Strata Gem

June 2003

 

President’s Message

 

We had such a good show of members at our last meeting, thanks for all your support.

 

Since my surgery I’m feeling a little better, but still have a lot of pain in my back.

 

There were 13 people that went down to Nephi Saturday May 17^th to gather rock. I would like to thank them so much for their help. Our next rock trip will be June 21^st for Wonderstone.

 

I hope everyone can make a few Necklaces & Key Chains for our Grab Bags.

 

Thanks for all your support, and see you at the Grab Bag Fill on the 7^th of June at Jay & Erla’s, 10:00 o’clock, bring a dish & chair.

 

I hope this finds everyone feeling better.

 

Good Luck Always

 

Ruth S. Smith

President

 

Tooele Gem & Mineral

Tooele Senior Citizens Center

May 13 2003 7:30 P.M.

 

The meeting was called to order by president Ruth Smith everyone was welcomed. The minutes of the last meeting was read and approved. The treasurer’s report was read and approved. Larry Higley welcomed Ruth back, she looks better Ruth said she is feeling better and she sure is glad to be back.

 

Ruth got a thank you card from Debbie and Mat Hitesman thanking us for the fruit basket, and our thoughts and prayers, they have had a rough time these last few months, but they are doing better now.

 

We had two visitors representing the Utah Gold Prospectors Club they talked about their organization, and thanked us for allowing them to put their gold panning demonstration in our show, they showed some gold samples and talked about how to pan for gold and the various locations that you might go to find gold.

 

Byron Scott announced our field trip for May will be to Nephi for zebra rock it will be May 17th we will meet at the rock shop at 10:00 A.M., everyone bring your lunch. Our June field trip was discussed we will go for wonder stone on the 21 of June at 10:00 A.M.

 

Ruth thanked every one for the gift basket she also wanted to thank Heinz and Selma Jockisch for all their care and support.

 

Our grab bag fill and meeting will be June 7th at 10:00 A.M. it will be at Jay Woods house, we need 3 people with pickups to come at 9:00 AM to help move rock and set up.

 

Michelle Wedekind won the door prize & the meeting was adjourned.

 

Minutes submitted by

Larry Wilson

Secretary

 

Members News

 

Welcome new members:

Cathy Hunn

John Semone

Duane Gren

 

Grab Bag Fill:

June meeting will be held in conjunction with our Grab Bag Fill, June 7^th at Jay & Erla’s at 10:00 AM. The club will supply Sloppy Joes, bring a pot luck dish, dish plate & utensils and chair. We need 3 people with pickups to come at 9:00 AM to help move rock and set up.

 

June Fieldtrip:

The next field trip will be at Vernon for Wonder Stone, June 21 at 10:00 A.M.  Between Vernon & Eureka on Highway 36 there is a set of railroad tracks. Go north along the west side of the tracks for about 2 miles to a fork in the dirt road, take left fork towards the low hills. You will soon see the pit.

 

Sunshine Report:

Jay Woods had a heart attack on the 15^th of May, he is home & doing better.

Ruth Smith

 

Note From the Editor:

I would like to apologize for not having much club news in the last issue. I haven’t felt the best and just wasn’t up to it.

 

I am looking for help with the kids corner. If you can come up with some words & hints I can use in a crossword puzzle or just some words I can use in a word find puzzle (I can create the puzzles) it would be greatly appreciated!!!

Dennis Chapman

 

Summer Rockhound

By Cindy Lind

 

The 'Skeeter and the Rockhound both,

Went out to hunt one day.

The Rockhound wanted specimens,

The ‘Skeeter wanted prey!

The Rockhound found a likely spot,

and settled with his gear.

He’d dug a short time when he heard,

A buzzing in his ear.

The Rockhound swatted at the noise,

And stood to look around.

He missed the Skeeter, but he saw,

A great stone on the ground!

The Rockhound bent to lift the stone,

His backside in the air.

The ‘Skeeter took advantage then,

And bit the Rockhound there.

The Rockhound jumped and squashed the bug,

His bottom to defend.

The Rockhound and the Skeeter had,

Both got it in THE END!

