[Rockhounds] recent crystal collecting trips

[Juergen Wachsmuth]

Hello Bill,

good to hear there are zeolite localities well worth a visit in your state. Thank you!

Regards,
Jürgen Wachsmuth
Ulm - Germany

billtompkinscccc at comcast.net schrieb:

> Greetings, rockheads,
>
>  I've had a surge in crystal collecting recently, so I figure it's time I reported in.
>
>  Starting July 6, we spent a week in Idaho.  On the way east, we stopped at the zeolite locality near Spray, Oregon known as Burnt Cabin Creek.  We were on a schedule that didn't allow much time and it was very hot, so we only stayed about an hour.  That was plenty of time for several good flats of chabazite, analcime and a little of the fibrous zeolites.
>
>  In Idaho, on Monday I visited South Mountain in Owyhee County.  Thunder Mountain Gold Company is getting ready to reopen the old metal mines there, and they have posted an extensive report of over 80 pages in length about this locality.  Go to their webpage and follow the links to view their fascinating reading.  I was allowed to look through the dumps and found tons of hedenbergite, and enough of the other minerals to satisfy me: copper, ilvaite, garnet, zinc.
>
>  On Friday, we went to see the Upper Peacock Mine in the Seven Devils Mining District near Hell's Canyon.  For directions, we were told "go to the end of the road and then come back one half mile".  Perfect directions.  I also had Lanny's collecting guide and a map drawn by Randy Becker that were enormously helpful.  What a place!!  The wildflowers were in full bloom, the view of Hell's Canyon from 7150 eet elevation was awesome, and there were copper minerals and garnets to be found easily.  Just bend over and pick them up.  Then carry them about a mile back uphill (at 7150 feet) to the car. And did I mention, the closest hospital is two counties away?  Great collecting, awesome photos, glad I did it.
>
>  Last weekend we went to the beach near Cape Lookout, Tillamook County, OR.  Our guests thought we were a little crazy to be carrying a backpack full of tools down to the beach, but we showed them.  On the beach we found dozens of small boulders that were full of zeolites and calcite.  We soon had our packs full with plates of green clinoptilolite clusters with orange balls of calcite.  Pretty good for the beach.  After lunch, we stopped at the old quarry near the state park at Cape Lookout and found some good zeolites, but not as many as in years past.  The quarry is really overgrown.
>
>  And finally, right near downtown Milwaukie, OR last week I came across a landslide thathad some pockets several inches across lined with two generations of stilbite crystals.  Not bad for just a few miles from home.
>
>  And lately I've been thinking that collecting was getting lean.  Well it is, and it takes more gas to find crystals, but they are still to be found if you look hard enough.
>
>  Bill Tompkins
>  Happy Valley, OR
>
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