Gift From the CAWCD
Again this year our Foundation has benefitted from the generosity and community spirit of The Central Arizona Water Conservation District. Grady Gammage, The President of the Board of Directors of the CAWCD, presented Darrel Dodd with a $50 check for the Arizona Mineral and Mining Museum Foundation. Steve Decker (that’s me with the Biggest Grin) was one of several Water District employees who received The President’s Award for Community Service. The Award Luncheon at the Arrowhead Country Club was delicious, and the affair was relaxed and cordial.

Thank You very much CAWCD!

On a water related note, there likely will be a growing water crisis, not just in our Desert Southwest, but around the world. Population grows, but no new water sources are available to support our new citizens. May we all keep conservation and preservation of this most precious commodity foremost in our thoughts and life styles. If we are not diligent, and even Militant, our State’s future is at serious risk, and so is the future of our Planet.
The Show Season is officially underway, with the Museum Family day just past. The Member’s Donation table was a success, bringing in $32 and several nice specimens for the Foundation.

Karen Glennon’s Halite was a big hit (A few nice specimens remain, look for them at Mesa Community College in January). She collected these nice pink hoppered cubes herself, at Searles Lake, California, along with some interesting Hanksite groups.. Her reward for her generous donation is next year’s Foundation dues, and our Thanks!

Ed Dunlap brought in some Chrysocolla, a cool geode and petrified wood. Thank you very much, Karen and Ed!

New Web Pages for the Foundation

Les Presmyk took advantage of an offer he found in the Newspaper and placed the Foundation in a free webpage. We have only basic information there now, but I will use it to keep our Community updated. I have also applied for and just received
conformation on another site at Access Arizona. Send me some ideas about what we should put on them! The URLs for our newest Webpages are

www.accessarizona.com/community/groups/ammmf

www.yourtown.net/display.main/Org10.135.html

Our Foundation Needs You!
We must have someone assume the responsibilities of a Corresponding Secretary. These duties have been handled by Helen McMillan, of Del Tierra Engineering, since the Foundation’s inception. She is busy with other work now, and will not be able to continue to keep our Membership Roles updated, deposit our Dues, and send out membership cards. If you are willing to take on these vital tasks, jump in and help us out. Please come to our next meeting on November 12, or contact any Trustee and let us know you are willing! Our new mailing address will probably be the Museum, but all the details are not yet worked out.

We owe Helen a big vote of Thanks for many years of excellent service! Hip Hip Hurray for Helen!

We also need members to volunteer for our Nominating Committee. Six of our Board Member’s terms will end in January, and we will need candidates to fill these seats on our Board of Trustees.

Four Peaks Hike
Saturday Morning, August 29, a banner day in my collecting memories. I finally got to visit the Four Peaks Amethyst Mine, and it was a real adventure. Ken and I met at Darrel's house about early thirty that morning, and drove for 3 hours to Lone Pine Trailhead. Carrying a gallon of water apiece, we began our climb to the mine. The trailhead is on the far North end of the Four Peaks, so the Mine is on the far South end, of course. It was a steady three hour hike up to the Mine.

Our Friends Ed and Bob have been working the Amethyst mine for a group of investors, and invited us to pay a visit The miners have been having some trouble with uninvited visitors pilfering tools and hard dug material from them while they are down in the Valley trying to get a bath and a shave. As a matter of fact, a group of Boy Scouts robbed them of an empty water jug and the scout leaders cussed them and made vulgar gestures just before we arrived. We passed this group on the trail, and they seemed like an OK bunch, but in a kind of a hurry! Darrel gave some of the boys water, as they had not properly supplied themselves. When we got to the mine, Ed had called the sheriff on the funky two way radio, but the transmission was not very clear. Since some threats had been made to rob the miners, the Sheriff played it safe, and sent in two Helicopters! When we arrived at the Mine, the Helicopters were already circling. Darrel loaned Ed his Cell Phone to talk to the Chopper pilot and explained the situation with the water jug, and the other sheriffs went down to Lone Pine trailhead, apprehended the Perpetrators, and put the fear of Trespassing on them.

