[Rockhounds] Fwd: 2007 KY Fluorite Fieldtrip Reports - Final Installment (was: Got Fluorite?)

[Nathan Martin]

 Here is the final installment of my 2007 KY fluorite fieldtrip log.

---------------10/12/07--------------
On Monday night a cold front moved through the Marion, KY area bringing a
little rain, some thunder and lightning and a much-appreciated break to the
heat.  The sunrise Tuesday morning was spectacular as the diffracted rays of
the sun just below the horizon gave pink edges to the departing clouds.  I
had called Bill Frazier the night before to tell him that there were 4 of us
who wanted to go back for one more day at the Eureka Mine.  I also told him
that I would show him a promising location to do some excavating to enhance
future collecting at the mine.  At 8 AM the four diehards (Bret Howard, June
Epp, John Campbell and Nate Martin) met Bill at the museum parking lot and
headed back out to the mine.  As we drove through the KY countryside and
turned onto Columbia Mine Road I couldn't help thinking that this might well
be my last time to see this particular part of the world.  This was now my
fourth trip to the area and there are so many other places that I want to
collect that I may not be coming back to this particular spot again.  I
reminded myself that this is the way life is and you need to simply enjoy
the journey.

When we got to the mine I took Bill up to the prospect pit that had been so
productive the day before and we showed him examples of some of the material
that we had found.  When I recommended that he do some excavating there for
future collecting his reply was, "When will the Boston Mineral Club be
coming back?  Your club found this spot and you should benefit from its
excavation!"  I didn't exactly know what to say so I simply told him that I
would let him know one way or the other.

I had originally planned to go up to the Columbia mine to do some
fluorescent collecting under my newly made blackout cloth.  However, I
couldn't resist completing the digging out of the area around a dead tree
that Ed Norton and I had worked on the day before.  The weather was cool and
the air was dry and comfortable, such a pleasant change from the past 3
days.  I started my digging in the compact KY clay using my Estwing miner's
pick to find rocks within about 6" of the surface.  When you do this you
just hope that the crystals are facing down.  The sound of a steel tool
breaking fluorite crystals is not a pleasant one and I heard it several
times.  A three-pronged garden tool was useful in digging out a rock once it
was exposed.  By noon, I had covered a roughly 6' by 6' area and had found
nearly two dozen specimens ranging from thumbnail specimens that I found
hidden in lumps of clay to hand-sized small cabinet specimens studded with
fluorite cubes and rectangular prisms.  Most of the fluorite crystals are
dark purple but I found a few of the pretty pale lavender variety that I had
seen others collect.  The crystals at this spot also did not exhibit the
stepped growth patterns that I had previously seen from the Eureka pit, but
instead were sharp smooth crystal faces with sizes ranging from 1/8" to
5/8".  After eating lunch, I set up a wash bucket to clean up the specimens
I had collected and then sorted out the keepers and wrapped them up
carefully for the long trip home.  I never did make it up to the Columbia
mine but I had clearly made the right decision as to where to collect.

John Campbell left around 1:30 PM to catch his flight out of Nashville and I
left around 3:00 PM.  Bret and June stayed on since they were not heading
back to their home in Pittsburgh until the next day.  Before leaving I
visited Yoder's Variety store and bought an assortment of jellies and
butters (its hard to get elderberry jelly and strawberry butter out here on
the east coast). On the way out of town I picked up one last Marion Pit BBQ
sandwich with baked beans and coleslaw to have for dinner on the road and
headed up state road 60 toward Evansville, IN and the long 1200 mile drive
home.

On Wednesday I couldn't resist cutting through Indiana to collect at another
geode site.  This one featured optically clear calcite crystals in quartz
and dolomite.  If I had the time and energy I would have gotten out my saw
to try to rescue some of the larger geodes with better calcite crystals
inside but neither time nor energy were available in great abundance so I
collected what I could and then hit the road again.  I made it as far as
Youngstown, OH on Wednesday and then drove the rest of the way home on
Thursday.  The constant rain "dampened" my enthusiasm for any additional
collecting stops even though Peter Cristofono had found good plant fossils
at one of the I80 exits in PA on his way out to KY.

The inexpensive way to get great specimens is to buy them!  But a trip like
this is not about the economics of building a mineral collection.  The
shared experience of visiting a distant locality with a congenial group of
collectors, gaining a sense of its history and geology and uncovering its
beauty in crystals long hidden in the earth is in the words of the current
credit card commercial, "priceless".  My thanks to Ed Norton, Steve Towne,
Bob Lancaster, Peter Cristofono, Linda Frahm, Bret Howard, June Epp, Don
Swenson, Kieth & Cindy Newman, John Chipman, Ted Straiton, Rob & Jenn Sawyer
and John Campbell for their partnership in this adventure.  I had a great
time.

best regards,
Nate Martin


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