The Huachuca Mountains, long known for the Jack Wakefield mine and its Arkansas type quartz is continuing to yield marvelous quartz crystals.  Hard work , most definitely.  However, those willing to make the effort have been able to add spectacular pieces to their collections.  Recently we have seen smokey quartz which will equal any from the alpine regions of Switzerland, Italy and France.  All hand dug, I might add.  Quartz with clorite inclusions in which no one's imagination is challenged as to the color.  The list goes on and on.

Washington Camp and Duquesne in Santa Cruz county continue to produce good, bad and ugly specimens.  Just a few years ago a significant (I am not quite sure why it was significant) find of hissingerite occurred.  The crystals ranged from micro to two inches on edge, both singles and clusters.  This find was the result of what started out as a picnic type outing which was more for a drive than a field collecting trip.  The Santa Nino continues to produce fine amethyst for those willing to make the hike up a tough hill.  Dump collecting has even produced at least one truly unusual  specimen which is now at the Sonoran Desert Museum.  Stop by and visit Anna, I am sure she will show you the piece I am writing about. 

Garnets have been collected in Arizona for many years.  Chuck Lewis recently collected several wonderful specimens from the Aquarius Mountains.  This locality has been written about since the late 1930's.

In addition to these localities many operating mines have been made available for field collecting.  Les Presmyk and Wayne Thompson made the Red Cloud available not just once but several times to various groups in the southwest.  Bryan Lees at Collectors Edge continued the tradition as recently as December 2001.  Ed Davis has allowed us to collect at his properties.  What can be better than someone else's equipment, at no cost to us, being used to uncover ground which we could never access with hand tools.
I could go on and continue to identify locations where wonderful specimens have been collected

over the last ten years.  Each of you has a favorite locality which has yielded fine specimens. The point is, the "Golden age" is not dead.  We are living in it!  (Emphasis added,  Ed.)  Equipment is better than ever and knowledge is plentiful.  What each of us must do is commit to make the effort to field collect.  No matter what level of interest or effort is involved there is one more good mineral specimen to be found.  By the way, who wants to join me for a trip to the Finch for a day of hard labor in search of a 1/2 inch wulfenite which would make any field collector proud?

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