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Field CollectingStrangest places to collect in the U.S

17th Nov 2019 01:47 UTCMatthew Droppleman

What are some of the oddest/ most unexpected places to collect quality minerals in the U.S?

17th Nov 2019 02:25 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

There was a landfill in Memphis, Tennessee, USA that produced some decent celestine crystals.

29th Nov 2019 15:59 UTCTony Albini

Kevin, 20+ years ago, a housing development was being built near Old Mine Park in Trumbull, CT. Small granite pegmatites had tiny green beryls but the most interesting find was a huge hydrothermal vein outcrop of fluorite, found at the end of a cul de sac, variety chlorophane and common fluorite in pieces over a foot across which fluoresced blue green and violet under SW light.  Also, at a temporary construction site in the same town now a Home Depot, my friend had permission to collect scheelite xls and other accessory minerals. 

17th Nov 2019 03:37 UTCSteve Hardinger 🌟 Expert

There is a city dump in San Diego County, California that produced tourmalines: A pocket was revealed when a bulldozer was moving trash.

17th Nov 2019 05:21 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager

Pegmatite minerals in pits dug for construction of new buildings in Riverside, California - Very temporary access to normally inaccessible mineral deposits. 

Pyrite nodules in cliffs at a nude beach in San Diego, California. I suppose "clothing optional" would apply to the mineral collector too.

17th Nov 2019 05:30 UTCFrank K. Mazdab 🌟 Manager

I also seem to recall reading about chrysoberyl found during building foundation excavation in NYC, and similarly of allanite found during construction of the subway tunnels there.

17th Nov 2019 07:10 UTCBob Harman

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In 2005 Bloomington Indiana enlarged its sewage treatment facilities. This included excavating a new sludge holding pond. It went down into the limestone bedrock. A friend with the Indiana Geological Survey, with me as a guest, collected calcite crystals from this sewer project.     Of course before the pond was filled!!!        

And I will add 2 additional strange situations. 
The first does not involve me. Currently there is the ongoing Indianapolis Deep Tunnel Project. Which has multiple online websites to view. This multiyear mega project involves storing excess rain and wastewater deep underground until it can be processed.   In the course of recent tunneling, about 200 feet/day, several large voids in the limestone were encountered. Some very very large very pristine calcite crystals, "iceland spar",  were found and are now on display at the Indiana State museum. 

From 1961 - 1964 the Army Corps of Engineers created Monroe Reservoir. Commonly known as Lake Monroe, this 10,000+ acre largest lake within Indiana project dammed up Salt Creek to prevent repeated down stream flooding and provide reliable long term drinking water supplies to Bloomington and surrounding towns. 
Several years ago the dam itself had some maintenance issues so the reservoir water level was lowered about 8 feet. This afforded some collectors the several week opportunity to collect fossils and geodes that had been underwater for the previous 40 years!  SEE THE ABOVE PHOTO.                               CHEERS......BOB

18th Nov 2019 18:43 UTCStephen Rose Expert

To add to Bob's notes on the Indiana collecting, in the mid-1960's, during construction of the dam and spillway of the Monroe Reservoir, the collecting was very productive.  A number of geode zones were exposed with fresh geodes containing the usual suite of minerals for that area.  One large geode from the spillway contained a single millerite hair that was a good 4 inches long.

Something new, and maybe not known, in (about) 1966 there was some work on the east side of State Route 37 just north of Bloomington where it crosses the flood plane of -------- creek.  The spoil piles from digging sumps in the alluvium for water testing south of the creek produced nodules of bright blue, earthy vivianite up to fist size. 

Steve

18th Nov 2019 21:09 UTCMark Heintzelman 🌟 Expert

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An interesting one is a river bank cut in the local pyrite rich oil-shales along the west branch of the Huron River in Ohio, USA, which was subject to spontaneous combustion in 2009 and continued to burn until 2011.  The West Branch near Lameraux Bridge just north of there has long been a popular collecting site (quartz "flowers" on dolomite - Blue Ridge West Branch Huron River, Monroeville, Ohio), . . . would have been quite a collecting trip had anyone been working down there it at the time, but the process did give us a new mineral, Carlsonite!  

google: "News archive - carlsonite - Ohio Geological Survey" for an image of the burning bankside.

18th Nov 2019 21:53 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

To me one of the oddest looking places to collect is at the Great Salt Plains near Jet, Oklahoma.   It's a nearly perfectly flat, featureless sand expanse, except for the moonscape-looking holes left by previous collectors.   Here's a video that has some geology, fun facts, and even a snippet from David London (as in Londonite):   



A few comments...

In the video it says "be prepared to get dirty".   HUGE understatement!   My clothes have been so dirty and soaked with salt water that I was literally able to stand my pants up in the corner of my motel room at night!

This is the ultimate safe place to take kids to collect.   No heavy digging, you're pretty much guaranteed to find lots of crystals, and you can see everything/everyone for a LONG distance in every direction.

26th Nov 2019 01:33 UTCMatthew Droppleman

And I thought finding pyrite while constructing a skate park was unusual!

26th Nov 2019 05:22 UTCD Mike Reinke

Matt,
Like you, I found cone-in cone calcite while scratching through decorative gravel at a Menards store n the Midwest, also a lake Superior agate at another place in decorative gravel, and that is without listing the micros I've stumbled upon...Maybe not the most unusual locations, could be called the laziest; no heavy digging required

27th Nov 2019 01:54 UTCTom Tucker

I live in an  old (ca. 1845) brick house with a limestone foundation.  My son noticed a smear of fluorite and calcite on one of the blocks in the foundation.   No, I didn't harvest it.  

29th Nov 2019 21:23 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

Tony, both of those sites sound like they were fun to collect at!

My favorite place to collect Union Road Agates (in Saint Louis County, Missouri, USA) is now under a grocery store, an indoor tennis facility, and a few other businesses.

30th Nov 2019 00:10 UTCHarold (Hal) Prior Expert

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The best barite I ever found in Washington county was about 100 feet from the gas pumps at a gas station on the ground between two junk cars. We had been collecting across road in a residential garden, walked across road to get some refreshments at the station.



 
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