, if not classics, were presumably curated by virtue of how appropriately they serve to educate or otherwise capture the interest of viewers.

Very much on my mind was a specimen of apophyllite on prehnite that one of my older mineral friends and two buddies had collected at the Centreville Quarry in Virginia during the early 1950's. For one "study piece" each from the "Roebling collection," they had traded it to the Smithsonian, where it soon became prominently displayed near the entrance of what was at the time its mineral room. In more recent years, my friend learned from a credible source with close ties to the Smithsonian that in today's market this apophyllite on prehnite specimen could be priced as high as $250,000.00.

Any possible chance it could still be on display after all those years? Except for the possibility of oversight, my assumption is that it's packed away with the more than 350,000 mineral specimens comprising the Museum of Natural History's collection. Just about all have been catalogued and can be referenced by name, catalog number, country of origin and mine or quarry (if there was one) at the Museum's web site. Listed there are 1,063 specimens bearing apophyllite and 1,911 minerals with prehnite. Images of many of them, unfortunately, were absent.

The biggest nod I observed to regional bounty was a model re-creating a section of the Morefield Mine in Amelia County, Virginia. It featured a tunnel with pegmatite walls featuring enormous cleavages of turquoise hued amazonite microcline. Interestingly, the real Morefield Mine is accessible at specified times for a reasonable fee to collectors and by prescheduled appointment to clubs and school groups.

Otherwise, I managed to locate and photograph three additional specimens other than the three pictured above. Two were from Virginia. They were the columbite from Powhattan and the tantalite from Amelia, both pictured at left. The other was the brucite from Cedar Hill Quarry in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania near the Maryland State Line. It is pictured below at right. No doubt, there could have been other pieces from the general area that I missed.

Visiting the Maryland Geological Survey

Having been doing this blog for five months and the Maryland Minerals web site for over a year, a visit to the headquarters of the Maryland Geological Survey (MGS) seemed long overdue. As a scientific investigative organization, its role is to study Maryland’s earth resources and geological phenomena through various disciplines within the earth sciences field. In existence since 1896, MGS became part of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources when the DNR was established in 1969.

Before visiting, I spent some time perusing the MGS web site. Though informative and well organized, it offered little in the way of information related to mineralogy. For this, a visit to its Baltimore headquarters at St. Paul and 23rd Streets is more in order. The MGS is housed in a huge stone structure that's appropriately constructed of Port Deposit Gneiss and Ellicott City Granite.

What visitors will most likely notice first upon entering the building's lobby area are the minerals encased in display cabinets against the far wall. Most but not all of these minerals were collected in Maryland. They include several specimens donated by Bob Eberle as well as a few pieces salvaged from the former Maryland Acadamey of Science collection. More exhibits are on the second floor in the MGS Library, some in cabinets similar to those downstairs. One is completely filled with fossils. Another holds additional minerals and also samples of Setters Quartzite, Baltimore Gneiss, Cockeysville Marble and other kinds of rocks whose formation and differential erosion define Maryland's topography as well as its mineralogy.

The MGS Library’s main purpose is to house an extensive collection of geologic journals and periodical publications produced over the past one hundred years by the MGS, the geological surveys of other states, and U.S. Geological Survey. Regrettably, most publications of mineralogical interest are now out of print and absent from the shelves. Reference copies, however, have been retained and are available for in-house use.

The library extends into an adjoining room of metal drawers filled with maps. Time restraints unfortunately precluded me from requesting permission to look through them to search for the locations of whatever forgotten pits, adits, openings, and mining claims I imagined could be revealed therein.

The Maryland Geological Survey is both a State agency and a public facility. Visitors are welcome to view its exhibits, conduct geologic research in the Library, and purchase various publications that are for sale. Due to budgetary cutbacks and staff shortages, it is best to contact the Survey prior to visiting to ensure that MGS personnel will be available to assist you.. Hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. To arrange a visit, please call or e-mail Dale W. Shelton at 410-554-5505 or dshelton@dnr.state.md.us.

Uncovering Ruizite at Cornwall

Of all the reported finds in the Eastern United States during recent years, the occurrence in Cornwall, PA, of ruizite inside a boulder weighing approximately a half ton is surely among the most intriguing. Mineral News, in its Jan. 2008 edition, announced the discovery in a front page article about two months after it happened. The story behind that discovery was recently shared with me first hand by James "Skip" Colflesh, a prominent Hershey, PA jeweler and avid weekend field collector.