 

(Submitted by La Von Logan, and published in ROCK-A -TEER, bulletin of Puvallup Volley Gem Club, 9/96)

via Hy Grader 6/01

 

Kids Corner

Sedimentary Rock Snacks

 

Last month we had an article about sedimentary rocks. This month, let’s “make” some sedimentary rock snacks. Recall that: “sedimentary rocks are made in layers. The layers of mud, sand, or even seashells are built up over a long period of time. The layers get squeezed and stuck together to make new rocks. This cookie (which you can make!) is made in layers, and you can still see the layers even after it is pressed and cooked. This activity must be done under adult supervision!”

 

You will need these ingredients:

·        1/2 cup butter

·        1 and 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs

·        1(14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

·        1 (6 oz.) package chocolate chips

·        1 (6 oz.) package peanut butter chips

·        1 cup chopped nuts

 

You will need these utensils:

·        clear 13” x 9 “glass baking dish

·        can opener

·        regular oven

·        hot pads or oven mitts

 

Directions:

1.  Melt the butter in the baking dish.

2.  Sprinkle the crumbs over the butter.

3.  Pour the condensed milk evenly over the crumbs.

4.  Layer the remaining ingredients evenly over the top.

5.  Press down gently. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25-30 minutes.

6.  Let cool. Cut into bars. Enjoy!

 

Can you explain why this is a good example of how sedimentary rocks are formed?

 

(From This Planet Really Rocks website. "Sedimentary Rock Snacks.” at http://library.thinkquest.org/j002289/snacks.html html 9/28/02)

Via T-Town Rockhound 12/02

 

Important Fossil Find
Marge Herkenham, Editor Sedona Red Rocking News

 

And who do you suppose made this incredible find? One of our members? No, but a junior of 14 years of age who has had some contact with our club. His name is Ethan Wright. He is sort of a protégé of our member Nancy Bihler, who has been helping to introduce him to rocks, minerals, and especially fossils for a few years now. Under her tutelage, he brought a display to one of our club meetings. He attends the Orme School, which involves daily travel, and so he doesn’t get home in time to attend any of our meetings.

 

It happened that Ethan and one of his friends were having a happy afternoon digging for centipedes in the gravels and banks of Oak Creek on private property near Cornville. Ethan noticed what looked like a bone sticking out of the bank. It was in the soft sediments, and so the boys were able to remove what appeared to be a skull. It didn’t look right for a cow skull, so Ethan’s father put it in a box and brought it to Nancy for an opinion. Nancy showed Ethan’s find to Paul Lindberg for his opinion.

 

We have asked Ethan to write an article for our newsletter next month telling about his find and the subsequent events in detail, so we won’t give the whole story out now. Suffice it to say that the skull was not a cow skull, but something much older! The Museum of Northern Arizona and Northern Arizona University paleontologists will ultimately make the final exact identification. Stay tuned for next month’s report by Ethan Wright.

 

The Fossil Saga Continues

This month we have an article written by our junior member (age 14) Ethan Wright telling us about his experiences in the discovery of this fossil.

 

My friend Ryan and I were at the creek one day in February throwing rocks. In the steep eroded bank of the creek, I saw what looked like a piece of bone. A friend of ours that works at Petrified Forest National Park taught us that bone sticks to your tongue and rock doesn’t. After sticking it to my tongue, I was sure that it was bone.

 

I ran back to the house and told my dad that I found a piece of bone. I got a shovel, rock hammer, nail and a screwdriver and we all went back to the spot. My dad said to be careful and don’t break any more bone, so we spent a long time trying to get it out of the bank.

 

After carefully removing the bone, it was covered in debris and it was much larger than I thought. My dad and I spent several hours removing debris trying not to damage any more bone. After removing a lot of sand and gravel from the bone, we still did not know what it was or how old it could be.

 

My dad contacted my fossil friend Nancy Bihler, who contacted Mr. Lindberg, and he took the fossil to Dr. Larry Agenbroad who is a paleontologist at NAU. Larry Agenbroad identified the fossil as part of a Pleistocene Musk Ox skull, Bootherium bombifrons. I’ve been told that this is the only fossil of its kind found and recorded in Arizona.

 

I want to thank Nancy Bihler and Paul Lindberg for their time and effort for helping to identify my fossil find.

