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.

A Public Exhibit of Maryland Minerals

The likes of this Maryland mineral display at Howard County Community College was a long time coming. To thank for it, we have Ed Goldberg, an avid field collector from Reisterstown, who during the day works as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.

For nearly two decades, ever since becoming frustrated over not having a place to show his young daughter the kinds of minerals they could collect in Maryland, Ed has doggedly pursued one avenue after another regarding the need for a display of Maryland minerals. Among entities he has approached have been the Maryland Geological Survey, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, The Maryland Academy of Sciences, the State House, The Tawes Building, and the Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. For various reasons, ranging from budgetary concerns to indifference, they all turned him down.

Here's Goldberg's contention: "For a state that prides itself on its geographical and geological diversity, to not display what it's made of is a travesty." He also feels strongly about the need for more young people to be aware of the subject. "What we have here in Maryland are legislators and policy makers who say we've lagged in the sciences and that to get more people---kids in particular---involved is critical. Well here you go. Just about all kids like rocks."

Turning him on to the possibilities at Howard County Community College was an old college buddy, its Board of Trustees' Past President Roger Caplan. Mr. Caplan suggested that Ed contact an administrator at HCCC, who suggested he speak with two physical sciences instructors, Jennifer Stott and Sharon Lyon. Both instructors proved to be extremely enthusiastic, and it just so happened that there was a display case at the Science and Technology Building that was built into the wall and empty.

Now filled with minerals that Ed donated from his personal collection, it's the first thing to meet one's eye upon entering the Science and Technology Building on Howard County Community College's main Little Patuxent Parkway Campus. The minerals therein, all collected by Ed himself, are a diverse sampling of Maryland's mineral wealth. Among the highlights are a killer actinolite specimen from Soldiers Delight; barite and siderite from Frostburg; chalcopyrite and bornite from Mineral Hill; galena from the Mountain View Lead Mine; Goethite from Oregon Ridge, Vesuvianite from the Fannie Frost Quarry; and calcite (including a purple niobium stained rhomb) from the Medford Redland Genstar Quarry.

In association with the Baltimore Mineral Society (for which he is director of field trips), Ed donated the display to posthumously honor two close mineral friends: Herb Corbett and Jack Nelson. Both made significant contributions toward raising the awareness among young people regarding the earth sciences and mineralogy in particular. Herb , a past president of the Baltimore Mineral Society was a friend and mentor to Ed as a child. Jack Nelson was a close friend from the Gem, Lapidary, and Mineral Society of Montgomery County with whom Ed frequently collected.

Sitting in with the Master

The above image relates to what proved to be the highlight of my month-long excursion to Tucson last February where among other things, Mineral Bliss was launched. I took the picture during the hour I spent hanging out one-on-one with Jeff Scovil in his temporary studio at Inn Suites Hotel. While the idea of starting up Mineral Bliss had been on my mind, it was here that I made the decision to actually move forward. An experience like this was too great to pass by.

Though not one to pass judgment, I doubt that many in mineralogical circles would dispute the contention that Jeff Scovil is the world's premier photographer of minerals. He is certainly the best known and most acclaimed. A recipient of the 2007 Carnegie Mineralogical Award, his work is everywhere in just about every issue of Rocks and Minerals, Mineralogical Record, and the mineral and lapidary magazines of France, Germany, Spain, Poland, and Russia, as well as in numerous books about minerals. The posters for most of the larger shows around the world(including eleven for the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show) bear his work, and he's photographed the collections of scores of museums in the US and around the world. He also authored the book Photographing Minerals, Fossils, and Lapidary Materials. You can purchase it at his web site .

I got into his studio shortly after wandering into a room adjoining it where a sign read "Scovil Photography: Come in,." After expressing my interest in mineral photography to one of Jeff's associates, he escorted me into the studio to watch the master at work and fire away with as many questions as my heart desired. Not only did Jeff happily respond to all of them, he enthusiastically elaborated on his answers in a manner that encouraged further discourse of a no holds barred nature.

Not that he should have reason to be concerned about competition from an amateur whose parameters were still pretty much limited to the confines of a "Studio in a Box" kit purchased on eBay. While eager to learn as much as possible, my immediate goal was to be able write this feature with a degree of literacy regarding his equipment and the myriad ways that he manipulates light to balance reflection with detail. At this point, it became clear to me that such descriptions are better left to photographers and those who write regularly on the subject.

Simply put, he worked with strobe lighting and used reflectors and props of endless sizes shapes and materials. Having made the transition from film to digital only a couple of years ago, he relied on a large computer monitor to check his work. His credo is "get it right in the camera." When the tiniest speck of dust appeared in an image on that computer screen, he returned to the work table, manually removed the dust, and shot again.

While photography combines art, science, and skill, becoming a great photographer of minerals must surely require an additional ingredient, namely a sensibility relating to their uniqueness and detail. By the time I left, it seemed clear to me that Jeff Scovil's mind-boggling level of experience with photographing minerals has served to elevate that sensibility to the point that it could be the essence of his prowess.

Of all that we discussed, what most surprised me were the fees that Jeff charges, be it for producing images of one or more minerals on CD at a show for a collector, or for a day's work. A Scovil Photography image is almost certain to elevate the cache and potential price of just about any specimen, all the more should the picture end up being published somewhere. Compared to other kinds of photographic services for which I'm familiar with the fees, Scovil Photography's prices were a true bargain.

