During the third week in July, seven WCGMC members spent 7 days and 6 nights collecting in Ontario. The first three days in Cobalt, Ontario are summarized here. Part 2, three days near Eganville, will be reviewed in a subsequent entry. Modified from August, 2015 WCGMC newsletter article.
From its discovery in 1903 until around 1920, Cobalt, Ontario was a hotbed of silver mining and the center of Ontario’s economic mining industry as over 10,000 inhabitants opened more than 100 mines in search of silver. Over 100 years later, and for 2 days in July, 2015, seven eager rockhounds from WCGMC followed in the old timers footsteps.
A typical scene from Cobalt: Remains from the Crown Reserve Mine in the foreground, and mine dumps from the Kerr Lake Mine across the lake.
In the July issue of WCGMC News, one of the club’s long time members offers his memories of a favorite site and a favorite mineral. Ken Rowe, and his wife Rocky, have been club members for over 30 years.
This is a brief reminiscence about my collecting at the Gouverneur Talc Mine and the Zinc Corporation of America Mine in Balmat, New York in the late 1980’s. We began about 1980, when my wife and I were fairly new members of the WCGM Club. We were guided by Jim and Marion Wheaton, the founding members of WCGMC. At that time the Balmat site was an underground mine for zinc.
Just before our visit to the Gouverneur Talc Mine a cave-in had led to a partial collapse to highway 812 and repairs to the road required just about all the available tailings to fill in the damage to the road. Upon arrival at the mine we were very disappointed because we were expecting some good specimens of hexagonite. All we found were a few forgotten boulders around the perimeter of the site, so we (about 10-12 persons) made the best of it. Can you imagine all the hexagonite buried now beneath the road! Continue reading Balmat Hexagonite→
In late June, seven of us mineral enthusiasts set out for a day of collecting near Syracuse. We concluded the trip with a successful stop in Fayetteville where we recovered selenite. The site is behind the town municipal building on Route 257. The small outcrop is not a stand alone destination, but it does makes a nice ancillary stop on a trip into the area. For us, that meant a 90 minute stop after spending several hours in Ilion Gorge (our second visit there in a month). The Fayetteville ledge is not as pretty as the Ilion location, but it was a productive stop. Continue reading Silurian Selenite near Syracuse→
There are so many known fossil collecting sites in western New York that one rarely elects to “explore” new creeks or seek out new locations. And the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group is so well known in quality, quantity, and diversity of species that there seems little reason to hunt elsewhere. But on July 11, that is exactly what five members of the Rochester Academy of Science Fossil Group decided to do. We stepped up section into the Upper Devonian and headed for a gully exposing the Cashaqua Formation near Middlesex, NY. Continue reading Awesome Ammonites→
Retired, collecting minerals and stamps, growing flowers and vegetables, and when the spirit moves, toying with technology