With that excitement out of the way, we were able to take a look at the work that these fellas have been doing! They are digging like the Cave Man ancestors must have done when looking for a way to dodge the last ice age. As a matter of fact, on his first trip up to the Mine, long before the diggings had reached the present length of about 30 feet, Ed was caught in a snowstorm up there! I know that was a cold miserable nite, snuggled up in a shallow hole in damp cold earth and stone. To hear Ed tell it, it was a walk in the Wilderness area...ah, youth!

The vein that is being worked is huge! A hard red Iron stained claylike matrix contains 1 to 6 inch Amethyst crystals, mostly only well formed at the terminations, but those terminations are such a beautiful red flashing deep purple that they look black until you shine in some light. The area is littered with 1/2 to 3/4 inch crystals not perfect enough for the investors, who are interested in Gem rough only. These little points will be real treasures to the School kids that I will be giving rock collections to this year. (Thanks to Ed and Bob and the investors, who I don't know, but appreciate!) Ed said that after it rains, the dumps look like they are littered with broken purple bottle glass.

Ed next took us around the South end of the peak, where we could see Apache, Canyon, and Saguaro Lakes all at the same time...it is beautiful. Out here were the old workings that might be from the early mining efforts of the Spanish. We found prismatic quartz crystals, some included with a black mineral, and groups of Amethyst with clear Quartz in tightly packed agglomerations, on a harder, Quartz matrix. I bet that some of the real classics came out of this area, but it looks very dangerous to me, with large jumbled boulders covering most of the shaft. The tailings that are sliding down into the ravine below are sure interesting, though! Farther down in the ravine is the remains of the old trailer that had been drug up there in earlier mining ventures. Not much left by the vandals now. Ed showed us some Quartz that was coated with a platy Fluorapatite, and an area where the Quartz was smokey. It seemed like there was a lot more to see, but we knew it would be dark by the time we got back to the Van, so we said Thanks! and started hiking home. I was sure glad that I had brought that gallon of water. It not only tasted good, but it got lighter as I walked. The rocks that I had picked up were getting heavier at the same time. The walk back seemed a lot longer than the walk in; shoes started chafing, and the walking stick I was carrying on the way in was sure helping to carry me on the way out!

At a special place along the trail, I began feeling pretty frisky, and got a ways ahead of Ken and Darrel. I sat on a rock, and thought about an old buddy of mine, Mike Marks. I had just learned of his passing from this Earth the day before, and stopped for a moment to think about him. This was the place to do that in style. The high places always hold a special perspective when we stop to wonder about the reasons and meanings in life. A vague understanding of the implacable propriety of life and death touched me up there, and as my living friends rejoined us on the trail, the world seemed fair and magical. We Live Today.

On our way home down the rough, winding road leaving the Peaks, we slowed to watch the Tarantulas crossing in five places, and were amazed at how different and strange dirt roads look in the dark. Kangaroo rats bounded along the two ruts in front of us, throwing long shadows in the headlight beams, and we bounced down out of the cool air into the humid, sultry valley where we live. 12 hours rough riding and hiking to gather up eight or ten pounds of rock and a couple Native Arizona Jewels. This was a perfect day!

Here is something funny Lois Splendoria found in an old 1973 MSA roster. The credit only says, "via Diggin's."

The 10 Rockmandments

1. Thou shalt not touch thy neighbor's minerals unless he places them in thy hands.
2. Thou shalt not test the strength of crystals by pushing, squeezing, or biting.
3. Thou shalt not drop thy neighbor's fossil, for many do not bounce.
4. Thou shalt not place thy neighbor's specimen in thine own pocket.
5. Thou shalt not test they neighbor's agate for hardness by rubbing them together.
6. Thou shalt not argue the name of that mineral too violently; sometime thou could be wrong.
7. Thou shalt not climb above thy neighbor when on a field trip, lest thou are willing to spend the rest of
the day digging him out.
8. Thou shalt protect thine own eyes, hands, and feet so that thou can enjoy many field trips.
9. Thou shalt not encroach upon thy neighbor's digging, lest his hammer be dropped on thy toe.
10. Thou shalt not complain about or denounce thy club officers under penalty of being elected thyself.

