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GeneralWhat have you collected heavily?

14th Nov 2008 03:28 UTCChuck Sloan

I mean what rocks and minerals have you personally taken from the ground in large amounts? I bring this up in the sake of preservation of the geology of extinct and/or soon to be closed mines and quarries.

I have been up to Reed's Gap trap rock quarry over 100 times over 20 years (since it's in my town, and only a short distance away) and found a great variety of specimens and species. It's all in boxes, ready to be given away to any institution to study (if they even want it)after I've had my time on this planet. This kind of thing would make a great thesis subject for a mineralogy student, since I have neither the time nor expertise to study it properly, and publish my results.

I collected minerals mainly for the sheer joy of going out to isolated places, often at night hunting fluorescent minerals, and for the physical exercise. I vacuumed the Trumbull CT Mall site and have a mound of Scheelite that needs trimming, in my backyard. I beat up Swanson's Quarry in East Haddam CT, and have boxes of specimens from this lithium rich pegmatite occurrence. I had a few years with Strickland Quarry (another lithium rich pegmatite) in Portland CT, before it was turned into a golf course; White Rock Quarry; Simpson's Quarry; Hollister Quarry; Howe#1 Quarry, O and G trap rock Quarry in Southington; and a few hunts at other of the pegmatites which swarm in central CT. These are only a few of the locations in the northeast that i collected in, but represent the bulk of my personal collection. I just might follow the examples set by some of the members here and photograph some of the finer pieces for posterity, if by chance they get thrown in the garbage by a mineral hating family, despite my wishes. It's funny how one thinks of self-collected minerals. Some of us won't part with them till we are gone or think that they are worth their weight in gold for the trouble it took us to acquire them:D.

I guess I was a member of probably one of the last generation of CT rock hounds to "get the good stuff" from these locations, as humans encroach ever more quickly on them, one by one, to make them only memories. But there will still be some saving graces for some of these locations. It looks like some of the pegmatites are too radioactive to put housing on, some are on public land, and some still have good access and friendly owners who allow collecting and even digging. And trap rock quarries will always expand and expose their mineralization zones in the future.

So now that I've told you what constitutes about 80% of the "junk" in my basement, see if you can jot down some of the mineral locations where YOU have a great collection of their contents, and what plans you have for them. You may not have stuff worthy of The Mineralogical Record, but all material, no matter how mundane, still represents our collective preservation efforts, and that alone is worth all the blood, sweat and tears that went in to our rock and mineral field collecting years.

14th Nov 2008 08:00 UTCRay Hill Expert

I collected Mount St Hilaire , Dundas Quarry and Bancroft area mine sites for most of my time out east, and their minerals still form the backbone and probably the flab attached to it , of my collection, at least in bulk. I also put away many boxes of specimens from collecting in Sudbury in hopes that some of it contained sperrylite..vain hope probably, and I still haven't managed to break it all up yet and that was 20 years ago...SO SAD. I too worry about the mineral hating relatives post petrification and putrifaction, but not that much . Let's face it , it might be enough rock to actually build a monument, but it will never be a monument to my life's passion at least in the eyes of a non collector who survives my passing..

You have an interestingly verbiose style, Chuck both in regards to beer and to minerals, but it reflects an interesting mind..

By the way,..should you ever want to trade some specimens from those pegs... please let me know, as I collect gem minerals and my collection is a bit shy of stuff from your neck of the woods..

14th Nov 2008 13:05 UTCsteven garza

Dear Chuck;

You don't know me, but, if you talk to some oldtimers, my name might be brought up once of twice; I lived in MA for quite a while & have hit most of the spots you've mentioned. Where have I collected heavily? How aboutFranklin, NJ area & the iron mines in MI? Can't get much heavier than THAT! LOL, just pokin'! Actually, for ME, that's sort of a trick question, bcs, I have RARELY gone somewhere & not collected HEAVILY! Without joking, I used to head out of most mines (even w/long hikes involved!) carrying over 150 lbs in my framed mountaineer knapsack (it's a HUGE sucker), w/2 7 gal buckets, each hanging from each top side frame posts, my available pockets in my hoodies filled, & my T-shirt off & tied into a sling-bag around my neck & hanging in front; my regular tools & wedges would be inside that bag & my large tools I'd be dragging, via cord tie-downs I kept for these occassions, from the bottom frame & cross-member joints on each side. The frame WAS rated for up to 120 lbs, but, my first trip w/that bag, I filled it w/close to 200 lbs in that (along w/another 2 THICK EXPENDABLE duffles bags, loaded to about 100 lbs each, being towed w/the large tools, from the bottom part mentioned; since it was the first time of LEGAL collecting at Newry at the tailend of the Rumford's mining, it was WORTH the extra! by the time I got my stuff down to the car, from the top of that mountain, the bags had suffered near terminal damage from the dragging, BUT, I GOT THE STUFF DOWN!) & I bowed the frame into an arching "U"!

My favorite place, THEN, were: Newry, Kittering Ledge, Mount Mica & nearby RQ prospect, Greenwood (ALL those mines, there), Mt. Apatite, Havey-Berry in Poland, Black Mt. mines & several secrey spots around Andover, ME; Amherst, Fitzwilliam, Keene, Grafton, Orange, N.Groton, Rumney, Stafford, Westmoreland, Gilsum, Alstead, New London, Plymouth, White River Junction - Lebanon area, & various spots in White Mountains State Park in NH; aforemenetioned White River Junction - Lebanon area, Lyme, Quechee Gorge, Eden Mills, & Chester, VT; Wrentham, Peabody, Franklin, Marlboro, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Lancaster, Sterling, Fitchburg, Laurel Mt. State park, Greenfield, Plainfiald, Holyoke, Amherst, Hatfield, Loudsville, Sturbridge, Lunenburg, Lanesboro, Stockfield, Rowe, Sutton, Uxbridge, Millbury, South Grafton, North Grafton, ....etc; same for RI, CT, & NY. I'm SURE you get the picture. I used to live in a HUGE one bedroom apt. in Shrewsbury, MA & several people on this forum have actually visited my place, then, & can attest to how MUCH I collected; it was a DARN good thing I was into trading HEAVILY & selling, then! Have I changed? NOT! now, I HEAVILY collect places like Corydon, Harrodsburg, Salem, Sulphur, Lanesville & MANY other places throughout IN; Lebanon Junction, Muldraugh, Elizabethtown, Radcliff, Bardstown, & LOT of places in KY, & a few in OH. Again, many site visitors can attest to all this.

