Rockin the Rockies

Rockin the Rockies
Rock Hounding

Friday, January 23, 2015

Rock Hounding the Rockies Indoors

While the snow is 2 feet deep in the mineral belt of Colorado, there are still plenty of mineral related things you can do in the Rockies. Today I visited a fellow rock hound who got to show us his collection.
 
 While most of the minerals he had were not found in the Rockies he lives in the Rockies, so a bit of a stretch but still rock hounding the Rockies J  Here I am with a 50 pound fluorite that my friend found over the summer. He’s pretty cagey about where he found it and I will respect his wishes suffice it to say it was found in the Pikes Peak Batholith. He’s been working on his display cabinets a couple of years and he finished them this fall and loaded them up with museum-class crystals.


There were tourmalines, rhodochrosite, wulfenite, sulfur, quartz clusters, barite and calcite to name a few. The display just about took my breath away.  I favor fluorites and so I captured a few of these for your viewing pleasure. Most of the crystals in his mini-Museum were purchased and have probably increased in value several times over the years. While most were not found in Colorado they live here now.







After leaving his house my rock hounding buddy Bob and I ruminated over the collection we had just seen. As a rock hound I primarily collect what I find and don’t have the budget to purchase anything in the cabinets I’ve just seen, still I enjoyed viewing the minerals, the hospitality of friends and the knowledge imparted during the visit. 

3 comments:

  1. Wow some of these fluos are as good as the best we have here in the biggest french mineralogical museum! Amazing!

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  2. Fluorites took my breath away. Thanks for the amazonite pics.

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  3. What an amazing collection! I too don't have the budget to purchase rare minerals, so my collection is most just what I can find. I look for crystal at a place in Montana dubbed "crystal mountain" every summer. We use screen to sift through dirt, but it takes a lot of effort. I was wondering if you have heard of anyone using an industrial vibrating screen to speed up the process? http://vibrascreener.com/dynamic-screener/

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