The Purple Passion Fieldtrip
Saturday, September 26, the Foundation was treated to a premier Fieldtrip. It’s success was largely due to the intelligence, planning, and plain hard work provided by Ed Davis, Bill Gardner, and Mark Gill of Purple Passion Mine and Minerals. These guys took us to FIVE collecting localities, and we went home with Amethyst, Wulfenite, Fluorescent minerals, Octahedral Fluorite, Malachite, Chalcopyrite, Willemite, and Geodes, as well as some special wild life photos I promised you would see in your next Newsletter. Well, here they are! Darrel and Larrey Dodd met me at Ed Davis' house way early that morning, and we got an eyeful of the gorgeous Amethyst Ed has been mining on Four Peaks. Before it got light we were on our way north to Carefree Highway, and we pulled in to the Gold Rush Cafe before 7:00 a.m. The breakfast Darrel treated us to was delicious, and fortunately inexpensive, so we didn't all have to do dishes. We were just finishing up when Lavone
came in, and since it was still early, we sat and chatted while she enjoyed a hot and fortifying meal.
We went on across the street to McDonalds and met up with the hardy bunch who had braved this balmy fall morn to collect minerals. Ed had brought some samples to show the members, and everybody bunched up to take a look at the Geode, Fluorite octahedrons, and Wulfenite crystals. Then it was Tally Ho the Rocks and north we traveled on Constellation Road. We stopped just past a deep wash, and were delighted to find the side of the road littered with tiny geodes. Bigger ones were sure to be found in the ridge above according to Knowledgeable Sources, but just then, I heard a crashing in the brush on the other side of the Road. When I went to investigate, the most awesome sight of the day grabbed my full attention: Two Large Rattlesnakes were doing the Lambada, you know, the Forbidden Dance of Love! I had seen this behavior before by the dreaded Green Mojave Rattlesnakes, which pack a more deadly venom than the Diamondbacks, but don’t dance nearly as well. Swaying hypnotically, intertwined and moving in unison, these young lovers rattled and struck each other gently, then wound themselves up like Caduceus, the Staff of Mercury. Our field trippers gathered round, and cameras began clicking. No Privacy anywhere anymore. The two snakes were fully aware of our presence, and did not seem to care too much at all. They came closer and closer as they played and it seemed like a good time to give them a little space, so off we drove to the Amethyst Hill digs, leaving the serpents to their recreation as we pursued our own. The line of cars snaked off across the flat desert to the west of Constellation Road, and up to the base of Amethyst Hill. Everyone jumped out and started walking up to the diggings are on the west side of the top of the hill. It looked like some dirt had been moved in recent history, I wonder what they found? Ed showed me a likely place to dumps. The Acicular variety was easily found, as were some nice blades and “fuzzy tabs”. Some folks went straight to the fluoresent digs just next door to the main workings. A big sheet of Black plastic was waiting for us to hide under so we could let the UV lights work their magic on the otherwise uninteresting ore that filled the big cut. This area used to be a main incline to the old underground workings, and I have heard that since our visit, the guys have rented some equipment and have opened this area up till they are on the verge of reentering the old tunnels...what a time warp, eh? Some other small prospects in the area that are covered by the same claims are showing fluorescents with five different colors. Pretty and bright! I went for a little hike up the nearby ravine, and found some little Octahedral Fluorites, but nothing as nice as the ones Ed would lead us to next, at the Monarch Mine, a short distance away. The place he showed us to dig is just full of zoned crystals of Fluorite that fluoresce a bright blue under the black light, and are quite interesting both for their size and the associated Chalcopyrite. The dumps at this old mine are huge, and a lot of work went into laying the waste rock into terraces and pathways that are holding up remarkably well. It is still a dangerous place, where a misstep could land you at the bottom of a pile of loose rubble and rock that a whole Club might have trouble digging you out of. As a matter of fact, one of our most experienced early, and sent him into Wickenburg for a bunch of stitches. He does give us a first hand report that the emergency facilities in Wickenburg are top notch, clean, and staffed by competent and caring professionals, which is darn good to know. By this time it had been a long day for the most enthusiastic of us, and our ranks were quite diminished. We headed back to Phoenix with Rocks rattling all around the van, tired but satisfied with a fine Field Trip. Many thanks, boys, for a memorable outing!