[Rockhounds] Old Gold: Need small, reasonably priced mineral sample.

[Lanny R]

Hi Julie,

If "in a few weeks" means early June, you will probably be ok on the  
locations you list, but snow might be a problem earlier and possibly  
even then. The road to Calvert Hill is often closed early after the  
snow melts off because its soft and breaks up. If you meant Crystal  
Park (not Crystal Peak), then that's at nearly 8,000 feet and may  
still have snow, but I believe you've been there and know that area.  
If by "Crystal Peak" you mean the "beta" quartz area on Judith Peak  
north of Lewistown, then that road may still be closed by snow in  
early June.

Another locality to check is along Arrow Creek, 20 miles north of  
Stanford (45 miles west of Lewistown). The cuts of Bear Paw shale are  
accessible from the highway on the south side of the creek. The  
highway drops down a steep grade to the valley of the creek, and best  
exposures are near the bottom of the grade. Much like these shales  
elsewhere in Montana, there are a lot of nodules full of fossils  
(oysters, clams, etc.) and sometimes they are septarians lined with  
yellow calcite crystals and occasionally those scarce golden barite  
crystals. Of course, there are a lot more exposures of the shale in  
this region from Stanford to Lewistown and off to the north and east.  
Most of it is private ranch land, but there are nodules in roadcuts  
and on BLM land too.

Regards,

Lanny





On May 8, 2008, at 10:32 PM, John Siebel wrote:

> BTW - we're driving from northern Idaho to central Montana  
> (Lewistown) so any collecting site suggestions along the way would  
> be appreciated. We expect to hit Crystal Peak for quartz, Calvert  
> Hill for epidote and Butte for barite on the way back.
>
> John
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Julie Siebel" <julie at pandemoniumgraphics.com 
> >
> To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem  
> collectors" <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
> Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 9:58 PM
> Subject: [Rockhounds] Old Gold: Need small, reasonably priced  
> mineral sample.
>
>
>> John's Sis is celebrating her 50th anniversary in a few weeks, and  
>> we're driving to Montana to help them celebrate.
>>
>> The "traditional gift" for a 50th anniversary is gold. I thought  
>> it'd be cool to give them a tiny, old (collected in 1958 would be  
>> ideal, but I have no hope of that - lol) mineral sample that  
>> included a bit of gold. Anybody got an idea of where I'd find  
>> something cool like that, and anyone know what something like this  
>> might cost? I've got no clue on cost, though I'm suspecting we  
>> won't be able to do this! lol - it just sounded like a cool idea :)
>>
>> I'm not overly particular, just something interesting, preferably  
>> old, definitely with a collection date, that includes gold.
>>
>> Probably this would be a good "reply off list" thing, unless you  
>> can think of a reason it would be of interest to others.
>>
>> Thanks for any direction...
>>
>> Julie
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Rockhounds at drizzle Mailing List
>> Subscription Services:
>> http://lists.drizzle.com/mailman/listinfo/rockhounds
>> List Home Page, with a link to the List Usage Policy:
>> http://www.eclecticlapidary.com/Rockhounds/index.html
>
>
> -- 
> _______________________________________________
> Rockhounds at drizzle Mailing List
> Subscription Services:
> http://lists.drizzle.com/mailman/listinfo/rockhounds
> List Home Page, with a link to the List Usage Policy:
> http://www.eclecticlapidary.com/Rockhounds/index.html