Does any of this sound heavy enough? I have a 2 car garage w/unpartitioned office space, a HUGE 120' X 50' barn, & an broken down van as my storage areas & they are FILLED!

Your friend, Steve

14th Nov 2008 15:30 UTCSteve Hardinger 🌟 Expert

Southern California pegmatites, mostly in the Pala and Mesa Grande districts. Have disposed on most of it since, by trades, sales, and give-aways...and have also had a few hundred carats of tourmaline cut.

14th Nov 2008 17:07 UTCChuck Sloan

Ray- most of the CT pegs offered only opaque Green and yellow Beryl, with the occasional Aqua with gemmy spots. Gillette quarry at Haddam Neck produced the only really famous gem material from CT, and it is well hoarded, and stratospherically priced. Walden Gem mine or Brack's gem mine produced some gemmy material, but I missed that time in CT collecting. About the only thing that i have are gemmy Quartz specimens, much of it crazed, but some of it of interesting yellow color, a few of what i would call "Decent " aquas, once again small and /or extensively cracked, but gemmy, and only a few Beryl crystals with gemmy parts in the crystal. I also have a few green tourmalines, but not whole or terminated. What I do have lots of is nice purple lepidolite microbooks in cleavelandite, or nearly massive amorphous form, from Swansons Quarry, and gemmy quartz from there, also quite a nice pile of massive Triphylite. I usually spent half of my time at night in the pegs looking for Highly fluorescent yet extremely thin (almost invisible) Hyalite opal crusts and yellow fluorescing manganoapatite.I have specimens of manganoapatite from many of the various pegs and it is an interesting observation that they all fluoresce with different color saturation and brightness under either short wave or sometimes much better under midrange UV, obviously due to the quantities of manganese activator and also the presumed presence of iron or copper or other "poisoners" of fluorescence. I also have a ton of Trumbull Scheelite, but the only crystals (if you can call them crystals) I ever got whole were a very odd form of Scheelite, white " blobs", I've never seen anything like it, and because the substrate was so hard all you ever got from Trumbull Scheelite specimens were flat blebs in matrix (fractured crystals) or some quite large surface area "crusts". The largest intact crust that i know of (approx 8"X11" of nearly contiguously solid Scheelite) I donated to the Warren museum of fluorescent minerals in Ogdensburg NJ. When you were lucky enough to get a "crystal", it was serendipitous, you would use a sledge hammer to crack a block just with the right amount of force at the right angle and out it would pop. The largest one of these i got was a full 1"X1"x1/2" a real weird monster for this locality and quite a prize which I'm sure my buddy Earl Verbeek will get for the museum (unless some Scheelite Sheik makes me an offer i can't refuse) close to my demise. I have about 15 other smaller ones in thumbnail boxes (the end result of working perhaps well over a ton of material), they are true hen's teeth.>:D<. i also have a small box of the phosphorescent and thermoluminescent Fluorite form the area, often called "Chlorophane" (not to be confused with Franklin phosphorescent Sphaleriite called "cleiophane" (sp?), but I'm hesitant to trade or sell this material. because it is unstable to light, just as the beautiful orange phosphorescence seen in Spodumene form Strickland Quarrry, as it eventually just exhibits a ho-hum fluorescent blue color under long wave UV. Oddly enough, a few of the Spod crystals are resistant to fading to a non-phosphorescent, ho-hum blue fluorescence under short wave (figure that one out!). I've got lots and lots of Prehnite, common green, less common yellow and rare white colored, and calcite (dog tooth and rhomboidal), and Apophyllite, along with some of the more rare Zeolites from the Southington O + G Quarry. I've got a fair bit of really funky flat Phrehnite from my local Tilcon Quarry at Reeds Gap between Wallingford and Durham CT. This trap flow solidified above ground and the Prehnite formed in lenses instead amygdules found in trap flows that solidified under water. There are some "things" in my collection that are currently unidentified, however there is a lot of Apophyllite from that location, a very small amount of it as the "bladed" form, on sea--foam green prehnite which is a CT masterpiece, i don't think the world knows about yet. From Reeds, i also have a flat of the finest blue fluorescent fluorite on red fluorescent Calcite, to be found anywhere, however, it only gives a good response as a dual colored specimen under mid range UV light.The fluorite is in the form of small colorless to weak green cubo-octahedrons and has been previously described in the literature, and was much sought after by the local yokels, however the very nice two color fluorite-calcite, best under mid range fluorescent specimens are still a secret as far as I know. I've got to stop yakking about my field collected newbies to the mineral world and get pictures of them online. There is so much to yak about from Reeds. It has generally been poo-pooed as far as a "Classic Northeast US mineral location", because most of the best species that occur there are micros. I hope to change that, I didn't bust my gut for nothing, making all those trips I went on up there, year round in good and bad weather, day and night, scurrying over razor edged newly blasted piles of basalt, that battered many a bone on my carcass. PM me for possible trade specimens, but for now all you'll have to take are verbal descriptions and I hate to make disappointing trades on both sides point of view. Bin there, done that, and aint too thrillled about it.

Steven, you seem to be one of the best "bull-worker" collectors that i've heard about. Your post should go under a new thread entitled "Legendary extensive field collectors". I could not do what you did to pack out that much material at a time. When it was doable, i used a wagon or a handcart when i was prepared for a large haul out, but when i hit pay dirt with only a number of strong canvas bags, I used to do the hip-hop. This iis where you fill up your bags with 200 lbs of matrial and carry as much as you can ahead of you where its still in site,lest some bobble head RH come and take your goodies you're still in shouting range, then go back and get the rest and bring it to the first off-loading spot,then repeat this as many times with as many bags that you had packed up, until you reached your vehicle. I remember finding a very large Lepidolite crystalline block at Strickland quarry, where this was the only method feasible. The block was hip-hop in itself, but because it was a true ball-buster, I could only do about a ten yard hip-hop at a time. The block is still in my back yard, weathering away in peace. I've toyed with the idea of engraving it with my epitaph, which is "i Rocked", and using it for my gravestone B)- Chuck Sloan

15th Nov 2008 00:49 UTCAdam Kelly

My weight came out of Becker's Quarry in Willington, CT. I still have a one hundred pound piece I dragged back to the car.

