2004
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Rockhound News
PROGRAM:
Datolite: Crystals, Diversity & Color
REFRESHMENTS: J thru Q bring
refreshments.
REMEMBER-THE JUNE 17TH
MEETING WILL BE AT WOLDUMAR Nature
Center
Club Calendar
JUNE 17th
June
meeting will be held at WOLDUMAR NATURE
CENTER
REMEMBER-THE JUNE 17TH
MEETING WILL BE AT WOLDUMAR
JULY 17th
Work-Picnic July 17th, 12 noon at the
Laylins, bring dish to pass and own table service. Let the Laylins know if you
are coming. 349-3249
SEPTEMBER 2n
CML&MS board meeting at the Okemos Library
7:00 p.m.
SEPTEMBER 16th
Regular
club meeting 7:30 at North School
The Pres Says:
A
big thanks to our Banquet Chair, Marie Brooks, and her committee. From reports of other members, we had good
food, good friends and fun. Thanks also to all who brought displays.
June is the last meeting of the season. Please come
to Woldumar Nature Center on June 17.
See map for directions. At the
June meeting, the Board must select a nominating committee which will be
calling members during the summer and into the fall to serve on the Board of
Directors and any other open position.
Please think about accepting one of our openings
CMLMS takes a meeting break during July and
August. That does not mean that members
become hourly TViewers, not at all.
Many of you will be rock hounding and finding all that good stuff for
the children's table, silent auction or your own collection. Groups of members will be making bags of
rocks and stuff for our children's show.
We have a new committee, Webmaster,
co-chaired by Arie Koelewyn and Fred Stahmer.
Check out our new website at: www.michrocks.org.
Have a good summer.
May we have sunny days with a light cool breeze.
Mary
Gowans
NEWS FROM FIELD TRIP CHAIR-
ED DROWN
The Lincoln Brick Park Interpretive
Center, 13991 Tallman Road, Grand Ledge, MI is now open for the season, 1 p.m.
to 5 p.m. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The center includes displays of
fossils found at the park (carbonized plants from the Pennsylvanian) and other
fossils from the United States (plus some minerals). You can walk down to the
old shale pit where the fossils were found and can still be observed, but
follow the posted rules about collecting them. A walk in Fitzgerald Park
(across the river) will also allow one to observe a seam of coal ~1’ thick
underneath a capping layer of sandstone. There is an entrance fee for the
parks. For the Geocachers, there are a few in the area: www.geocaching.com
May Field Trip - Thedford,
Ontario - Ed Drown
The May field trip to Thedford was a
rousing success for those who braved the “in progress” weathering (to the
amusement of the new owners of the lumberyard). A dozen club members slipped
and slid about in pursuit of long-dead reef critters. Horn corals were found in
abundance, Sue C found a very nice rolled phacops in the Hungry Hollow
formation and Dan S had a blast “up top” looking for brachiopods. I found a
handful of Microcyclus sp. corals and
a dozen or so of Xenocyathellus sp.
corals sitting atop the pile of weathering Arkona Shale that had been pulled
out for the potters. I’m sure many other treasures were found; my face was just
too close to the ground to see them drop into collector’s buckets and bags.
June Field Trip -
Bloomington Indiana Rock Swap - Ed Drown
The June field trip is traditionally
centered on the Bloomington Rock Swap, one of the bigger swaps around and with
careful looking one can find many interesting (and at times under-priced)
treasures. Road cut collecting is popular this far south in the state so here
are two locales that you may want to try:
Harrodsburg Road Cut: There are
several road cuts in the Harrodsburg area where one can collect, the most
well-known and diverse site for minerals is on Indiana Highway 37, 1 mile south
of the Harrodsburg exit, Monroe County, Indiana. The geodes here range from the
size of a pea to over 15 inches in diameter. Park your car well off the road,
there is plenty of room here, just be careful of the incessant truck traffic.
You will see the work of many previous collectors lying at the base of the cut.
