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My Education, by Marvin Oesterle
Recently,
the Red Metal Retreat in the U.P. at Houghton/Hancock was mentioned and
it took me back to the pilgrimage I made there several years back.
I've
always considered rock-hounding and club membership to be an
educational experience. So after I convinced my non-rock-hounding wife
that a week poking around mines was just what was missing in her life,
I dove into researching the history of the region. Nevertheless, my
real education didn't begin until vacation time. Then I learned
several
lessons that have served me well.
My
first lesson came the evening of the first day, after a day of classes
on mineral identification and other fascinating stuff. A silent auction
was held for our group with a live auction afterwards. There I picked
up a find of a lifetime. A half dollar sized Michigan greenstone was
mine for a song. It seems that the more serious collectors were saving
their capital for the showpieces in the live auction. Lesson number one
was that you can find great stuff at a silent auction without having to
get dirty in a mine.
The
next day we went down in a nearby mine. With helmet, lights and tools,
I was prepared to do battle with the mine to steal away her treasures.
The mine guide had us gather around while he pointed out obvious
datolites. At least they seemed to be obvious to him. They looked like
small ugly rocks to me. However, I did find some rocks to take home
and, at the end of our tour, began trudging out of the mine. Nearing
the end of the tunnel, the mouth was blazing sunlight and everything
else was pitch black. Suddenly, WHAM, I was sitting on my butt on the
ground after having run smack into an overhead rock beam. Mr. Grit
Turner, who was walking out behind me, said "And that's why we wear
hard hats." That was lesson number two.
The
next day, my wife and I decided to explore on our own. It was a perfect
day to be underground with temperatures in the mid 90's and 100%
humidity. Unfortunately, we weren't. We drove by the town of Phoenix,
about which I had read. Currently, it consists of a cluster of run-down
Sears and Roebuck houses and an abandoned general store. But the
mine's
tailing were obvious in a nearby field. I grabbed my gear and attacked
the mound. My wife, the more intelligent one of the family, stated that
she would be waiting at the bottom under the shade of a huge tree.
I
sweated and dug in the hot sun and after an hour or so decided that
mining probably wasn't my calling. As I went to join my wife under
the
tree, she called out "Hey Honey, look what I found!" It appears
that
other people had been digging in the tailings and had rested under the
tree to high grade their treasures. Without saying a word, I dumped my
pitiful specimens on the ground and picked up her stuff and left. I
even gave my wife a ride back to the motel. Lesson number three.
All
good things must come to an end and upon leaving the U.P., we spent the
night at the Best Western motel in Alpena. Getting up early the next
morning, I grabbed my tools and hiked out behind the motel to an area
that I had spied with some old ground works that had been abandoned. I
was wearing comfortable traveling gear: shorts and a T-shirt. There
were sparse ankle high weeds but I could easily see several Petoskey
stones that made it into my collecting bag. Then, I came upon a boulder
that was filled with corals and plants and small animal fossils. I
started working on a gorgeous cephalopod (I think). Twenty minutes
later it popped out of the boulder. At the same time, my ankles started
itching and I noticed that those ankle high weeds all had three leaves.
Lesson four tortured me for a week and a half. All in all, it was a
memorable and educational vacation that I won't soon forget. My wife
no
longer allows me to pick the vacation. She says the garage is too full
anyway.
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