The Helena Mineral Society Newsletter

Transcription

1 Gem, Mineral, and Geological Education and Experience November 2013 In This Issue: Page 1: From the Editor Page 2 Coming Events Page 3: Tidbits Page 4: Classifieds prices at the "swap" can't be beat! The Helena Mineral Society Newsletter From The Editor: The end of the year is just around the corner and the holiday season is upon us. Reminder there will be no meeting or newsletter in December. There is an update to the the HMS Christmas Party setup time, please check the event section. Please enjoy this month's guest article by Wiley Hudson CRYSTAL COLLECTORS MEETING by Wiley Hudson Although I have had the good fortune to attend mineral shows and meetings from the GSA in Sun Valley, Idaho to the multi week Tucson and Denver Mineral Shows, our very own Crystal Collectors meeting is one of my favorites. I love re-connecting with mineral enthusiasts from around the state, and the presentations and mineral The morning sale and swap session hosted a dozen or so sellers, from first timers to old timers including Bud Ehrle, Jerry Tumey and Sue Lackey who travel the world for minerals. Bud had interesting bornite on chalcocite from the Flambeau mine, Ladysmith, Rusk Co., WI. Jerry brought an eclectic selection of Bolivian material and Sue had some neat mineral carvings and very cool fossil figs from Dawson County, right here in Montana. Sharon Liederman was deacquisitioning some of her extensive collection, and sold some unusual pieces for pennies on the dollar. Pete Knudsen came with some brand new (ie just dug) calcites collected from a new road cut in Galatin County. Doug Toland had gorgeous epidote, quartz and hematite collected from his claim at Green Monster Mountain, Alaska. Lanny Ream continued to whittle down his collection and Joe Slouber had several high end coppers with absolutely no damage. I lucked out and scored a couple pieces from Tasmania he graciously donated to the auction. Lanny also demonstrated his Raman Spectrometer and identified several unknown minerals. Dave Jordan had some great thumbnails, and Natalie Jordan had several nice pieces of wire wrap jewelry. I brought 80 or so pieces from my collection and plan to sell the remaining pieces at 1/2 price next year

2 Helena Mineral Society Officers for President: James Bruce Vice-president: Kathy Bruce Secretary: Caroline Edquist Membership Chairman: Fred LaForest Treasurer: Kathy Koenig Member-at-Large: Gene Hodge Historian: Gary Stout Field Trip Chairman: Martin Landry Show Chairman: Gary Parisi Program Chairman: David Jordan Newsletter Editor: Marlo Fullerton The talks, as always, were fantastic. Chris Van Laer from the Asterism mineral shop in Butte presented a slide show on the rare minerals from the Boulder batholith. This guy seems to have a golden touch in the field. He and a friend have had some luck finding topaz somewhere around Delmo Lake, and he brought a beautiful, gem quality, sherry colored topaz thumbnail specimen for our viewing delight. Martin Landry from the Helena club gave an interesting talk on the history of the Perry Schroeder dredge on the Eldorado bar. Martin works at the Montana State Library and did some great research. Not only did we see how dredges work, but also got insight on this particular dredges contribution to the war effort in providing sapphires for precision bearings. We learned how to decipher a dredging path, the use of this dredge in construction of the Canyon Ferry Dam, and some thoughts on its current whereabouts. Mostly, we learned that all old dredges ultimately end up in South America! Pete Knudsen from Montana Tech reminisced about his glory days mining lead ore and wulfenite crystals at a mine near Bisbee, AZ. He and a crazy friend mined tons of ore by hand to help finance their PhD studies. He was a pretty buff guy in those days! Oh, and they brought out some fabulous wulfenite and mimetite specimens. The award for best self collected specimen went to Bozemanite Jay Bernasek for a gorgeous, sharp cabinet sized smoky quartz collected in the Elkhorns. A 5 cm +/- red corundum found by Jerry Hancock, also from Bozeman, was a close runnerup. The day wound down with spirited bidding on 20 or so unique mineral specimens, including a Tsumeb azurite, Tasmanian coppers, and a sphalerite pseudomorphing wurtzite from Bolivia. Thank you to Pete Knudsen who did a great job as auctioneer. The coveted "gold" trophy was won at auction by Jerry Tumey. That thing may need a little more paint for next year! To top it all off, Marna Abbot from Missoula brought home grown apples, pears and tomatoes from her garden/orchard - It was the best pear I ever had! Thanks Marna! - 2 -