Franklin, North Carolina

In the environs of Franklin, North Carolina, numerous spots exist where the soil abundantly yields crystals of ruby, sapphire, garnet and beryl. Consequently, gem mining opportunities for tourists are everywhere. Mostly they play the game lined up beside flumes of running water in which they sieve gem-bearing reddish dirt that's purchased by the bucketful. At a few of the spots, customers are given the opportunity to pan in creek beds or dig at the actual mines. Though the mines themselves have long ceased commercial production, plenty of rubies, sapphires, beryl crystals and garnets are present. That's because usually the dirt in the buckets, in some cases the dirt in the actual stream beds, and sometimes even the mine dumps themselves has been "enriched" or "salted" with crude gems imported from the other side of the world. Personally, I confess to having "mined" at a couple of these places in years gone by. The thrill was akin to playing the slots.

At a few spots, customers can sluice and sometimes dig with assurance from management that the dirt in question has not been salted. While the gem "pickin's" are likely leaner, it makes the mining experience itself a bit more realistic, even if a backhoe has scattered naturally occurring gem material from its original resting place in the interest of rendering the soil more accessible and easier to dig. During the drive home from my recent New Orleans trip, I checked out three such operations, namely Mason's Ruby and Sapphire Mine, the Cherokee Ruby & Sapphire Mine, and the Sheffield Mine.

Mason's Ruby and Sapphire mine is open from 8 a.m. to 5 pm and charges $30 for as much digging as a customer wishes to undertake in the course of a day. At a pavilion adjacent to the flume, customers are given shovels with empty buckets they can carry to the mine and fill with dirt to bring back to the flume and sluice as often as time permits. An associate at Mason's named Judy told me that she'd never observed a hard-working customer who in the course of a day failed to uncover at least one legitimate gem to bring home. She boasted that the biggest find so far in 2009 had been a 73 carat sapphire.

From Mason's, I drove eight more miles through the Smoky's to another allegedly unsalted operation, the Cherokee Ruby and Sapphire Mine. Unfortunately it was closed, perhaps because severe weather was predicted. Just a couple miles from the Cherokee Mine, I detoured up a steep and windy road leading to a parking lot. Below was the Sheffield Mine, which is pictured at left. In addition to offering salted buckets, customers here can dig at the actual mine, which like at Mason's and Cherokee, is touted to be unsalted.

Were it not that flooding torrential rains were expected to begin any minute, my personal choice for prospecting would have been a non-commercial locality, namely a stream where alluvial corundum washes down from the closed and inaccessible Corundum Hill Mine. The 47 pound ruby pictured at the beginning of this feature is from this mine. The site is highly recommended in Richard James Jacquot, Jr.'s Rock, Gem, and Mineral Collecting Sites in Western North Carolina. Parking is available near a bridge over the Cullasaja River. About 300 yards east from here, a feeder stream empties into the river from the mountain above after flowing through the inaccessible site of the long closed Corundum Hill Mine. It's supposed to be a good spot for panning.

However, I believe that the bad weather served me even better by encouraging a visit to "downtown" Franklin as opposed to trying to collect at any of these sites. In Franklin I first checked out the Ruby City Gem Store and its museum. Ruby City claims to be the largest mineral and gem store in North Carolina. It also houses a museum of gems and minerals, from both nearby and various worldwide localities.

Just around the corner from Ruby City is the Franklin Gem and Mineral Museum, to which an all too short visit highlighted my day. Occupying the the building that formerly housed the Macon County Jail, the museum is operated as a public service by volunteers from the Gem and Mineral Society of Franklin, North Carolina. I refer to my time there as "all too short" after making it to only two of eight exhibit-filled rooms prior to the 4 p.m. closing hour. The first housed among other local gems and minerals the 47 pound ruby from Corundum Hill, which I spent most of my time there photographing. The next room I visited displayed several minerals from each of the 50 states. Being from Maryland and responsible for the Maryland Minerals website, it interested me that our state was represented by specimens of coalingite, prehnite, and picrolite, all from Hunting Hill. With 15 minutes remaining, rather than try to dart through additional rooms, including an international gem and mineral room, fossil room, fluorescent room, Indian artifacts room, and glass room, I opted instead to chat with the two Franklin Gem & Mineral Society volunteers who were working that day, John and Mary. This proved to be time well spent.

They shared with me a perspective about the Franklin area gem scene that far surpassed what I'd been able to infer from Jacquot's Rock, Gem, and Mineral Collecting Sites in Western North Carolina or rushing by a few of the spots mentioned therein. From John and Mary I heard the stories behind some of these places and how the local landscape has changed over the years. More important, John was kind enough to provide me with information that could ultimately lead to the opportunity to dig in least one unspoiled site far removed from the tourist circuit. It's been tested just enough to demonstrate that rubies and sapphires are present and very likely plentiful.

Already, I'm booked in the area the last weekend of July for the Bele Chere Festival in Asheville and the 43rd Annual Macon County Gemboree in Franklin, sponsored by the Franklin Gem & Mineral Society and the Franklin Chamber of Commerce. Now it appears as if this weekend could also include a guided excursion to that site. I look most forward to the prospect that this could happen.

Allah Cooper, Ray, and Redmond

All too short on knowledge about any of the above named collecting meccas and with minimal available time, I simply located and quickly crawled over the dumps of all three during a motor trip to New Orleans the last week of April. The pleasure of being there meant as much as the few minerals that made it home.

The Allah Cooper (Valzinco) Mine dumps came first, about five miles northeast of the town of Mineral in Louisa County, Virginia. Awareness of this locality in mineralogical circles has increased recently after significant pyromorphite finds and the more recent identifcation of five species never before reported thereabouts as covered by Lance E. Kearns and Michael D. Dunn in the August, 2008 Mineral News. These minerals include hemimorphite, wavellite, vanadinite, vauquelinite, and mottramite, the latter three being microscopically present along with pyromorphite in the specimen pictured at left. Considerable mining went on in this part of Virginia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. First gold and silver were mined, later lead and zinc, thereafter copper and iron. For sure, numerous spots in the general area could entice collectors. To locate and access more than one was well beyond the scope of my time frame.

