How to Store a Rock Collection for Documentation

Know what you’ve got and document it! If self-collected, record the locality and date of collection. If purchased, record when, where, from whom, and the price paid. If trading with a fellow collector, record the transaction. “Provenance” is important in the collecting world and adds value. Keep a ledger and include a catalog number on each specimen. On a personal note, as a member of a gem club, I receive collections for our club museum and it is a rare joy when donations come with numbered specimens and a catalog. You can build a catalog with a handwritten ledger or, better, with database software. Whatever route you choose, don’t just keep loose cards with specimens. I knew a lady who lived in a rambling Victorian house and kept a Victorian-style collection—a bit of everything haphazardly placed in an eclectically cluttered funhouse. Regrettably, she stored all info on loose cards and in her head. Over the years, maids vacuumed up the cards while her memory of the specimens disappeared. This left her heirs with a superb collection much diminished in value. If you have specimens you purchased, keep the cards that came with them but also maintain an updated rock collection catalog.

Assessing Your Collection

After documenting your collection, consider having it appraised. Most collections are “specimen collections” of primarily common pieces. While a fossil may be near and dear, if it’s not truly world-class, it’s not worth your time to appraise. Pare down and focus on stuff that is truly rare, unusual, or would be in demand in a market environment. Per the late-great comedian George Carlin, junk is stuff we toss, but stuff is junk we keep. Assess good stuff, not junk!

Where to Get an Appraisal

Where to get a rock collection appraisal? Many gem clubs get requests but are not qualified and as nonprofits are not allowed to provide legal appraisals. Fancy auction houses like Sotheby’s mean paying fancy fees. A good place to start is a local jewelry store with staff who are GIA (Gemological Institute of America) certified. While it’s easy to find someone to appraise jewelry or cut gemstones, it’s more difficult with specimen minerals or fossils. Gem show dealers might appraise what you’ve self-collected or purchased.

However, some warn against going to dealers because they may have an interest in purchasing your collection and provide a low-ball assessment then pressure you to sell to them. It’s best to go to a neutral third party. If turning to an outside entity, seek agencies with qualifications and those versed in the category best matching your collection. Such companies sometimes advertise in hobby magazines or on websites.

Although some auction houses sponsor “appraisal days” with free verbal assessments, most appraisals come with fees based on the assessed value. Appraisers may charge a “per-piece” fee, an hourly fee, or another rate for services. If turning to an appraiser with an especially large collection, negotiate regarding fees and what sort of documentation will be produced.

Appraisal Alternative

Alternatively, do a self-assessment. If a specimen was purchased, what did you pay for it? Keep in mind: what you paid doesn’t necessarily reflect worth. One person paid $9,000 for a sapphire only to discover it was worth $30 after a professional appraisal. That said, compare specimens in your collection against going rates via online shops like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. Search the internet and gem show aisles to see retail for “like” items.

The main thing to seek? A fair-market value you can document. Don’t go to a “We Buy Gold!” shop offering a commodity price for your carefully crafted collection of gold nuggets. What is the price fellow collectors might pay? Whatever route you choose, have a rationale behind assigned values. Use hard market data either deduced by yourself or obtained from an impartial third party, not based on sentimental value. Also, some insurance companies don’t accept self-assessments and insist on independent evaluations. This could cost you big bucks, so focus on unique pieces within your collection. Search the web for appraisers within your region.

Where to Get Insurance

After appraising a rock collection, most turn to their regular homeowner’s insurance. This can be the most inexpensive option, but while many companies are versed in insuring jewelry, not all have expertise regarding specimen minerals and fossils. And while homeowner’s insurance may provide coverage in a “personal articles floater,” such a floater may be exorbitantly expensive and most fail to offer full replacement cost. Seek better deals with specialized insurers offering “collectibles insurance.” As an example, one collector spends $120/year with a specialized insurer for a 200-piece collection worth $17,000 when her regular homeowner’s policy turned her down.

What Insurance to Get for Your Collection

You can get a rider on your homeowner’s insurance policy, but they say not to bother for individual pieces or an entire rock collection that isn’t worth at least a minimum amount. Most policies exclude or severely limit the value of coverage for collectibles, but if you have a small collection of ordinary specimens, this may be your best bet.

Alternatively, some companies focus specifically on gems and collectibles both for appraisal services and insurance for especially high-value collections. When seeking insurers—as in seeking appraisers— check advertisements within hobby magazines and/or do an internet search.

Whatever route, seek a policy insuring against theft, accidental breakage, fire/ water damage, and natural disasters. If you attend gem shows as an exhibitor, consider coverage for travel and show attendance. Finally, seek insurers versed in the unique properties involved in one-of-a-kind collectibles, including such concepts as “replacement value” versus “fair market value” or “agreed-value coverage” versus “actual or standard cash value.”

Protecting Your Rock Collection

If you wish to insure a collection, you’ll need to provide evidence that you’re protecting that collection. Store specimens in cabinets or flats. High-value items should be locked in a safe. Place small items with outsized values in a safety deposit box. Alternatively, adopt a high-strung Doberman Pinscher! As some members of my Ventura Gem & Mineral Society learned during the devastating 2017 Thomas Fire in California, even rocks burn. Have smoke detectors in every room of your home and keep them charged with fresh batteries to protect both your rocks and yourself.

Those with more means might install a sprinkler system. This is a step above, but it’s worth it when you consider what happened to the national museum in Brazil, which lacked smoke detectors and sprinkler systems and suffered a total loss of national treasure. Some choose to keep a secure location within their homes for especially valuable pieces, which can go as far as a “safe room” with a locked door and inside closets and vaults. Do your best to protect the best of what you’ve got!

Transitioning Your Rock Collection

If you’ve devoted time to documenting, appraising, and insuring your collection, you certainly want to consider what happens after you‘ve departed the scene. Do you care if your collection is broken up, or do you hope it might be kept whole? The latter is problematic unless you have an heir who shares your passion or unless you provide an endowment to a museum to pay for storage, display, and upkeep. First, consider immediate heirs. Desires should be spelled out in a will or, better, a trust. But if heirs have no interest, consider liquidating the collection in your lifespan.

If you do wish to keep it intact, build contacts with a local museum and make your wishes known. Museums want collections with clear provenance and no issues (e.g., no specimens collected from national parks or countries with human rights abuses in gemstone districts). Most cannot guarantee specimens will be put on display and can’t guarantee they won’t be decommissioned and disposed of. If you truly want your collection to have a permanent place in a museum, you may need to accompany it with a healthy cash endowment.