3 Due to early snows in the higher elevations, Pete Knudsen decided to lead a field trip to the MT Tech geothermal project at the Orphan Boy mine. Although I was unable to attend, I am hoping someone else might share what they learned in a future newsletter. As you can see, it was a very full and fun event and well worth attending. We hope to see you at next years Crystal Collectors meeting! In memorandum: We all will miss fellow mineral enthusiast, friend and Crystal Collector auctioneer Chuck Borland, who sadly passed away on Nov. 4th. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. Upcoming Events: November 28th Happy Thanksgiving! ### December 7 th The HMS Annual Christmas Party will be held at the Hannaford Street Bible Church, two blocks north of Prospect (by the Wendy's). Set up is at 3:00 pm, dinner and auctions start at 6:00 pm. This is a pot luck. The Society provides juice, coffee, and water for drinks, turkey, ham, gravy, mashed spuds, cranberry sauce, plates, cups, napkins and utensils. Please bring your favorite side dish or dessert to share. Three members volunteered to cook turkeys (the Society will reimburse the cost of the birds) and three members volunteered to make dressing (stuffing to some). Silent and live auctions. Lewis & Clark Caverns Winter Candlelight Tours Dec 14 & 15, Dec 21 & 22 and Dec 27, 28, 29 Tours begin every 45 min from 9:30 am to 2:45 pm. Candlelight tour reservations taken starting Dec 2nd. Tours cost $15 for adults (12 yrs. and up), $8 for children (6-11 yrs.). Candlelight tours not recommended for 5 yrs. and under. More Info: December 25 th Christmas Next regular meeting, January 9, 2014 The remediation project on Miss Beverly sapphire claim is completed including seeding the area. The noxious weed control for this year has been completed on Miss Beverly, Miss Beverly 2, and Blue Star sapphire claims. Thanks to all who helped with these projects. Grab bag sewers are needed. Contact Kathy at for info. Grab bag material is needed. Go through the treasures collected this year and donate unwanted material. Contact Gary at to make arrangements for pick up

4 Meetings The Helena Mineral Society meets at the Mountain West Bank located on Montana Avenue between Aspen and Poplar. Meetings are the second Thursday of every month at 7:00 pm. There is no regular meeting for the month of December. See you there! Friends, guests, and new members are always welcome To place a classified ad, please see me in person at one of our regular meetings or you may me (Marlo) with your information at marlo@planetmall.com. Ad will run in the newsletter for that month only unless specifically requested to run longer. Pictures and Articles Needed: If you have a picture that you want to share, please send it to me, along with a short description of the activity, where it took place, and when, and I ll put it in the newsletter. If you d like to share your field trip adventures with those members who are unable to attend, please feel free to contribute to the newsletter. Just me your experiences, and I ll make sure they re entered. Remember, this is your newsletter, and your contributions make it better. Helena Mineral Society, Inc. PO Box 736 Helena, Montana

5 HELENA MINERAL SOCIETY MEETING MINUTES November 15, 2013 The meeting was called to order by President Jim Bruce at 7:00pm. A quorum was present. Two new members were introduced. Martin Landry gave a presentation about the history of sapphire mining on the Missouri River, including how a dredge was used in the early 1930 s to work the El Dorado bar. A motion was made, seconded, and approved to accept the minutes as published for October. The Treasurer s Report was presented. A motion was made, seconded, and approved to accept the report as presented. Outstanding bill were presented for payment and approved. Upcoming Events December 7, 2013 The annual Christmas Party which will be held at the Hannaford Street Bible Church. Break. Old Business The project on Miss Beverly 1 and 2 and the Blue Star mining claims has been completed. If anyone is interested in helping sew grab bags for the annual mineral show, contact Kathy to get fabric and instructions. She will try to have a sewing circle after the first of January. If anyone is interested in helping to set up for the Christmas party on December 7, setup will start at approximately 3p.m. on the 7 th. New Business Discussion for the Christmas party and arrangements were made for cooking the turkeys, auctioneers for the live auction, etc. Please bring your favorite sides or desserts to the part. If you have children or grandchildren, be sure to bring them. There will be a separate Silent Auction table for the children. President Jim Bruce had a note on a member application questioning whether or not the exculpatory clause was legally binding. A motion was made to hire an attorney to look at the application. The motion was seconded and passed.

6 Suzanne Bidmead has some garbage cans if anyone could use one. She also has a collection of Lapidary Magazines. A suggestion was made to put them out at the annual mineral show. A suggestion was also made for the Mineral Society to keep a kit which shows how rocks are formed in order to help people who are new to collecting rocks learn how rocks are formed and to recognize different rocks. The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting will be Thursday January 9th 2014 at 7:00pm