After asking around, it didn't take me long to learn of a rockpile---very likely the biggest and easiest to access--- along Contrary Creek a hundred yards or so west of the bridge where Route 522 crosses it about five miles north of Mineral, Virgina. Just south of the bridge is a spur that's convenient for pulling off and parking. Less than an hour of crawling about, rock hammer in hand, proved sufficient for uncovering plenty of pyrite, chalcopyrite, and malachite. I departed with a couple small rocks and limited confidence that additional time would have enabled me to find any of the secondary lead minerals that have received so much attention. Even so, I'll be eager to return in the future with whose knowledge of the area is more substantial.

En route the following day to Asheville, North Carolina, with Richard James Jacquot's Rock, Gem, and Mineral Collecting Sites in Western North Carolina, I detoured to the dumps of Ray Mica Mine in Yancey County near Burnsville. The Ray Mine has a well-earned reputation for yielding green beryl crystals that occur in an ubiquitous white feldspar dominated pegmatite matrix. I found no beryl, but after busting up a number of rocks, managed to bag a slightly interesting cluster of small curving schorl crystals. When returning to my car, I encountered a collector who said he'd been here for three days and found "a little." He noted that some parts of these dumps yielded more beryl than others and very kindly offered to show me where they were. If not for a temporarily unstable right hip, I'd have taken him up on the offer and once again trudged a quarter mile uphill through the woods. This collector also boasted of some nocturnal success shining an LED flashlight over gravel beneath the tiny stream running through the dumps. According to the Jacquot book, had he also shined a short wave ultra-violet light over the dumps, an additional reward could have been plentiful massive white apatite flourescing a bright orange plus with luck a bit of pink zoisite (thulite), which is also fluorescent. Jacquot noted that aquamarine occurred at the Ray Mine, but implied that it was far less common than other types of beryl. A week later, while driving home from New Orleans, I couldn't resist buying a rock bearing aquamarine from the Ray Mine for $7.50 at the gem shop of the Switzerland Inn in Little Switzerland, along the Blue Ridge Parkway between Asheville and Blowing Rock. The specimen is pictured at right.

By evening, I'd made it to the Days Inn in the heart of downtown Asheville. Of all the happening towns in the eastern United States, Asheville has long been my favorite for a night out enjoying food and music. As for dinner in downtown Asheville, my top pick is the cutting edge fusion of Californian and Mexican cuisine---along with killer margaritas---at Limones, 13 Eagle Street. For listening to and sometimes dancing to hot jazz or blues in the midst of a diverse crowd, I've long considered Tressa's, just a few blocks north from Limone's at 28 Broadway Street, to be as good as such a scene gets anywhere.

Were it not for a late evening at Tressa's, I'd have made it to the Redmond Mine in Haywood County a little earlier the next day. No problem, since the dumps here are tiny, and no way I'd venture underground into the shaft across the dirt road and with my bad hip and no flashlight after a month of heavy rainfall into water said to have been two feet deep during the past years' drought. According to Jacquot, the walls inside this shaft bear "dark blue azurite, malachite, and white cerussite crystals up to 1/2 inch long." I was perfectly happy keeping to the dumps and had the good fortune of collecting the piece pictured at right of azurite with chrysocolla and cerussite on quartz and limonite. Particularly intriguing was how similar it appeared to a specimen of "chrysocolla and cerussite on limonite and quartz" that's pictured in the book A Rockhounding Guide to North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, by Michael Streeter, which I discovered and purchased near the end of my trip. Both books note that micro crystals of pyromorphite occur in some of the quartz boulders located about a hundred yards up a steep trail from the left of the mine shaft. With my walking stick as a crutch I hoisted myself up there with the little rock hammer in my other hand. Sure enough the quartz boulders awaited, but would require a sledge hammer to attack, which my hip condition under no circumstances would allow.

Same time next year, I'll be heading south to New Orleans for Jazzfest for the 22nd time. Unless other mineralogical diversions along the way prove more promising, I'll return to all three of these localities with a bit more knowledge and hopefully a new right hip.

Some Fred Parker Collection Highlights

As I was photographing his collection last week, Fred Parker asked me: "What Maryland locality would you most like to visit?" Overwhelmed at first, I pulled a blank. With time since to reflect, however, and after photographing the above pictured calcite along with the wulfenite at left and the malachite at right, I'd probably name the Portland Cement Quarry in Carroll County. Fred shared with me that collector/dealer Andy Dietz of Ashland, Virginia collected the calcite beneath our title in a large pocket he and Andy worked there in 100 degree heat during July, 1997. The wulfenite is part of a one time find in the mid-1970's when the late George Brewer uncovered a rock bearing the only wulfenite ever reported from Maryland. And while quite a few specimens with acicular sprays of malachite have been collected at the Portland Quarry over the years, the piece pictured at right with chalcopyrite stands out.