Other spots that top the list are Diamond Ledge in Stafford, CT. It's actually West Stafford, but not listed that way on mindat.

Lantern Hill, CT was the first time I climbed into a vien. Just Quartz crystals, but it had an effect on me.

There is deffinatly still a thousand pound pile in my parents yard. I found a 6 pound piece of prehnite from O and G recently

that I'd totally forgotten about. Other randoms, four pound Herkimer, a big cluster of amethyst from Southbury, chunk of rose quartz from my friends backyard in Fairfield, CT and garnets, garnets everywhere. There is some nice material beeing collected in Glastonbury right now. There is a development going in on Michelle Lane. My friend is finding AAA green tourmaline, some very nice aquamarine, and great almandine garnet.

He just sent me a nice garnet on aqua, I listed on Gail Spann's favorite mineral of the day, about a week ago. Sorry I don't know how to post links.

Everywhere I go, someone picks up my backpack and says, "what do you have in here rocks?" Obviously.

Adam K

15th Nov 2008 19:26 UTCDana Morong

How long does it take to get out decent specimens? I ask because of an odd (time-warp?) collecting experience I had once in Nova Scotia, when I walked along the beach for (nearly?) a mile to the outcrop, found a crystal cluster in a vug, got it out nicely (by removing rock from the sides I could get at, up to within inches), hiked back to car, and when I got there, only 2 hours had passed. And I am not a heavy collector, have not the actual experience that many have had, but it is hard to believe that it could have taken so little time when it seemed like longer. I hadn't even the full complement of tools that I have often carried, but had the essential ones apparently (plus patience, perhaps the best tool of all).

When I got it home, I used trimmers to carefully trim the matrix down a bit, and now have the specimen in a little plastic box with the aid of some mineral-tack underneath. Also hard to believe that it trimmed down so nicely.

Well, I wasn't about to leave that tiny cavity with the crystals in it to the weather; it wouldn't have stood a winter exposed like that. The question of course is, Why was it exposed like that? Someone opened it up and very nicely decided to leave it rather than to bust it up?

The cavity was about an inch in diameter, and the crystals are quartz, with a long crystal of calcite sticking out the side of it. I never really expected to get that whole home (packed most carefully on the hike back to car, then decided to leave be in packing until vacation trip was over, as if it survived so far, leave it in wrapping), but careful wrapping and some patience helps.

Many might not think the specimen to be much, as it is small, but it is all there, and made the journey, from the ledge, through all sorts of dangers, to finally a little plastic box. It has a label, but the story of the specimen is longer than the label.

15th Nov 2008 20:57 UTCsteven garza

Dear Dana;

It's truly hard to say how long it takes to get a decent specimen, bcs, THAT is not a determining factor in that; Here are those factors, that REALLY matter: experience of technique, experience of locale, knowledge of prospecting signs, determination, & happen chance.

Experience of technique is what allows some collectors to remove specimens that others have decided just can't be obtained, are out of reach, or, the matrix is just IMPOSSIBLE to work w/without destroying the specimen. friends & I get MANY specimens, that way.

Experience of Locale is where older collectors stick to the dump, instead of bangging on a wall for the OBVIOUS stuff, bcs THEY know the best stuff was the MINED stuff, even in the refuse piles! They also know to bring a screen to a tourmaline mine or a UV to a certain marble quarry, etc.. They're ALSO the ones SMART ENOUGH to bring bug repellent, during certain times of the yr (black fly season, in ME & NH!)!

Knowledge of prospecting signs helps in known & unknown locales, EVEN THE DUMPS; things that are obscure or obvious are often walked past by MANY collectors, while the person who's observant sees them & starts working THAT spot, immediately.

Determination sort of goes with the "decided just can't be obtained" part, usually bcs the matrix is SO hard or looks to be at LEAST 4 hrs work, just for one specimen (if a specimen is mid-grade, I'd probably do it, even THEN!). Heck, I've seen BEGINNERS beat at a boulder for several days, just for a single calcite xl plate, SIMPLY bcs they had never collected something, PERSONALLY, that was that good. I APPLAUD those type collectors!

And then, there happen chance! I don't know HOW many times, even with ALL the above working for someone, a BEGINNER or even a TOTALLY UNKNOWLEDGABLE KID, picks up a rock & asks, "Daddy/Mommy, what is THIS/is this any good?", ONLY to have IT be the BEST PIECE ANYONE GETS, ALL STINKIN' DAY LONG!

In ALL these factors, time, itself, is irrelevent; it's whatever it takes, from a few seconds to several yrs hunting a mine dump.

Hope this helps.

Your friend, Steve

16th Nov 2008 07:12 UTCJenna Mast

Ray:

I tried to reply to your PM but your mailbox is full. Delete some messages so we can talk about MSH:-)

6th Dec 2008 00:40 UTCNate (Nate {Not Given})

I would consider myself a heavy CT collector. My left hand is in the better shape of the two, I only have a couple side-glance blow scrapes from my crack hammer. On my right hand, my index fingernail is about to come off from getting pinched between basalt chunks back in July, I've got two fresh blisters from wielding a crack hammer (after I lost my surface scratcher, there was nothing left to do but chisel!), and I've got fresh lacerations across my first, second, and third digits from a rather large piece of schist that I (successfully) needed to move out of the way last night.

I've been working lately on my chiseling technique and have been billy-goating up ledges more readily and with greater ease. I'm coming to better understand the local geology and am getting good at "reading the rocks". The places that I've worked most heavily are unpublished localities that either myself alone or else "me and the locals" know about. From these localities I've been pulling copper secondaries, QCB suite minerals analogous to the New Britain Rt. 9 cut material. I have a locality from which I've pulled out wheelbarrow loads full of delicate fractal finely formed manganese dendrite fronds up to two feet in length. At another far-flung locality I've been pulled out dozens of specimens of fine Stilbite-Ca; probably about 10# of miniatures w/ minimal matrix attached.

I've got a gallon of Prehnite miniatures from Simsbury, and a gallon of junk Beryl from Case in Glastonbury.

I've turned over an est. 5yds^3 of rip-rap sized peg from an unnamed Glast. prospect and recovered a 6# beryl and also a prismatic x-section in quartz matrix a full 18cm across.

