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Field CollectingSouth Dakota...Badlands and Black Hills area?

23rd Jun 2018 21:36 UTCScott DeLano

Hello! Heading up there in Sept or Oct of this year. Do you know of any places that I could go to look for crystals or minerals on my spare time? Maybe even someplace that charges to go through their tailings? Thank you for your help!

25th Jun 2018 13:54 UTCJoel Herr

Hello. I don't know of any 'pay to dig' sites, but there was a sign on the old Hill City to Keystone road (the one that follows the train tracks) that indicated you could pay to go dig in an underground mine, but on my last trip through there earlier this month I could not locate the sign/phone number. It was just outside of Keystone if you want to try to find it.

As far as the Badlands area, obviously stay out of the Badlands National Park - no collecting allowed in there, but the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands all around the park is open for it. You may already have these resources, but if you go onto the USDA Forest Service website and bring up Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands, you can find a rockhounding map showing Rock Collecting Locations on the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. As a starting point this map is very accurate and I still hunt in the areas shown for prairie agates, weathered rose quartz, horn coral, and of course fairburn agates. If you are looking for more 'special' minerals like golden barite, etc... good luck with that.

For the Black Hills there are several resources that will help you locate abandoned mines that have all the tailings you could want. Dakota Matrix web site has a Maps and Mineral Books section that has Maps (paper and computer versions) showing where all the mines are located (abandoned and those that still have claims - although they don't tell you which is which since that changes). Combine this with the Motor Vehicle Use Maps from the Forest Service showing where public lands are located, watch for mining claim signs, and you can spend weeks there collecting. However, as far as 'crystals' go, I don't find many nicely formed specimens except for some black tourmaline (schorl) and an occasional formed beryl. The schorls are quite brittle but there are some pegmatites where you can extract rather large/nice crystals. Most of the quartz (rose and otherwise) is in massive form (not sure if I am using that term correctly, but you don't find nicely formed terminated quartz crystals very often). A few miles West of Custer are the Rainbow #4 mine right off the main highway on a forest service road, and the Helen Beryl mine is on that same forest service road but a few miles in. Both have a great material to search through. I can provide more specific directions if you need but I think doing the research after having a clue is half the fun.

Hope you have fun - this area is my favorite place to go...

25th Jun 2018 14:07 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

Since you'll be so close, I would stop by the School of Mines museum: https://www.sdsmt.edu/Academics/Museum-of-Geology/Museum/

25th Jun 2018 14:19 UTCJoel Herr

Another surprisingly nice museum (albeit small) is the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in Hill City right on Main Street. Obviously nothing like the School of Mines, but as you walk in and up the stairs, if you turn and go around to the right just before the cash register, there are some mineral cabinets with some local specimens for sale at quite reasonable prices - If you want a golden barite crystal, you might want to look there - I have one in my collection. I don't think many people look in these cabinets. The museum itself is worth the money to walk through as well and they have a great agate display. Anyway, just something that came to mind when I read Kevin's note.

25th Jun 2018 18:01 UTCRobert Farrar

Thanks Joel, for the nice comments. The Museum@Black Hills Institute is best known for its fossils. See the January 2017 issue of Rocks and Minerals for an overview of the history and collections. Our minerals are not as well-known today as they were in the past, but we maintain a collection with special emphasis on the local finds. The business, Black Hills Institute, was begun from W. L. Roberts Black Hills Minerals in the 1970s, after Bill Roberts took his position at the SDSM&T Museum of Geology. Researchers are welcome to examine the non-displayed portions of the mineral collection, by appointment.

25th Jun 2018 18:35 UTCScott DeLano

Thank you for the info Joel! I've had my eye on the Helen Beryl mine. I will dig into this information and see where it leads me. I do have one question, may I ask you for directions to the Helen Beryl mine? I have GPS coordinates but since you are familiar with the area, I thought I would ask you for good basic directions to get there. You can email me if you would like...I would greatly appreciate it...thank you everyone!

25th Jun 2018 18:55 UTCScott DeLano

I think I found the Helen Beryl mine on Google maps. I zoomed in. There appears to be homes nearby to the mine. Is there a way to access the mine without coming through peoples property? I don't want to intrude on anyone. Thx.

25th Jun 2018 19:29 UTCJoel Herr

You are very welcome. You are correct about the proximity to private property. However, if you follow Forest Service Road 409 off of highway 16 you will remain on public land the whole way - and go right by the Rainbow mine as well just as you get off of 16. You will go very close to some barns, etc.. of the private land that is near the mine, but you will be on public land if you stay on the forest service road. Note: the forest service roads are not super-well maintained so there are some rough areas. This one doesn't require a high-clearance vehicle usually, but it depends how many hard rains they have had lately.

25th Jun 2018 19:32 UTCJoel Herr

I wanted to clarify forest service road 409; you will need to follow spur 409.1A off of 409 to make it around to the Helen Beryl mine after you are on 409 for a mile or so... sometimes the spur signs are not where they should be or are missing altogether so I like to study the topography maps and satellite views before embarking. Also if you have a good GPS unit with tracking capability, that really helps you if you go down the wrong spur.

