Eastern PA/NJ Area Rockhounds and Finds thread

[ajk]

Disclaimer:

This thread contains both the latest finds of Eastern PA and NJ rockhounds (and those who may be traveling in the area and stopped to dig) and the setting up of meeting times and places for those interested in digging with fellow members in the area. If either or both of these things do not interest you or offend you in any way, please do not continue reading this thread. Thank you.

So today I was thinking of going over to Sterling Hill with a buddy and a member on this forum (darwinahoy) for their once a month collection. Unfortunately my friends cell phone went crazy today and I was trying to text darwinahoy, but accidentally had the wrong number. Couldn't get in touch with anyone (mostly due to my stupidity) so I decided to go to a fossil spot I had read about. Here's some of what I found:





Thanks for looking! If anyone is interested in this location let me know, I'd be more than happy to tell you. I would have liked to work the location more, but the heat was bad and the sun was beating down from a clear sky. The rocks were so hot they were hard to handle...

Aaron

[CrossfireBusiness]

Hey AJK Iam really new to the fossil scene ...but I did meet Anthony (Darwin)) collecting shark teeth fossils ...Are those clam fossils?? i see in there nice stuff .I have a little knowledge on minerals though ...I am planning on headed up to Sterling next month as well.... If you wanna get together all of us and anyone else for that matter that wants to come send me a pm .... I live in NJ and still have not yet been to Sterling so it is my mission to get there this summer ....Greg

[darwinahoy]

Sorry you couldn't make it. I found some nice wollastonite, and another guy that I convinced to come got to digging in the "world pit" of assorted non-sterling hill material, and was pulling out 3-4" beryls, apatites, and tourmalines...gorgeous stuff.

Anyway, where'd you end up going? Deer Lake?

[CrossfireBusiness]

next month im there ...

[ajk]

Crossfirebusiness: That was the first time I ever went out for fossils, so you probably have more experience than I do. It was pretty fun because stuff was everywhere. I know if I stayed longer I could have found some trilobites or something more substantial, but the heat was ridiculous. Anyway, I believe the second one is a mussel. I almost got the entire thing out, but the end broke off just as it came out of the rock. The second to last pic shows the bottom of the clam in the fourth pic and it looks like even the byssal threads (I think) were fossilized.

Anthony: Yes, I went to Deer Lake. I knew exactly where it was and knew if I didn't find anything there are a couple lakes there where I could go fish for a while, plus Cabelas is right there. I'd love to see some pics of the stuff you and your buddy got from Sterling. I wish I could have made it. I would love to go next time, just have to make sure I have off of work. In the mean time I'll let you know when I plan to go to Phoenixville.

Aaron

[darwinahoy]

I didn't manage to get pics of his stuff. His best stuff was non-Sterling Hill material anyway, so not really representative of what you'd find. I'll try to get some pics of my stuff tomorrow, but the macro setting on this camera does terribly in low light...so we'll see how it does in complete darkness with the SW.

[CrossfireBusiness]

Woohooh Sterling here we come ??

[darwinahoy]

I'm probably in for Sunday. I came away with some nice Gahnite, Galena, and Willemite crystals, a corundum crystal, and some possible Clinohedrite (a first for me). I at least want to get back and poke around in case I left behind any of the Clinohedrite, and see what else is around where I pulled out the Galena.

[ajk]

Well, my boss just asked me to work Sunday. I haven't given a reply yet. If she can't find anyone else to work I'll probably have to be there. I'll know by tomorrow then let you guys know.

[darwinahoy]

Mine, too! Well, not so much asked, as scheduled me, since I didn't specifically request off. It's the first time in over 5 months that they've scheduled me on a Sunday. And I'm the only opening manager, otherwise I'd just duck out of it and go anyway. Looking like it's either going to be Upper New Street or Shark River to quell my rockhounding needs for this coming week.

[CrossfireBusiness]

well too bad you guys might not make it ... we need to work so we can have a huge area to keep our specimens ... hey Anthonty since you will not be able to make it any last minute tips since I have never been there collecting yet

[ajk]

I managed to get off of work, so I may still be able to make it. My car has been acting a little funny lately so I'm gonna check it out tomorrow after work. If it's all good I should be able to make it over. I'll send you a text, Greg, if I can make it over there. Maybe we can meet up in the parking area or something.

Aaron

[CrossfireBusiness]

Hey Aaron ..I Dont get text messages on my phone ... I had cancelled that feature .....

[Dicky the Rockhunter]

it seems that you want to use this forum as a chat for personal reasons --- please go to twitter,etc. for those where it is more approiate. I come here for things about rocks.

Thanks for your cooperation.
Dicky

[darwinahoy]

I guess rocks and rockhounding is on topic, but trying to meet up to rockhound is not? Didn't realize the forum was so unfriendly

Anyway, as far as hounding Sterling Hill...

