Prospectors on the Weather Channel -- Season 1

Mt Antero in May 2013... going to be awhile before anybody gets up there this year to prospect

While I enjoy the show and like seeing some of the prospectors/acquaintances working their digs, the show is really not about prospecting or prospectors. Seems to be more about striking it rich and making big money. I was hoping to see some technique from the prospectors, but thus far it's only about finding gems for their value. The only prospecting on the first show was a guy repelling down a cliff. Prospecting involves time, energy and a lot of patience. Digging a pegmatite vein with a track hoe is not prospecting. Doris may have found $250K of smokys with amazonite, but I'll bet he won't realize that profit for years to come, meanwhile between $50K equipment breakdowns and fuel, he has a lot invested. Digging out a pocket of fluorite found previously is not prospecting. Removing rubble from a site where you previously found aquamarine and finding more is not prospecting. I found it interesting that Busse said he had $3000 worth of aquamarine once it was cut. So he really maybe found $500 worth of aquamarine (5 people all day moving boulders by hand at 13,000ft). One definition from Wikipedia: Prospecting is physical labor, involving traversing (traditionally on foot or on horseback), panning, sifting and outcrop investigation, looking for signs of mineralization. I realize I've only seen one episode, and it wouldn't make good TV to see people hiking around in the mountains all day long finding little to nothing, but so far I haven't seen prospectors prospecting. Still it make good television and I will watch every episode I'm sure.
Need to get out and do my own prospecting... still snow on the front range.

Episode III: My opinion hasn't changed much. Although we are getting a little more "real TV" with arguments made up or not between friends and family members. Merging episodes I & II worked okay jumping back and forth with 10 minute segments. Jumping back and forth with 5 minute segments during the last half hour episode didn't work for me, too choppy. Still I am a faithful watcher. I was with Joe and company when they found the "monster pocket" in August, I'm sure I will like the series a lot more if my discussion with Joe didn't get cut ;-)

Episodes IV&V: Certainly the rock slides on Mt Antero would give me pause before I went walking across the mountain. Good thing it didn't happen during the day. The whole idea of digging into the side of a slowly sliding mountain seems not worth the risk to me. Not sure walking around with a lightning rod is a good idea either. Interesting to see the focus on high-graders/thieves. High-graders is a long used generous term for mineral thieves.  I've noticed from the episodes that Amanda has her claim well marked with discovery point clearly in place. I would guess the thieves were watching Amanda dig from an advantageous lookout spot the day before with field glasses and thought they might get some easy pickings. Amanda has had some claim issues before and was almost taken to court, so she isn't totally innocent either. A couple of boys ripped off Dorris a few years ago doing the same thing, only they came at night and walked off with a pocket that Joe had discovered the day before despite him covering it back up with scree. Saw these fellows trying to sell their ill-gotten gains at the Contin-Tail show in Buena Vista a couple of weeks after the theft. I suspected something was wrong as they were the only dealer with uncleaned/dirty crystals. Their prices were even higher than those quoted on Prospectors! I asked them if they had a claim and where they found the amazonite and they said they didn't have to tell me that (kinda lighted up my radar) , I told them as a collector I would want to know the provenance of any crystal prior to purchase. I walked over to the next booth and listened as they discussed how they should respond to a question like mine. They decided the next person to ask such a question should be answered with the Tarryalls. Not too much amazonite ever found in the Tarryalls boys. I related the story to Joe D and gave him a description. Joe said he suspected the same two guys.
 I hope the show with it's inflated prices doesn't encourage more people to try and gain from other people's hard work as some of the other claim owners may not be so lenient.
 Just heard that the BLM which manages much of Mt Antero is none to happy about the Busse's et. al. rolling hundred pound boulders off their claims to who knows where. Somewhat of a safety concern I suppose. I wonder when they reclamate their claims if they'll have to drag those boulder back up that Mtn where they found them.  Hah