Mineral specimens of historical significance especially appeal to Fred. The malachite at left from the long defunct Liberty Copper Mine in Frederick County, once graced the 19th century T-Bouve collection and later the late John Marshall's collection, from which Fred acquired it. With help from Photoshop, the label painted and scripted on the reverse side of this piece appears at the bottom right in the photograph. Ostrander and Price's 1940 Minerals of Maryland refers to the "haydenite"at right from Jones Falls in Baltimore City as "a variety of chabazite." It's eponymous with the early 19th Century mineralogist Horace Hayden, while Mindat lists "haydenite" as "a synonym of chabazite. If the specimen at right could be one of the earliest significant chabazite specimens in existence, Fred Parker's recent chabazite find at Hunting Hill Quarry in Montgomery County should rank among the latest. That occurrence lifts the number of different minerals its serpentinite-rodingite has yielded to 69. It and numerous other Hunting Hill specimens will be covered in a later Mineral Bliss post.

In Carroll County, not far from the Portland Cement Quarry in Union Bridge, the LaFarge (Redland Genstar) Quarry in Medford is another modern day classic Maryland locality. The turquoise colored aurichalcite pictured at left is one of the only specimens of aurichalcite collected in Maryland I've ever seen. Even more uncommon are the pink micro-crystals of lanthanite pictured at right. Mindat has yet to note an occurrence of this extremely rare neodymium mineral in the United States, even though the United States National Museum analyzed it approximately 25 years ago and confirmed the lanthanite identification. Collected at Medford in 1970 in a single rock, the 10x photograph at right shows micro-crystals from one of the seven pieces---all that exist--- into which the rock was broken. More plentiful at Medford are lavender calcite crystals such as pictured beneath the aurcichalcite. I also found a crystal like this a couple years ago, though it was nowhere near as appealing.

Fred Parker's Maryland collection also includes gold from Carroll County. Numerous papers have been written about the gold mined during past centuries in Montgomery County. Occurrences in Carroll County, however, are practically unknown. The gold pictured at left was collected at the Maryland Gold Mine in Montgomery County. The specimen at right, from near Sykesville in Carroll County, was self-collected by Fred Parker.

And finally, anyone who knows Fred Parker's mineralogical background could likely have a querie at this point: "Why not more about Hunting Hill?" Not only did Fred author what is probably the most comprehensive and up to date article about the minerals of this quarry (Mineralogical Record, September, 2005), his collection includes many of the most diverse, and "best of species ever found there" assortment of Hunting Hill material in existence. Mineral Bliss looks forward to "scratching the surface" on some of the most intriguing of these pieces in a later post.

Photographing Fred Parker's Maryland Collection

Fred Parker was mentioned in last week's post as the "eminent Maryland field collector" and "valuable collaborator," who frequently accompanied Jeff Nagy to regional collecting sites. Within my personal mineralogical sphere, Fred is the final word on the subject of Maryland minerals. A mineralogist and second generation collector, he has authored numerous articles and papers including "The Minerals of the Hunting Hill Quarry, Rockville, Maryland," for Mineralogical Record, whose biographical archives feature him as well as his father prominently. Fred's collection of Maryland minerals is amazing. This week, he was kind enough to turn me loose with my camera and bare bones portable studio to photograph the most significant pieces in his Maryland suite for the Maryland Minerals website.

The barite crystal in calcite with dolomite from the Pinesburg Quarry near Williamsport, Maryland, is but one example. It was all but inconceivable to me that a such a specimen could ever have been collected anywhere in Maryland. My impression was similar regarding nearly every piece that I photographed from Fred's collection.

It's appropriate here to recall that in last week's post about Jeff Nagy's quest to revise and republish The Minerals of the Washington, D.C. Area, I promised word regarding a recently discovered galena deposit in Baltimore County. Along with some minor anglesite and cerussite, the find yielded the first pyromorphite ever to be reported in Maryland. This was an excursion that Jeff and Fred were in on together. At left is a photograph taken on the trunk of my car of a piece Jeff pulled from the back his truck last weekend during a Baltimore Mineral Society field trip to the Marriottsville Quarry. At right is the specimen that Fred held onto. The location of the deposit remains secret until it has been explored further.

At this moment, Fred is attending the Rochester Mineralogical Symposium, and I'm en route to New Orleans for its Jazz and Heritage Festival to indulge in another of my hobbies, namely wild music. Since collaboration on specifics could be difficult during the coming week and my Internet access could be limited, I've drafted a feature for Mineral Bliss about some of the particularly remarkable pieces from Fred's Maryland collection. By the time it's scheduled to post on May 2, Fred and I should have had an opportunity to catch up so that he can check the facts.

For my trip to New Orleans, a recently ordered book, Rock, Gem, and Mineral Collecting Sites in Western North Carolina by Richard James Jacquot, Jr., has just arrived in the mail. Hopefully, it will lead me to an interesting locality or two on the drive down or more likely as I'm returning during the first week of May. Word about anything this leads should be posted here on Sunday May 10.

Classic D.C. Collecting Guide Awaits Update

For several years, Jeff Nagy’s preferred mineralogical activity has been to visit as many mineral collecting sites as possible that are a reasonably short drive from his home in Damascus, Maryland, or his office, which is in Washington, DC. For such pursuits, his Bible has been the book Minerals of the Washington, D.C. Area, authored in 1980 by Lawrence Bernstein and published by the Maryland Geological Survey.

The book is a great source of information, covering the area's pertinent geology and in particular just about every mineral occurrence ever reported therein. The localities range from well known to quite vague (ie "Cubic pseudomorphs of limonite after pyrite are abundant in the soil around Glenelg.")

Over the last two years, it’s fair to say that Nagy has lived and breathed The Minerals of the Washington, D.C. Area. Guided by the book’s content as well as additional information from sources listed in its bibliography, he's visited over 100 pertinent localities. His experiences have led him to the following three conclusions: Many localities mentioned in the book have completely disappeared; new ones have been discovered; construction renders many localities to be transitory; and recent thinking has changed regarding some of the geology related to different rock deposits.