When you get there, you will enter to the right of 2 rows of stone. This is the Mine Run, and World Pit. The World Pit is the corner bit farthest from you, to the right of the shed where you can check your fluorescent finds. You can find anything in here. I came out with tourmaline, pyromorophite, beryl, and staurolite last time from here. The rest is zinc-rich material from the mine, and can produce very nice franklinite and gahnite crystals, among plenty of fluorescent stuff. The very last bit near where you enter shows a lot of white marble from another location, which is rich in norbergite and diopside, including diopside after tremolite (fluoresces yellow and light blue, respectively). I also found a corundum crystal in there last time.

Going to the right of where you enter, you will follow a path around a short building. Keep following the path and it will lead you into the main quarry. Through the central portion of the quarry, feel free to look around everywhere, as the material is pretty mixed now, apparently. When you're in the very middle of the quarry, to the left you will see a path up an incline. This will bring you to a more "native" area, where material has not really been moved around and shuffled. There is a lot of wollastonite coming out of this area. I've also found clinohedrite and fluorescent apatite up there. Plenty of garnet up there, too, but it can take a while if you're looking for anything with a crystal face to it. A few guys were working a large hole up here, too, which was throwing out large but misshapen franklinite crystals. This is also where I pulled out some nice Galena crystals. It gets dangerous, though, as there is pretty much nothing under the boulders when you get past the surface, so be cautious of reaching your arm in there and having something shift on you.

Otherwise, just have fun. I recommend starting on the Mine Run, and checking a bunch of stuff in the shed, since it will be right there. You can start picking up on what to look for, if you're out for fluorescent material. This will help you in the rest of the quarry, as there's nowhere to check without hauling your stuff all the way back to the shed. You can figure out what is calcite and willemite, and then you can also try to start noticing when something looks a bit different, and see what you have, too. If you're trying for crystal material, the best way is to find an intact face, trim down the rock, and bring it home that way. Most of the crystals here (franklinite, gahnite, willemite, etc.) are quite fragile, and the best way to expose them is etching in acid. Trying to remove them by taking the rock off physically will result in lots of broken crystals.

[CrossfireBusiness]

ThankYou Darwin I missed this and headed out early.I did meet up with AJK ..We had a great time and found many nice specimens ,,,I will be posting some of my RECENT FINDS soon enough . As far as Dicky goes ...Well his name pretty much says what I would like to say ... With that said this location provided me and AJK alot of very nice specimens ... I met alot of other collectors and have planned future trips with two of them ... One in Sayreville , NJ for Amber and another in the near future for Florida clam shell calcite location ...So anybody who might want to join can pm me .... SORRY I DON"T TWEET !!!!! Have a great day !!!!

[darwinahoy]

Well, I don't really plan on going to Florida haha. However, I do have off Wednesday and Friday of this week. Thinking of splitting it...1 day at Shark River and 1 day at Upper New Street. Careful with the amber...from what I understand, the area is no longer allowed to be collected by the owners of the property. Though I've heard of a few tricks that some people have been using to collect there anyway. I try to not collect where legality may be an issue, so I think I'll pass on that trip, too. Let me know when you're headed back to UNS, though.

[naturenut]

Well, I just wanted to say that I got alot out of this thread. I'm not in the area at the moment, but have been to Sterling Hill and now I see how much I missed there, LOL. If I was in the area, I might have joined the excursion to learn something from other rockhound friends... and reading this thread would have been the only way I knew that rockhound friends were scheduling a trip there. Sorry, not trying to stir things up, just my two cents. Good luck to you all when you go. Jo

[carnelianpete]

Just FYI everyone. I will be going to UNS on Thursday morning. I plan on being there early.

(Unfortunately I am unemployed again as of last Friday. Contract was up and the company did not want to extended it since they are closing in 4 weeks. Oh well. I guess that means more time for collecting or at least at little more. I do still have to look for work.)

Thursday is supposed to be in the mid 70's and no humidity. It should be a good day for collecting. PM me or reply to this thread if you want to meet up at UNS.

Pete

[ajk]

Wish I could go with you guys to UNS on Thursday... If you wanted to reschedule for late afternoon I might be able to make it . Where exactly is UNS? If it's not too far from work I might stop there on the way back one day.

Sterling was fun. Somehow I ended up spending the entire day in the "world" pit. I guess it's just as well as I really didn't have the necessary tools to go elsewhere. Found some cool stuff, a lot of which I now realize I need ID'd. I'll post them later when I get my camera back. I'll be interested to see what all you found also, Greg.

Maybe we can get the Mods to change the title to "Eastern PA/NJ Area Rockhounds thread" or something where we can just post finds and plan trips so as not to be misleading to those who don't care. In any case, I'm availible this weekend if anyone is interested in going anywhere. I'd like to see UNS or Phoenixville.

Oh and thanks for the info about Sterling, Anthony! I read it then printed it out so I would be able to look at it again when I got there.