Continuing the Conversation…

This topic is not typically discussed within gem societies but, in my humble opinion, how to store a rock collection properly should be discussed. Our collections are a reflection of ourselves. How might we best preserve the best of ourselves for future generations?

This story about how to store a rock collection properly previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story and photos by Jim Brace-Thompson.

The post How to Store a Rock Collection Properly first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Fossil lovers might appreciate that some of the first traces of rose have been discovered at Colorado’s Florissant Fossil Beds and date back to some 40 million Eocene years ago.1

Desert Rose Rocks by any Other Name

Collectors covet barite rose because its unique formation only appears — in significant quantity — along a vein of central Oklahoman red sandstone called the Barite Rose Belt. Other rock-collecting opportunities in Oklahoma, like where to find agates, can make collecting in this state fruitful. Just make sure to check is it legal to collect rocks where you are visiting. Smaller clusters of desert rose rocks have been identified in Kansas and outside the United States in Australia and Morocco. Coral-colored (rather than red) barite rose has also been unearthed in California, Texas and Egypt.

According to the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) established in 1908 at the University of Oklahoma, “few mineral specimens are as distinctly recognizable and traceable to source” as barite roses, also known as rose rocks, desert roses and “Oklahoma walnuts.”

The colloquial reference to such crystal clusters as rose rocks is more romanticized than accurate. Barite roses are mineral specimens, not rocks, as one of its most devoted geological gardeners, David London (now retired) with ConocoPhillips School of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Oklahoma in Norman cited in his The Barite Roses of Oklahoma, published in the July-August 2008 Volume 39, Issue 34, of The Mineralogical Record.

“The classification [as minerals] is correct,” he wrote, “because the shapes of rocks are indeterminate, whereas the shapes of minerals are determined by a combination of forms and habits derived from the interplay of crystal structure and environment of growth.”

“Unfortunately,” London said, “the barite rose became the official state rock of Oklahoma when House Bill 1277 was signed into law in 1968. Noble, Oklahoma, was made the official rose rock capital (of Oklahoma, and by default, the world) via an act of the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1983. Oklahoma now has an official state crystal (the hourglass sand gypsum crystals from the Salt Plains Wildlife Refuge), as signed into law in 2005, but no state mineral.

“The barite rose,” the author and geologist quipped, “would have been a fitting candidate for that distinction.”

More Mystery Than Thorns

Barite rose enthralls collectors and baffles geologists. It likes to run in veins where just a few square feet of sandstone can yield thousands of clusters. Yet when such natural gardens run dry, blooms may not appear again for miles.

“Mama nature does good,” Noble native and longtime rock hunter Tom Redwine said more than a decade ago to Jennifer L. Brown with The Oklahoman newspaper, after having uncovered one of the largest rose clusters ever found, a 788-pound bouquet he nicknamed “Redwine & Roses” before selling it for nearly $10,000 to a buyer in Ardmore.2

The majority of scientific presumption holds that barite rose formed as water moved through sandstone at around the same time as deposits for another Oklahoma configuration, the Garber Formation. Albeit London still observed that a precise origin is still “somewhat of an enigma.”

“Barite roses were deposited in fractures and along porous horizons within the Garber Sandstone sometime after it lithified (turned to rock),” cites OGS, which reprinted London’s work on rose rocks, while adding, “The exact age is not known and the roses could still be growing.”

Permian (i.e., late Paleozoic) red sandstone like the Garber is common throughout the world and yet, OGS notes, “Barite roses are extremely rare. The origin of the roses, therefore, does not result from the depositional environment of the sandstone, but stems from some other uncommon feature of Oklahoma’s geology.”

An attraction to these enigmatic roses becomes all the more compelling because, to its knowledge, OGS still says no scientist has completely understood what controls the distribution of barite rose or how exactly they form.

Let’s Get Geological

Symbolically, a light red rose flower is connected with love at first sight, that instantaneous attraction that ignites when we see something so compelling we are drawn to know more about it.

What we do know, geologically, about barite rose includes how they consist of radial and rosette “sprays” of disc-shaped barite, or baryte (BaSO4) crystals, containing angular, medium quartz (SiO2) sand derived from the geologic formation known as the Garber Sandstone; small quantities of hematite (Fe2O3) provide the reddish hue.

Each “rose” reflects the shape of barite crystals, carried by groundwater containing barium and sulfide, into fractures and porous layers of quartz sand in the Garber Sandstone. One theory posits that sulfur in the groundwater, once aerated, oxidized from sulfide to sulfate, leading to the precipitation of the otherwise “extremely insoluble in natural waters” barite.

Another more “you-got-peanut-butter-inmy-chocolate” possibility suggests separate sources of barium- and sulfate-infused waters mixed together while flowing through the Garber Sandstone, resulting in the rock lover’s equivalent of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup: barite rose.

Each “petal” is a single crystal barite and what makes them unique is the shape. “The best explanation to date,” OGS says, “is that the barite grew in the presence of organic compounds that stunted growth at the corners of the crystals, leading to the rounded shape.”

Blooms That Last

If there was a “heyday” for unfettered barite rose to collect, London surmises in his mineralogical record, it was probably from the 1940s to 1960s when Oklahoma property owners like Tom Blair, J.C. Hailey, Pete Peters, and Frank Shobert, harvested and sold crops of crystals – some at the price of potatoes – until the best localities were mined out and/or closed to the public.

Today, it’s not just the wind that comes sweepin’ down the plain in Oklahoma. Wholesale and supply services offer a geologic garden of delights, from luscious single barite rose in bloom to clustered bouquets of crystals.

Like Mackenzie Summers, whose Happy Hound Rose Rocks in Norman, proudly touts offering the largest – in selection and size – barite rose crystals on the planet. Summers, a truck and heavy equipment operator who calls finding and selling large barite roses her side gig, can back that claim up. In August 2021, after some heavy earth moving, she got permission from the landowner to take a look and see what may have been uncovered.

Her story starts like that of many a rock hunter: “I saw a little corner sticking out of the dirt.”

That little corner turned out to be a single, not cluster, barite rose measuring 17” x 24” and weighing more than 120 pounds. It took three people to lift the mighty mineral into her truck bed.

“When I realized it was, for sure, a rose rock, I was really excited. I thought, Oh my gosh, we have to celebrate!” Happy Hound Rose Rocks and images of its blooming discoveries can be found on Facebook.

