[Rockhounds] Franklin Mineral show report

Tue Oct 2 18:49:34 PDT 2007

Hi all:

Having missed the whole summer of field collecting (due to major new construction on the farm and new projects at work) I thought I would compensate with a small vacation trip with a brief stop at the Franklin NJ Elementary School.

I had never been there, or (that I recall) heard much about what the show was like, so we also visited Philidelphia (Independence Hall, the Philadepphia Museum of Art!) and stayed at an old home converted to a small hotel, the Morris House Hotel.

The Franklin Show is in rural New Jersey...really!  Rolling hills covered with eastern hardwoods, rivers, ponds, wood ducks calling, really pretty.  The small towns on the way to Franklin are very like small towns in other eastern mining districts I have visited, from North Carolina to Maine.

The Franklin Elementary School is old but very well kept, and very large.  There are two gyms and a theater.  Lots of parking, and a lot of outdoor sellers set up with tents and tailgates.  My first thought was to quickly walk around the main gym ( I didn't even notice the other one til near the end of my endurance) just to get a grip on who was there selling, and what was for sale that interested me.

The theater stage was draped with blackout curtains, and filled with tables draped with black, and covered with rocks, just rocks, but with the various UV lamps, how they did glow.  I knew of course that the Ogdensburg ore deposits of Sterling Hill and Franklin were famous for fluorescence - and the glow-worm dealers were here in force.

There were rocks that had 4 and 5 different colors of glow, and the colors changed depending upon the frequency of the UV!  Kitty, you would think you had gone to glow-worm heaven!!

Then I went outside to see what I could see...I wound up buying everything I bought from tailgater sellers.  Believe it of not, I didn't buy any of that great fluorescent material.  I just never went back in there, don't ask me why.  I really enjoy it when I collect or buy a great mineral (or fossil) and it turns out to glow.  But I don't really go that hard for rocks that aren't anything special until the UV lamp goes on...don't ask me why.

I saw a pretty TN axinite from a bearded guy (but skinny, not big and healthy like me!) and asked how much?  Not much, and he thought he had a bigger one, a nice mini...turns out it was Terry Szenics, a really nice guy with good tase in rocks.  I bought 'em both quick.

Later on, farther out in the field, I ran into John Betts.  I have probably bought more rocks from John than anyone else over the years, but he specialized this year in Vaux specimens from the infamous Philadelphia Museum of Natural History (but not rocks, no, none of them!).  Some of them were interesting, but not my style...so I looked hard.  My favorite was the vivianites, some had tiny crystals, but they were mostly casts and all totally black and opaque.

But I chatted with him, he wasn't there to turn over material, just to share some New Jersey history with anyone interested.  The ancient hand-written labels were interesting, I do enjoy historic rocks.

Right next to him was a nice youngster (younger than me, anyways, I can't tell any more how old people are...) who had mostly cut stones, sapphires from Montana, cut in Thailand.  They had a really interesting color, mostly clear transparent, with hints of blue and different hints of orange, hematite, he thought.

I bought a 5.something carat stone...a good deal.  In retrospect, I should have spent more time in idle conversation, like how did he happen to have these to send to Thailand for cutting, but...I feel like if I'm just shooting the breeze, maybe someone will hesitate to ask a question that would have led to a sale.

Well, Martha stayed right with me for a big trip all around once, but when it became obvious I was going to go around again, slower, she bailed out to the car and her book.  We always take books on vacation, and keep our eye peeled for book stores on the road, we learned the hard way to take extra folded up duffel bags to fill with books.

I almost bought a pretty Uvite tourmaline specimen, gemmy dark red crystals on really sparkley white matrix, probably albite or some similar feldspar?  from Hummingbird Minerals, but it was expensive, and I didn't feel like bargaining much.

So after another hour or so, I got tired and we headed back to the hotel.  I can't remember another time I ran into John Betts and didn't buy anything!!  But I made up for it a little today at his weekly new rocks posting -- just so many pretty rocks!

We drove home Sunday, over 500 miles, stopped in eastern PA for lunch, and in Morgantown WV at dusk for dinner, and got home about 11 pm...wow were we tired!  Fortunately, I previously arranged for a recovery day on Monday.

The show was great!  I strongly encourage anyone within 1000 miles to make the pilgrimage at least once!  John said he sets up inside at the spring show, and I'm sure he will have more flashy specimens with an indoor booth.

Well, that's it.  We didn't visit either the Franklin Mineral Museum or the Sterling Hill Mine, although I saw it over to the west from the road.  Just not enough energy. 

Hope you enjoy the trip report!  I'll take pictures next time...I schlepped cameras all the way for 1200 miles, and didn't take pix one!  No one who knows me would believe that, but it's true!

JR in WV

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