Ben Wins A.L. Flagg Service Award!

Prospecting in the New Millenium
By Darrel Dodd
Last  March my friend Ken Dunham called me on a Thursday and asked if I would like to go to the Crusher Mica Quarry after our work day at the Foundation's trailer on Saturday. Of course the answer was YES! Although I had never heard of this mine, I headed for my computer, opened my Delorme Topo program, and typed in the mine name. To my surprise, there was the exact location with latitude & longitude.
For field work I use my Garmin 45 GPS (Global Positioning System). As we headed for the field I felt completely confident of locating this mine with the maps I printed and My GPS. As we traveled down the back roads southwest of Phoenix we watched the GPS setting change until we reached the approximate latitude and we turned off the small winding back road. Then it happened ...we came up against a Babbitt Barrier, that is, a wilderness area sign. We struck out across the desert with the GPS in hand. My friends Ken and Harvey Jong knew this would be a real test of modern day prospecting. When you are leading an adventure with two doubting people, you are either going to be hero and find your location, or never hear the end of it.  Unfortunately, I have been on both sides!  A couple of miles into our hike we came up a small ridge. According to the GPS the Mine was still further on. Now I had to make the decision to turn back because no mine was in sight, or take a chance and go on. On we went. As we crested the ridge there was still no mine in sight, but according to the readings it was only a few thousand feet away. Just as the 'exact' readings were displayed on the GPS, we found a corner post marker, and looked up to see the mine.  Boy, was I relieved. This is a pegmatite area with beautiful green Mica crystals, Tourmaline and Garnet crystals. Unfortunately, we were not sure if we were in the wilderness area, so of course we did not collect anything at the mine site. This was a great test of our topos and tools Now, before our field trips, we take a test run in cyberspace!  Happy hunting.

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Canyonlands in Utah. They stopped at a turn-off, and Ben convinced everyone that this was the correct road. The discussion took several minutes because no one else believed it to be the right one, but Ben prevailed. Down the road they went. In about a ½ mile, there was a sign that read, 'This is not the way to Dead Horse Point!'

Ben Benham, we admire your tenacity as well as your knowledge, humility, and dedication. You are a wonderful example for us all!

Sam's Mineral Musings

had been riding high on the minerals that we  were finding and selling at the Flagg sales and to the numerous rock shops around the valley. At that time, there were more mineral stores than today. There was Hudson's in Scottsdale, Mueller's on Camelback, Dr. Heingartner's in Apache Junction,  Mrs. Smith's in the 5th Ave shops, Carl's Rock Shop on 7th Ave, Nature Arts in Scottsdale  and Arrow Gems on Cave Creek. There were also several dealers that bought stuff  from us, Dick Jones in Casa Grande, and Bob Dryer in Scottsdale to name two. Wayne and I and a few others collected at the Apache mine, the '79 mine, the Red Cloud and the Rowley mine. We rarely came home empty handed. Many times after visiting the Apache or the '79, we would stop at a shop near Superior,
Arizona. This was the store of a man named Richard Campos. Richard had worked for the Magma
Mine and had a supply of good minerals for sale or trade. We could usually get our gas money by selling some minerals to Richard. We could always get gas money if  we went to Thelo Dodd's house with a few flats of Vanadinite or Hemimorphite. I  recall a certain redheaded boy running around the house then. A friend and I took several novice collectors to the Apache mine one day. I was watching a guy trying to break that hard Troy Quartzite with a small rock ham

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