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Field CollectingLavender quartz near Hallelujah Junction, California

17th Nov 2011 21:32 UTCHenry Barwood

About 20 years ago I obtained some interesting lavender quartz from a location called "Boone Quartz Mine" near Hallelujah Junction, California. I followed up on the location, and obtained directions to the old silica mine that it came from. Unfortunately, I long since lost the file that the directions were in. Could anyone give me a specific location for this site? The pit has been reported as filled in, etc.; however, I would like to document the location for future work on the quartz.

All I know is that the location was mined for silica (doesn't appear in mineral reports for California, at least that I have been able to find). It appears to be a pegmatite core, but a bit of sparse mica is all I've ever seen associated. All help on this welcomed.

18th Nov 2011 04:07 UTCEugene & Sharon Cisneros Expert

Hi Henry,

I may have the location in my files, but there are a number of possibilities. Do you think that this is the silica mine that was operated during the WWII for optical quartz, of the type used for radio crystals? Your mention of the pit being filled in makes me think that this could be the one.

Gene

19th Nov 2011 00:02 UTCHenry Barwood

Hi Gene,

I wish I could tell you if it is, but about all Ihave to go on is what I posted. Someone had sent me very detailed information about the site back in 1996 or 97, but I long since lost the file and my memory is pretty bad these days (one good reason to keep PAPER copies of electronic correspondance). If you turn up anything promising, please let me know. Thanks.

Henry

20th Nov 2011 03:28 UTCEugene & Sharon Cisneros Expert

Henry,

I'll dig into my files and PM you with the info.

Gene

20th Nov 2011 19:03 UTCRuss Rizzo Expert

Gene,

RE: ...optical Quartz. I believe that the location that you are thinking of is Crystal Peak, Dog Valley, Sierra Co., California, USA

Henry,

I believe that the spot is the first big peak to the north that you see as you come up the hill on route 70 towards Beckworth Summit, right about @ the Lassen\Plumas County lines. I was told in the late 1990's by the owners of the Halleluiah Claim on top of Petersen Mountain (right above Foster Hallman's claims) about this occurrence. I do a lot of fishing @ Frenchman where the trout are so fat that we refer to them a "footballs" (the American kind of football, that is) and was told some tine ago by the old man who is the owner of the General Store in Chilcoot that asteriated Rose Quartz could be found on Rattlesnake Mountain nearby. This corroborates what I was told by Jon & Ed. Apparently the guy who drove the bulldozer off of the top of Petersen Mountain was working this area and was finding the same kind of material before he got himself killed. I have never got around to checking out the area though because of my spinal problems.

I was also was told by the same gentleman who owns the Chilcoot store that if you follow Spring Creek up From French man Lake you could find Aplite Dikes chock full of smoky Quartz & k-Feldspar. He used to have a wheelbarrow chock full of pocket material with crystals, 1 ~ 1 1\2 inches in size, right out in front of his store.

Hope that you find this info helpful.

Russ

20th Nov 2011 23:30 UTCHenry Barwood

Hi Russ,

Thanks. I've seen material from this locality advertised since the mid-1960's, but have never found any real information about the site. All I have been able to gather is that it was once a silica mine. I find it odd that the place is fairly well known to rockhounds, and yet nothing definitive has been published.

Henry

21st Nov 2011 04:16 UTCMike Keim

Henry,

I have been up near Frenchman Reservoir, not too far from Hallelujah Junction, and the rose quartz there is indeed a more lavender color. I think there are a couple of open pits that were mined for Quartz, I recall the localities were just a mile or two east of the reservoir.

Mike

22nd Nov 2011 01:38 UTCEugene & Sharon Cisneros Expert

Henry,

Here is a link to the info that I have on the area. I hope that this helps.

http://minresco.com/vip/quartzmine/quartzmine.htm

Gene

22nd Nov 2011 03:48 UTCLinda Smith

I went up to Crystal peak in 1972 with my mom, husband and two little boys. We approached it from Verdi, CA off of I-80. Back then we got directions from the bartender at the Verdi Inn. I remember that the when we arrived at the blasted face at the top of the road, there were clear, terminated half inch, quartz crystals all over the ground. They were easy pickings and the kids came home with pockets full of crystals. I have often wondered if it was still open to collecting and hope to visit it next summer when I drive down to our house outside of Carson City. Thanks for the right up and directions from Bordertown, Gene.

22nd Nov 2011 17:02 UTCStephen Rose Expert

Linda, and anyone else passing through Reno,

Crystal Peak is a great place for the family, and serious diggers spend a lot of time there as well. After the private mining claims were abandoned some years ago, the USFS decided to withdraw the old diggings from mineral entry and maintain the site for the general public. There is a developed public campground just south of the collecting area, and many "self-contained" campers stay at the old mine site. There are some limits on how much rock you can remove daily, but that will generally not apply to the casual digger. After the spring mud season the roads are graded so that even the family sedan can usually make it to the site.