In short, Nagy has determined that The Minerals of the Washington, D.C. Area is due for an updated revision, and he is on a mission to make that happen. Thus far, he’s rewritten more than 70 pages, begun work on the photography (which will be in color this time), and enlisted the cooperation of the book’s original author, Lawrence Bernstein, to edit his work. Nagy hopes that the State of Maryland will provide funding to publish their final version. If not, he’s got alternative sources in mind and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of self-publishing. Interestingly, the original work bears no copyright.

The quest has led Nagy not only to collecting sites that haven’t been visited in years, but to new ones he's discovered. Eminent Maryland field collector Fred Parker has often accompanied him in many instances and has proven to be a valuable collaborator. Some of the most intriguing spots have been in or near Patapsco State Park in the vicinity of Ellicott City. Of particular interest is a galena deposit that Nagy and Parker "stumbled upon" by accident. In addition to galena they also encountered micro crystals of cerussite and anglesite as well as the first pyromorphite ever to be reported in Maryland. Stay tuned to Mineral Bliss for an upcoming post featuring photographs and more information about this find.

Nagy’s research has also led to a credible report that many years ago, a quartz crystal twenty inches long, seven inches across, and weighing forty pounds, was collected not far from Ellicott City. No quartz crystal anywhere near this size had otherwise ever been known to occur in Maryland. Thus far, Nagy has tracked down the descendants of the person who collected it and has been in touch with the museum in Minnesota to which his collection was willed. Convinced this crystal is in existence and probably in someone’s possession, his efforts to track it down continue.

Of tremendous significance to Nagy’s work is the logic that similar geological relationships and deposits are likely to produce similar minerals. Quite often, sought after conditions become accessible in the course of construction work where new collecting sites are uncovered. When it's houses or other buildings going up, the opportunities to collect are temporary. Spoils from other construction related localities, roadcuts for instance, occasionally remain accessible.

Of all the territory included in The Minerals of the Washington, D.C. Area, Northern Virginia was once the most prolific. For Nagy, it’s proven to be the most disappointing area "Everything’s been built over," he laments.

There’s plenty more to cover. The most recent dig was in the vicinity the old Patapsco Copper Mine in Carroll County, Maryland. Shortly before that, after obtaining special permission, he was able to access and explore the Liberty Copper mine dumps in Frederick County, Maryland. Only a few days ago, he got hold of some old maps that he believes will lead him to a long forgotten lead prospect in Frederick County. He figures "another year or two " before his new The Minerals of the Washington, D.C. Area is ready for publication, and the serious quest for a publisher has yet to commence.

Stalking Those Pennsylvania Minerals

The six inch long Pennsylvania opal that's pictured above is from the Dyer Quarry in Berks County, Pennsylvania. It was one of my purchases this past Saturday, April 4, at the Franklin County Rock and Mineral Club's annual show at the Shalom Christian Academy in Chambersburg, PA. From the same show, I also picked up the piece in the photograph at left (field of view 7 mm.) of cerussite needles in front of galena appearing to be altering to anglesite. That specimen is from the New Southwest Chester Mine dumps in Phoenixville. These beauties were but a couple of the several dozen minerals I purchased at this show. All were collected in Pennsylvania, and all were fairly priced.

The Franklin County Rock and Mineral Club's show was a true pleasure to attend. It happened as the Philadelphia Mineralogical Society's annual extravaganza was taking place just two hours away. Somehow, word only reached me a week before when mentioned by a collector at the Atlantic Micromount Conference in Elkdridge, MD. Word that Joe and Jeanne Dague would be selling was all I needed to hear.

To me, their presence means a diverse selection of Pennsylvania minerals and the opportunity to peruse, learn about, and purchase them at prices I'm happy to pay. Among the new species that transferred from the Dague's to my Pennsylvania suite last Saturday were lazulite from Peach Bottom in Lancaster County, tennantite from the Billmeyer Quarry also in Lancaster County, variscite from Flint Valley in Snyder County, anatase with brookite in Hopkins phyllite from Kline's Quarry in Hellam, York County; uranophane from the C.K Williams Quarry in Northampton County; and the most exquisite miniature cabinet cluster of hydromagnesite crystals I've ever seen. They are from the Cedar Hill Quarry in Lancaster County and pictured at right.

As the Dagues carefully wrapped all of them and more, I wondered across the aisle to Kerry Matt's table, only to be overwhelmed by even more fantastic Pennsylvania minerals. The opal pictured atop this feature and the cerussite needles below it were two of my purchases from Kerry, along with at least a dozen other specimens. One of those was a second Dyer Quarry Opal that ranked a glossy half page in Pennsylvania's Rainbow Underground, of which he is author, photographer, and publisher. About half of its 442 pages are on heavy glossy paper, the other half on an accompanying compact disk. All told, I would estimate the number of vivid and colorful images of minerals (and microcrystals) collected in Pennsylvania to be well over 2,000. I purchased my copy of Pennsylvania's Rainbow Underground from Kerry shortly after he published it in 2007 and continue to be dazzled and amazed every time I pick it up. You can purchase one as well by contacting him via Email (stoneman07@netzero.com). At $75, this book is not just a serious bargain, but an obvious and absolute must have for anyone with interest in Pennsylvania's remarkable wealth of collectable minerals.

After filling a flat with Kerry's minerals until the last dollar in my wallet had disappeared, it was back to the Dague's table to write a check. While settling up with Jeanne, I observed a gentleman at the other end of the table showing an album of mineral photographs to Joe. Within moments, the Dagues had introduced me to collector and serious mineral photographer John Passaneau. His remarkable work speaks for itself.