Episode VI: Well, the Busse's in a thundersnow storm on Mt Antero didn't look like much fun. I'm pretty sure the risk Frederer is taking to get crystals is not worth it. The show referenced some of the crystals he found years ago down the worm hole. You can check out the picture I posted on 6/19/11 titled Topaz Hunting in the Tarryalls to see one of the large smokys.
See: (http://rockhoundingkw.blogspot.com/2011/06/topaz-hunting-in-tarryalls.html) I heard second hand that Rich shopped the large crystals extensively, even to the Smithsonian, but nobody wanted them for near the price he expected. I believe Newmont Mining(Cripple Creek/Victor) assisted Rich in donating the crystal to the Florrisant museum. The museum is small, but has a nice crystal collection from the local area. Nice to see Frederd looking out for Dorris. Many claim owners look out for each other. The topaz from Joe's claim are truly beautiful. I have been going to that claim on and off for over 10 years on club field trips. Walt Rubeck used to own the claim, but died a few years ago. He donated a number of very nice crystals to the visitor/welcome center in Cripple Creek. These crystals are worth checking out if you are in the area. This new visitors center is just outside of town near the Mollie Kathleen gold mine. Joe lets folks on his claim from time to time either on open dates (check his web site at Pinnacle 5) or through local clubs (supervised of course).  I laugh when I recall a couple of years ago I mentioned to Joe that my wife and I were thinking of doing an article on rock hounding for AAA magazine. See (http://encompassmag.com/2012/12/web-extra-colorado-rocks/) Joe was concerned that the publicity might generate too many interested folks in taking unsupervised samples of topaz from his claim. Another good show. If you want to watch a good prospecting show, check out Ice Cold Gold on Animal Planet. They do real prospecting!

Episode VII:  Glad to see Frederer knows when to quit. Seems to me he needs some real dynamite to blow the granite overhang off the mountain. Maybe too expensive to do it that way though he's a bonafide hard rock miner. Where there is one topaz maybe there are more up the shaft. I did like the way he used the proctologist's camera.  No polyps, just a blue topaz. Back to Mt Antero. More weather moving in on folks not finding much. If Amanda can get $20-$50 a piece for those smokys, I'd like to know where. Kind of surprised Steve didn't put his aquamarine encrusted granite off to the side, though I've lost specimens at digs that way too. Seems to me Joe Dorris has a nice amazonite smoky pocket to show off on one of the last episodes, maybe some more topaz as well. We shall see.... stay tuned. Amanda made the news here again. Evidently while she was camping near Crystal Park. Her former "friend" and deputy sheriff from the city of Fountain got himself arrested by confronting the duo and threatening to kill her current boyfriend (Travis). At least that's how the local news is telling it. Oh well, this is a rock hounding blog not the society page.

Episodes VIII&IX: Finally we see episode 8 and finish the series with 9. I was hoping to be in episode 8, as I was there when Joe D. was pulling out amazonites with smokys, and I was even interviewed. It was fun to see Joe take over the dig from Tim and pull out the amazonite smoky grouping. Just before I arrived at their claim they had found the Bevino twinned amazonite crystal along with a nice amazonite combo all pictured in episode 8.  Then in episode 9 they went back to the same pegmatite and pulled out crystals as big as Tim's head. What an experience that must have been. By my figuring Joe had a $1M+ year in crystal finds. I would guess he sold the best at the Tucson Show. Brancato found little at Mt Antero, but did seem to think he found some nice amazonite at Lake George. It was hard to see the quality of the items he found as they were dirty and seemed damaged. I was a little bemused over Steve's theology and rock hounding. Good to know someone understands God so well. Not sure why Busse's friend from TN wandered off down the mountain without telling anyone, he should have known better. The biggest surprise in episode 9 was Amanda thinking her green fluorite was topaz. It seemed pretty clear to me on my low definition TV that the etched crystal was a fluorite. Nice green though. Maybe the misidentification was for TV hype.

Stay tuned: as Joe Dorris brought his track hoes in this year there were videographers with him every step of the way. I know because my friend got stuck behind them on a dirt road leading to their claim.

Sept 2013 Update: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24041641/reality-show-prospecting-meets-reality-colorado?IADID=Search-www.denverpost.com-www.denverpost.com
Seems only Joe Doris is playing by the rules... not surprising to me. Author makes all the crews look like a bunch of dopes, and maybe they are (except for Joe). If you find minerals on National Forest ground you can't sell them unless properly permitted. If you are not permitted and go on a nationally aired TV program you will get in trouble.

See Prospectors on the Weather Channel -- Season II for my latest opinions

Mineral Auction Experiences

Unknown Mineral to me sold for $190 (11x3")