 

And Now for the Rest of the Story —
(By editor Marge Herkenham)

 

It seems that both the Museum of Northern Arizona and Northern Arizona University are going through staff upheavals. Dr. Larry Agenbroad of the NAU staff, the first paleontologist approached, who was mentioned above, has now just retired. The NAU staff is trying to meet budget cuts and has to reduce departments and staff. They can no longer handle this fossil.

 

The Museum of Northern Arizona has fallen on hard financial times, and decided to reduce its staff and departments. So MNA has laid off their paleontology and geology staff, and they no longer even have a librarian for their scientific and technical library, which contains many important historical documents and files, as well as recent books.

 

MNA did have the superior facility in Northern Arizona for cleaning fossils. But now there is no one left in Flagstaff with the competence to clean this very important musk ox fossil properly or identify it. So for now it has been re-turned to Ethan and is more or less in limbo.

 

I asked Dr. Stan Beus (who just spoke to us at the March meeting), for advice and he recommended the fossil would best go to the Mesa Southwest Museum, in Mesa, for proper cleaning and preparation, since nothing is available in Flagstaff. He also called a vertebrate paleontologist at NAU who agreed with Dr. Beus’ suggestion. Plus, Paul Lindberg concurred in the suggestion. All the professionals agree that it is a very important find, it is Pleistocene period in age (sometime in ice ages when mammoths also roamed the area), and it truly is the only fossil of that species to have ever been found in Arizona.

 

So now we go back to Ethan, to whom the fossil legally belongs, as it was collected on private property, and therefore he has the final say on what’s to be done with it. (Ethan agrees we should go ahead with following our contact at the Mesa Southwest Museum and see what develops.)

 

Stay tuned.

 

Via RMFN 5/03

 

The Seven Wonders Of The World

 

A group of students was asked to list what each thought were the present Seven Wonders of the World. Though there was some disagreement, the following got the most votes:

 

1. Egypt’s Great Pyramids

2. Taj Mahal

3. Grand Canyon

4. Panama Canal

5. Empire State Building

6. St. Peter’s Basilica

7. China’s Great Wall

 

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one quiet student hadn’t turned in her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The girl replied, “Yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there were so many.” The teacher said, “Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help.” The girl hesitated, then read, “I think the Seven Wonders of the World are:

 

1. to touch

2. to taste

3. to see

4. to hear

She hesitated a little, and then added

5. to feel

6. to laugh

7. and to love

 

The room was full of silence you could have heard a pin drop.

 

Those things we overlook as simple and “ordinary’ are truly wondrous.

 

A gentle reminder that the most precious things in life cannot be bought.

 

Margaret Morgan sent me the above via the internet

Via Northside Gem and Hobby News 3/02

 

Which Bone Are You?

 

Someone once said that the membership of an organization is made up of four bones

1) Some members are wishbones who spend all their time wishing someone else would do the work.

2) Some are jawbones who do all the talking and very little else.

3) Some are knucklebones who knock everything that everyone else tries to do.

4) Others are backbones who carry the load and do the work!

 

Author unknown. source: Rock Reader 12/95

Via Quarry Quips 4/03

 

An avid rockhound commenting to his wife:

“I’d move heaven and earth to find an outstanding crystal specimen today.”

 

Wife: “Well honey, try heaven; you’ve already moved most of the earth.”

 

Via Golden Spike News Dec 2002/Jan 2003

 

Interesting Tidbits

A Glossary of Rockhound Terms

 

GEOLOGIST - Person who learned about rocks in school.

ROCKHOUND - Person who learned about rocks the hard way.

PEBBLEPUP - Smart-mouthed kid who knows more about rocks than you.

FIELD TRIP - Impossible trek to inaccessible places for non-existent specimens.

GEOLOGIST’S PICK - Handy gadget that you always have with you when you don’t need it and always leave at home when you do.

FIELD POLISH - Spit.

FIELD KIT - Paper Bag.

ROCK SHOW - Bunch of people displaying their best specimens; another bunch trying to sell their worst.

SWAP - Mutual swindle.

STATION WAGON - Vehicle designed to satisfy the colossal greed of rockhounds.

