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

[Julie Siebel]

lol - Yeah, John meant Crystal Park. We have a "Crystal Peak" (with no 
apparent crystals) about 8 miles from here, and so we get 'em mixed up.

Tentative plans are for leaving for Lewistown on May 29, stop in Bozeman 
over night, and hit Lewistown on the 30th...that'll be mostly freeway, just 
to get to Lewistown. We'll be there for a couple of days, helping with an 
anniversary party, then leave to go rockhounding on June 2nd, though - say - 
June 8th or 9th.

I wondered about the snow up at Crystal Park, but I didn't even think about 
Calvert Hill. Duh - heavy snow year and Calvert Hill is over 7700 feet. 
Hoping that since it's further south, it's melting earlier! lol Wonder how 
you'd find out? I really hope it's open...it's a great place to camp!

We went up in the Judith Peak area on one visit, but I don't recall we found 
anything. On the other hand, it was one of our very first rockhounding 
trips, so we really didn't know what we were looking for. The place we're 
going for the party is on a biiiggg ranch near Grassrange. Haven't found 
much on the ranch itself, but there's some great stuff along the highway 
there. Maybe we'll go Grassrange/Lewiston/Stanford/etc. as we head toward 
Crystal Park. Thanks, Lanny

Wow, I'm looking forward to this. It's been a.loonnnng winter - our 
daffodils finally bloomed last Sunday - and I've been going stir crazy. 
(Plus, I lost 40+ pounds over the winter and so ought to be able to scramble 
up and down those hills again ;-)

Julie


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lanny R" <lanny.r at roadrunner.com>
To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors" 
<rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 10:38 AM
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Old Gold: Need small,reasonably priced mineral 
sample.


> 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
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
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>>
>>
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