Aaron

[hydrogeologist]

My two cents on Phoenixville this time of year:

DO NOT dig there if you are susceptible at all to poison ivy, ESPECIALLY at the Brookdale Mine (the one by the old lead smelter). Even if you do not see the tell-tale 3-leaved plants or stalks be aware that the roots are growing on most of the dump piles. I managed to catch two very bad cases, one in the late fall and one in the early winter, when there were no leaves on anything and ID'ing it was nearly impossible. Despite my precautions (gloves, long sleeves, etc.), I still managed to catch a nasty rash pulling roots from deep in the soil.

Lawrence

[ajk]

Jun 28, 2010 19:33:23 GMT -5 hydrogeologist said:

My two cents on Phoenixville this time of year:

DO NOT dig there if you are susceptible at all to poison ivy, ESPECIALLY at the Brookdale Mine (the one by the old lead smelter). Even if you do not see the tell-tale 3-leaved plants or stalks be aware that the roots are growing on most of the dump piles. I managed to catch two very bad cases, one in the late fall and one in the early winter, when there were no leaves on anything and ID'ing it was nearly impossible. Despite my precautions (gloves, long sleeves, etc.), I still managed to catch a nasty rash pulling roots from deep in the soil.

Lawrence

Thanks for the heads up! Luckily I rarely get poison ivy, and if I do it's very mild. I work outdoors and walk through the stuff almost every day so I know I've been exposed to it. In fact, while backpack electrofishing last Friday I walked face first into a big patch of it and the other guys couldn't believe that I didn't really care...

But I digress... I'll let the others know; if I decide to go and anyone else decides to follow.

Aaron

[darwinahoy]

The World Pit can be a nice spot to find stuff. I've seen some very nice beryl, tourmaline, and apatite come out of there. I got a pretty nice beryl, a nice staurolite, and an awesome Brookdale pyromorphite (the likes of which you can't even really find at the home locale anymore!). Gotta dig for it, though. If you saw the pit at the top of the pile, to the left near the shed, that was me haha.

I can't make it to UNS until Friday, unfortunately. Anyone who's up for it is more than willing to join me, though. Though if anyone would rather take a trip down to Shark River to screen for some Eocene/Miocene fossil material, I'm game for that, too.

[ajk]

Jun 28, 2010 22:44:22 GMT -5 darwinahoy said:

The World Pit can be a nice spot to find stuff. I've seen some very nice beryl, tourmaline, and apatite come out of there. I got a pretty nice beryl, a nice staurolite, and an awesome Brookdale pyromorphite (the likes of which you can't even really find at the home locale anymore!). Gotta dig for it, though. If you saw the pit at the top of the pile, to the left near the shed, that was me haha.

I can't make it to UNS until Friday, unfortunately. Anyone who's up for it is more than willing to join me, though. Though if anyone would rather take a trip down to Shark River to screen for some Eocene/Miocene fossil material, I'm game for that, too.

I floated the idea of getting off Friday by the boss today, seems like it might be possible depending on how much work we get done tomorrow and thursday. If I do get Friday off I'd love to take a trip to UNS. I just need to know two things. 1. When will you be there and 2. where exactly is UNS?

[darwinahoy]

I'll double check and make sure I'm going, but if I do, I'll pretty much be there for most of the day. Probably 10-6, or something along those lines.

[carnelianpete]

I can not do Friday. I am going Thursday morning around 8 or so. I will be there till early to mid afternoon. (1-3) depends on how the back holds out and what i get into. Something good I will be there longer. Having a bad day out early. Just some pics from the last trip in May.

These first are all of the same 9 inch plate of natrolite.







This next one is of a pretty special piece. It is 4 x 5 inches and is heulandite with a sprinkling of apophyllite xls on it. Some are twinned xls and it displays real well. I hope to find more on Thursday.



Pete

[carnelianpete]

By the way how did this thread go from Pa fossils to NJ zeolites and pyromorphite?

[ajk]

Jun 30, 2010 7:49:31 GMT -5 carnelianpete said:

By the way how did this thread go from Pa fossils to NJ zeolites and pyromorphite?

Who cares, it's all good ;D

Aaron

[darwinahoy]

Hey! That natrolite looks familiar! Carnelian Pete, you wouldn't have happened to come across a guy in a hole that you were talking to about cleaning that stuff, and you were talking about the spot cleaning gun?

[carnelianpete]

That's the one!!!! And that's me. When do you plan on going back? Or when do you plan on going out to collect again. Meet up somewhere/time and go diggin!!! I just got back from NS today. I did alright. Got some nice calcites and heulandite clusters. A really nice apophyllite xls. Water clear with some nice hematite stains. One nice piece of calcite, thomsonite. Not a bad day at all. Got some cleaning to do and even a few specimens that I do not know about. Could be keepers could be I should have not bothered to carry them. We will see. I will post soon. Lots of pocket pics and specimen pics on this next post. PM me and lets meet up to collect. I know a quartz xl spot.

Hey how did the stilbites come out? Any good color on them puppies?

Pete