TUMBLER - Piece of equipment costing at least $25, which makes $250 worth of stones saleable at 25 cents each.

 

Author unknown, source: Pickin’s & Diggin’s Feb 2003

Via Quarry Quips 4/03

 

Flat Lapping Without A Machine

Author unknown

 

The process of flat lapping is so simple that anyone can do it even if you don’t have a flat lapping machine. So go to it and polish the bookends you want, or that clock face.

 

Just get a piece of aluminum about 12-14 inches square. [larger for larger pieces] Place it on a flat surface. Take a teaspoon of 120 grit (or even 90 grit if you have saw marks on your slab). Mix your grit with Vaseline or water. (I like Vaseline because it holds the grit better, doesn’t dry out and doesn’t splash.)

 

Now take your slab to be polished and dop a piece of wood to it so that you have a handle and can hold it down on the grit. Just keep twisting it over and around on the grit. Be sure that your grit is always under the slab.

 

Don’t run it over dry aluminum. Move the slab in any pattern you wish, adding grit as you feel necessary. Keep at it until all the saw marks are all gone. Wash the stone and aluminum between grades of grit using progressively finer grits as you go. The slab should now be ready for polishing.

 

To polish, use a piece of leather about 12x12 inches. Stick it to a board and keep it for polishing only. Don’t tack it down because the tack heads can scratch. Put your favorite polishing mix all over the leather and start polishing your stone. This is the oldest way to polish slabs and it still works well, if slowly.

 

To answer to the statement that it will take a long time, a question, “What else would you be doing?”

 

Pickin’s & Diggin’s 12/02

via Clackamette Gem 4/03

Via Golden Spike News 5/03

 

To Avoid Haze On A Cabochon

by Bill White

 

Yes, it is possible to cloud or haze a cabochon in the final polishing step. There are at least two reasons this happens. Some stones will haze under the influence of most polishing compounds due to their physical structure. These are usually soft materials below seven on the Mohs scale, such as obsidian, sodalite, malachite, variscite, etc. A good rule of thumb is: any stone that will dull and haze when used in a ring or pendant will also do so during the polishing stages. When you run into one of these babies that just must be added to your personal collection, your best buy is to stay with diamond all the way.

 

 However, in most cases this problem occurs because of the person holding the dopstick. Improper sanding can leave a nip or fuzzy surface. A buildup of heat can create a flaw early in one of the sanding stages, scaling over and locking in the dull haze you are trying to overcome. This part of the problem can happen with most lapidary material. So avoid all heat buildup in your sanding operations.

 

It is absolutely essential to have a clean stone before polishing. Be certain extender fluid, soap, oily finger residue, etc., is removed. Any contaminates will mingle with the polishing agent and become part of the stone’s surface. What should be a sparkling, flawless gem is cloudy and hazy and not an object of beauty. Only by going back and resanding to remove all traces of this microfilm can the problem be corrected.

 

From Rocky Mountain News 9/82

via ARKANSAS ROCKHOUND NEWS 3/01)

via T-Town Rockhound 4/01

 

Garnet Supply Dwindling In Emerald Creek

 

Coeur D’Alene, Idaho (AP)—After years of being picked over by rockhounds from across the country, garnet supplies in the St. Joe Ranger District are dwindling. A Forest Service proposal to expand garnet hunting to the meadows and streams of the Emerald Creek drainage has kicked up a long-standing debate for the agency—how to protect the environment while allowing the public access to the forests. “It’s not just one or two people digging in the stream. It’s hundreds in a summer,” Neil Beaver, water coordinator for The Lands Council, said. “It’s a horrible way to manage streams that may be critical habitat for bull trout.” The drainage is one of the only places in the world where star garnets occur and rock enthusiasts travel from across the globe to dig in the mud.

 

The Daily Interlake 8/02 via Gems & Friends 11/02

Via Golden Spike News Dec 2002/Jan 2003

 

Gem Show Calendar

 

If you know of any events coming up, PLEASE let me know as soon as possible. If anything is wrong PLEASE let me know as soon as possible.