Other online resources include Ron Coleman Mining & Crystal Digging (colemanquartz. com) with barite rosettes for as little as $2 each (just don’t let your Valentine know they were a cheap date), and SpiritRock Shop (spiritrockshop. com) which stocks both gypsum selenite desert roses and barite Oklahoma roses from the private collection of a lifelong enthusiast, L. Shearer.

“He spent the last 60 years of his life collecting and selling these wonderful, wellformed barite roses,” described SpiritRock Shop founders, Dan and Chris Edwards. “He called them ‘the flowers of the mineral kingdom.”

This story about desert rose rocks previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story by L.A. Sokolowski.

The post Desert Rose Rocks 101 first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Some collectors’ passion has morphed into an obsession. They’ve not only filled their backyards and garages but are renting storage units. One fine fellow has not one but three, all bursting at the seams. When your home isn’t enough and you now pay to warehouse rocks you picked up for free, you may have one rock too many!

As rocks take over, how do you get a handle on them? I offer a four-step process from personal experiences and rockhound friends.

Step One: Getting Started

First, a disclaimer: Do as I say, not as I do! My own rock pile and collections remain works in progress. Like many others, I deferred to those golden years of retirement to get around to it. Now, buried by rocks, fossils, lapidary rough and equipment, it’s hard to see the specks of gold for the tonnage and I reflect on my mortality. I’ve done the math. There’s no way to craft my way through my pile of lapidary rough. Time to downsize!

Simply getting started on an overwhelming task is the hardest part, especially when viewed at the macro level. A useful mantra to follow is “each day, one thing.”

Consistency is key. Once a habit is established, it’s easier to extend it. For instance, start making it two items a day and by year’s end, 730 items are out of the garage. Never underestimate the cumulative effects of small steps.

Step Two: Organize What You’ve Got

As you begin, follow the advice of de-cluttering author Joshua Becker: start with something easy, then work your way up. One easy and even enjoyable task is simply organizing what you’ve got. Working my way through my garage, I’m organizing all my quartz together in flats, all my agates, my trilobites, etc. This allows me to see exactly what I’ve got.

After a trip to the hardware store, I organized my outdoor rock pile by locality and/ or rock type into 40 five-gallon buckets and 30 crates, all lined up on a brick foundation and cinder block shelves. But as my son gazed at my proud feat, he shook his head and asked, “You will get rid of all this before you die, won’t you?”

Appreciate the distinction between “organizing” and “downsizing.” A ton of rocks for your heirs to dispose of is still a ton of rocks whether scattered in heaps or beautifully organized.

Step Three: Conduct a Hard-Nosed High-Grade

There’s a fine line between collecting what you can use, share, and enjoy and hoarding. It’s hoarding when you come across rocks you forgot you had or how you got them.

When you’re new to the hobby, enthusiasm overwhelms discernment. Every rock exudes potential and holds memories of a treasured trip, so you keep them all. You swear you will one day cut and polish each.

Be realistic in walking the line between dreams and deeds and resist the siren call of sentimentality. Take a hard look at the specimen that means so much to you. Was dinged-up quartz even worth collecting? If having trouble disconnecting, assume a positive viewpoint and realize you aren’t downsizing but “rightsizing.” Getting rid of duplicates and junk gives you space and time to focus on the good and right stuff.

If you’ve been collecting for years and you have multiple examples of a particular type of fossil, mineral or lapidary rock. Decide which is best. Get rid of the rest!

Step Four: Dispose of Surplus

Once you’ve organized and high-graded, start discarding. You have three choices: sell it, give it away, or die and leave the problem to someone else. Tackling this as soon as you can allows you to thoughtfully and leisurely dispose of material rather than having to move things in a hurried “sacrifice sale.”

Do you simply want to get rid of material? Or are you hoping to cash in? Offering your rocks free is the quickest way to see them disappear. Cashing in takes time, with items disappearing one by one rather than in large batches. Here are ways I’ve seen fellow rockhounds approach this.

Selling Your Surplus

The Meisenheimer Method. If you belong to a rock club, you have a ready network. Ray Meisenheimer tapped the shoulders of fellow members with specific interests and invited them to his home. My interest was fossils, and I found a table crowded with them. After I picked and paid for what I wanted and was out the door, Ray shouted, “For an extra hundred, it’s all yours!” Ray knew a sucker when he saw one. He sure got rid of his fossils fast!

A Silver Pick Sale. CFMS Past-President Dick Pankey shrank his rock pile by hosting silver pick sales, selling rough rocks, slabs, and mineral specimens by the crate, by the flat, and by the piece. If opening your rock pile for a sale, though, don’t change your mind midstream. I went to another silver pick sale, and every time I approached the host, he said, “That’s a pretty piece. I don’t think I can give that one up.” Once committed, go through with it!

Silent Auctions. Add excitement to a yard sale by simultaneously hosting silent auctions. Set a table with eye candy and auction sheets with minimum starting bids and hold half-hour rounds. If pieces are enticing, this generates a fair amount of cash to supplement the more modest income from the yard sale, where rocks typically are sold for a buck or so a pound.

Tailgate Sales. Some rock clubs host tailgate sales. Members gather in trucks and cars, lower tailgates or open trunks and sell specimens. But don’t get your hopes up. At one, I came home with more rocks than I had left with.

Online Sales. Many avenues exist for reaching out to customers. Think online sites like eBay or Etsy. However, selling one item at a time is a slow slog. Reserve it for high-end stuff bringing high-end yield.

Sales on Commission. Some dealers are willing to sell your stuff on commission at rock shows or in a rock shop. Package a couple flats with labels to facilitate the dealer’s efforts.

Giving Surplus Away

The approaches just described may yield pocket change, but your rock pile will only slowly dwindle given that most rockhounds are reluctant to pull out silver picks unless they see a ridiculously great deal. If money’s not your thing, give your surplus away.

Start with Family. If you have family with an interest, give them first crack at taking what they want.

Donate to Your Local Club. Nonprofit rock clubs are happy to take donations. Those sponsoring shows often conduct sales where they can convert your free rocks into cash for the club. They also need small rocks to fill grab bags and to use with kids’ programs.

Make it Educational. Donate to a museum or college. Museums prefer quality items with provenance. Children’s museums may take items that can be used in activities or sold in gift shops. Geology departments have classes where they use specimens for identification exercises.

Make It a Free-for-All! When a group of siblings advertised they were disposing of their parents’ lifetime rock pile, rockhounds from across the county showed up holding 5-gallon buckets and wads of cash. When told all rocks were free for the taking, folks were stunned. One person finally broke the silence: “We gotta get more buckets!”

