Club Field Trips

Our club, the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society is a great way to get access to otherwise claimed sites and work with others who are more knowledgeable about the minerals on the claim. I enjoy field trips to places I have never been, especially when they are normally inaccessible. In the fall of 2012 our club with the owners permission went to two claims near Salida CO. The Sedalia and Calumet Mines. I'm usually up for any crystal hunting especially when I'm told the crystals could be big. Below are some pictures of various crystals/minerals I collected. Both claims were former mines that took out copper and iron. The mines began operation in the late 19th century and have been mainly closed as viable mining operations since WWII. Below are some pictures of some of the minerals I found. First are pictures from the Sedalia copper mine and then pictures from the Calumet iron mine. You can google these mines and find more historical information on each site or read a little more about them in Voynick's book "Colorado Rockhounding".

Nice goose egg size Almandine Garnet. I found a couple almost the size of 12" softballs.

I think the one just above this caption was about softball size

Fairly large grouping of magnetite

Copper minerals, maybe some Chrysocolla

Actinolite, maybe some magnetite as well.

What follows are some pictures of crystals from the Calumet Mine

Clear quartz on gray background. Epidote inclusions near quartz base

Epidote in Matrix

Nice epidote perched on matrix