With winter firmly entrenched over the Rocky Mountains and temperatures dropping down to -35F in the mountain valleys, I decided to go rock hounding at a local auction house. While the auction itself was on the internet, the minerals were available for viewing locally. The pictures of the minerals displayed on the Internet site were for the most part poorly depicted. Some of the pictures were pixelated when zoomed in on, viewing angles of the minerals were not taken to best show off the specimens and nearly all specimens had only a single picture taken. I decided to go to the small-time auction house and check the minerals for myself. While I intended to get a better look at the crystals there were side bonuses of noting some minerals were misidentified, other minerals had tags with them that weren't mentioned on the internet site. Old price tags are helpful as well. With camera and magnifying glass in hand I closely checked out the minerals. Many unidentified minerals were easily identified as Wulfenite, Citrine, Barite and Pyromorphite. One piece of botryoidal fluorite had a Collector's Edge tag that stated it was fluorite (botryoidal), found in a mine in China and sold for over $100, ten years ago. I turned over a specimen of Wulfenite and found it was from the Red Cloud mine in AZ and sold some time ago for $145. Still yet another specimen had a price tag from 2003 identifying it as Citrine from the Ural Mountains and originally sold for $80. I picked up each one of these minerals for about $20. One consideration when buying from an auction house was the surcharge and state taxes. If the specimens had been properly identified with a little more care I'm sure I would have had to pay much more. It definitely pays to check out small-time auction houses for items they are probably are not used to dealing with. Bargains can be had, treasures enjoyed and profits made. Prior to bidding on any of the specimens I did some homework on the internet and found similar specimens. This allowed me to corroborate mineral types as well as suggested retail prices before putting in any bids. While a few desirable specimens got away from me, the minerals I purchased should easily garner a 400-500% profit for me when I decide to sell them. Below are a few specimens from the internet auction.
 

Wulfenite

Amethyst

Citrine from the Ural Mountains

Fossils in the Pierre Shale of Colorado Springs

I'm not sure fossils have a place in a rock hounding blog, but I guess they are rocks after all.  Today was too nice to sit home (55F) and study, so I decided to try my hand at finding baculites (late Cretaceous) and anything else preserved in the Pierre shale see:(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Shale). As I recall from High School Latin class the word for stick is Baculum. My magister threatened me with a baculum or made me bring crustula the next day if I got the answer wrong in Latin class. Latin must be the origin of the naming convention for baculites as they are long slender stick-like fossils. I have found baculites in outcrops of shale along Fountain Creek before, and having not visiting this favorite site for over a year I decided to give it a try. I have a couple sites that I let erosion do the work and I just stop by once a year hoping to collect some fossils. The creek is usually quite low this time of year, so I can get access to spots that are otherwise difficult. The particular shale cliff I visited today faces west and north. The west side is dry and crumbly but the north side is moist and almost impossible to get anything out of the shale whole(shady and wet). As I approached the site I noticed someone had been busy tearing down the shale. A fellow fossil hunter left me a nice metal sign post to do some tearing down of my own. Care must be taken when peeling back the shale so as not to bury yourself.  This particular site had an overhang of about 15 feet, so I used some care so that I wouldn't become one of the resident fossils. Not all of the shale has fossils, but this particular spot seems quite fossiliferous. Despite others working the area, I soon found a prize in the shale wall about 9 feet off the ground. I used the metal sign post that someone else left and helped myself. I used to gather a few of these specimens every time I visited this site and then put one or two up for silent auction at our club meetings. When nice 75M year old specimens enclosed in their original nacre sold for less than $5 I decided I'd rather keep the fossils than let them go for that cheap. A friend of mine has gone to Baculite Mesa NE of Pueblo, but he has never found any baculites with the nacre shell still in place. In past years I've found Jeletzkytes here as well. Cleaning the baculites is always a dance between getting rid of the dirt to see the nacre and sutures for identification and preserving the nacre, as it is very crumbly. Here are my pictures of today's hunt.

Geese enjoying a warm December day

Baculite fresh out of the Pierre Shale, about 7 inches in length

Cleaned baculite with nacre

A Jeletzkyte encased in Pierre Shale

Not sure what this is, maybe a coral or worm burrow

Another Jeletzkyte, not sure of exact name

Shells and other oddities found in the Pierre Shale

End of Year Rockhounding at Lake George

Having not found much lately I decided to redig a hole someone else had worked a few years ago. I talked to the claim owner about the hole and he had no recollection of digging it. After digging out the old hole I noticed there was considerable quartz in the pegmatite wall in front of me as well as shards of quartz in the bottom of the dig. After not digging too long I began finding big quartz crystals. Unfortunately all of the crystals were covered or shrouded with a veil of quartz. While most of the specimens were covered in lumpy quartz overgrowth, a few just had a brownish rusty sheen (keepers). I supposed it is iron enriched quartz. Below are a few pictures of me digging. My digging buddy thought he would use these pictures as blackmail in how not to dig a hole, but I survived the experience. I wasn't too concerned as the surrounding pegmatite, was quite firm, at least after a few bangs with a crack hammer it appeared to be stable. I think I'll call this my "Waste of Time" pocket. It showed real promise, but the crystals were not really collectible. Maybe the guy who worked the pocket prior to me knew when to quit. Evidently I don't know when to quit! The frost is slowing me down, so this may be my last entry for 2012 unless I go petrified wood hunting.

