Post by paulshiroma on Sept 23, 2014 18:23:51 GMT -5
With school starting on Wednesday, September 3, I decided to take the boys on an "End of Summer Bash" over Labor Day weekend starting with a visit to the Ocean View Mine on Saturday. Barbara had to setup her classroom so this turned into a "Guys Weekend Out" as well. The Ocean View Mine is nice in that you can dig all day with them - no limit to the number of buckets you pull from the pile and it's, more or less, all day from 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM. It is expensive though but a lot of fun and I'm glad we were able to get out there. Here's a few photos of us at the dig site.
They set you up in the rinsing tables with buckets and screens. There were only eight parties there and there was room for 20 so we had plenty of room.
Behind Nathaniel, you can see "the pile" taken from their mine.
Andrew and Nathaniel, waiting to start.
Staff Helpers. The gal on the right next to Andrew you may have seen on the show "Prospectors". Apparently, she helps Amanda out occasionally.
They also give you a tour of the place so you can where they mine (not actually in the mine, though). Family friendly operation. They have a covered area where you can keep your cooler and lunch. Next time I'm brining more ice. It was hot.
I'll post photos of the stuff. It's in a box in the garage as I've been meaning to take it up to Nevada Mineral and Book to have Walt help me ID stuff. I know we got some small tourmanlines, kunzite, lepidolite, and "other stuff". Part of our problem is that we gravitate to anything sparkly and shiny so we don't get through a lot of materials. I noticed that the repeat visitors didn't waste time poking around at stuff. They just focused on looking for tourmalines and came away with better quality pieces than we did... oh well ... Next Time!
UPDATE 09-27-2014
I'm trying out a new camera so if the photos are a bit off, that's the user, not the device! The finds up at the Ocean View mine were a bit thin this pass. One of my buddies came back right after they had started on a new seam and had a lot more material. He goes up there about every other month so his haul is considerably better (and he pays a lot more going that frequently!). Anyway, here's a few shots:
Typical of what was going on that day. A few folks found some really nice ones but, by and large, this was the take:
Lepidolite:
Lepidolite / Schorl / Mica / Quartz:
Kunzite (I think):
Clear Tourmaline with a Schorl Inclusion:
Thanks
Paul
They set you up in the rinsing tables with buckets and screens. There were only eight parties there and there was room for 20 so we had plenty of room.
Behind Nathaniel, you can see "the pile" taken from their mine.
Andrew and Nathaniel, waiting to start.
Staff Helpers. The gal on the right next to Andrew you may have seen on the show "Prospectors". Apparently, she helps Amanda out occasionally.
They also give you a tour of the place so you can where they mine (not actually in the mine, though). Family friendly operation. They have a covered area where you can keep your cooler and lunch. Next time I'm brining more ice. It was hot.
I'll post photos of the stuff. It's in a box in the garage as I've been meaning to take it up to Nevada Mineral and Book to have Walt help me ID stuff. I know we got some small tourmanlines, kunzite, lepidolite, and "other stuff". Part of our problem is that we gravitate to anything sparkly and shiny so we don't get through a lot of materials. I noticed that the repeat visitors didn't waste time poking around at stuff. They just focused on looking for tourmalines and came away with better quality pieces than we did... oh well ... Next Time!
UPDATE 09-27-2014
I'm trying out a new camera so if the photos are a bit off, that's the user, not the device! The finds up at the Ocean View mine were a bit thin this pass. One of my buddies came back right after they had started on a new seam and had a lot more material. He goes up there about every other month so his haul is considerably better (and he pays a lot more going that frequently!). Anyway, here's a few shots:
Typical of what was going on that day. A few folks found some really nice ones but, by and large, this was the take:
Lepidolite:
Lepidolite / Schorl / Mica / Quartz:
Kunzite (I think):
Clear Tourmaline with a Schorl Inclusion:
Thanks
Paul