 

June 5-8 Mile High Rock & Mineral Society Show, Westminster Mall, 88th & Sheridan, Westminster, CO

 

June 14-15 Riverton Mineral & Gem Society and Wyoming State Mineral & Gem Society Show, Fremont County Fairgrounds, Riverton WY

 

July 11-13 RMFMS Show and Convention, hosted by the Natrona County Rockhounds Club, Parkway Plaza Hotel and Convention Center, Casper, WY.

 

Aug 8-10 Annual Contin-tail Rock Swap and Show, Rodeo Grounds, Buena Vista, CO.

 

Aug 15-17 Lake George Gem & Mineral Show, an open air event in Lake George, the show site is right on US Hwy 24, Lake George Gem and Mineral Show, Lake George CO

 

Aug 30-Sept. 1 Grant County Gem & Mineral Societies 20th Annual Show, Silver City Recreation Center, 1016 North Silver Street, Silver City, NM

 

Sept. 12-14 Minerals of Gilpin County, Greater Area Denver Gem & Mineral Council, Denver Merchandise Mart, 451 E 58th Ave, Denver, CO

 

Sept. 19-21 Wasatch Gem & Mineral Show, South Towne Exposition Center, 9575 So. State St., Sandy, UT.

 

Sept. 26-28 Tooele Gem & Mineral Show, Tooele County Fair Complex, 400 West 200 North, Tooele, UT.

 

Sept. 27 Eureka Rock and Gem Club Show, Mountain Home Senior Center 1000 N 3rd East Mtn Home, ID.

 

Oct. 10-12 Moab Points & Pebbles Rock Club Show, Spanish Trail Arena, 3641 South Highway 191, Moab, UT.

 

Oct. 10-12 Huachuca Mineral & Gem Club Show, Cochise College, 901 N. Colombo, Sierra Vista, AZ.

 

Oct. 25-26 Lake Havasu Gem & Mineral Society Show, Lake Havasu City Community Center, 100 Park Avenue, Lake Havasu City, AZ.

 

Nov. 1-2 The Mingus Gem & Mineral Club Show, Lodge at Cliff Castle, 333 Middle Verde Road, Camp Verde, AZ

 

Nov. 1-2 Wickenburg Gem And Mineral Society Show, Wickenburg Community Center, 160 N. Valentine St., Wickenburg, AZ.

 

Nov. 8-9 New Mexico Mineral Symposium, Macey Center Auditorium, NM Institute of Mining & Technology, Socorro, NM.

 

Nov. 14-16 Flatirons Mineral Club Annual Show, Boulder Elks Lodge, 3975 28th St., Boulder, CO.

 

Pearls Become Most Treasured Gem;

The Mystery and the History

By Charlotte Higgins, Topeka Gem and Mineral Society

 

IRRITANT

When oysters are annoyed by grit,

They lift their lids a little bit,

Admit the grit, then calmly sit

And start to make a pearl of it.

This seems to me quite ample proof

It sometimes pays to raise the roof!

 

Jean B. Chishoim

 

This little poem has been a favorite of mine since it appeared in Together Magazine in 1967, and seemed an appropriate way to introduce the second installment of this series on pearls.

 

“The oldest surviving pearl necklace dates from around 350 B.C. and was unearthed at Susa in western Iran, site of the Persian kings’ winter palace”, writes Nigel Sitwell in Smithsonian Magazine. Its exact origin remains a mystery, but one thing is certain.., as regional and world trade increased, so did the popularity of pearls. Early Romans and Russians adorned their clothing with pearls and flaunted them as signs of affluence. Pearls “were even used for medicinal purposes. They were sometimes ground and drunk by early rules to improve virility and even to restore sanity,” according to Sitwell.

 

It did come as a surprise to learn that “pearls were found at Monte Alban in Mexico, dating from about 500 B.C., some 150 years before the find in Iran, and ancient sites in Peru. For some time after Columbus’ discovery of America, the new land was known in Cadiz and Seville as “The Land of Pearls,” according to Sitwell. Many of these pearls undoubtedly found their way to Europe, just as did vast quantities of gold from the new world.