I've turned over an est. 1yd^3 at Case and found a reasonably gemmy aqua fat as my thumb, the same as Husband to find a couple Torbernite micros, the same at Simpson to find a junky but complete beryl the size of my thumb in quartz matrix.

I've collected at a number of other places, but at many places I've collected "my fair share" of specimen-quality material without having to "collect heavily" per se.

I have the standard hand-tools, crack hammer, 12# sledge, full-swing and mini-mattock, small shovel, assorted chisels. I have bull-tip and flat chisels, my favorites being the 18" long jack-hammer tips w/ giant hex heads (haven't broken one yet!)

So yeah, I collect heavily.

6th Dec 2008 03:02 UTCMark Rheinberger Expert

Nate, Be careful using Jack hammer type bits as they can splinter off and hit you like a bullet.

6th Dec 2008 08:03 UTCJustin Zzyzx Expert

I've only over collected the finest of the fine mineral locations...

Howlite from Tick Canyon. - I've had enough of this to sink a ship!

Crappy Agate - from all sorts of desert locations across California, browns, tans, brownish tans, beige, and cream! All the colors of the brown rainbow! Why do I have so much?

Barite from Palos Verdes. - Someone tell me why I've been here over 15 times. Hey, cream colored Barite goes well with the tan agate cabs.

Felix Fluorite - Nice specimens from hard work, well over 20 times

Trona - 4 times, Collect as heavy as possible! Collecting on a time limit!

I leave the gem crystals and fine jewels to everyone else. Gimme more Howlite!

6th Dec 2008 11:08 UTCNate (Nate {Not Given})

Thanks for the advice, Mark. Looking at this chisel, I honestly can't see myself hitting it hard enough to damage it, though if it showed any signs of stress or mushrooming I would replace it. A photo of an identical chisel can be seen at http://www.toolbarn.com/product/makita/751222-A/ Very little effort is involved in cleaving off big ledge, and at the bargain price of $5, I really couldn't resist!

6th Dec 2008 12:33 UTCMark Rheinberger Expert

Hi Nate,

Why I made that comment.

A friend had a splinter go through his pants and into his leg embedding itself in the bone. He wasn't using the chisel, people on the other side of the quarry were. He had to have it removed that day in hospital.

Mark.

7th Dec 2008 21:40 UTCRock Currier Expert

Originally I collected a lot of borate minerals from Boron, California and Death Valley. Then I got into zeolites from India with a strong sub specialty of the zeolites and associated minerals from the quarry north of Bombay known as Kandivili or Malad. Then I got interested in Peruvian minerals from the base metal and tungsten mines in that country. Pasto Bueno, Mundo Nuevo, Huanzala, Huaron, Casapalca, Quiruvilca. Then I decided that Tsumeb was a neat place to go and when I was going there was a lot of dioptase and other things comming out. Then because there was such a good market in the new age quartz things, I started buying a lot of quartz crystals and amethyst in Brazil and got real interested in inclusions in quartz from Brazil, mostly Minas Gerais. Then I got interested in the various kind of amethyst specimens produced in Artigas Uruguay, skunks, stalactites etc. This all lead to an interest in rare minerals and micromounts. Then Russia and China started to produce a lot of stuff, especially China so naturally I had to get a bunch of that stuff. Then amazonite from Ethiopia and Prehnite, epidote and garnets from Mali. That may be enough. Ive got more stuff than I can catalogue effectively. Regardless, specimens just keep appearing on my desk and sometimes I don't even know where they come from. It almost seams that they just magically appear. Oh yes, I forgot that I was able to get a lot of miscellaneous stuff when I bought old collections.

9th Dec 2008 02:16 UTCIan Merkel

I tend to collect heavily where ever I go. If I believe there to be crystals under that ground...I will dig...and when crystals turn up I dig much harder. I have self collected my entire collection (likely over 15,000 specimens but who knows. and I have collected from over three dozen states and Canada nearing 200 locales. I typically collect quartz more than anything, likely due to the fact that there are usually a lot of crystals where there is a single crystal.

By an large i have collected more NY quartz than anything else though. Kingston, NY is my favorite!...that is if I can't collect a few copper minerals from Morenci.

i have a general rule, if it is crystallized I will collect it and my first mineral prof back at New Paltz, NY trained to collect everything and leave nothing behind. Well that is not really too possible so I collect everything I can, pick those I like and give away the rest. Fun stuff I say.

Cheers.

10th Dec 2008 06:22 UTCRock Currier Expert

Some of you guys just wear me out! I used to collect in the field a fair bit, but must admit there were always guys who would work at it a lot harder than I did. My back sliding started when I found that you could usually buy better specimens from miners than you could ever collect yourself and then it occurred to me that if you go to where the rock is being moved for you, like in ongoing mining or quarry operations, you stand a much better chance of getting good stuff. Also I found out that in places like India and other foreign countries, there are a lot places where they don't have hungry ravenous locals ready to pounce and claw on any good looking rock face that might produce specimens and that you could just walk into the quarries or mines and lift stuff out of pockets or with a few light taps of a hammer and chizel rather than bar down huge rocks that would flatten your car let alone yourself. Probably the laziest I got was being able to drive up next to a road cut in India and reach out of the window and collect specimens from a pocket. Well, I didn't actually do that, but after the fact I reckoned that I could have rather than actually getting out of the car. In Uruguay I used to go out to the open cast amethyst mines that they were working in the loose soil overburden and stand by the back hoe till the operator would hit a collapsed pocket of amethyst (which he did every few minuets. He would scrape away at the face till he hit a pocket and then walk up to the dirt face and by using a stick or a screw driver, pry the specimens from the pocket. Once a fine specimen rolled down the face and ended up at my feet which I picked up and handed to a mine to go and wash off for me. That counts as self collected doesn't it? Speaking of screw drivers. That was the way that many of the fine calcite and marcasite specimens were collected at Brushy Creek in Missouri. You would just jam the screw driver under the crystals with a thump of your palm and pry off beautiful specimens. Some were harder to collect, but there were hundreds of pounds of specimens that were collected that way. Collected a pocket of calcite crystals in the old Tri State district by just reaching into the pocket and taking them out by hand and wrapping them in newspaper and putting them in a wooden peach basket. Took longer to wrap them than to collect them. The pocket was right next to the shaft station. They were covered in mine dust. I guess in the old days they were considered too low grade to bother with. The two days I spent under ground were amazing. Specimens everywhere. Collected some stibnites in Sarawak one time and some cerussite in Iran and in both places should have stooped a few days and had the miners put in a few rounds to expose more specimens. But at the time I was too young and dumb to know better. The floor of the stope in the mine in the Anark region of Iran had about 5% crushed cerussite specimens making up the floor of the stope. Them was good ore! At the mine in China that produced the last big pocket of fine stibnites they hit a pocket that filled up the better part of a container. I asked the manager if they had hit any stibnite crystals before that. He said that yes they had and they were about the same size as the big pocket they had sold, but were thicker in diameter, but that they had run them all through the mill because they didn't know that they had any value. And this kind of thing is still going on today in various mines. Too bad they didn't have one of the hard core brethren who have posted above around to collect the stuff. Thats enough war stories for today.

