Lone Pine Gem & Mineral Society Newsletter
November 2009
The December meeting will be in conjunction with the Holiday Party (see below).
The November Field Trip will be to the Coso Mountains to collect petrified wood.
Thanks to Francis & Francee and Jim & Jackie for hosting the club both at the Lone Pine Film Festival. The gross for the weekend was $254.65. As always it's a great place to make the public aware of our existence and to treat the kids to some specimens to, hopefully, get the excited about geology and rockhounding.
October Field Trip Report
The October field trip was to the Searles Lake Gem & Mineral Society's Annual Gem-O-Rama. Only three members from the club (Ray, Jeff, and Carl) were there as far as we know. Ray guesstimated that there were around 2000 people rushing towards the collecting areas.
The hanksite crystals at the mud site averaged 3 inches in diameter with some 4-5 inch crystals found. The mud site crystals were dark in color and the mud as black as ever.
The blow-hole hanksite crystals were nice and clean, transparent, and found in peanut to 2 inch in diameter size. Ray reported kids were roaming everywhere.
The pink halite crystals were not as big as those we saw on the video Jeff showed. Nor were they as pink this year. Ray reported it was a lot of work going through the 3 ft deep brine pools then breaking clumps of the crystals and part of the shelf they're found on free. The shelf was probably 8 inches or more in thickness and quite resistant to large digging bars.
The crystals were small cubes up to maybe an inch square. The clusters were also smaller than shown in the film and they weren't as pink. This shows that year to year your find may be different.
Upcoming Field Trips
LPGMS November Field Trip (Nov 15)
On Sunday, Nov 15 the club will meet at Lee's Chevron at the south end of town for a field trip into the Coso Mountains in search of petrified wood. The petrified wood comes in shades of gray, often with the original wood grain showing.
The road is mostly a dusty road which most vehicles can easily handle. The last bit of road off the main byway may require higher clearance vehicles. If so we'll carpool up the final stretch. As always, car pooling is a good idea to minimize our impact on the environment.
Their will be a moderate hike up to the top of the ridge from where we park.
Collecting will be mostly surface collecting so a bucket and hiking sticks is about all you'll need. You may need something to dig out larger pieces where only a portion of the specimen is showing.
CFMS December Field Trip (Dec 12-13)
In December (just in time for holiday collecting!), CFMS is hosting an overnighter field trip to the Cady Mountains with dry camping near the railroad side tracks off Basin Road.
When: December 12-13.
Where: North Cady Mountains near Afton Canyon area, off Basin Road exit by I-15, 45 miles east of Barstow.
Material: Adam's favorite spots for agate, jasper, calcite, green and purple fluorite, sagenite, opalite, and much more.
Sponsor: CFMS.
Participants: Open to CFMS members/guests. (LPGMS is a member. -ed)
Directions: Take the Basin Road exit off I-15 about 45 miles east of Barstow and turn right (south) for 1.3 miles to fork in road. Take the left road for 3.8 miles to the railroad tracks and cross the tracks to the campsite. Use caution.
Christmas Party and Meeting (Dec 13)
Our club Christmas party will be held December 13, 2009 from 2:00 to 5:00 pm at the Forum Theatre, 142 N. Jackson, across the street from the town hall and fire station. The club will furnish the meat course or ham and tri-tip. Bring your favorite side dish, desert, etc.
Bring a wrapped gift valued at $20.00 or less, preferably rock related, but it's not mandatory. But by all means, come. We will play BJ's terrible gift exchange game. Guests are welcome, but be sure that they bring a gift or that you bring a gift for them to exchange.
There'll be a sign up sheet which determines your order for picking a gift. You'll add your name to one of the entries and we'll draw numbers from the tin to determine the order of picking gifts. Gift are opened immediately so that all the other guests can admire it or covet it. You can pick a gift from the pile or you can take a gift from someone that's previous drawn something that you covet. If someone takes your current gift on their turn you then choose another gift from the pile.
Gifts remain in play until they've pass into the third hand. Once the third person has claimed a gift it can't be taken from them.
President's Corner
Thanks again to F&F and J&J and those that helped them with the LPGMS booth at the Lone Pine Film Festival.
Jeff Lines is/has taken a job outside our area and won't be able to be the show chairperson again. We're looking for a volunteer to take on this role. Mostly it's a coordination effort as we have chairpersons covering the individual areas. We're hoping someone in Bishop or who travels to Bishop often steps up just because it's easier to handle the fairgrounds if you're in the area. Of course the show chairman can delegate the part of the task that requires a physical presence (if any) at the fairgrounds office. Contact Dana if you're interested. Jeff, and the club has made a strong effort to put the show on the "map". It's a good money maker for us, attracts new members and it benefits the community. Let's don't let is fall away.
It's been awhile since we've had a newsletter. We're still looking for someone to take on the effort. This person should regularly attend the meetings so they'll have the information to share and have some computer skills, email at least.
I'm changing the release date of the newsletter to occur shortly after our monthly meeting since we usually set the field trip date at the monthly meeting. This way you'll know about where and when we're going out!
The newsletter editor needs articles and pictures to make the newsletter a success. An editor puts together the information provided by other writers and may contribute as well. (Send them to newsletter at lpgms dot org, you know how to fix the email address.)
Personally I'd like to do an article of micro-explosives but I'm having trouble finding information about them on the internet and I'm a good Googler. If have any knowledge of such information let me know.
Speaking of explosives, in attempting to do research I found out that their use on BLM lands, where we most frequently collect is prohibited. Not only that but mechanized equipment other than a car or pickup is also band. Only had tools may be used. Collecting on BLM lands if for the rockhound, not the commercial collector unless the commercial dealer has a permit from BLM.
Using explosives is especially dangerous as we've had rockhounds injured by explosives left behind by these illegal collectors.
Some of our favorite collecting sites have been vandalized by this illegal collecting. Sites that would provide us years of collecting have been pillaged.
If you see someone using explosives or mechanized equipment other than hand tools contact one of the local BLM offices. For the northern part of Inyo County it's the Bishop Field Office (760-872-5000) and for the southern end of the county it's the Ridgecrest Field Office (760-384-5400).
Contact numbers
- President: Dana Jeffries - 760-876-5427; dana at lpgms dot org
- Vice President: Ray Ramirez - 760-872-0624
- Show Chairman: Jeff Lines - 760-872-6579
- Membership Chairman: Jim Grandgeorge 760-878-2221
- Newsletter editor: ?? - ; newsletter at lpgms dot org
- Field Trip Chairman: Ray Ramirez - 760-872-0624
- General Info - Membership Info: clubinfo at lpgms dot org