As to the location of the lavender quartz: in about 1975-1976 I spent some time reviewing the geology and exploration activity in the area around Red Rocks and the valley to the south. There is some uranium in the tuffaceous rocks that was attracting attention. In any case, I seem to recall that there was a map that showed a mine or a prospect on the west side of the valley in the granitic rocks. The map may have been in something at the UNR library. I remember wanting to visit the site, but never did.

Food for thought.

Cheers!

Steve

28th Nov 2011 23:50 UTCBob Jackson 🌟 Expert

The lavender quartz mine was last registered as the JM mine, that was in the mid-90's, when I worked with Foster Hallman at Hallelujah Jct. It is a few miles north of the reservoir on the west side of rt. 395. There is no crystallized quartz there to my knowledge, but the lavender quartz lens produces beautiful asterated spheres.

Bob

12th Feb 2015 02:51 UTCDavid Heller

It pains me to say that I had a part in the commercial gutting of that location. Here is what I know about the location. In the early 1980's the Lafayette Rock shop in Contra Costa county had a quantity of this rose quartz from their rock club forays to Frenchman's Lake. I bought some deeply hued material and took it home to my mineral business partner. At first he didn't care for the color but when he saw the asterism on a large marble sized sphere he cut, his opinion changed. As I recall, three decades later, there were more than 3 axes of asterism. The rock shop was forced out of business due to a freeway expansion and they put the rest of their rose quartz on sale for 3 cents a pound, and I bought it all. Not knowing that I had a large stash of highgrade I proceeded to sell it for a nice mark-up, yet reasonable $3/lb. The rockshop folks had tumbled some of the clear little lenses and even in thin pieces the color was rich and had fire. To call the top end 'lavender' would not adequately describe the hue, although some parts of the mine did have a distinct lavender color. I named it 'orchid rose' in the eighties as it was very different and much richer than the lavender rose from Madagascar that was the only other lavender rose I had seen. Not that I have seen an orchid with the same hue.

My partner and I split up and it was my intention to promote this rose quartz by working with the claim owner, or with their permission, on my own. Instead, my life took a dive and my former partner ended up going there, mining a bunch and attempting to file a claim which about broke the heart of the family who had had the claim for a long time but hadn't kept up some paperwork. As I was told, the family avoided my ex-partner's "claim-jumping" and sold the rights to the ceramics division of Dow Chemical in Oregon who wanted the material for its rutile content.

It is my understanding that they made a huge pit, got the best, and filled in the pit... and with the exception of a claim higher up on the hill, it has been slim pickings ever since.

About a decade later, my ex-partner's family had me do some work for them and 'paid' me in rose quartz from this mine, and so, I have a good cutting stash. I have seen the rough sell by the carat in the Lapidary Journal decades ago.

I became fascinated with this shade of rose quartz and from my gleanings there are few more similar locations in Plumas County. One is allegedly closer to Thompson Peak. I was quite intrigued by a description of the the gold at the Plumas Eureka mine being found in a blue quartz ledge .

Some years ago I followed up a lead that Gaumer's Rock Shop had had,or did have some material from Frenchman's Lake and so I wrote off an email describing my experiences. Mr. Gaumer wrote me the nicest letter describing his mining there in the 50's. He told me that a German company bought tonnage of it from someone else, but that the Germans had refused to receive the shipment when it arrived because it was too fractured from the dynamite used. (Wonder where that shipment went?!)

Most of my material saved is also quite fractured with thin lenses, it is my opinion that this material probably fractures more readily than other rose quartz due to the high rutile ( or ?--- I know there are alternate theories for the coloration) and it would be easy to 'over-dynamite'.

I haven't even been there, but have learned as much as I could second hand... I believe that you can google california rose quartz and in the first ten or so pages get a pdf from a college field trip with good instructions and some pictures of the area.

As you can tell, I have a passion for this material and hope that it isn't played out and that you folks get a chance to get some of the good stuff. Best wishes.

12th Feb 2015 04:00 UTCDavid Heller

Apparently it is not completely played out, as here is a link to a successful mining trip: http://www.greatbasinminerals.com/Collecting%20Reports/Rose%20Quartz%20Dig%2C%2024-26%20Oct%2C%202008/Rose%20Quartz%20Dig%2C%2024%20to%2026%20Oct%2C%202008.htm

and here is the field trip pdf: http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/dox/e43.pdf

thanks for indulging me, David

17th Feb 2015 16:05 UTCDavid Heller

One last comment before I go back under my rock, so to speak. A few leads for crystal hunters... while researching the general area I did come across an old reference to rutilated quartz near the Red Rock station along 395, and my ex-partner showed me some Brazilian-grade rutilated quartz(!) that he said a Forest Service employee had given him, allegedly found up a streambed north of Frenchman's Lake. Quartz crystals have also been found north of the rose quartz site... that range is called Diamond Mountains after all... doubtfully for its 'diamonds'. I hope someone can benefit from some 30 year old research... happy digging.

ps. In those links posted, I should have made it clear that the first one is or was a private claim, probably the one mentioned in the second link that has the directions to the rose quartz area.

