[Rockhounds] Re: Mining Story

[John Cornish]

Hi Larry,

Thank you so much for sharing your friends story of the Christmas Tree marcasite specimen. What a place to picture! As I read your/his account, my mind going through its own mental contortions, I could almost imagine being there... what a sight those magical places must have been! 

I've always thought that as collectors, we're especially blessed being able to see these treasures fist hand. Thank you for sharing this adventure with us. I hope you'll consider sharing many more! All the very best,

John


Message: 10
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:19:24 -0400
From: "Lawrence Rush" <larryrush at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [Rockhounds] Mining Story
To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem
collectors" <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Message-ID: <F15B56438A8141129FD59E747AD5DFC9 at LarryRush>
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reply-type=original

I have an old mining friend who sends me stories about the Tri-state 
District frequently. Here is one about Marcasite that I thought the list 
might enjoy.....


 Larry
 None of the chalcopyrite from Tri-State ever decomposed either,
 the marcasite has. There were two kinds of marcasite, the brassy
 looking kind which would decompose and the red color one that
 wouldn't.  I never knew why some of it was red colored but there
 was a definite difference in how it lasted. Some of the mines never
 had any caves of the red, mostly it was always the brassy looking kind.
 I opened up a marcasite cave in the Kenoyer mine that was all red color
 on pink dolomite. 1/4 stick made a nice opening, it went back and narrowed
 down to just room enough to get on into a bigger part. I got stuck, there
 wasn't anybody remotely close to help me. I paniced after about 5 minutes
 and the more I struggled the tighter I got. I seen I was in trouble so just
 relaxed and thought about it for a few minutes, squirmed around and got
 going again. Coming out it wasn't bad. That was one of the few times I got
 caught up. It was something else crawing around over marcasite, your
 clothes usually ended up shredded.  I have to tell you about the "christmas
 tree" cave.  Virgil Buckner was working with me and he found a hole going
 up into the rib and back - crawled in and after a while came out. He said I
 should go and look at the christmas tree. It was in a brassy macasite cave.
 There was just room to snake in with your hands over your head, it went up
 and back about 15 feet, branched off to the left (too small to get in) and
 went about another 5 feet where it opened into a room about 3 feet high, 5 
feet
 wide  and maybe 20 feet long. Just within reach was a marcasite formation 
that
 was about 18 inches high x 8 in. in diameter, brassy and shiny, looked like
 a perfect christmas tree. I wondered why Virgil hadn't got it. I got in
 position to reach it, got ahold and wiggled it (it was loose). When I did 
the whole back of the cave sifted down dust and little pieces of marcasite! 
It was a
 perfect death trap if I ever seen one. Far as I know it is still there!!!! 
I
couldn't back out of that place fast enough. It was a one of a kind specimen 
but not worth the risk.



------------------------------

Message: 11
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:29:54 -0700
From: Kris Rowe <lapidary.specialties at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Mining Story
To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem
collectors" <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Message-ID:
<831c9ad10903281029i41f92ac5t2dcaba062c6363f8 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Great collecting tales! I can see that little "tree" waiting there ..
tempting, glistening treasure ... Ahhhh!

Thanks!
              Kris


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