It all began at 9 a.m. on a late October morning in 2007, when Skip (right) received a phone call from his friend Bob Buckmoyer(left). At the time Bob was the foreman for Haines and Kibblehouse at Cornwall Materials in Cornwall, PA, where dumps from the earlier mining operation were being worked for crushed stone. He had become interested in minerals after observing that the rocks at Cornwall were quite different from those at the limestone quarries where he'd previously worked. One day Skip had showed up at Cornwall and approached Bob for permission to collect. The two men struck an arrangement where Bob would allow Skip to have special access if Skip would teach Bob about minerals and how to collect them. They became close friends.

Bob called because he had observed "something unusual" inside an 800 pound zoned boulder that his equipment had recently broken. He noticed a presence of apophyllite in the center of the boulder that appeared to be quite different from what Skip had taught him to recognize. Skip headed right over and determined that regardless of anything else, the apophyllite was worth chiseling out and that some of the other material associated with it looked interesting. He figured that a lot of tiny red crystals encrusting etched quartz amidst the apophyllite were probably hematite, and he was curious about an ubiquitously associated white fibrous mineral that resembled pectolite.

The plot thickened when Skip arrived home and had a look under his scope. No way those red crystals could possibly be hematite or any other mineral he could identify. He sent a couple samples to Lance and Cynthia Kearns at the Department of Geology and Environmental Science at James Madison University. Within weeks, their analyses determined the red crystals to be the second known occurrence of ruizite in North America, the first having been at the Christmas Mine in Gila County, Arizona. Otherwise, the only other known finds of this rare sorosilicate in the world were at two mines near Cape Province, South Africa.

Although most of the ruizite bearing material had been extracted on the day of that initial phone call, enough material remained in the boulder for the two collectors to invite a group of regional members from Friends of Mineralogy to visit Cornwall and chisel away. Among them was New Jersey collector and International Micromount Hall of Famer John Ebner, who sent another sample to a lab in Canada where he had connections. The Canadian lab reached the same conclusion as the Kearns.

More work is still required to identify the white fibrous material, a clinopyroxene that could prove to be a new mineral. Meanwhile, enough ruizite from this same boulder is in private hands that some has hit the market. A piece with a display face of approximately 4 cm. x 3.5 cm. was recently sold at auction on eBay by "MINERALMAN999" for $75.25.

My advice to collectors would be to try to get some of this Cornwall ruizite while it's still around. Haines and Kibblehouse is no longer working the dumps. They have removed the equipment necessary to break boulders of which the exterior surfaces bear no hints of what could be inside, and the dumps are now "off limits."

Delaware Mineralogical Museum Reopens

Thanks to the Gem, Lapidary, and Mineral Society of Montgomery County, Maryland for having their great monthly newsletter, The Rockhounder on the Internet for all to see. It was the recent May edition from which I learned that the Delaware Mineralogical Museum had reopened. Pictured above are two examples of specimens with aesthetics that blew me away.

Even now, a month after the re-opening, when searching the web with Google, my top two results after typing in "Delaware Mineralogical Museum" and "University of Delaware Mineralogical Museum" indicated that this reopening had yet to occur. A bit of persistence, however, directed me to a site that not only announced the reopening, but offered pertinent information.

There's much to like. First is the way the minerals assert their presence in the front room to all who enter Penny Hall. The fiber optic lighting is effective enough that every specimen can be fully appreciated. As museums go, the room itself is small, its walls surrounded by fewer than a dozen cases that are separated and uncluttered. This allows the visitor to take everything in, while larger museums can sometimes overwhelm with overload.

It was a true pleasure for me to unhurriedly zero in on the the likes of native lead from Sweden and what I suspect could be the largest Namibian descloizite crystals ever uncovered. Other highlights were a couple of aethetically amazing Tsumeb azurite crystals in matrix and a cabinet bearing an assortment of California spodumene (kunzite) that all but defied belief. I was also impressed to see an entire cabinet that used both drawings and minerals as props to explain the six crystal systems.

Blame it if you will on Delaware’s geology, but nothing collected in Delaware was present. A logical enough alternative proved to be a greater number of minerals from neighboring Pennsylvania than from any other state or foreign country. Among them were killer specimens of chalcopyrite from French Creek, pyromorphite from the Wheatley Mine, brucite from the Woods Chrome Mine, diaspore from Corundum Hill near Unionville, PA, andradite garnet from Cornwall, and a stunning malachite spray from Uniontown.

Just a few minutes from I-95, near the Maryland State Line, the Delaware Mineralogical Museum is a must see for rockhounds within a reasonable driving distance, or for that matter, just passing through.