The Ultimate Solution: Cab ’em as you Grab ’em

The way to avoid all this is by following the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies Code of Ethics: “I will…take home only what I can reasonably use…I will practice conservation and undertake to utilize fully and well the materials I have collected and will recycle my surplus for the pleasure and benefit of others.”

I sum up the ultimate solution with “Cab ‘em as you grab ‘em.” Practice just-in-time collecting of rocks and slabs, judiciously collecting or purchasing as needed then working them right away. Storage problem solved! Then again, there’s one person’s tongue-in-cheek suggestion: collect only micro-mounts. Now that’s downsizing!

Words From the Experts

In our acquisition-oriented society, an entire profession has sprung up to help downsize. There’s even a National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals with Certified Professional Organizers. Here are three to consider.

Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (2014). Kondo is described as the “home-organizing and clutter-clearing phenomenon.” Her advice? Pile your stuff, pick out only that which gives you joy, then thank the rest as you discard it. Her two-word mantra? “Spark joy.” As an aside, in an interview with Westways magazine, Kondo was asked what travel item she packs on trips: “My crystals. I travel with them to purify the space where I’m staying. They’re beautiful and spark joy for me.”

Margareta Magnusson, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter (2017). Magnusson lays out precepts of Swedish “Death Cleaning” or döstädning. Death cleaning doesn’t imply the grim reaper is at the door. It simply urges us to get affairs in order, which is good practice at any life stage. You do so by removing unnecessary things; things you don’t even see anymore, much less value. Not only do you unclutter your own life, you save loved ones the anxiety and time consumed in disposing of another’s belongings.

Joshua Becker, The Minimalist Home: A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life (2018). Per Becker, minimalism frees you from possessions you don’t want, need or use. Instead of surrounding yourself with huge collections of low-quality odds and ends, aim for quality from the start. I’ve kept many specimens from collecting trips. A lot of junk; just a few true keepers. I’ve also gone to gem shows and purchased many “affordable” minerals and fossils. But low price tags add up to quite a dollar amount when aggregated. Instead, I could have used my money to make just a couple high-quality, high-priced purchases at each of the shows.

Sparking joy. Death cleaning. Minimalism. Pick your term. The important thing is taking your first step. It’s time to downsize!

This story about what to do with a rock collection that’s too big appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story and Photography by Jim Brace-Thompson.

The post What to Do With a Rock Collection That’s Too Big first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Finding Deer

Evan and I met one of these handsome creatures while camping in the late fall on Mzatzal Peak. It was a chilly, foggy night and deadly still as we settled by our campfire after a day of hiking and digging at a nearby flowing snowmelt spring. In Arizona, any water is like a magnet to animals. It is the giver of life and the desert animals know every source.

While sitting by our campfire we heard rustling in the nearby brush. We knew bears were about because Evan and a fellow scout had camped in this same area before.

We flashed our lights and lit up a gorgeous, regal-looking male deer. His antlers were at least eight points. Neither of us carry a gun or shoot animals so we did not move as we watched him. He obviously sensed no danger so just turned away and strolled down toward the stream for his evening drink.

Calcite-Willemite Collecting

One of my most exciting encounters was when I was collecting fluorescent calcite-willemite in the desert near Red Rock north of Tucson. A power plant at Red Rock had installed towers to deliver power to the Ajo area. It was not unusual for power line workers to rock hound during their free time and one of them had found a three-foot-wide vein of calcite nearby. The calcite vein ran at least 100 feet and had small willemite crystals scattered through it.

He staked claims as a zinc property and later worked it during his free time. He eventually dug a shaft down over 20 feet, but the ore never improved and he finally gave up. While he did not hit a rich vein of zinc ore, the combination of red fluorescing calcite and green fluorescing willemite was popular among collectors and he invited local clubs to visit the site. The small dump he made was good for collecting and that’s where I did my collecting.

Watering Hole Visitors

To check out the deposit I met the miner late one afternoon. He had a good reason for me to come while it was still daylight. About 50 yards across from his mine was a desert seep in the limestone where animals came in to drink in the late day. The seep was about a 10-inch-wide hole in a limestone formation where water could be reached. As we sat by his mine and waited at dusk, desert animals began to appear. The more powerful desert animal came first, a mountain lion. He was leisurely as he had his fill. Next to appear was a small family of wild pigs or javelina. They were followed by an old bobcat. A trio of coyotes came next. They left and many minutes later a trio of deer slowly approached and took turns drinking and watching for danger. Finally, an animal showed up I did not recognize. The miner said it was a coatimundi. Looking like a huge cat with a bushy tail. It took a hasty drink and scurried away. Seeing such an assortment of wild desert creatures in the wild is an unforgettable treat. After that desert animal show, I collected some nice calcite-willemite.

A Mountain Lion Encounter

Bill Panczner and I collected at the Weldon mine on a local Reservation. It produces nice dog tooth calcite on large plates and galena with cerussite and barite. To collect underground you follow a long tunnel then take a side tunnel to the calcite deposit. As we walked into the mine it was evident some animal had been in there.

We spent the day collecting, then packed up to leave. At the exit, we could hear an animal making noise and stirring in the brush outside but this is cow country so we were not concerned. However, as we listened, it was obvious the animal was an unhappy mountain lion that we were in his home. We could not see him but heard his distinctive throaty snarling. We hightailed it down the mountain slope as fast as we could. I have not collected in that mine since!

Spiders! Oh My!

On one of our trips to Mexico, we visited the mine that produced wonderful Iceland spar calcite during World War II. We camped at the foot of the mountain and sitting around the campfire I heard Bill say, “Well! Well! What are you doing here?” He was looking down at his foot and we looked too. Sitting on Bill’s boot was the biggest furry tarantula I’ve ever seen. It was huge, motionless, just sitting there. Bill knew how to handle them so he reached down and with two fingers picked up the hairy thing and carried it off into the darkness. He put it down and sent it on its way. Why we slept on the ground that night makes no sense now.

Owls at the Rowley Mine

Bill Panczner and I often collected wulfenite underground at the Rowley mine where it occurred in quantity. At day’s end instead of carrying our tools and specimens up the steep incline exit, we took advantage of a vertical shaft at the end of the tunnel. I’d go to the surface and lower a rope. He’d tie off the flats and I’d haul away. One day I did not realize a great-horned owl had taken up residence in that shaft. As I hauled up the boxes that huge bird with what seemed like a fifty-foot wing span suddenly burst forth and zoomed just over my head. He sure scared me but I did not drop the precious cargo.