Look carefully through the larger pieces of limestone and find one that has a
broken geode in it (there will be many). Notice that the surface of the
limestone covering the geode will just bow out a little, this is the clue that
you’ll use when looking at the wall of the cut to find your own to pry
free. Once you find a likely bump in
the wall, look for a nearby crack. The objective is to drive a chisel/pry bar
or geologist’s pick into the crack and lever off a sheet of limestone that
encases the geode. This will take a bit of practice to get right, but what
doesn’t? If breaking living rock is too much work, look at the larger pieces of
limestone that others pulled down, you never know what they left behind. If you
break a geode and it is solid, check to see if it is pure quartz or if there is
calcite in the center. If there is calcite then this is a good candidate to
take home and etch in acid to reveal what is underneath. Make sure any debris
you generate are placed at the bottom of the cut, if the break-down lane is
littered with rock shards the Highway Department and Sheriff get annoyed. A
hard hat is not a bad idea, and of course all other aspects of working safely
with tools needs to be followed. Reported minerals from here include: quartz,
calcite, dolomite, sphalerite, barite and millerite. The formations are
Mississippian in age, the top of the cut is the Harrodsburg Limestone and the
bottom of the cut is the Ramp Creek Limestone.
South Gate Hill: This is also known
as the “Indiana Route 1” or “Cedar Grove” locality. This is a bit of a drive
from Bloomington, however, this is one of the best invertebrate fossil
localities you will find, ever. This road cut is ½ mile long and 200 feet high
in places; there are literally millions of fossils on the surface. The locale
is on Indiana Route 1, 1.0 - 1.5 miles north of the crossroads at the village
of South Gate and 1.9 - 2.4 miles south of the junction with U.S. Route 52 west
of Cedar Grove, Franklin County, Indiana. The exposures are Upper Ordovician in
age from the Richmondian Stage. From the bottom of the cut the
formations/members exposed are the: Excello mbr, Waynesville Shale mbr, Liberty
mbr, Brookville fm, Whitewater fm and the Saluda fm (Hay, Kirchner and Cuffey;
1998). The fauna is too diverse to describe in this space, just go and fill
your bucket. Of note, enrolled trilobites (complete), gastropods and plates of
limestone with scores of critters on their surface (sea bottom plates) are
prized. The road cut is marked with “No Digging” signs - so the only tool that
you should be carrying is an awl, screwdriver or sturdy ice pick. The road cut
gets hot so take plenty of water, park well off the road to be safe from the
road traffic and have fun! The Dry Dredgers of Cincinnati have pictures from
their field trips to South Gate Hill on their website: http://drydredgers.org/maysva.htm
I will have
information packets for these and other road cut localities at the June general
meeting.
WIRE WRAPPING CLASS
I am worried, I have only had 3 people confirm that
they would like to take this class. It is to be held at Woldumar Nature Center
on June 25 & 26 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, and I need at least 6 students but not more than 10. We will be
spending the first 2 weeks in June in Ga at the lapidary school there so I will
be hard to get hold of before the 14 th of June. You can still e mail me at
gritalice@comcast.net but my answering machine will be off.
Same goes for Grits spool knitting class except he
will do fewer students before he cancels.
October Show --- Raffle
Prizes Needed
We have the first three prizes lined up for the
October Show Raffle. They are: #1- $100
cash; #2- A custom faceted gemstone in a pendant mounting; and #3 - A gemstone
globe. The first one is from raffle ticket sales, the other two are being
donated by members.
Now we are asking for additional Raffle Prizes. It's
time to begin thinking about what rock hobby related item you may be able to
donate. Please let us know at one of the meetings or call us at home.
Thank
you. Milt & Shar Gere, 517-669-8116
THINGS TO
DO, PLACES TO GO-SUMMER & FALL
19 & 20 Jun 04
30th
Annual Seminar
Michigan Geology & Gemcraft Society
Gunder Myran Building (parking Lot B)
Washtenaw Community College
Clark Road, Ann Arbor, MI
8 - 10 Oct 04
Greater
Detroit Gems, Minerals, Fossils, & Jewelry Show
South Macomb Community
College Expo Center
Bldg. P,
12 Mile & Hayes, Warren, MI
16 & 17 Oct 04
37th
Annual Show
Flint Rock & Gem Club
Carter Middle School
Rogers Lodge Drive
Clio, MI