[Rockhounds] Field Trip Report - Alabastine Mine - Again

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Back in February I got to go collecting in the Alabastine Mine as a  
guest with the Tulip City club. You can see the field trip report from  
that visit at  
http://lists.drizzle.com/pipermail/rockhounds/2009-February/028204.html.

Today I got to return the favor and bring some members of the Tulip  
City club, along with the Indian Mounds club, back into the Alabastine  
Mine for six hours of underground collecting.  It was a very different  
experience being the leader of the trip (and the first time I've led a  
trip underground).

A third of the rockhounds were kids. Almost half of the rockhounds had  
never been underground before. And I turned them loose in six miles of  
tunnels that have no lights. I didn't sleep well last night because of  
all the things I could imagine going wrong.

Like the last trip, they left the door open for us. We ran the mine  
elevator ourselves. We did see an employee this time, about five hours  
in, as he walked to the mine elevator with a cart of something he was  
taking to the surface. The employee ignored us. On our way out I locked  
the door and shut it (my tracking showed everyone who came underground  
had left).

I spent most of this trip wandering around the mine offering help to  
the new collectors. One of the rockhounds came out with an amazing vug  
of perfect selenite crystals (to one inch) in a 50+ lb chunk of rock  
that got hauled out on a dolly (after he got it back to the lights and  
cement floor). One of the kids collected a box full of shark coprolites  
from an unusually rich find that got everyone excited.

While wandering around I managed to pick up two buckets of decent  
selenite (massive pencil, not perfect vug crystals), honey/salmon  
alabaster, and a little satin spar. I did my real collecting back in  
February, so this was gravy. I had a pretty good day collecting, but it  
was not my focus.

My real joy this trip was the happy rockhounds, instead of the  
specimens. I was eight the first time I got to visit a mine, and it  
made a lifelong impression on me. Several of the rockhound families  
were taking their first field trip.  Most of the kids were underground  
for the first time. I have hopes I made a difference.

I had almost 50 rockhounds on the trip. More than a ton of rock was  
removed from the mine. Everyone got out safely, and left smiling.

I was offered permission to lead another trip at a time of my own  
choosing. It doesn't get much better.

Kreigh