Two hours at this show provided me with nearly as many minerals as purchased over the course of two weeks in Tucson. It also awakened me to possibilities for additional Mineral Bliss features for down the road. Hopefully the Dagues, Kerry Matt, and John Passaneau will help me put some of them together.

Dennis Coskren and the Rarest of the Rare Earths

The 2 millimeter field of view microphotograph at left is of coskrenite. It was discovered by and is named after the mineralogist pictured above it, Dennis Coskren. At the Baltimore Mineral Society's 2006 Desautels Micromount Symposium, I obtained the piece in a trade with Dr. Coskren in exchange for a bjarebyite micromount that I'd just purchased from a dealer there.

This was my introduction to micromounting. I didn't even own a microscope yet and had shown up at the conference to observe what was going on and make a determination as to whether micromounting was a hobby that would be to my liking. An explanation of how a greener than bjarebyite novice got so quickly into wheeling and dealing with minerals of such complexity will be saved for a later post.

Coskrenite is a rare earth sulfate containing cerium, neodymium, and lanthanum. It is one of the first three naturally occurring rare-earth sulfates or oxalates known to sicence, a distinction it shares with levinsonite and zugshunstite. The type locality for all three of these minerals happens to be one of the best known and most popular hiking destinations in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountain National Park, namely Alum Cave Bluff. It hardly matters that collecting here---or for that matter anywhere in the park---is forbidden. For one thing, crystals of the pertinent rare earth minerals are much too miniscule to observe with the naked eye, or even through a loupe. Probably less than a cumulative gram's worth of all three species is known to have been collected at Alum Cave Bluff or anywhere else. Even so, the three minerals are products of a geochemical process that actively occurs at a number of other spots in addition to Alum Cave Bluff. This suggests not only a reasonable possibility that they exist elsewhere, but also that they could renew themselves within a relatively short time frame.

Dr. Coskren has spent more than a dozen years studying every aspect of the mineralogy of Alum Cave Bluff. The fruits of his labors are encapsulated in the article "The Minerals of Alum Cave Bluff," which appeared in The Mineralogical Record, Volumne 31, March-April, 2000. This precisely documented treatise makes for a most interesting read about a fascinating mineralogical realm.

Aside from being rare and and interesting, many of the rare earth minerals occuring at Alum Cave Bluff make beautiful micromounts. To say they're difficult to come by is understatement. I'm aware of only two such pieces that have ever sold, both of them on eBay. The first was a micro-speck of levinsonite for which someone in Russia paid more than $500 at auction . The other was a coskrenite micromount that was purchased from an an eBay store by scientist on behalf of a university in Australia.

This all goes to say that however dear that bjarebyite mount, I couldn't be happier about this trade that turned me into a micromount enthusiast three years ago. The bounty it reaped bore in addition to coskrenite the levinsonite crystal pictured at right---all in the same piece. I keep looking and looking and looking through my scope. Then I refer to Mindat and can't keep myself from wondering whether one of those little pink crystals near the coskrenite couldn't possibly be zugshunstite.

Bob Eberle's Baltimore County Digs

During the years since family and career responsibilities replaced his rockhounding agenda, Bob Eberle’s reputation for field collecting prowess has become almost legendary in Maryland mineralogical circles. At the Baltimore Mineral Society's March 18, 2009, meeting, Bob brought in some of his top-shelf finds and shared the stories behind them.

Many were from sites that Bob discovered himself. At some, the opportunity to collect was temporary. His "Harbor Tunnel Digs," for instance, was a former dump consisting largely of dirt, oyster shells, and gravel that had been excavated during the 1960’s construction of Baltimore’s Harbor Tunnel. The debris was later hauled away and dumped on land now covered by a sprawling commercial complex near where Nursery Road meets the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. Amidst it all, Bob extracted some of his finest treasures. They included the magnificent 2 inch by 2 ½ inch almandine garnet at left; a pencil sized apatite crystal extending from a book of mica; and a sheet of mica bearing a flattened schorl tourmaline crystal next to an unflattened almandine garnet crystal in golf club/golf ball configuration.

Another temporary locality from the early 1980’s was a former Owings Mills hillside that was dug up and leveled to make way for the mall and rapid transit stop there today. The primary pickings here were beautifully faceted almandine garnets occurring in a "greenish talc-like schist." Some of these pieces have since found their way to collections around the world. In addition to the garnets, Bob, along with fellow Maryland field collectors Bob Meny and Larry Krause, located and painstakingly dislodged from a large quartz boulder what could be the finest kyanite ever collected in Maryland. The kyanite was a one time find.

No less impressive was the goethite from Oregon Ridge in Baltimore County. One summer afternoon, as his wife and kids enjoyed the public beach and swimming hole that for many decades has occupied this former iron mine site, Bob slipped away to the facility’s storm drains. The area appreared promising enough to inspire return trip at a later date. On that visit, after investing a couple of fruitless hours, he began digging out of boredom at an unpromising looking rock that was jutting from the soil. The more he dug, the larger and more resistant to removal the rock proved to be. Bob's persistence resulted in the specimen pictured at right.

Among his other finds were the drusy quartz stalagmites tipped with opal pictured at left. That specimen is from a long since built over construction site near the intersection of Route I-70 and Johnnycake Road. Another unlikely score was from a feeder stream to Loch Raven Reservoir. From it, Bob extracted a rock whose quartz surface had been smoothed down by nature to leave behind a remarkably unweathered curved schorl tourmaline crystal.

