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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 16, 2011 11:24:09 GMT -5
Dumortierite. Collected from the tailings of the Black Jack silver mine. The mine is located on the Kel-Baker road, about 1 mile north of old Rt.66. Micro crystals. Cutting rough. Cabs. Cab on the left is a doublet, capped with a clear section of Montana Moss. With an hour or 2 of digging in the tailings, lots of small pieces can be collected at this mine. The mine itself is extremely unstable, so surface collecting only. Next is the golden jasper from the Kramer Hills, San Bernardino county. Sorry, I'm out of rough. Only a few cabs I've saved. This stuff takes a beautiful polish. Don
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Post by tandl on Aug 16, 2011 13:51:09 GMT -5
Awesome purple ! dumo ,and yellow cabs
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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 16, 2011 13:53:18 GMT -5
Thanks. Don't know the collecting status on these areas. I left California in 96, and haven't been back. Don
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AGATEGRRRL
spending too much on rocks
AGATEGRRRL
Member since October 2007
Posts: 466
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Post by AGATEGRRRL on Aug 16, 2011 15:18:20 GMT -5
Hi Jake, I have a number of pieces of that dumorterite that a friend of mine from CA had given me awhile back & I wasn't sure if it was from that mine or not. Now I know, so thanks for sharing that! The color on the Kramer Hills is unbelievable. I'm a CA transplant too, happily living in AZ for many years now.
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Post by tanyafrench on Aug 16, 2011 17:41:44 GMT -5
Don, that is some beautiful material and I love the golden jasper cabs. Great material.
Tanya
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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 16, 2011 18:55:20 GMT -5
Thank you Tanya. The cabs are the last of what I have from that area. Because of the bright colors, they were popular at the craft shows. I very quickly went through a bucket full of rough. These last 4 will stay in my collection.
If any of you So. Cal. guys have any spare Kramer Hills material, I'd be interested in buying some from you. Don
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 17, 2011 13:08:40 GMT -5
Beautiful Kramer Hills material! Interesting dumortierite too. All I have is from the Indian pass region and is more Levis blue color.....Mel
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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 17, 2011 13:45:23 GMT -5
Hey Mel, The material from Black Jack runs from pink to lavender. Rarely a blue piece. The small crystals all seem to be a very dark purple.
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elementary
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2006
Posts: 1,077
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Post by elementary on Aug 17, 2011 14:10:52 GMT -5
Kramer Hills is still open. I've got a bucket of stuff from there, but not the color of your material. This place is actually on my hit list for one of my next trips out. It's an easy drive. The problem is the size of the site. There are digs in several locations that target different material.
There's dendritic material, opalite and agate at the old Key Kay (or is that Kay Kee) site. Rough scattered all about the ground.
A few years ago I took the husband and son of my principal out there. Within five minutes from leaving the car, the son (about 10/11 years old at the time) comes over with a rock in his hand that is the size of his hand. He asks if it is petrified wood. Now, I've not had the pleasure of finding wood of any size there, so I'm about ready to say "No" but then I take a closer look. Yep. Little guy (grr) found a nice piece of petrified wood. He displayed it at the country fair a couple years ago and got a blue ribbon for his age class.
There is also one solitary hole there that I've come across that produces purple.
I'll post the next time I go,
Lowell
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Post by johnjsgems on Aug 17, 2011 14:37:28 GMT -5
Nice material. Like Mel, I've only collected the Indian Pass stuff.The Kelbaker Rd site may fall in the National Park area now but as far as I know the Kramer area is still open. Kramer has a lot of nice palm wood.
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Post by Toad on Aug 17, 2011 15:30:31 GMT -5
Love that golden jasper
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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 17, 2011 16:09:04 GMT -5
Hey John, I was in the process of filing a claim on the old mine when our situation changed, and made us move to S.D. I wanted to claim the old mine workings to keep it open for rockhounds. They had just made the area north of the mine a "Sensitive Area". The writing was already on the wall. It wouldn't surprise me if the mine is now inside park grounds. Don
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Post by johnjsgems on Aug 17, 2011 18:30:53 GMT -5
Some of the boundaries are fuzzy. When I was at Copper World some time ago everybody thought it was in the park but nothing was posted and we were not alone. Even a guy there loading a pickup with garden rocks.
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Post by paulshiroma on Aug 17, 2011 21:18:06 GMT -5
Great looking pieces, Don. Last I checked (2009) the Black Jack mine was closed to the public. By that I mean that the dirt road from Kel-Baker was completely blocked (gates plus boulder "fence"). You could probably just park off the side of the road and walk but I took the level of preparation to mean that someone had purposely closed the site. Of course, by now it may be within BLM wilderness areas or NPS areas.
Thanks for sharing the photos. Those are beautiful. Paul
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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 17, 2011 21:29:42 GMT -5
Thanks for the info Paul. Sounds like the green weenies have closed another site forever. If it's not sign posted by BLM or NPS, I suppose a person could take a chance and walk in. No signs, it would be awfully hard for them to prosecute you. That was an awfully dangerous mine. Especially the straight drop under the head frame. Not a place to take young kids.
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