A Royal Scepter at Peterson Mtn

 

On Peterson Mountain, NV, near Hallelujah Junction (all good pics courtesy of Austin)

I've been wanting to do some digging on Peterson Mountain for 10 years.  Despite the fee, I got an offer I couldn't refuse.  Austin Cockell invited me to come with him and do some digging at one of the pay-to-dig claims.  We visited the Royal Scepter mine and both thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Austin had been to the site the previous year and so we had no trouble finding our way up the mountain.  We camped near the top and enjoyed some panoramic views. The mountain is notorious for its well known winds and Mt Peterson didn't disappoint. Fortunately the winds died down the first night and we were able to get some shut-eye. Since all of our digging was in a pit, the winds were only moderately inconvenient as they blew over the top of us. You may see some pebbles flying across your field of view in some of the videos. The main collecting mineral for this site is quartz.  The number of separate molten silica infusions into the mountain cracks provides a multitude of various types/habits of quartz. The main draw to Peterson Mountain are the fabulous sceptered quartz crystals. 

The stewards of the mine supplied us with the essentials to find crystals.  The whole process was made exceptionally easy with track hoes scrapping the pit and front-end loaders hauling away the debris.  An electric vibrating chisel was also very handy for breaking down the edges of pockets.  Wrapping paper boxes and other tools were also provided to carefully secure/protect our finds and transport them to our vehicles at the end of the day.  The miners used the heavy equipment to break down rock in the claim area into three different steps or benches.  Both sides and bottoms of the dig area were well scrapped so we could see quartz outcrops and follow the seams to crystal pockets. I explored 4 pockets with minor successes and then I hit a nicer pocket in the wall of the lowest level of the claim

Paul checking out my pocket

Even Paul Geffner, one of the mine owners, was interested.  I pulled out a few pencil quartz crystals out of this pocket as well as some candlestick crystals. While I didn't really want anyone's help, I understood Paul didn't know of my experiences. I gratefully gave way, allowing him access to my dig.  Paul used his electrically powered chisel to open up the sides of my pocket for easier access.  I was then able to more rapidly clean out the pocket. As soon as the boss became interested, a whole crowd of folks came over to watch what would come out of the pocket next.  Below you see one of the needle crystals I had just pulled out.

 

 

I probably harvested at least 100 crystals from this beach ball sized pocket. Many of the crystals were broken, but fortunately there was a secondary infusion of silica into the pocket. This secondary infusion of quartz formed some candlesticks and scepters on the terminations of some of the broken smoky quartz crystals and provided spectacular rehealed crystals.  I noticed that much of the broken material was very gemmy, but I had to pick and choose a bit what specimens were going to travel back with me on the plane.

Next was Austin's turn to make a crystal score, and he came through in a rather big way (pun intended). for those of you who don't know Austin, he is about 6ft 10.  Soon a crowd gathered around his  digging spot as he pulled out one 6 inch crystal after the next.  After a couple hours I wandered over to see what Austin was up to.  Once again, he was pulling out wonderful quartz crystals.  I decided he was getting better crystals than me because of his height advantage.  haha.

Austin working a crystal pocket

To the left is Austin pulling out another crystal.  To the right we see him with Rick Kennedy, an onsite miner.  Notice even though Austin has a leg up on most of us, he still uses a block of rock to his advantage.

After about 6 hours of digging solo, we decided to dig together a bit.  I barely sat down next to Austin when he pulled out the best scepter of the day.  Definitely a most royal scepter.  Shortly after his find I also found a nice scepter, though Austins scepter has a much longer stem.  See pictures below.

Best scepter of the day

I consider these to be magnificent scepters.  The one to the right is truly exceptional!

I did a quick turnaround cleaning and was able to put a case together for our Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society show less than 1 week after my visit.  Many of the quartz crystals I found at the Royal Scepter claim on Peterson Mountain are memorable. 

An excellent bi-monthly magazine put out by the Mineralogical Record just came out.  If you wish to do more in depth reading on mining at Peterson Mountain, I suggest you buy the 2022 Mar/Apr edition.