[Rockhounds] Big Rock Candy Mountain (was, attacking quartz without HF...)

[pmodreski at aol.com]

There's another Big Rock Candy Mountain; at Marysvale, Utah--an area of volcanic rocks and mineral deposits.  Below is an excerpt of what Wikipedia has to say about the place(s) (imagined and real) by that name.  I visited Big Rock Candy Mountain (the Utah one) back in the 80s on a geologic field trip; we even stayed at the resort of that name, as per below.  This Big Rock Candy Mountain is a mostly bare hill of hydrothermally altered (leached by acidic waters) volcanic rock, hence the resemblence to a big mound of multicolored sugar.  The resort boasts a number of hot springs, most of which are quite acidic.  We were much amused that they were selling jugs of water from the "Lemonade Spring", with a recommendation to take a tablespoon or two of it in a gallon of water for medicinal purposes.  Heavens, the water was yellow, full of iron, and had a pH probably in the neighborhood of 3 or so (I'll have to check)--good luck to anyone who has imbibed it at any greater concentration!  According to the USGS geographic names database "GNIS" website, the name for the this Big Rock Candy Mountain seems to have been officially adopted on USGS topographic maps only as of 1979.


WIKIPEDIA-BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN

Shortly after the release of the song in 1928, some local residents, as a joke, placed a sign at the base of cluster of some brightly-colored hills a short distance north of Marysvale, Utah near Fishlake National Forest naming it “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” They also placed a sign next to a nearby spring proclaiming it “Lemon Springs.” The Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort currently sits at the base of the hills and is a major hub in the Paiute ATV trail. [3] 

 

The largest exposed rock in the South Platte rock climbing area of Colorado is also called "Big Rock Candy Mountain" because of its colored stripes resembling a candy cane.[4][5] 

 

One of the peaks in the Capitol State Forest in Washington State is named "Big Rock Candy Mountain." 

 

A mine located approximately 24 kilometers north of Grand Forks, B.C., Canada, is called the "Rock Candy Mine". The mine was developed in the 1920s and is noted for its colorful fluorite and borite crystals.

As you'll notice above, the BC item mis-spelled barite as "borite".  I've just now logged in to Wikipedia and corrected this.

Pete Modreski

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Fisher <nospam at orerockon.com>
To: rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com
Sent: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 8:27 am
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] attacking quartz without hydrofluoric acid


I have been thinking of booking Bob Jackson's Rock Candy mine trip (Grand Forks, BC) for a few years now, so out of curiosity, is the fluorite from there typically coated with quartz? Would I need this stuff to clean it if I did collect there? 
 
Interesting, but irrelevant: The mine is on Big Rock Candy Mountain, those of you who have seen the the Coen Bros' "O Brother Where Art Thou" recognize the song by famous hobo Harry McClintock (if you were paying attention lol) which he recorded in 1928 and had been singing since 1897 according to Wiki. I just answered my own question about which came first, the mountain or the song, (thanks Wiki lol), since the mine was developed in the 1920s, so the miners obviously were familiar with the song. I love the references to cigarette trees, streams of alcohol, lake of whiskey, rubber-toothed bulldogs, the tin jail, etc., that greet presumably deceased hobos in the song. And "where they hung the guy that invented work" is one of my all time favorite song lyrics :) 
 
 



________________________________________________________________________
More new features than ever.  Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---