March 2002

MARCH FIELD TRIP- DUFF QUARRY – George Heaton

We had twelve people show up for our field trip to Duff Quarry near Huntsville Ohio on Saturday, March 23. We had six from our Lansing club and six members of Friends of Mineralogy. Our weather was a little cool and windy, but bright and sunny. The bright sun is always a big help in locating the pyrite. The collecting was mediocre in the upper level since there were no recent blasts on that level. The quarry spends most of their time working the lower level now. The lower level has been worked all the way to the east wall and now when they blast there they take the whole wall down from the top of the upper level to the bottom. This includes the more productive upper rock layers and the less productive lower layers into one large blast pile on the lower level. There was a large blast pile in that area, but we were asked not to go there until the quarry quit work at noon. When noon came we went to collect in the lower level where we did find better collecting. I believe all of us found at least a few good specimens. Roger Laylin found a nice sphalerite specimen. Even George Heaton found several nice pyrite specimens and some dolomite crystals for the Children’s table.