traveler
starting to shine!
Member since July 2010
Posts: 37
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Post by traveler on Jul 8, 2010 22:52:15 GMT -5
Hello all you rock nuts. This is my first post on this site. I've been peeking around for a while and I must say.....quite a lot of diverse interests and va ery talented group.
My question today is about Clio Alabama Petrified wood. There is a lot of references to it on the internet but does anyone know a contact over there? I am working out of Pensacola and it is only a few hour ride from here. It would make a great trip if I could make some arrangements.
Tom
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Post by jakesrocks on Jul 9, 2010 9:29:40 GMT -5
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traveler
starting to shine!
Member since July 2010
Posts: 37
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Post by traveler on Jul 9, 2010 18:36:04 GMT -5
Thanks Don,
I'd love to get to some of those placed but they are a little out of reach for a overnight trip. I'm just going to "wing it" and see what I can come up with.
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Post by jakesrocks on Jul 9, 2010 19:12:10 GMT -5
Good luck. Hope you come up with some goodies. For me to find anything good, I'd have to make it a whole weekend. I'm about 8 hours drive away from any good hunting areas.
Don
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traveler
starting to shine!
Member since July 2010
Posts: 37
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Post by traveler on Jul 10, 2010 5:47:53 GMT -5
I read somewhere that South Dakota has some decent spots in the west and there are glacial deposits in the East and you can even google for a map of the "thicker" deposits.
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Post by jakesrocks on Jul 10, 2010 8:42:40 GMT -5
Western S.D. is real world class rockhounding. Gemstones, agates, gold, fossils and mineral specimens. Did I mention tons of petrified wood ? State parks in the Black Hills are off limits to collecting, but there's plenty of fed land. The Buffalo Gap National Grasslands are great hunting. That is where the Fairburns are found. As for the east side of the state, most of the land is private. Unless you can get permission from the land owner, you're pretty much restricted to lake shores. If you know a gravel pit owner, you can sometimes get permission to look around on weekends. There's Petrified wood, some fossils and the occasional agate.
Don
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on Sept 13, 2010 19:50:17 GMT -5
Tom or anyone, did you find a legal collecting site for the Alabama petrified wood? I will have time to do a little rockhounding this fall, but I am curious to know of other's experiences. I wonder if there is a site that is legal for collecting and also I think since it will be fall, I need to know when they're hunting deer up there, so I can avoid getting perforated by accident. I'm looking for a black petrified wood from Alabama with smoky quartz crystals, or maybe they just look smoky because they're on the black wood, I have tried to take a picture of my personal piece. I want another one for a friend, but I never saw the seller again and, sadly, I heard a rumor that the site he used wasn't legal. He told me that it came from Montgomery, but no one believes that he gave the right information. So...all I know is, somewhere in Alabama there is some beautiful black petrified wood with crystals growing on it. My picture is terrible but the specimen is beautiful, esp. in person. Anyone have any ideas? One old boy said the "claim" was on a public utility property that didn't allow collecting but if someone actually owns the claim and just wants to trade something I have for a specimen, I could do that too. I really don't know how much of what I heard was a lot of gossip. This would be at least 10 years ago...  |
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Digforcrystals
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2008
Posts: 351
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Post by Digforcrystals on Sept 13, 2010 21:13:39 GMT -5
That is probably clio or wetumpka. There is the old legal collecting area in clio and public access places in wetumpka.
The illegal place is in Brilliant alabama. That piece is most likely not from brilliant. The brilliant wood is , well , "brilliant" and much brighter.
Sorry I cant give you the contact for the person that ran the clio pay to dig site( don't know it ) , but if you dig around or ask some of the local rock clubs you'll no doubt stumble onto someone with that info. Lots of clubs have had field trips to the clio site, I just never went on one of them .
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Post by jakesrocks on Sept 13, 2010 22:23:58 GMT -5
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on Sept 14, 2010 14:48:54 GMT -5
Oh my goodness! That's it! What great information. I see now that there are two sources of petrified wood with quartz, southeast but also northwest Alabama, but Don's link has some photographs that show the black petrified wood really well. What's strange is that I would have bet that this particular good old boy got his material more to the southeast but, hey, trucks have wheels...I guess we could trim our piece into several smaller druzy-covered pieces, to emphasize the crystal areas, but I don't really want to cut up my only specimen.
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Post by jakesrocks on Sept 14, 2010 15:03:48 GMT -5
If that's the only piece you have, it would be a shame to chop it up. To a collector, the best thing you could do is clean it real good, and display it just as it is.
Don
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Digforcrystals
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2008
Posts: 351
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Post by Digforcrystals on Sept 14, 2010 20:19:18 GMT -5
these usually look ten thousand times better when soaked in super iron-out or oxalic acid.
This takes the iron coating off and really lets the crystals shine.
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on Sept 15, 2010 12:51:28 GMT -5
I have some oxalic acid. I think my main issue in that photo is dust -- dust and the fact that my camera didn't focus on the specimen!!! A little clean-up couldn't hurt though.
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Digforcrystals
spending too much on rocks
Member since July 2008
Posts: 351
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Post by Digforcrystals on Sept 15, 2010 16:50:53 GMT -5
I think you'll be surprised at what a soaking in oxalic will do. Specimens from that are generally have a film coating of iron that at times isn't readly apparent. Sometimes though a lot of them have a very thick crust of iron on them.
You'll probably be pleasantly surprised at what an oxalic bath will do for it.
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on Sept 20, 2010 9:44:52 GMT -5
Well, I think I'm going to try the oxalic acid this week! The photographs in the link look so much better than my photo. In person, I can see the black wood and the lovely drusy but it's like a haze or a dust on it...I want to bring out the potential of my specimen.
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traveler
starting to shine!
Member since July 2010
Posts: 37
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Post by traveler on Sept 24, 2010 7:11:44 GMT -5
Sorry I didn't see this thread continuing after I started it. I got some info from a club that the farm in Clio that I was looking for is either for sale or has been sold. There's probably another place in town, but I couldn't track anything down.
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