19th Feb 2015 00:34 UTCHenry Barwood

David, your information was extremely helpful. I'm still not certain that the material I have investigated is from the same places mentioned in the field trip reports, but it sounds like there may be multiple localities in the area. Wish I were younger and could explore in the area.

21st Feb 2015 06:01 UTCDavid Heller

Glad it helped Henry, and hope it inspires some with younger legs and backs to explore the area. I feel pretty confident that Boone was the name of the family that had the mine back when my 'ex' was mining it and trying to claim it. But as you say there may be multiple sites.

This 'ex-partner' went on to explore a rose quartz deposit nearer Gennessee in Plumas county. I have some nice color, actual rose colored pieces that he found.

That whole area seems quite quartz family rich..... some ways south of Peterson mountain along the railroad there was a small find of yellow green citrine falling out of some bluffs that was written up in Mineralogical Record.

21st Feb 2015 22:49 UTCRock Currier Expert

David,

Do you have any pictures of the material that you can upload to our database?

22nd Feb 2015 22:08 UTCHenry Barwood

David, I don't know if I can post this link here, but here are a couple of images that include one of the lavender quartz star stones.

http://woodpatchminerals.com/My%20Webs/udohfamily2/StarQuartzImages.htm

17th Mar 2015 19:59 UTCDavid Heller

17th Mar 2015 20:04 UTCDavid Heller

As you can tell, I am not much of a photographer. The first pic of "lenses" shows many pieces about 1/4" thick, the darker pieces in the second picture are maybe 1/2 to 1 inch thick, and the last picture shows more of the lavender hue. Never seen rose hold its color in thin pieces. I think its unusual color comes through despite the photographer.

17th Mar 2015 20:14 UTCDavid Heller

This is the rose quartz from near Gennessee Valley

14th May 2015 23:04 UTCchickenlady

Hi! I just had a question since you all seem to know a lot about the area and it's minerals. I went there last year and got several nice specimens for my collection. I also found some that had a bright green crust on the outside of the points. Some of the points have inclusions of this green stuff too which is nice for me! I was hoping somebody here could tell me what the green stuff on the rocks is. Most of the green rocks we found were in a little hole my husband made. All the surface rocks were white. Any info would be appreciated! Thanks!!!

14th May 2015 23:18 UTCRock Currier Expert

Please send us a picture of what you are talking about.

15th May 2015 20:34 UTCchickenlady

hi sorry it took so long to do this, I had to figure out how to decrease the size of the image! I hope this helps :)

2nd Jun 2015 18:30 UTCScott Blair (2)

I just took a field trip to the lavender quartz area, guided by Susanville, CA area rockhounds. There appears to be a lower quarry and an upper quarry at the site, both of which have been smoothed over and the land more or less reclaimed. There was an old claim marker (wooden post) at the upper pit with the names "Venture 1 & 2" on it. I posted an entertainment style blog on the site, plus a couple of other field trips that I did while I was in the area:

https://scottsrocks.com/scotts-blog/item/71-rockhounding-susanville-ca

10th Jul 2015 02:26 UTCDavid Heller

Thanks so much Scott...having never been there, I enjoyed your travelogue and pictures, . You found more than I thought was left and the blue shades in your photos were amazing. I have none of that shade. Nice to get an updated onsite report!

19th May 2016 02:18 UTCGeorge Mullins

Camping is only allowed in the developed campgrounds at frenchman lake area. I am hosting up here now. Mines are still there at crystal peak tho. Advise using no car. Road has some good ruts to get stuck in and now they charge a day use fee of six dollars per vehicle. Plenty of quartz tho to pick up. Next to the cafe in chilcoot you will see the boone house where the walls are mostly lavender quartz if you care to stop. Frenchman road is paved up to the turn off to crystal peak.

11th Jul 2016 00:28 UTCRyan N.

There are quite a few spots to go hunting around the Hallellujah Jct. area. Also don't forget that are 3 peaks named crystal peak int he area. 1, due East of H. Jct, another due East of Frenchman Lake, and a third up West from the Bordertown area. The mine at Crystal Peak to the west of Bordertown is visible from Google Earth, the other 2 take a bit of hunting around if you are not familiar with the area. We are working to explore this area further as we have lived out here a couple years and are discovering more places to go. But these 3 peaks all seem to be pretty loaded with crystals.

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