Rockhound News
NEXT MEETING: Thursday, June 18, 2009: 7:30 pm
Work Party at Masonic Hall in Okemos
Prepare for the CMLMS Annual Show!
Location & Time: Come and talk with your friends while we all get some work done for the Annual Show (only 4 months away). We did this last year at the June meeting and it was fun! We will meet at the Masonic Hall in Okemos, where the Banquet was held. The gifts for the Children’s Tour will be under construction, as will Petoskey Stone Polishing Kits and egg-carton-mineral-sets. Buckets will be available to borrow for the summer; return them filled up with interesting & pretty stones for the Pebble Pond. Another work bee will be held at the Laylins’ backyard on July 16 (see details below).
The 2009 CMLMS Directory was included as part of the May newsletter. all CMLMS members received a mailed copy. KEEP the MAY NEWSLETTER!!!
CMLMS Calendar for September 2009 [No Meetings in July & August]
Thursday, September 3, 2009 Board Meeting-7:00 pm at the Okemos Library
Thursday, September 17, 2009 CMLMS meeting 7:30 pm, North School, Lansing.
The September program will be Show & Tell, plus a Mini-Silent-Auction. Bring all the great stuff you found over the summer – and be prepared to talk about it!
Club News
Field Trip Chair Dan Sine has arranged the first field trip of the year, a trip to the LaFarge Quarry in Alpena, MI, on Saturday, June 27. Alpena is 234 miles from Lansing, ~ a 4-hour drive:
CMLMS members participating in the field trip will meet at 9:45 am at the LaFarge Quarry “Operations Center” parking lot at 1435 Ford Avenue. Two other Michigan clubs will be joining us for this field trip.
Everyone will sign in and meet our host Don Oliver, who will give us a safety briefing and then guide the vehicles down into the quarry. Hard hats, hard-toed boots, and safety glasses are REQUIRED.
This very large Devonian era quarry has marine fossils (Petoskey corals, horn corals, favosites coral, brachiopods, crinoids & stems, and occasional trilobites).
Bring collecting tools, buckets, and stuff for wrapping specimens. Also bring WATER, SNACKS, SUNSCREEN, FIRST-AID KIT, and BUG REPELLANT.
If you want to drive up on Friday, Dan has contact information for local motels.
Contact Dan at 517-381-0805 (cell) or 517-749-0414 or daniel.sine@opm.gov.
In July, Dan is planning an overnight trip to road-cut collecting sites (geodes) in Indiana; in August, a trip to quarries in Ohio; and in September, a trip to museums in Chicago. If you are interested in any of these trips, please call or email Dan (see numbers and email address above).
Work Bee at Laylins’Backyard on Thursday, July 16 from 2 pm to dark. -- Come one, come all! We will work on finishing up gifts and sale items for the Children’s Tour (your editor will be helping to make stone critters); the big outdoors job is sorting and boxing Children’s Table rocks and fossil specimens. Picnic dinner at 6 pm: bring your own table service, a dish to pass, and a folding chair; lemonade, iced tea, milk, & water will be provided – if you prefer other liquids, please bring them. If you can take the afternoon off, come at 2 pm; if you can’t, come at 5 pm and join in the fun and fellowship. This is a great opportunity for new members to get to know more good folks. - If you have any questions, please call the Laylins at 517-349-3249.
The CMLMS Annual Banquet was held on May 21 at the Masonic Hall in Okemos. Thanks to Banquet Committee members Sharon Basigal, Ernie Augenbaugh, Kristin & Elliot Wood, Marie Lewis, Lee Laylin, Sue Casler, and all the members who brought displays! After a great chicken dinner, a program titled Behind the Scenes at the Archaeological Excavations of Fort St. Joseph, Niles, Michigan was presented by Andy Beaupre and Emily Powell, Graduate Assistants at WMU in Kalamazoo.
If you have fossil or mineral specimens (preferably bagged and tagged) for distribution at school science events or the Annual Show, please being them to Dan Sine at the June CMLMS membership meeting.
Member Elaine Angstman has information about a rock collecting trip to Brazil: “Every October, friends of mine (Dave & Georgia Hogget, who own a rock shop in Illinois) take a group to Brazil to go to mines, sight see, and purchase specimens from Brazilian dealers. The trip is 15 days and includes roundtrip airfare to/from Chicago and Rio de Janeiro, all transportation in Brazil, all lodging, all hotel breakfasts, a few lunches & dinners, tour of Rio de Janeiro, translators, and mine guides. The cost-per-person is $5,400 double occupancy, $5,800 for single. Included in the trip price is space in the 28,000 pound container that the Hoggets ship home. Elaine Angstman and Sue Casler are thinking about going on this trip in 2010. If you are interested, contact Elaine Angstman, or the Hoggets at Nature’s Drift, 24945 Spring Creek Rd., Washington, IL 61571, phone 309-678-7342. This is a wonderful opportunity!”
Member Jan Sjoquist has a large quantity of rose quartz. Some of it will be donated to the Annual Show, but pieces up to two square feet are available for sale. Contact Jan at 517-543-1464 or sjoquistj@sbcglobal.net.
A great sale of mineral specimens will be held at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL on Labor Day weekend in September. See details below.
Places To Go & Things To Do
June 26-28: Bloomington, IN. Lawrence County Rock Club, Inc.’s 44th Annual Show & Swap. Monroe County 4-H Fairgrounds, Airport Rd. & Hwy 45. Fri: 19-6:30, Sat: 9-6:30, Sun: 10-4. Contact Dave Treffinger, 13101 E. 250 N., Loogootee, IN 47553. 812-295-3463. Website: www.lawrencecountyrockclub.org. If you’re not going to the Alpena field trip, try this show.
July 18-19: Moose Lake, MN. Carlton County Gem & Mineral Club’s Annual Agate Days. Moose Lake High School, 413 Birch Ave. Contact Terry Anderson 218-879-4970; or Carol Risdon gcrisdon@juno.com.
July 20-26: Mansfield, OH. Richland Lithic & Lapidary Society’s Annual Show-Sale. Kingwood Center Meeting & Exhibit Hall, 900 Park Ave. W. 10-5 daily. Contact Tom Kottyan, PO Box 308, Bucyrus, OH 44820. 419-562-1152. Website: minerhouse@netzero.net.
July 31-Aug 2: Ishpeming, MI. Ishpeming Rock & Mineral Club’s Annual Show w/field trips. Elks Club Hall, 597 Lake Shore Dr. Sat: 9:30-4:30. Field trips Friday & Sunday. Contact Ernest Johnson, 1962 W. Fair, Marquette, MI 49855. 906-228-9422 or ejohnson@nmu.edu.
July 30-August 2: Billings, Montana. AFMS/NFMS Show & Convention. Holiday Inn Trade Center, 5500 Midland Road, Billings, MT. Exhibits include moon rock (NASA), dinosaurs, a cave bear, and Yogo sapphires. Thursday, Friday, & Saturday: 10-6. Sunday: 10-5. Adults $5.00/day; 2-day pass $8.00; 4-day pass $15.00. Children under 12 free with adult. 35 dealers, demonstrations, auctions. A full week of field trips after the show. Contact Doug True at dtruefossils@yahoo.com or 406-670-0506. Website: www.amfed.org/nfms/federation show/.