27th Jun 2018 01:35 UTCEd Clopton 🌟 Expert

I collected many times at the Helen Beryl mine about 30 years ago while working summers at Jewel Cave National Monument for the National Park Service. The wild raspberries there are a significant fringe benefit when they are in season! The Tip Top mine, famous for exotic phosphates, is also located near there, but it may no longer be accessible. I would love to get out that way again some day, but it's a long way from Maine . . . .

27th Jun 2018 02:36 UTCJoel Herr

Hello Ed. I think we contributed to a common thread a year or so ago about the Black Hills as well. I wish I had the opportunity to work out there as you had... The Tip Top mine is claimed currently - by the guy who runs the Dakota Matrix web site. Lots of other pegmatites to explore though. I suspect the Hills have changed some since you were last there.

27th Jun 2018 10:55 UTCScott DeLano

Thank you once again for the information. I am looking forward to my trip.

27th Jun 2018 16:50 UTCLarry Maltby Expert

Scott, it sounds like you have your trip planed. There are a lot of great comments in this thread and here are a few more ideas if you have time.

We took our first family camping trip to the area in 1963 and we have returned many times since. We have spent many hours hiking the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. The variety is quite striking, Fairburn Agates (hard to find), prairie agates etc. The alluvial gravels also contain a lot of petrified wood. They are various shades of tan, through brown to almost black and show excellent woody structure. They are elongated and rounded resembling drift wood easy to miss in the alluvium.

If you travel the road between Interior and Scenic you will see signs that say entering the National Park and leaving the National Park. As you near Scenic and see the sign that says “leaving”, start looking for veins of Chalcedony that protrude from the ground. Some of the veins contain calcite centers that show well devolved micro crystals. Under Short wave ultra violet light the chalcedony is mint green and the calcite is red

looking like a green and red sandwich.

Even though you can’t collect in Badlands National park, a drive through is well worth the effort. You will see textbook Oligocene geology.

Climbing Harney Peak (now Black Elk Peak) will take most of a day but the view is spectacular. It is the highest peak in the area and you look down on the surrounding country with no other peaks blocking the view. The small square looking peak far below and toward the east is Mt. Rushmore. Easy trip, more of a hike than a climb, look for mountain goats.

South of the Black Hills at Hot Springs, South Dakota is a museum with a large pavilion covering the site where about 100 mammoth skeletons were found. Many of the bones are displayed in situ.

The photo below shows some of the alluvial petrified wood found in the Buffalo Gap National Grass Lands. I think that the one with the most color is a cast.

27th Jun 2018 20:10 UTCScott DeLano

Thank you very much for the additional information. We are still working out the details of our trip, but I will add your ideas the pot. It should be a good vacation!

28th Sep 2018 23:04 UTCScott DeLano

Joel,

I hope you dont mind, but i would like for you to take a look at this specimen for me since you are so familiar with the Black Hills.

I found this sample near the Helen Beryl Mine. There are clear crystals randomly spread across the sample with bits of tourmaline here and there. The crystals appear to be hard. I cannot scratch them. The crystals are randomly tossed around that they seem to be encased in a form of granite?

Do you think they are simply quartz crystals? What may have caused their random positioning?

Thank you for your time!

2nd Oct 2018 04:25 UTCScott DeLano

Here are some hopefully clearer pictures...

2nd Oct 2018 04:26 UTCScott DeLano

Couple more

2nd Oct 2018 09:22 UTCDavid Von Bargen Manager

They actually look more like a feldspar (probably a plagioclase). What you have is a porphyry. You have the larger crystals growing in a melt and then the lava either is erupted to the surface, or moves underground to someplace where the surroundings are cooler. the rest of the molten rock then forms smaller crystals as the lava cools faster.

2nd Oct 2018 13:45 UTCScott DeLano

Thank you for the information David...considering the location of where I found these, your answer makes sense. I looked up some examples of plagioclase and porphyry, and they appear to be spot on to what I have. Thanks!

2nd Oct 2018 20:36 UTCJoel Herr

Scott, thanks for asking for my input. The second picture from the 9/28 post seems the best to zoom in on. The black material appears to be black tourmaline (schorl) - you can make out some of the crystal faces, albeit small. The lighter green/yellow areas look like the beryl I see at the Helen Beryl mine, and the reddish/pink areas look like the feldspar that is prevalent there as well color wise, although the material in your sample is not as blocky. The areas that I believe you are referring to as quartz does look like that to me from that second picture. The surfaces are fractured and chipped, and not in the way that a typical feldspar would be. The internal fractures look like the quartz I see in the area as well. The material coming from the Helen Beryl mine is 'solid' for a better term. It is hard to break off pieces from the various boulders that are scattered about. I have come across smaller pegmatites within a few miles that have material that is very similar looking to yours but that breaks apart and even crumbles when you strike it - although those seem to have a higher concentration of tourmaline come to think of it. Not sure which yours is, and if that characteristic would be beneficial for this discussion or not but it might lead to a better understanding of the material between what I think are quartz crystals.

I've been trying to make it out to the Hills again yet this fall, but I think the weather has turned and freezing temps are upon them, so it looks like next spring....

2nd Oct 2018 21:41 UTCScott DeLano

Thank you very much Joel...I appreciate your input on my pictures...it has been very helpful!

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