11th Dec 2008 14:28 UTCNate (Nate {Not Given})

Mark, thank you for sharing the cautionary tale; I had a chip shoot off the other day and now I can understand why my chisel wasn't deforming at all-- its brittle metal! This is sad indeed as that chisel was able to cleave off more ledge in a shot than my old chisels could cleave off in an hour. I'm going to sheath it in malleable sheet metal and use it for light tapping/ prying until I can replace it. Where might I find something equivalent, I wonder?

To keep this thread on track, I'll mention that the bulk of specimens in my collection are from the New Britain qcb veins and surrounding trap rock. I've got fine specimens of dt quartz (aka 'New Britain Herks') most are included but a small amount are

water clear. Also minor amethyst, anhydrite in sky blue and white, gypsum and super-transparent gypsum var. selenite, aragonite, calcite xtals in clear, yellow, white, and pink, limonite pseudo after dolomite, dolomite in huge plates of non-gemmy and also some small 'gemmy' pockets, and datolite. I also freq. encounter baryte along w. chalco and assoc. secondaries but nothing specimen quality-- the barite and chalco are all massive and rather boring.

11th Dec 2008 16:11 UTCWilliam C. van Laer Expert

Chuck:

As a former CT collector, you mentioned the "lack" of gem beryl, but there was a time when the Upper Meryall Mine produced a great deal of facet-grade green beryl and also some really fine heliodor. I found great pieces on the dumps, and one friend picked up one that cut a nearly flawless 11.5 carat golden beauty. Hewitt used to have me facet a lot of his material from there, and my old partner and I split one large rough that yielded a number of fine green beryls, one oval weighing 29 carats! There are also some of these gems from here in the Museum of Natural History in New York City, but I don't think thay are on display. Hewitt also operated the Turkey Hill Quarry, which reportedly produced gem morganite.

I spent a lot of time collecting the Strickland Quarry (and also the Case quarries), long before it was dozed over into a golf course. Practically everything I found there is either sold, traded off, or stolen, except one fine cluster of columbites I dug from the lower dumps in 1977:

http://www.mindat.org/photo-198800.html

As for myself, I collect in the field as much as I can; for many years to the exclusion of paying bills, working a REAL job, being just generally responsible, etc. I had so much local pegmatite material while attending Montana Tech that I regularly dumped out second-rate specimens of smoky quartz, amethyst, feldspar, tourmaline, etc., at the end of the street I lived on, on dumps from the Butte underground mines. The day after there would be dozens of kids crawling over these dumps, with their pockets filled to bulging. The local pegmatites have been good to me; I have opened literally hundreds of pockets with various quartz varieties, feldspars, tourmaline, titanite, epidote, topaz, danburite, and many other minerals. One site yielded several large pockets, the first measuring 12 by 6 feet in plan view (the depth was difficult to determine due to pocket collapse), with a "clutch" of crystals and specimens that weighed over 2,000 pounds! Literally hundreds of Baveno twins of microcline from this first pocket; subsequent pockets were smaller, but produced better quality material (see my page & photos for some of these, listed as from the Foolhen #2 pegmatite).

I have also spent over two decades collecting miarolitic minerals from the granites of central Idaho, especially the Sawtooth Mountains/Batholith. Here, "heavy" collecting is impractical, since many of the areas I have explored and collected were at least ten miles hike. I did find one large smoky quartz pocket in 1990 that took two trips to clean out; many large matrix specimens weighing 30 pounds or more are still sitting there, too big to hike out!

Also spent many trips in the Black Hills area, hunting the pegmatites there for rare minerals, especially the phosphates. I have assembled an extensive collection of ores & industrial minerals (on display in my Butte shop), from years of working as a field geologist, plus additions from other geologists, teachers, miners, etc.

Chris van Laer

11th Dec 2008 21:16 UTCJustin Zzyzx Expert

I've heard that Rock Currier used to move mountains, kill rocks with a short handle 16 lb sledge.

Even left out the legendary Amazonite dig in Colorado!

Oh, and the Felix Fluorite he collected the time he went there is better than anything I've found in 20 trips!

And he can kill a man with just a glance.

Now THAT is a life well lived!

17th Dec 2008 13:15 UTCDavid Bernstein Expert

Fun topic. I'm new to this site but not new to collecting. Thanks to my eight year old, I'm rediscovering my old. old hobby.

The bulk of my boxed up collection comes from New Jersey-Snake Hill, my Dad and I went every Saturday it seems in the seventies, a road cut in Livingston New Jersey where I grew up, now filled with mansions, the Quarry in Montclair that is now the home of Montclair State and Morris County Serpentine. In Ct. I collected heavily at a place called Captain Kidd's Quarry-great Tourmaline and in Pennsylvania, the Big Hill in Cornwall, Blue Ball Quarry, Kibblehouse, outside of Easton I believe and the Winfield Quarry past Harrisburg-I think they have an open house there from time to time. Way back when, you could just sign a release and collect on a weekend. On several occasions that we were there, the management let us watch a blast or two from a distance. Great fun and great Strontianite.

18th Dec 2008 19:30 UTCMontague Quartzman

My garage is filled with quartz crystals I have collected since I was a teenager from the Montague, NJ quartz ledge. I always used a backpack quite often weighing over 100 pounds to carry the crystals out. I have also collected heavily from the road cuts in Amity, NY and from the quartz and galena locations in and around Ellenville, NY. And my bucket and hand truck have received quite a workout in recent months at the Sterling Hill Mine in Ogdensburg, NJ, especially since they opened up the Passaic and Noble pits to the public to collect from.

