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GeneralBlue Ball, Pennsylvania

24th Jun 2008 04:31 UTCEd Godsey

I have a couple of Goethite pseudo Pyrite that are labelled simply Blue Ball, Pennsylvania. Does anyone know any more locality info for these common pseudos, for example are they from the Mindat locality of Blue Ball Stone Quarry?

By the way, is there a way to search the DB for mine/quarry names?

Thanks.

24th Jun 2008 13:42 UTCDavid Von Bargen Manager

Look at the bottom of any page for the locality box in front of the search button.

26th Jun 2008 09:53 UTCRay Hill Expert

It must have been a deeply religious community at some point, hence the name...

4th Jul 2008 02:27 UTCJoseph Polityka Expert

Ed,

Do a locality search under Fruitville Pike. There is a photo of a specimen from thar location.

Best,

Joe

4th Jul 2008 15:42 UTCDonald Peck

Ray, the settlers in that area were (I believe) Amish and Mennonites.

4th Jul 2008 18:44 UTCJustin Zzyzx Expert

Oh Blue Ball PA....

Brandy and I are from around that area, so let's not forget, Bird in Hand PA, and Intercourse PA, all in the same area.

When we were filming this area you know we had to stop for childish pictures...I believe I'm in front of the sign for the Blue Ball bowling alley and Brandy is in front of the Intercourse PA community park sign.

Either way, the Blue Ball quarry is now someone's private pond.

5th Jul 2008 06:46 UTCMark Heintzelman 🌟 Expert

Dear Ed,

I can't say definitively, but I would probably stick with the less defined Blue Ball ascription. It's possible they may have been collected from an area exposure rather than the quarry itself (one could not be reasonably sure unless it was originally labeled as specifically from the quarry). The quarry of course worked less exposed/weathered rock for the vast majority of it's productive life, so the pyrite xtls encountered there were unaltered. At the beginning of the old Showalter quarry workings, surely there were limonite pseudos, some likely exposed during expansions or they could have been collected at the rim/periphery of the quarry, but I've personally never encountered any pseudos ascribed to the quarry itself.

A good recent example of differing exposures is the I-83 Road cut at Leader Heights in York Co., where very nice pseudos where unearthed, but the needed cut eventually reach unaltered xtls in less weathered host rock. Like you mentioned, Cubic Pyrite xtls and their Limonite pseudos are pretty common throughout SE Pennsylvania, so it's likely that the Quarry itself would not have been the only source of them in the Blue Ball area.

MRH

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