 

Early pearling was a brutal business. The diver, without modern diving gear, would take a deep breath, make his descent on a rope, harvest as many oysters as he could before he ran out of breath and had to be hauled up for a brief rest. These dives lasted only a minute or so each, but the divers repeated the dives as many as 30 or 40 times a day. If the diver was particularly lucky, he might harvest as many as 400 oysters in a day, but only one of 40 contained a pearl, and only a small portion of these were marketable.

 

I found no statistics on how many divers failed to survive this harsh regimen, but apparently there were plenty of divers to take the risks, because the pearl trade flourished around the world.

 

Local politics naturally played a part in pearling, with the wealthiest and strongest controlling the pearling industry in his area. Man’s greed and the seeming insatiable desire for pearls created a frenzy and oysters were harvested greedily with little concern for where the next generation of pearl bearing oysters would come from. After a time, this indiscriminate harvesting put extreme pressure on the oyster population. Many oysters were harvested before they had a chance to reproduce... and before they had a chance to “grow" a marketable pearl. Oyster beds were often harvested almost to extinction. These pearl “barons” little understood or even cared that they were depleting the oyster population and actually eliminating their source of income... a blind spot that is all too prevalent in many businesses today. Sadly this practice of over harvesting was not limited to salt water pearling, but extended to fresh water pearling as well, putting fresh water mussels at risk as well. Managed harvesting of resources is a lesson that must be learned again and again by succeeding generations

 

Although we have dwelt thus far mainly with oysters and salt water pearling, we should not overlook the importance of freshwater pearls in the history of the industry. It has been suggested that the presence of fresh water pearls in Scotland may have been responsible for Julius Caesars invasion of Britain in 55 B.C. Freshwater pearls have been found in many places around the world. In America,” fresh water mussels were present when The Appalachians were still forming” and our freshwater mussels persevered especially in the Southeast which escaped ice age glaciation,” according to Adele Conover writing in the January, 1998 issue of Smithsonian Magazine. To the Native Americans these freshwater mussels provided not only food, but pearls and shells that could be used in a variety of ways including jewelry, decorations and as material for tools Conover writes.

 

The accidental discovery in 1857 of a pearl nearly one inch in diameter in a mussel from Notch Brook in New Jersey, sparked a run on the creek and as the word of this find spread, so did people’s interest in the rivers and creeks near them. Freshwater pearls were subsequently found in nearly a dozen states. Many streams were entirely stripped of mussels by over zealous pearl hunters.

 

Further pressure for survival of freshwater mussels occurred when a pearl button factory was begun in Muscatine, Iowa. It is reported that 40 million gross of the highly prized buttons were manufactured in 1916. This popularity, however, signaled the decline in the numbers of freshwater mussels. But again, just when the mussels were in grave danger of extinction, man came to the rescue, introducing plastic buttons to the world of fashion in the 1940s.

 

The supply of natural pearls dwindled with the dwindling oyster and mussel population. But into this void, rushed Kokichi Mikimoto, not the first to produce cultured pearls, but probably one of the best known because of his marketing ability. Cultured pearls were marketed at prices well below the cost of natural pearls, and were condescendingly dismissed by many as worthless fakes. But then reality set in, as they realized the cultured pearls were genuine, although produced by the oyster with some help from man.

 

In natural pearls, a bit of sand or some other irritant finds its way into the oyster’s shell, and in response to the irritant, the oyster begins to deposit layers of nacre (the same material that comprises the shell) around the offending object. It may take as many as ten years for an oyster to produce a natural pearl the size of a pea. Little wonder that they are so highly prized.

 

In producing cultured pearls, the “irritant” or foreign object, is introduced by man and the pearl-bearing oysters are tended much as livestock, until the pearl fanner decides to harvest the pearl. The length of time the pearl remains in the oyster determines the thickness of the nacre and thus the quality of the pearl. So we learn that quality cannot be hurried.

 

Then the Japanese discovered that American freshwater mussel shells made ideals nuclei for their cultured pearls. But again, change is in the wind and the future of the freshwater mussel industry is uncertain. Has man’s greed threatened the cultured pearl industry, as well?

 

In the next article in the series we’ll take a look at pearl farming, the quality of the product and the affect of over production on the world’s economy and the cultured pearl industry in particular.

 

via THE GLACIAL DRIFTER 4/03