20th Dec 2008 23:18 UTCDwaine Edington

In the day, Ruby Mountain, Colorado. Especially for minerals other than garnet and topaz like ilmenite and hematite. The site is completely closed now.

Lately, the Trout Creek Pass pegmatite district, near Buena Vista, CO., especially the Clora May and Yard mines. I made three trips there last summer/fall.

22nd Dec 2008 04:37 UTCPaul Brandes 🌟 Manager

When I used to live in Upper Michigan, I removed quite a large amount of native copper from the Keweenaw Peninsula and a fair amount of specular hematite from the Republic area. I still have one large copper (~200 lbs) and one large iron (~400 lbs) that I have hauled from Upper Michigan to Vegas to now near Houston. I still have plenty of smaller specimens of copper that collectively must weigh close to 2,000 lbs or so.

As far where I have collected, being a geologist I have collected ore specimens from all over the world during my travels. My "collection", however, has focused more on Great Lakes region minerals.

26th Dec 2008 15:41 UTCClaus Hedegaard

I assume 'heavily' means something in the order of hundreds of pcs, several hundred kg of a given mineral or something like that? I always had a large car, a big hammer and the will to abuse both! Way back I traded a lot and often 'traded trading material' - that is, if you have easy access to something that is rare in my part of the world and v.v., we could trade 10-20 pcs of each. That was fun!

I had lots of material from Ivigtut (Cryolite, Chiolite, Thomsenolite xx, Ralstonite xx, Pachnolite xx, Topaz, Jarlite, Weberite, ...) and Færøerne & N. Ireland (N. Atlantic basalts w. zeolites - not as showy as Deccan but lots of weird habits & species, particularly from Antrim). Långban & Harstigen in Sweden used to be very productive as did smaller sites such as Bastnäs (Cerite, Lanthanite, Törnebohmite, ...), Norra Kärr (wonderful alkaline rocks w. Catapleite, Eudialyte, Eckermannite, etc.), Ingelsbo (Microcline xx to 100 kg, smoky Quartz, Uraninite, ...), Persberg (metamorphic limestone w. Spinel, 'Chondrodite', Graphite, ...), a.o.

I could easily handle 2-3 tons of material per year ... that is while I was just collecting, not dealing in rocks! Rock is right that it is more productive to go and buy than it is to buy but I still miss swinging that hammer a bit more - it's a good retirement project.

All the best

Claus

29th Dec 2008 09:02 UTCMichael John

I fall into the hardcore / extreme category, too. Whatever I'm collecting, I get as much as I can carry, and haul as much as I dare make my old pickup carry. I have a chrysocolla mine here in southern Nevada, and I collect a lot of agate, jasper, obsidian, chalcedony, borates, and various crystals for about a 100 mile radius (my normal stomping grounds). I don't go out looking for the holy grail, I'm just always on the lookout for something different in the area. Every load has it's share of specimens, bulk, and some occasional junk. If I see something in the field that looks good but I'm not sure what it it is, I just take it and identify it when I get home. That doesn't always pan-out, but even "pretty junk" looks great in the yard!

I just wish I'd taken-on this interest when I was much younger and had a body that could keep-up with my will!

31st Dec 2008 05:18 UTCFred A. Schuster

31st Dec 2008 06:19 UTCFred A. Schuster

Hi Chuck, I have collected for a number of years in Connecticut (the 80"s and until about 96). I used to live in Middlefield and worked as a construction inspector, which got me paid time to get around to some construction sites. I am now living in Quebec Canada with my girlfriend in Thetford Mines (good place to land for a digger) and I am still working up here as a steel inspector. I still make trips to Rhode Island, Mass, Connecticut where my children are and to NW New Jersey were the rest of my family is. when I do if I have a chance I dig.

Steve, I thought I was tough! Best I did weight wise in one trip, was about 100lbs of rock in my back pack from the Goodall prospect in Sanford Me to me car.

I thought I was dying when I got to the car. I am 56 now, but lifting weights inside a warm gym. Got to stay in shape for bangin rocks! Winter in Quebec precludes collecting but I got to be ready for the spring thaw (dang in May).

Nate, I too had the same exact experience! I was in the new quarry in New Britain last Feb and pinched my finger between two basalt rocks (gloves would have been a good idea). I lost my nail and got a brand new one. so I attached a picture of this war wound (not the only over the years). I have learned rocks are my best friends the never give me lip but sometimes when you hit them the fight back. Last summer I was in a rush and was hammering a granite boulder with a 8 lb sledge, when a sharp piece shot right into my unprotected knee. (that was dumb!)

I drove 45 minutes to my friend Russ Behnke's house and let it bleed out all the way, had him help me find a drug store righ away. I went in and probably scared some people with an gaping 1/2" hole and blood down into my sock and boot. I bought betadine, neosporin and some butterfly bandaids, went to his house and scrubbed it hard with betadine (ouch) and it ended up fine, leaving another scar.

I also was crazy enough to use a jack hammer tip for a couple of years and was thinking of another one, But geuss I wont unless I get a kevlar suit! Please don't follow my example, i was lucky not to loose an eye or something else. But in the long run the hobby is good for your health. If you use caution and survive, you might come out with some scars, but you'll be in healthier shape than if you follow a lot of other pastimes.

I have been organizing my collection lately. There is about 1000 lbs or more of crates in my girlfriends cellar and I have to get rid off at least half (to make more room for next year and keep me there ;>). My specimens are almost all self collected, from some unique places, some no longer available places, but are not silver pick or investment quality. Mostly interesting geologically. I am trying to put together a spread sheet over the holidays.