Not far from Loch Raven is Hunt Valley Mall. One of its entrance roads intersects York Road near Valley View Farms. From amidst the limestone excavated to construct this road, Bob collected pyrite. While pyrite is hardly uncommon in Maryland, a solid eight pound chunk like Bob found is presumably unheard of in these parts. Later on, from the ranks of boulders remaining today piled up near a restaurant where the road ends, he brought in and showed us a large diopside crystal that fluoresced a beautiful sky blue.

The most exciting story was saved for last. It happed along the north side of Washington Boulevard near I-695 where former embankments once yielded iridescent siderite and petrified wood was easy to find in the sand pits. Before givning way to sprawl a couple of decades ago, Bob found a dinosaur bone in the sand pits. He contacted the Smithsonian about it. Upon seeing a picture, they were interested. When Bob requested an appraisal, the Smithsonian refrained, citing the potential for disputes with the taxman. So after he donated the fossil, the Smithsonian expressed appreciation by presenting him with a custom made replica of the dinosaur bone and arranging a VIP tour of the Museum of Natural History for the entire Eberle family.

The kids are getting older now, and Bob gives every indication that his interest in collecting minerals is rejuvenating. If so, that he'll stumble upon new and undiscovered localities is pretty much a foregone conclusion. Hopefully, after enjoying first grabs, he'll be willing to share them.

The Mountain View Lead Mine in Frederick County MD.

The above photographs show microscopic occurrences of anglesite (left) and smithsonite (right) from rocks that were collected at the Mountain View Lead Mine years ago.

The opening is located several miles southwest of Union Bridge in Frederick County. Worked during the 1890's, it marks the only fully documented site in Maryland ever mined for lead. The Natural History Society of Maryland’s 1940 publication Minerals of Maryland, by Charles W. Ostrander and Walter E. Price, Jr., names the "minerals to be found" at this locality as follows:

Galena, white cleavage barite, chalcopyrite in masses and octahedral crystals, bornite, green transparent and gray opaque sphalerite, specular hematite, calcite crystals, orange colored calcite cleavages, pyrite, epidote, chalcanthite, quartz crystals, and traces of malachite and azurite. Also cerussite and sulphur (Williams)

After an earlier excursion to obtain special permission for the visit, my son Dylan and I maneuvered our way through some quite thorny terrain to the Mountain View Lead Mine openings on the chilly overcast afternoon of March 13, 2009. The surrounding area was deeply buried in leaves, which obscured any traces of dumps that could remain. What appeared at first to be tailings consisted instead of slate/shale eroded from an embankment.

We searched for minerals by penetrating the cooperative soil near the openings with the chisels on the back of our hammers, then looking carefully through mud covered rocks beneath for any that seemed inordinately heavy or whose surfaces had a rounded and/or weathered look. Such rocks, though scarce, when broken open, bore generous amounts of galena. They were the same kind of rocks that yielded the anglesite and smithsonite micromounts pictured above

Though we failed to locate any anglesite or smithsonite, we did note in these galena bearing rocks small amounts of chalcopyrite, bornite, sphalerite, hematite, malachite, and azurite, and micro quartz crystals. In other rocks, we observed some of the white cleavage barite, orange colored calcite cleavages, and epidote as mentioned in Minerals of Maryland. The only minerals named by Ostrander and Price of which we did not find evidence were chalcanthite, along with the cerussite and sulphur they stated had been reported by Williams.

Kicking Off the Mid-Atlantic Mineral Season

The weather is improving, the ground moist and easy to dig up. Tailings are fresh after the ravages of winter, and unwanted vegetation at a minimum. Otherwise, increasing numbers of shows beckon where the inventory is fresh from Tucson.

The sale on March 7, 2009, in West Chester, PA, of the late Bill Yokom's mineral collection was my first mineral event after a late February return from Tucson. Bill, who was once curator of the mineral museum at West Chester Universities, had also assembled a personal collection of worldwide minerals as well as fossils and lapidary slabs. As an afficianodo of Pennsylvania minerals, I'd been particularly intrigued over the likelihood of their presence for picking over. Though many of the best of them appeared to have been scooped up before my arrival, I did manage to score a Wheatley mine piece bearing an unusual abundance of red Wulfenite crystals amidst a crust of weathered pyromorphite and also a well-proportioned thumbnail sized specimen of zaratite and chrome antigorite from the State Line Pits.

However, my big deal of the day was the multicolored smithsonite from Sinaloa, Mexico, that's pictured beneath the title bar of this post . Only a few times a year does a mineral specimen come into my possession that excites me as much this one did. I was all but amazed that someone else hadn't already nabbed it.

Within 20 minutes, my flat was full and the amount of cash in my wallet insufficient to cover a celebratory lunch of alligator gumbo and an elkburger at the Half Moon Restaurant & Cafe in Kennett Square. Next stop was the Delaware Mineralogical Society's annual March Show at at Delaware Technical and Community College.
Business here appeared to be brisk, at least where the price was right. Things were going so well at Eric Meier's table that I hardly had a chance to catch up with him. Eric, pictured at right, trades as Broken Back Minerals and is a very active field collector of Phoenixville material from the dumps at the Brookdale, and Chester Mines. He gathers enough to offer some pretty nice pyromorphite, cerussite, galena, and anglesite (after galena) from these localities at very attractive prices.
Phoenixville specimens were well represented in one of numerous exhibits provided by the DMS for all to see. All of these were informative, and often regionally relevant as well. One exhibit featured mostly Phoenixville minerals, including the first cabinet sized vanadinite piece I'd ever observed from this classic locality.