A Bobcat Home

The most common creatures to watch for in the desert are scorpions. They live under rocks so I always wore leather gloves and flipped rocks over and looked before picking them up.

I live out of town surrounded by horse ranches so we do get uninvited visitors now and then. The coyotes sing to us on some nights.

One morning we had a pleasant surprise when we had a visitor to our front atrium wander in from the desert. Lots of lizards and other visitors were always there. We were thrilled one day when a gorgeous young bobcat arrived and took up residence in the atrium. He stayed for two weeks until he ran out of lizards and small rodents from the ranch next door. He had beautifully patterned fur and would sit on our fountain wall like a young prince. It was midsummer with daytime temps around 110 and he had found a home.

When you visit Arizona to collect, just remember you are an intruder in the desert. The wildlife was here first. Mineral collecting is wonderful here but watch for the desert denizens. Just admire them for their ability to survive in a challenging environment.

This story about desert animals previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story by Bob Jones.

The post Rock Collecting in Arizona first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Tools of the Trade

Cool tools make everything more fun. Most tools can be found at your local dollar store, so you don’t need much money. Garden trowels are great for digging and they’re sturdier than plastic sand shovels. Bigger hands might benefit from a camp shovel or mini garden shovel. Other items you might want to include:

• Beach pails
• Easter pails
• Totes or anything with handles
• Colander or sieve
• Sand scoop
• Rock hammer
• Safety goggles

Read Up on Rocks

Books about rocks are the best way to get started and could be considered a must-have. Of course, online research is perfect for this too!

Field guides with pictures of rocks will help identify your finds. Golden Guides (R) are available in tons of subjects including rocks, minerals and even fossils. Some of these guides are older but are still available on Amazon or in used book stores. Peterson Field Guides® and the National Audobon Society® are top-notch and both also have guides on this subject.

If you want to dive in more, there are lots of books about geology and earth science.

Safety in the Field

Never go hunting on your own. Always go with a buddy and, if possible, take a cell phone in case of emergency. Also, avoid dangerous places. Caves and abandoned mines may look fun, but they are often not safe. In fact, old mines can be filled with bad air you shouldn’t breathe.

Tumbling Your Treasures

Put the rocks you find in a rock tumbler to make them sparkle. Tumblers are pretty easy to use, but you need an adult to help you. Here’s a quick get-started list.

• Choose rocks about the same size and hardness.
• Rinse off the rocks.
• Place the rocks in the tumbling container.
• Add grit and water according to the instructions.
• Close the lid.
• Set the tumbler in a safe place and turn it on.
• Check the tumbler according to the instructions.
• Add more grit and water as needed.

Be patient! Your rocks need to tumble for about a month. When they are done, store your shiny rocks in a container that shows them off. Clear plastic organizers with lots of little compartments or adjustable dividers work great.

Make a Science Journal

Grab a notebook and keep notes from your treasure hunts. Write where and when you found your specimens. Draw and color some pictures of your finds. Note facts like size and shape. Jot down anything else of interest. It’s your journal, so have fun with it.

Happy rock hunting!

This story about rock collecting for kids previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story by Moira K. McGhee.

The post A Rock Collecting Guide for Kids first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

But is this breaking the law? Simply put, maybe. It depends on where the rock was found. Private land is relatively straightforward, but on public land, it’s not as clear-cut.

Can You Collect Rocks on Roadsides?

Finding a rock on the side of the road and keeping it probably wouldn’t give most people pause, but sometimes it’s illegal. Each state and local government has unique rules regarding roadside rock collection, so what might be completely legal in one area may not be in another. Generally speaking, collecting small quantities of small rocks from roadsides and ditches on public property isn’t a problem. Collectors should still ask first, but it’s likely okay. If the roadway or ditch is on private property, get the owner’s verbal, preferably written, permission first to avoid potential problems.

Can You Collect Rocks on Government Land?

Collecting small, loose rocks easily found on the surface may not seem like a big deal. However, based on where those rocks are located, it could cause the collector some major grief. For the most part, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) won’t mind, but the National Park Service (NPS) will.

According to a BLM spokesperson, “the collection of mineral specimens is allowed on public lands in most cases. Collection of rocks and gems is limited to a reasonable amount … The limits for petrified wood are 25 pounds plus one piece per day and no more than 250 pounds in a calendar year for non-commercial use.”

Collecting isn’t allowed in some BLM areas, so contact the local field office to determine whether an area has any special designation that precludes collecting.

Kevin Johnson, Geologist with the USFS, Minerals and Geology Management, said individuals can usually collect rocks on USFS land, but it depends on what is being collected and on the status of the land.

Check Ahead of Time

“In some areas, such as Wilderness, National Monuments, etc., rockhounding may be restricted,” explained Johnson. “Check with the local Ranger District for information. Depending on the type of material to be removed, it may be subject to specific laws, such as the General Mining Act of 1872 as amended, mineral withdrawals, or the lands may be split estate where the United States owns the land but not the minerals.”

Alternately, Cynthia Hernandez, NPS spokesperson, said “collecting, rockhounding and gold panning of rocks, minerals and paleontological specimens, for either recreational or educational purposes is generally prohibited in all places in the National Park System. Violators of this prohibition are subject to criminal penalties.”

Hernandez said there are two exceptions. Limited recreational gold panning is allowed in the Whiskeytown Unit of the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area in California. Some Alaska parks allow the surface collection of rocks and minerals by hand for personal use only, excluding the collection of gemstones, silver, platinum or fossils.

Do You Need a Permit to Collect Rocks?

Most casual rock collectors won’t need a permit to collect rocks on BLM or USFS land. However, individuals using certain implements or collecting larger amounts of rocks or minerals may need one.

Collectors on BLM land who remain on-site for less than 14 days and only use casual collection methods usually won’t need a permit. Casual collection involves an insignificant amount of disturbance to the land using hand tools only. If using mechanized equipment, a permit will likely be required. Contact the local field office to learn whether a permit is necessary.

USFS Permits

The USFS doesn’t usually require permits if the lands are open to collecting, aren’t claimed by someone else and there won’t be any significant disturbances to the surface. A permit may be required when rockhounding for minerals that aren’t considered valuable; especially if one intends to remove large amounts that could create surface disturbances, or for commercial use. Check with the local Ranger District, especially in areas where heritage or archaeological sites or threatened or endangered plant or animal species exist.

Hernandez said there’s a permit process for recreational gold panning in the Whiskeytown Unit of the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area in California, but no other types of rocks, minerals or gems may be collected with or without a permit.

What About Fossils or Petrified Wood?