Where have I collected? Strickland in Portland, White Rocks, Husband Quarry, other Pegmatite Quarries in Connecticut, although I have no specimens left in my collection from these. I have dug and chiseled in the follow places and still have specimens stored for most:

Watertown CT, Trumbull CT, Reeds Gap Durham Ct, Haddam ct, New Britain CT, Woodbury CT, New Britain CT, Berlin Ct, West Stafford CT, Storrs CT, Meriden Ct, Cumberland RI, Westerly RI, Bristol RI,

Franklin NJ, Sterling Hill NJ, some iron mines in NJ, Limecrest NJ, Andover Iron Mine NJ, Upper New Street Quarry NJ, Oxford NJ, Cranberry Lake NJ, Beemerville NJ, Easton Pa, Balmat NY, Talcville NY, Fowler NY, Amity NY, Mount Eve NY, Chittenego Falls NY, Richville NY, Gouverneur NY, Edwards NY, Black mountain Maine. IN my new home area: Thetford Mines QC (Bell Mine, BC Mine, Black Lake,) Montreal Chrome Mine in Coleraine QC, Flintkote mine, Pontbriand Qc, Saint Pierre de Broughton QC, Saint Joseph de Beauce Qc, Mont Saint Hilaire Qc, Saint amable Qc, Niobec mine saint Honore Qc, Rt 155 road cut Mekinac Qc and few other places along road cut and such. Over all I have moved a lot of rock.

Fred

2nd Jan 2009 00:49 UTCCorie Mattar

I collect Myrickite.

I also, for some reason am wildly attracted to jasper, although I'll never do anything with it except for keep it in a big pile in the yard! >:D<

I got all my Myrickite from the Knoxville area in Napa County, California. I also get most of my jasper from various areas in Napa County.

I have a post in the Swap Shop Message Board with pictures of the Myrickite. I probably have over a hundred pounds of the stuff, all different sizes, colors and shapes. The jasper must weigh over 75 pounds...

Corie Mattar

21st Mar 2009 12:18 UTCJon Swanson

Montague Quartzman, You wouldn't be kind enough to give me directions to the quartz crystal site in Montague, would you? I e-mailed a collecting website for directions, but they ignored me and even posted pictures of their newest crystal finds from that site two days later. Thank you .

3rd Apr 2009 03:49 UTCMatthew Boeck

I recently collected a real heavy #125LB. geode out at the cinnamon beds at Wiley's Well near Blythe, Ca- carried the sucker all the 1 mile or so back to the truck, I would pick him up ( I call him Cartman after Eric as it looks a lot like him in shape) and walk 40 paces or so then drop it in the dirt, then pant for a while and swear at it and call it names, sing stupid and rude little songs to it. Then pick it up and repeat until I got it to the truck, I have recently donated it to the Fallbrook Gem and Mineral Society's Museum where it is on display, It will also be on Display at the 2010 CFMS club show hosted by the OBMS club. I am also looking for a large saw to cut off the front face of it to better display its innards. The thing is alsmost completely full whth Chalcidony but for a small linear crack filled with druzy and botroydial quartz, this small pocket moves to the inside and might be a larger area inside there.

So I can say I have heavily collected Geode.I wil get qa picture later and post it.

Oh and I have over 500 specimens of that jive I call Quasarite, they are basically a cobble rock with Spherulitic crystals in an amorphous glassy material and most probably an igneous source although nobody but me collect it or knows much about it. I have about 200 lbs. now and I suspect I will for a long time until I figure it all out. here is a link to my pix of that weirdo stuff; http://www.mindat.org/user-12030.html#2_0_0_0_0__

- Matt Boeck

PGMC

20th Apr 2009 13:16 UTCRick Sinclair

It sounds like I am in the same generation as you Chuck! I brought back tons (literally) from Trumbull while it was being blasted and cleared and I collected Strickland for years before it was bulldozed. I also collected most of the other pegmatites in central CT and have tons from O&G when they were working in the mineralized zone (all legal collecting with clubs) Before Wise and Beauregard in NH were taken over by clubs, a friend and I collected both places for consecutive weekends through one summer . We dug a 40 foot long 18 foot wide trench in the dump at Beauregard down to the bottom of the dump (about 15 feet at the time) and took out beryl crystals up to 2 feet long, numerous clusters, a few aquamarines 8-9 inches by 6 inches, and hundreds of doublely terminated 4-6 inchers. (3 weekends of 12 hour digging) and collected several hundred lbs of quartz crystal plates with 1-3 inch fluorites and a couple of large fluorite clusters at Wise. I've dug pits up to 16 feet deep and 10 feet wide at some of the dumps in CT (PLEASE back-fill your pits when you're done people!)

Although the pegmatites like swanson and others are well picked over there is still descent material if you dig deep enough and feel like removing 6-8 sq yards of debris from other digs. Some of my CT highlights are : some gemmy 2-3 inch beryl/aquamarines and some nice smokey quartz pockets with torbernite from the Husband/Simpson complex; 2 tri-colored 1 inch long gem grade ,terminated elbaite crystals and several 2-3 inch balpine lepidolite speciments from Swanson, a really sharp 1X2 inch columbite from Case, a 3/4 inch twin uranomicrolite from Simpson, a 2 foot long partial beryl crystal with termination, several half inch fluorappatites and some beautiful clear albite crystals and a 5 inch spodumene crystal from Strickland, several really nice stilbite and fluorite speciments and some large plates from Thomaston, a 1 inch green fluorite crystal, a large plate of stilbite and heulandite, and some gem quality beryls, some unusual yellow prehnite clusters with fluorite, several 2 inch titanite crystals, several nice terminated clear topazes and some half inch terminated sheelite crystals from Trumbull, several large prhenite "bombs and some large datolite pockets and a nice plate of babingtonite crystals from O&G.

I still have over 4 tons of material from NH, CT, ME, NJ, NY, and Kentucky sites in my barn, several large rock piles in the back yard covered and awaiting sorting and trimming, plus a 14 foot long 6 foot high collection cabinet , several smaller cabinets and 30 flats of specimens that won't fit in the cabinets. 80% of it is self collected in New England with the majority from CT. Eventually it will be given a new home at the CT Mining and Mineral Museum over in Kent CT.

30th Dec 2010 15:16 UTCjt

Hi- my great-nephew is absolutely nuts over crystals and gems, when I saw your comment on Montague I thought I would write. I bought him quite afew crystals for Christmas and have to say I could get totally hooked. Well, I go to the Delaware Water Gap a couple of times a year and thought I might try and find this vein for him in Montague. Could you let me know directions or where in about? Thanks for any help you can give me.

30th Dec 2010 19:25 UTCRocky Barney

Tons of Utah dinosaur bones, (even a few skeletons, just Google the name and see what kind of trouble that gets you..)...tons of Utah wood, plume agates, other stuff...and a few, (less that 1000 lbs), of the Mineral Range Smokey Quartz crystals, some have the garnet inclusions. And now you all go and get me interested in minerals....sheesh! I need a couple more lifetimes....

