[Rockhounds] "list where the knowledge of many is shared freely"

[DonH]

Tim Fisher wrote:

> ... I can't verify that any site that had worthwhile 
> material to collect was truly and forever denuded of all material by 
> rockhounds.


That depends upon the size of the site.  I know of a few 
"micro-environments" where a particular odd mineral was located. 
Sometimes these are a few feet across, sometimes a few tens of yards, 
but they are small and represent some unique localized mineralization. 
These were subsequently collected out.  It is not hard to imagine that 
would happen.  One careful collector could work such a site for a while, 
but once it is made public, if there is something really worth 
collecting, there is a "run on the bank" (to use a term from the Great 
Depression) and people will swarm over the site and sledgehammer 
everything in an attempt to get what they can, while they can.

Some may recall my stories from the summer, when I was out in the middle 
of nowhere and encountered an elderly couple, with one of Lanny Ream's 
books in hand, looking for large blue kyanites.  Well, we found the one 
outcrop where these were located, but all that were left were tiny 
kyanites.  A discussion followed here where Lanny mentioned that the 
site (which is pretty obscure) had been collected out after the book was 
published.  So it goes.  The sad part of the story is that I have since 
shown my collected materials to some of the professors who are working 
on the dating and structure of the area.  Apparently I've found some 
things that they haven't seen before, like garnets with three growth 
layers.  This is not related to my thesis but I feel obligated to pass 
on the info to others who are working on the area.  It seems they 
appreciate and respect my observations and in fact that ridge may be the 
key to solving some regional puzzles, since it is poorly known and 
poorly studied and few people are aware of blue kyanite associated with 
garnet that far west of where it is already known to be.  However, it 
would have been nice to have that outcrop intact, but it is too late 
now.  I am *not* saying it should not have been published in the book; 
quite the contrary, who could have known it would be important?  In 
fact, without the book, and without meeting two rockhounds who had it, 
*I* wouldn't have known it was there either, and it would not have been
part of the new study.  Funny how things fall together.

So, except in cases of restricted property, there is rarely a right or 
wrong answer.  If every collector only took what they could use for 
themselves, it wouldn't be much of an issue.  However, no site, no 
matter how large, is destined to last forever (just ask the folks at the 
  Franklin Mineral Museum who run the Buckwheat Dump site) and there 
must always be a balance between responsible collecting and not letting 
good material go to waste.

Best,
Don