The BLM is open to the non-commercial collection of petrified wood in most areas and non-vertebrate fossils of reasonable amounts. However, the collection of vertebrate fossils isn’t allowed without a permit, which is only issued to scientific entities, such as museums or universities.

“If a vertebrate fossil is found on BLM lands by members of the public, the fossil shouldn’t be disturbed,” said the BLM. “Leaving fossils undisturbed helps maintain scientific information that helps advance our overall understanding of the fossil record.”

Bruce Schumacher, Paleontology Program Lead with the USFS, WO Minerals and Geology Management, said, “A person may collect fossils from most National Forest System lands without a permit if the fossils are common invertebrate or plant fossils, collected for personal use and not for resale, and gathered by hand or with small nonpowered hand tools resulting in negligible disturbance.”

Collecting vertebrate fossils, or collecting any type of fossil, for research purposes on USFS lands requires a permit. Schumacher said if a person isn’t sure whether a fossil is common, they should report the find to the local Forest Service office before disturbing it. Individuals also can collect limited quantities of petrified wood under a free use permit for personal use but bartering/selling the wood is prohibited. Local Forest Service units have designated collection areas and varying limits on how much petrified wood can be collected.

Illegal Rock Collecting

Collecting rocks where it’s illegal to do so could lead to legal consequences. Penalties vary by jurisdiction and may be severe.

“Violators may be subject to criminal penalties, including fines and imprisonment not to exceed six months,” said Hernandez of the NPS.

Johnson said, “Depending on the locality, land status, amount of disturbance and volume of material taken, a person could be cited or charged for damage to a natural feature or removal of other property of the United States … other criminal charges could include fines, imprisonment or restitution for repairs.”

Consequences of Illegal Collecting

Citations or other legal consequences are likely from the USFS for damaging or removing any heritage or archaeological resources. Also, removing valuable minerals from a mining claim could result in legal action for mineral trespass in the state court system.

The BLM said, “Causing resource damage or unnecessary and undue degradation on public lands can be punished with up to a $100,000 fine and/or 12 months in prison.”

To ensure compliance with all rules and regulations, always seek permission to collect rock in an area of interest if it’s not explicitly noted that it’s okay. Even with permission, whether implied or through verbal or written consent, rock collectors should also be familiar with any conditions or limitations tied to a site, specimen or planned activity that could turn legal rock hunting into illegal activity.

Is It Illegal to Collect Rocks From State Parks?

Like national parks, most state parks don’t allow visitors to remove rocks even for personal use. States prohibit rockhounding to protect their parks from potential damage. In states where rock collecting is legal, a permit may be required and may only be available for certain groups. A few states have parks especially dedicated to collecting rocks. Laws/ rules can change over time, so always check with park officials before taking anything to avoid legal issues.

This story about is it legal to collect rocks previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story by Moira K. McGhee.

The post Is It Legal to Collect Rocks? first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Here’s to also making the most of today and enjoying every little adventure related to your interest in rocks, gems, minerals, fossils, and lapidary.

~ Team Rock & Gem

The post Rockhounding Wisdom and Wisecracks first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Indian Mounds Rock & Mineral Club has a juniors program that took on new life with 11-year-old Joan (Afton) Stoker. While 9-year-old Kreigh Tomaszewski looked on, Joan kept asking, “Mr. Pearl, what’s this rock?” But I’m getting ahead of myself. That was the 1960s, and there was no Indian Mounds Rock & Mineral Club, yet.

About now, you may be asking yourself, “Huh?” Trust me, and keep reading!

Returning to Roots

Every Saturday, as a youth, Joan attended the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s Rock Club in partnership with the Grand Rapids Gem & Mineral Society in Michigan. Geology activities in the morning, lunch, then lapidary lessons. Mary Jane Dockeray created the program while volunteers Les Pearl and Russ Girard oversaw the program. Joan soaked it in, becoming Junior Helper for the summer Nature Program. By age 15, she wasn’t just a helper; Joan was asked to teach the kids’ geology group! She, her friend Kreigh, and others also attended meetings of the Grand Rapids Gem & Mineral Society, without knowing what the future held.

Fast forward several years and as an adult, Joan, with her husband Craig, went on to a career with the Salvation Army. However, working with kids and rocks remained a thread throughout her life as she continued to teach summer camps, worked with scouts, helped with home-school workshops, and Science Olympiads. Upon retiring, Joan returned to her hometown. By that time, the Grand Rapids Gem & Mineral Society had dissolved, but a new club had taken its place: Indian Mounds Rock & Mineral Club (IMRMC).

IMRMC had long served children with school visits, show activities, and field trips, but starting in 2016, they kicked it up a notch. Just like when she was a teenager, Joan was back teaching rocks to kids, while serving as the club’s juniors coordinator. As it turned out, her childhood friend from way back when, Kreigh Tomaszewski, was president of the club and the two reconnected.

Joan, Kreigh, and fellow members have put together quite the juniors program. Not only do kids participate in adult events like silent auctions and Best-of-Year contests (including Most Unusual Specimen and Ugliest Rock), but kids also enjoy separate activities that, since 2016, have focused on the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies Future Rockhounds of America Badge Program.

Evolving Juniors

The club started with 16 kids, but that number quickly doubled. Joan customizes the program each month, with binders for participants and folders, as well as offering learning packs with rock samples. Joan also celebrates the junior club members’ successes and discoveries by reporting the happenings in the club newsletter.

Routinely, during summer months, the club hosts events such as fossil hunts, rock

crafts, and a metal detector hunt. I can attest personally just how much fun they have. While visiting my son’s family in Michigan, Joan invited us to participate in a fossil-collecting trip to a quarry in Rogers City, Michigan. We saw a wall of limestone blasted, witnessed a “mixing bowl” crush truckloads of boulders, and collected beautiful fossils.

Fossils were also a theme when the group met Michigan’s Joseph “PaleoJoe” Kchodl, who has written a book about Michigan fossils. Fun is further enjoyed as junior members participate in the club’s annual show, entering displays and helping at children’s tables.

Kreigh proudly notes how Joan has created a community environment, bringing kids and adults together in ways that are fun and meaningful. Joan herself says the hobby is all about “DISCOVERING for the rest of your life,” Adding, “Always ask why, how, where?” She is quick to thank her parents, who created a lifelong love of science for their rock-loving daughter, and she is thankful to parents of current IMRMC juniors who similarly support their rock-loving kids and teens.

If you, too, would like to embark on a journey of discovery that includes fun and friendships that might last a lifetime, look for a rock club near you.

