Day 3

We were excited to head out on our third day, because it was the first of many that Eddie would be with us. As a big bonus, he brought along his girlfriend, Sheryl, who was a joy to be around. After telling them about our success hunting big orthoclase crystals the day before, they were all too eager to head back up there, especially since this time, I had decided to haul in my 16-pound sledge to really give the hard rock wall a run for its money.

We spent the better part of the morning busting rock and wrapping some killer specimens - the weather could not have been better.

Opal demonstrated that monzonite dirt makes for a perfect bed.

The following specimen is the 2nd best we recovered that morning (Chrissy and I weren't sending Eddie home with anything less than the best - the least we could do).

When we were finished collecting monster orthoclase crystals, we started our hike back to our vehicles, taking time to stop at one of Eddie's favorite garnet locations where we found some killer specimens.

After lunch, we drove over to another of Eddie's many claims where we inspected a fascinating natural cave and gathered some rocks for cutting. Eddie likes to assign unique and often comical names to his claims and lapidary rocks. A few of our favorites are the "Iron Gummy Bear Mine", "It's a Mine" and the "Back of My House Mine". We didn't ask how he came up with the name for the "Hit Man Mine". Eddie says the following rock looks as though its layers are held together with mortar, so hence the name "Mortar Stone".

I know where the "pink" came from in Eddie's "Pink Lady Stone", but I forgot where the "lady" part originated, although there was a Japanese band in the 1970s called Pink Lady, and the cabochons do look a bit like Japanese art.

The Pink Lady Stone is part of the surrounding country rock in a turquoise mine, so while we were there, I kept my eyes open for blue and green. With Eddie and Sheryl's help, we found some rocks in the spoil piles that contain smears of turquoise on fracture surfaces. Most was not thick or hard enough to get a decent cab, but the rocks are pretty cabinet specimens.

I soon discovered a thin vein of relatively thick and hard turquoise, but it was in a monster boulder and heavy pounding with a big sledge would be necessary to see if the vein continued and got wide enough to cab. Although it was late in the day and my arms were about worn out from banging, I pulled out our 16-pound sledge and start swinging. Eddie had the girls maintain a distance of around 100 feet from me because he knew from experience that the highly fractured rock would break apart and pieces of it would fly like missiles in all direction upon each blow from the sledge. When a small piece of rock hit the top of Chrissy's hat, no harm was done but she was quick to move farther away. Long story short - the boulder produced a bunch of rock fragments that made for wonderful "boulder turquoise" cabs.

As would be the norm during our trip, we pulled out as darkness began to fall and headed back to camp to eat and rest up for the next day.

In the morning, we made it out to Orogrande a bit earlier than Eddie and Sheryl, so we drove around a while to see the sights.

A little later, we met Eddie and Sheryl at another one of his claims known mostly for its green garnet, but as is the case in all parts of the Orogrande District, lots of other rocks and minerals could also be found.

This mine seemed to have an abundance of excellent limonite after pyrite psuedomorphs.

A mineral combination that I have not seen anywhere else is calcite with pockets containing small euhedral quartz crystals - this almost defies geo-logic.

Eddie went on one of his pantented walkabouts while the rest of us were collecting near the mine and brought back some more lapidary material - this rock is absolutely beautiful when cabbed.

Report continued . . . . . . .

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