Pennsylvania and the Limestone Products Quarries in Mt. Pleasant Mills and Middlebury beckoned a number of Wayne County Gem and Mineral Club collectors south for May Day. The day started with the annual dig atop the quarry collecting wavellite. As the cover photo suggests, we dug high, low, left, and right in the third cut atop the hill, but unfortunately we were not as successful as in past years. Lots of color but not many full balls and none of the deep green the Buffalo Club had on display at its show in March. We probably did not dig deeply enough to deserve quality pieces. But, yes, that is Jerry Donahue in the middle of the photo with his sampling tool. It was great to see him back in the field with us.
Pickings were better in both quarries. There was an adequate amount of doubly terminated clear ½”-1” calcite crystals atop drusy calcite at Mt. Pleasant Mills for all to sample and then a bit of purple fluorite and lots of travertine to pick from late in the afternoon in the Middlebury Quarry.
On Friday, we scampered over to Scranton and the coal dumps in both Jermyn and Carbondale. There were lots of lycopod trees and other Lepidodendron genus Carboniferous plant fossils exposed in both the coal dumps in Jermyn and the roadside remediated areas east of Carbondale. I think we all left with enough material to start our own little Carboniferous rock pile in our gardens. Roots, stems, fronds, branches and even a few good sized stumps were uncovered in a few hours. Once again we know we had to look up to see Bill most of the time.
There was something interesting being sawed in the big saw at the April workshop. Was it that large banded agate piece? You will have to come to our workshops to find out.