The post Rockhounding and Clubs Create Lifelong Connections first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Editor’s Note: Through this column, we honor the work and focus of rock and mineral clubs throughout the U.S. and beyond.

The Southwest Gem and Mineral Society (SWGMS) of San Antonio recently shared news of a collaborative program between the group and a local school district to promote the study of rocks and minerals.

As part of the club’s outreach program, SWGMS received a proposal from the

Northside Independent School District (NISD) to help fund its program activities. The support serves 79 elementary schools and 20 middle schools with an enrollment of about 13,500 students, as reported by the SWGMS.

The proposal included a request for ten basic rock and mineral sets with 15 specimens for use by elementary classes and five rock and mineral earth science sets, with 75 specimens, for the middle school curriculum. In addition, the proposal included 20 meteorite kits each containing one iron and one stony meteorite.

The project was coordinated by Laura Barrera, curriculum specialist, After-School Enrichment Programs, NISD; Tiffany Moreno, coordinator of Community Education, NISD; and John Speck, SWGMS.

The rock and mineral kits were selected from several that are offered by Home Science Tools (www.homesciencetools.com). Finding twenty quality iron and stony meteorites for a price within the club›s budget was much more challenging. Brian Barnett of Lonestar Meteorites was able to find the desired meteorites at a price within the club’s budget.

The proposal was presented and approved during the club’s September meeting. The kits were purchased and in early October were presented to the coordinators of the NISD after-school program.

The Southwest Gem and Mineral Society (SWGMS) of San Antonio is affiliated with the South Central Federation of Mineral Societies (http://www.scfms.net/), which is part of the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (http://www.amfed.org/).

Making the Most of ‘Rock Party’ Gatherings

“This is the power of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful: in a word, more alive.”— Alice Waters

There are many ways to explain the importance of gathering with others, but this quote from Alice Waters sums it up nicely.

Something that appeared in the October 2019 issue of the Lincoln Gem & Mineral Club’s Pick & Shovel newsletter inspired this focus on ‘gathering’. Within the newsletter, mention is made of upcoming ‘rock parties.’ Sometimes the location of these gatherings is the home of a club member, while other monthly parties are held at local businesses. Regardless of the location, there’s no question these rock parties are enjoyed by all.

According to the post-October rock party report, members gathered at the home of Jackie and Charles “Wooly” Woolridge for a potluck-style meal, great conversation, camaraderie, and the opportunity to use various pieces of lapidary equipment.

The Lincoln Gem & Mineral Club, Inc. of Lincoln, Nebraska (https://www.lincolngemmineralclub.org/) is affiliated with the Midwest Federation of Mineralogical & Geological Societies (http://www.amfed.org/mwf/), which is part of the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (http://www.amfed.org/).

The post Club Corner: Partnerships Benefit All first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

My first experience of Lava Plains (North Queensland, Australia) was around 1985, when a local farmer allowed ‘friends of friends’ to wander around certain areas of his holdings, camp in a rough shelter used for putting out cattle lick in the summer, and randomly pick up bits of sapphire and anything else shiny wherever we saw it.

Hailing from Cairns (tropical locale considered the gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef), our winter clothes consisted of tracksuits, jeans, and a spray jacket. We arrived at Lava Plains in July, full of enthusiasm for a weeks’ holiday spent alone in the bush with the promise of treasure to be found.

Venturing Into the Plains

The weather was clear, with bright, glorious sunshine and by nightfall, it was absolutely freezing. So much so we went to bed with the sun every night, wearing every garment we could fit on, under every blanket that we had bought, huddled together like a litter of puppies until the morning. The days were only marginally warmer and the only skin to see the light of day was on our hands; quite a shock to our tropical blood. It became one of those ‘remember the time’ family legends that we recall quite clearly some 30 years later, and not because of the gemstones which were scarce and poor quality. It is probably no surprise that it took us a long while to gather our courage to return for another go.

In 2016, with most of our party being new to fossicking (the Australian and New Zealand term for prospecting), we decided to try our luck with sapphires again and planned a long weekend trip to the Lava Plains fossicking area. We had done a lot of research into where to go and what to look for and felt we had a good chance of success this time around. What was unexpected on this particular weekend, was that working in a red soil area in the rain is a challenge in itself.

Not only was it cold and damp, but wet red soil becomes like glue on the bottom of everything — tyres (tires) shoes, buckets etc., and just builds up as you move, making you taller and your feet heavier with each step. After a couple of fruitless hours, we grudgingly admitted that Mother Nature had beaten us as the wash was impossible to dig or sieve. So we retreated, gemless, about 115km back to the Ravenshoe Highway to Innot Hot Springs to stay at the caravan park. It is fair to say that our second experience at Lava Plains wasn’t terribly encouraging either, and just as uncomfortable as the first, albeit for a different reason.

Focused Fossicking

However, not to pass up a weekend of fossicking, we headed to Mount Gibson, a few kilometers to the north of the caravan park, to look for topaz crystals on the hilltops of the old Patricia and Glittering Star mines. Mid-year in this area is really cold (by tropical standards), so the biggest drawcard of the Innot Hot Springs Caravan Park is the swimming pools that have heated water pumped from the local hot thermal spring. Being able to relax in the heated pools after a long day digging for topaz is just what the doctor ordered and it doesn’t get much better than that, sapphires or no sapphires.

Lava Plains is the general permission fossicking area on Lava Plains Station and the only known sapphire field in the district. Previously camping was permitted near the fossicking site, but the current landowner has disallowed camping for the usual reasons. Lava Plains is within the geological McBride Basalt Province. The area has a heavy covering of basalt rocks associated with the volcanic activity that formed the Undara Lava Tubes on Mt Surprise Station to the west. There has been considerable controversy over the geological formation of the sapphire-bearing areas in Australia, with theories that were proven in one field being soundly shot down on a neighboring field. The following excerpt from a lecture given in 2003 by Jim Elliott of Coolamon Pty Ltd, who extensively mined Aussie sapphire fields in Central and North Queensland, states:

“The conventional theory has it that the formation of the Central Queensland and the Lava Plains sapphire resources is the result of major extrusions or emissions from large volcanic sources and that the sapphire was subsequently transported by large river systems and deposited in the areas where it is currently mined today.

As a result of observations during some 20 years of mining on the Central Queensland Gemfields and five years on the Lava Plains field, I believe this theory to be totally incorrect.

I believe that the sapphire was produced from a large number of smaller vents which are located throughout the sapphire producing areas and that the sapphire never moves any significant distance from its point of origin at the surface.”