Where my hardhat and miner's light?

Going in for the kill, I dug this out about 6 feet down

Time to pull out the crystals

This is the best I found, too bad the smoky is covered in a coat of reddish quartz

This one has white and reddish quartz over the smokys

Talk to you all again next year.

Onegite at Lake George

Onegite is somewhat of a misnomer. Onegite was a name given to a mineral when in fact it is a specimen composed of quartz and goethite needles. Originally described from Lake Onega, Wolf Island, Karelia Republic, Northern Region, Russia. We still use the name Onegite locally instead of saying quartz with goethite inclusions. The onegite varies in color from near black, brown, yellow (citrine) and purple(amethyst). I believe this color change is primarily caused by the amount of goethite needles imbedded in the quartz. Last week I made another prospecting trip to Lake George in search of crystals and stumbled on a pocket of smoky quartz and onegite. Unfortunately many of the smoky quartz have a mottled appearance and are spot covered in additional quartz coating. The onegite are however somewhat unusual and the nicest I've ever found. I've shown smaller specimens to old timers who were quite impressed. These onegite handily beat those. Studying the crystals I believe the onegite and goethite balls formed after the original pocket was formed. Much of the goethite with onegite crystals seems to have formed around existing smoky quartz crystals.

Close up of Onegite

Large grouping of onegite on goethite

Onegite on matrix with goethite

Onegite crystal mass

Largest onegite crystal found about the size of a nickel

I should add the smokys from this pocket cleaned up fairly well

Quartz crystals also found, dig is in lower left

Microcline In The Lake George Intrusive Area

When I prospect the area north and east of Lake George I'm normally either looking for amazonite, fluorite or smoky quartz crystals. One of the indicators I use to know I'm onto something is microcline. I figure if there is microcline crystals present, then I'm probably rooting around in a pegmatite that might also produce quartz crystals or other desirable specimens. Normally I leave the microcline at the dig. While they are crystals, they are rather plain when compared to their brilliant blue/green cousins amazonite. When I'm having a slow day prospecting, I might take home an occasional well-formed microcline specimen. Last month I was digging out some fairly nice smokys when I hit some microcline crystals. These microcline crystals were rather odd in shape, so I dug them up, pursuing them 6 feet into the ground and took them home and cleaned them up. While cleaning I noticed they were twins. I knew they were both manebach and bevino twins. The easiest way to detect twins is to look for V-shaped reentrys between crystals. You can also detect cross hatched banding on the crystal faces indicating where one crystals starts and the other leaves off. I didn't think a lot about the crystals, but took them to my mentor, Ray Berry, who has been digging out pegmatites for over 40 years. Ray likes odd things and these seemed out of the ordinary to me. Ray was quite impressed with the crystals. Ray thought some of the microcline crystals might be double or even triple twins. He told me a feldspar collector would kill for these, so I decided not include my home address in this blog ;-)

Bevino and Manebach (V reentry on bottom)

V-Reentry clearly visible with Bevino hanging off side

Bevino twin on lower right, albite on left side

Lake George Smokys and more

Since it is a rainy day today I thought I might catch up on my blog. I had a fairly nice find on 31Aug with crystal extraction and cleaning continuing til today. I was prospecting north of Lake George and found some quartz fragments with faces. Looking around for any recent digs, I did find one but it was below the float quartz I was finding. After a few shovel fulls of dirt, I started finding small but gemmy crystals. These smaller crystals also had albite and/or cleavelandite (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albite) around the bases of the crystals attached to the pegmatite. I also found some grainy fluorite pieces. Some of the crystals also had small phenakite (see http://www.reference.com/browse/phenakite+?s=b) Phenakite is Greek for deceiving. I guess it can be mistaken for quartz or topaz. As I dug down through reddish dirt the crystals become more frequent with considerable quartz shards. I finally hit some firm quartz about 4 feet down and followed this for a few feet til I hit some plates pictured below. While the plate came out in pieces it is still quite a find (at least for me). Since I found these plates on 31 Aug, the second full moon of the month (colloquially described as a blue moon) I will henceforth describe this find as my blue-moon pocket. Perhaps you only find something this nice once in a blue moon. Next blue moon won't occur til 2015. Hope I find more nice specimens before that ;-)

A sign of good things to come a very nice chubby crystal

Carefully scrapping dirt away reveals the beginning of a nice plate

Blue Moon plate washed and ready for reconstruction and further cleaning

Cleaned and stable, needs a little more TLC

Crystals reattached and cleaned.

Extracted these crystals for later reconstruction

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Crytals with albite or cleavelandite near bases

Phenakite on smoky