4th Jan 2011 04:58 UTCRachel Cesana

Since Conklin Quarry in lincoln RI flooded it's quarry (they stopped pumping it out) the only way to get Bowenite is in the tailing piles and those are going fast as the company that owns the place is crushing the stone for landscaping. In an effort to preserve as much as possible i have filled 2 popcorn tins(the big ones you get as gifts) a large plastic jug. several boxes and several large specimens in my yard. Yea, I'm obsesed. Also have other specimens from this quarry (see http://www.mindat.org/loc-6717.html ) The picture is way out dated..there are no more walls to this place just a nice lake..at least i had one field trip before it was flooded.

rach

9th Jan 2011 21:44 UTCRowan Lytle

I have taken out about 150 pounds of the wall of the Nathen Hall Quarry in East Hampton to find the rumered 10in beryls in the peg. In another quarry, (secret location) I have dug a continuously growing hole and moved app. 500 pounds of rock to find beryls of high quality in quartz and spessartines in massive books of mica. More recently, dug a deep hole in a talus slope in simsbury, uncovering about 2 pounds of prehnite. then I had to carry that in my bag with my tools almost straight up to get to the trail out of the forest.

I filled buckets with tourmalines, masses of lepidolite, and 10 pound quartz crystals at Mt. Mica.

I collect heavily.

10th Jan 2011 14:13 UTCmalcolm chapman

I make it my rule not to collect anything in large quantities but to select the best I can find, which may be of any quality. I think other collectors should have something left for them. I have regretted this sometimes when I have returned to a location to add to my collection and found it cleaned out mechanically.I can only suppose it was dealers or for selling on but and it should not happen.

11th Jan 2011 02:54 UTCJonathan Zvonko Levinger Expert

Only place that I collected heavily for more than one time is Mont Saint Hilaire, Since 1985 I collected there for at least one day a week and while i managed to process most of the large chunks there are still lots of flats and thousand egg cartons to go through, if I live long enough!

25th Jun 2011 21:34 UTCMark

Hey, I'm a fellow collector and I planned on going to the quartz deposit in Montague this weekend with my father. I was curious to know if you ever got the directions messaged to you from anyone on here because I cant seem to find them. If you could help me out that would be very much appreciated! Thank you for your time!

Mark

27th Jun 2011 20:11 UTCMark J. Sigouin

I have collected heavily in the Passaic Pit, Sterling Hill Mine, Franklin Mining District, Ogdensburg, New Jersey. I have been since college. Unlike many of the other collectors there, I am just facinated with zincite. For no apparant reason, I can't seem to get enough of a non-fluorescent mineral from a major fluorescent mining district. I think it is the prospector in me, I'm always gravitating toward the metal ores. Maybe it has something to do with my 1979 underground tour of the still operating mine as a geology student? We went to the 1200 foot level, and I relish that memory. After the tour we were taken for about half an hour into the Passaic Pit. I remember that day finding a rhodonite specimen sticking out of a pile of dirt. At the time, I was young and travelling light. Even though the piece, larger than my fist had defined faces and cubes jutting out all over it, and my professor saying that it was a nice one, I just tossed it away. I really didn't think I needed to hold on to that specimen. Now 30+ years later, I still keep my eye out for it, but I know it was picked up long ago. I return to the Passaic Pit, or to the Franklin Mine's Buckwheat Pit a few times a year. Sometimes for the big events, sometimes on a lonely summer's weekday.

The Passaic Pit has been and probably will remain being my happy place. Meaning, when doing stress reduction meditation. I imagine a place where I always have a nice time. A place where I am happy. A place where I am relaxed. Some people think of the beach. Some of Florida. Some of the mountains......Me, In my mind, I'm pounding on that remnant of the red zincite-franklinite out cropping on the eastern side of the Passaic Pit on a cool, sunny fall day.

I have collected heavily at the Penn-Maryland, Haines and Kibblesworth Quarry in Little Britain Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I have been a fan of green serpentine and the mineral assemblage all my life, and this is where much of my serpentine collecting has occurred. I always enjoy the day, and I always have to be told that I need to leave.

I also have collected heavily over the years at various sites at the Cornwall Mines, Cornwall Borough, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Access is now severely limited predominantly to the Cornwall Materials, Haines and Kibblesworth workings where mine spoil is being reworked for fill. One needs permission now to do this, but the local clubs get in. The material is mostly magnetite with other minerals in the assemblage found more rarely. Still, sifting through this material is the fun of it. Many of the lawn orniments adorning my yard originate from here. I have buckets and buckets of this material.

Shows are cool. Getting that inside link to a mine to get minerals for a great price is always a thrill. Trading is enjoyable. Lectures, videos, label making, and cataloguing will, as my wife says, "Keep him quiet." Obtaining those rare minerals to bring your collection closer to having one of each feels like I'm accomplishing something. But there is just something about smacking that big brown or black boulder and having it crack open with crystals and colors jumping up into your face. Now that is pure joy. Granted, a rare event, but occuring just enough to keep me doing it.

29th Jun 2011 03:36 UTCDana Slaughter 🌟 Expert

I've collected at the Cheney quarry, Bellevue, Michigan probably 25 times and the same can be said for the Amherst quarry, Amherstburg, Ontario. We found some very fine baryte, calcite, glauconite, marcasite, and pyrite at Cheney and tons of fine celestine and some fabulous calcite at Amherstburg. I've also hit the Stoneco quarry at Lime City, Ohio on more than a dozen trips and always did very well there--it was virtually impossible to get skunked at Lime City. I've collected at the Champion and Michigamme mines in northern Michigan many, many times and have found some marvelous stuff.

Since my move to Arizona, there have been only two places that I've collected many times and these are the zeolite locality at Horseshoe Dam where I found some very dramatic and large bi-colored natrolite specimens both on and off matrix and the Camp Verde salt mine area for the wonderful pseudos after glauberite. This is always a great place to take guests as all are guaranteed to fine sharp pseudos. Great topic!

Dana

30th Jun 2011 03:35 UTCJames Christopher

Lots of rare earths lately, although I have quite a bit from the Calumet mine, epidote, uralite, garnet.

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