Understanding ‘Water-Worn’ Sapphire

He goes on to propose the ‘water-worn’ sapphire was actually created in that shape and appearance whilst being formed, rather than from the abrasive action on crystals traveling in streams or rivers for long periods of time. His theory makes a lot of logical sense. If you wish to research this matter further, consider: http://www.australiansapphire.com/sapphire_formation_theory.htm

The locality at the center of our research has been a prime cattle-raising area since

the mid-1800’s. The German explorer, Ludwig Leichardt, traveled through the region in 1846 and on reaching the top of the range to the east of the fossicking area, found a bountiful valley with abundant water and good grass. Leichardt named it Valley of Lagoons and today it is a cattle station of that name. He blazed a tree with his initials on the spot where he first saw the valley.

The author of a story in the Brisbane newspaper The Week wrote in 1908 “It (the tree) was burned down by a man who was not interested in the historical association.” Leichardt undertook this exploratory expedition from Brisbane, up the coast of Queensland, across Cape York and finally along the eastern coast of the Northern Territory ending at Port Essington, north of Darwin.

This remarkable trek, on foot and horseback, covered 4800 km of untouched wilderness and took 14 months. Government authorities had given up hope, believing the party to have perished on a route as the terrain is extreme, food in short supply along the way and the local Aboriginal people often hostile.

Locating the Lava Plains

Lava Plains is about 200 km southwest of Cairns via Atherton, on the Atherton Tablelands, then through Ravenshoe and Mt Garnet. After leaving Mt Garnet, travel 62 km on the Kennedy Developmental Road towards Hughenden where you will meet the Gulf Developmental Road turnoff heading west to Normanton and Karumba. There is an old gravel pit and a toilet block here where caravans often camp for a night or just stop for a cuppa. Continue on the Kennedy Developmental Road another 35 km to Lava Plains Station.

The fossicking area is on the left-hand side of the highway, marked only with a small sign in a clearing and I’m pretty sure we have overshot it on every visit. There is a parking area with a locked gate to stop vehicular access to the mine road, which is wide and well maintained (albeit very rocky and uneven to walk on), leading through the permitted fossicking area to a privately-owned mining lease. Entry to this lease is not permitted, especially after the lease owners lost most of their mining camp and equipment to serious theft.

The parking area has a turnstile that gives you enough room to squeeze yourself and a wheelbarrow through, and from there it is a 15-20 minute walk to the fossicking area of Wyandotte Creek.

Again, we decided to do a couple of days fossicking for sapphire at Lava Plains over the July long weekend in 2017. Being a good three-hour drive from home, we thought we would give Pinnarendi Station Stay and Cafe a go as our base camp. I contacted Nadine Atkinson on their Facebook page to book our sites, and as we had become a party of seven or eight vehicles who wanted to camp together, she was very obliging in giving us the larger sites so we could all fit comfortably.

Appealing Accommodations

The camping areas are so new that they were running cables for power and water infrastructure the day we arrived, with trenches and conduits having to be negotiated with care. There is a new amenities block that was yet not operational, but we all managed to share the one toilet/shower room with all the other campers/caravanners, which was a surprising number for a very new enterprise. The cafe offers coffee and morning tea/brunch, and a home-style hot meal every night if you book it in the morning. Saturday night is traditionally wood-fired sourdough pizzas, amazing gourmet varieties made while you watch, all you can eat for $20, and you can be sure some of the young men in our party got their money’s worth. Altogether, I would highly recommend Pinnarendi and we plan to stay there again.

But, let’s get back to sapphires. We made the 45-minute drive from Pinnarendi towards Greenvale to Lava Plains on the first and third days of our trip, with the middle day being a trip to O’Briens’ Creek for topaz.

I am an avid ‘specker’ myself and find that I pick up as much colour as the die-hard dig-and-sieve brigade, which makes me a bit unpopular at times. Specking is the Aussie term for walking around a likely digging site with your eyes glued to the ground, picking up stones that have been overlooked by others or that have been exposed by heavy rain.

Gems like topaz, sapphire, agate and opal are often found by this method because they are shiny or colourful, and some surprisingly impressive stones are found on a regular basis.

Fossicking Process

It did appear as though the creek where we were digging had been commercially mined in places at various times, which means that finding the original gem-bearing wash is almost impossible and the majority of the good stones are gone.

It has been said that the mining machinery was designed to catch only the bigger stones and in theory, there should be gem-quality smaller stones that escaped the process remaining to be found by fossickers. The ground is very rocky, and the soil hard-packed and difficult to extract from between the boulders. Once in the sieve, the dark wash contains a lot of clay clods which must be broken apart for inspection, so it is by no means an easy field to work.

Having a supply of water to wash the gravel would have made the process much easier, but the creeks are all dry in the winter months and the fossicking area too inaccessible to consider carting water with us. All of our party are keen bush-campers and we just really enjoyed being out in the fresh air, sunshine, and bushland, with the hard yakka being part of the appeal.

Overall, we had an enjoyable five or six hours each visit, with all of us acquiring a spoonful of green or blue chips and bigger flawed bits, a deep cobalt blue being the Lava Plains predominant shade. Only one stone, found by my son-in-law, was a possible gem-quality cutter.

It is amazing how the trip walking back to the cars in the afternoon, although mostly downhill, always seems much more tedious than the one going uphill in the morning.

I had collected my haul of gems in a small glass jar. On our last day, as I was heaving my weary bones into our Landcruiser to leave, the jar dropped from my hand, landed neatly on the rockslider bar, smashed to smithereens in the long grass and I lost the lot. So if you ever visit Lava Plains, remember to have a quick speck around the carpark and you might be lucky.

Memories Created, Valuable Lessons Learned

I have always felt that fossicking is a game of chance, and like gambling, becomes

addictive. Being enthusiastic gem-hunters, I know we will return to Lava Plains for years to come, as ‘you just never know what you might find’ despite our previous experiences. Good stones have and still do, come from this field.

In mid-2016, as our families traveled through Mt. Surprise topaz-hunting, we stopped at the Gem Den, one of the local rock shops, where Leigh’s son bought a lovely blue Lava Plains faceted sapphire for the centre stone of the engagement ring for his future wife (Jenni’s daughter), thus Lava Plains has a lot of memories and good associations for us.

The Gem Den has a large range of beautiful local and imported, cut and rough gems of all sorts and quality ready-made jewelry for sale, well worth a look if you are passing through and you could get yourself a little, quality piece of Australia as a souvenir to remember your visit.

The post Lava Plains first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.