Northwest Utah

I'm planning a trip soon to this area of Utah and was wondering if Tecoma Hill mine (wulfenite, plattnerite, etc) and the Utahlite claims (metavariscite, wardite, etc) are open or off limits. Also, I understand the tunnels at Gold Hill are shut but the Glory hole is still open? Thanks!

Ron,
I was at all those mines about a month ago.

The variscite is closed off. The law firm representing the claims say they will prosecute anyone who collects there. They even asked me to turn people in for collecting there. (I would never consider this and I know some people have collected there recently).

Tecoma is open (not posted) and collecting is good, BUT it is dangerous. Take appropriate caution. There is not much on the dumps. I have collected there for about 15 years. Copper Mountain, just above Tecoma was posted no collecting when I was there last.

At Gold Hill, the underground adits are all posted no trespassing. The pits & dumps are not posted and still provide some nice collecting opportunities.

I can provide more detailed information on what to collect and where to collect at each site if you are interested in more information.

Rick
I know I am in my own little world, but everyone knows me here.

I just returned from a 5 day collecting trip to Gold Hill, Utah and several mines in Nevada. A very good trip! I collected in the Glory hole at Gold Hill and found some nice minerals. I did a little digging on the tramway and found some keepers there, too. Best of the trip was a pair of miniature size Connellite specimens and a small cabinet of Carminite in excellent crystal on blue Scorodite crystals. This came from the 80" level dump about a foot and a half down. I zig zagged through Nevada and hit the Silver Coin, Douglas Hill, 3 Metals and the Linka mine. I did very well at all of them but the Silver Coin is about worked out for easy pickings. I did find a lot of good stuff by digging along the walls in the mine where others had dropped stuff while mining specimens. There is still good stuff to be found at the 3 Metals mine, Atacamite crystals being a new discovery for that locality. The dumps at Douglas hill were fairly productive. Some nice Libethenite and Pseudomalachite were found. My nicest piece is a small cabinet specimen covered with Pottsite from the type locality, the Linka mine. I dug this out of the lower section of the back wall and it was the only sign of Pottsite I saw. I did'nt make it to Tecoma Hill mine or Thomas Range. It's getting warm out there so this fall I'll hit those areas.

Ron,

I am glad to hear you had a good trip. Any pictures?

No pictures yet.I'm in the process of buying a Dino-Lite for taking photos of my micro minerals. I usually don't take a camera on my collecting trips since I have a bad habit of leaving things behind. I left a brand new Garmin GPS at the unnamed prospect where Rongibbsite is found back in February of this year. I didn't realize it was missing until I got back to California. I was bummed.