One thing that really impressed me about the Delaware Mineralogical Society's show was its Junior Booth for kids. Put together to engage the interest of young people, it was the busiest part of the entire room. Its tables were loaded with minerals and fossils for sale, some donated by club members others collected on field trips. Among them were dozens of quite large rocks covered with beautiful light green nodular wavellite from the National Limestone Quarry in Mount Pleasant Mills, PA, that were selling 25 cents a piece. Nearly all of them were more attractive than the best I'd succeeded in digging up over the course of four hours on a Baltimore Mineral Society field trip to that locality in June, 2007.

It seems to me that we are living in an age where the allure to young people of natural history has become increasingly overshadowed by more temporal pursuits, and I find the situation to be regrettable. That was certainly not the case here today, and the Delaware Mineralogical Society's success at getting all these kids involved is just one more thing they're doing right.

Tucson

O.K., soon enough Mineral Bliss will find its way closer to home, namely Baltimore, Maryland. That's after conception during a period of travel, which produced this and the past several features. Staggering the posting dates has allowed time to reflect and chart a course.

The travel entailed two weeks of driving to and from Baltimore to Tucson and back to enjoy two weeks in between at the biggest annual mineral gathering on earth. Despite a shattered economy, enough went on in Tucson from the end of January until Feb. 15 to keep Mineral Bliss posting for a lifetime. If you've never been, Manhattan megadealer John Betts's timeless overview makes for an apt quick introduction.

With the wheeling and dealing in motels and tents still happening, each year's action comes to a head Thursday through Sunday the second weekend of February at the "main show" in the Tucson Convention Center. For both looking and purchasing, this is where the largest selection of world-class minerals comes together under one roof. Each year's main show has a theme. Year before last, the theme was the Minerals of Australia. Last year it was Minerals of the United States. This year the theme was "Mineral Oddities."

Except at the shows themselves, much of this year's Tucson talk related to how the global economic crisis would impact this year's extravaganza. The cost is considerable for dealers with their rocks, helpers, and display materials to travel here from all over the globe, set up shop, then tear down and head home. As predicted, the number of attendees was less than in past years. Most of the dealers with whom I spoke, however, were upbeat. Consensus was that overall sales were down a bit from last year, but no more so than expected.

As always, prices varied enough that the difference between a $25 specimen and and a four figure piece could occasionally appear subtle. For the most part, asking prices seemed about the same as last year. I like to think of minerals as hard assets, just like precious metals, which of course are extracted from minerals and often---as in native gold and native silver---mineral specimens in their own right.

If my thinking is on target, compared to the way precious metals prices were soaring at the commodity exchanges, Tucson this year was a bargain.

Jerome, Arizona

Perched on Cleopatra Hill around the site that was once Arizona's largest copper mine is the former mining town of Jerome, Arizona. Though prostitution, gambling and substance abuse once earned it a reputation as "wickedest town in the west," a tourism web site touts Jerome as "America's most vertical city" and also "the the largest ghost town in America." Other literature refers to it as "the most unusual and interesting town in Arizona." Otherwise, Jerome has become best known over the last 20 years as an art town.

Founded in 1876, Jerome's population ultimately grew to 15,000 by the 1920's. Mining operations slowed thereafter first during the Great Depression and again after the end of World War II. By 1953, all the copper, silver, lead, zinc, and gold mining operations had closed. Though approximately 50 souls remained, many buildings (including the jail) had succumbed to the town's steep slope, and Jerome became best known as a ghost town.

By the 1960's, Jerome became a popular destination for hippies and artists. Their presence began to attract new inhabitants, who along with those few remaining mining era holdovers, were eager to see the town preserved. Through many of their efforts in conjunction with the Jerome Historical Society, Jerome became a National Historic Landmark in 1967.

Notwithstanding the preservation, enough old buildings continue to dislodge and slide downhill to keep alive the legacy that continues to attract ghost town aficionados, history buffs, ever more artists, a few eccentrics, and plenty of just plain tourists. So why not more rockhounds?

Mineral collecting is not among the myriad activities that Jerome touts to visitors. Except for a few ore samples in Jerome's Mining Museum, minerals don't seem to be a very big deal here. Regardless, the museum is a must-see for any visitor whose curiosity is at all aroused.

Of just as much if not more interest to rockhounds should be the mile or so drive heading north to the Gold King Mine and Ghost Town (once the “suburb of Haynes). On either side of the road, the tailings and dumps are everywhere and often appear to be quite accessible. The Gold King attraction itself is the bastion of Don Robertson, its eccentrically colorful, engaging and opinionated caretaker and his wife. Don pursues a mission of maintaining and keeping running as many as possible of the area's abandoned vehicles and machinery with help from the proceeds of tourists.

"Don was glad to share with me that directly downhill from the parking lot, where the dirt road becomes paved, the rockpiles along the side of the road could prove interesting to rockhounds. I checked them out and found plenty of “peacock ore (bornite, chalcopyrite, chalcocite and whatever else)” malachite, and some small drusy quite oxidized nodules that suggest austinite or conichalcite. At left are images of either side of a rock that bears a maximum of all the characteristic material.

After heading on to Tucson for two weeks and not observing a single rock from Jerome, I ran an Internet search and found two pertinent items. Listed on eBay from a seller in France was a cab referred to as “Eternalite,” the description of which somewhat described the aforementioned "peacock ore." More interesting to me was a micromount of cuprite (var. chalcotrichite) offered by Dakota Matrix Minerals for $3.50. Sight unseen, I ordered it, and paid twice again the cost to cover the shipping component. It awaited me upon my arrival home from Tucson and is pictured at right. I'm delighted with it.