The Bitterroot Conglomerate
Newsletter of the Bitterroot Gem & Mineral Society
Vol. XXVIII issue
Presidents Column
Jo has been so busy with her new friend that she hasn’t had time to write a report this month.
Jo Farley
Editors Notes
As with most clubs, there are a few people that do all of the work. It is unfortunate that we can’t seem to have anyone come forward and offer to be the Program Chairperson. Our President, Jo Farley, has been doing triple duty by trying to line up programs in addition to her President duties and calling duties to notify everyone of the upcoming meetings, field trips etc. She is getting sort of burned. Isn’t there anyone to help out by accepting one of her duties?
I will need reports from the Chairperson of the various Committees during the 1st week of each month to be included in the newsletter.
The Editor is not responsible for the accuracy of articles accepted, items for sale, nor are the opinions expressed therein necessarily those of the Club Officers, members and/or the Club Editor.
BGMS Minutes 07/28/09
The meeting was called to order by President, Jo Farley, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance
Minutes of 6-23-09 meeting were approved as provided in the Newsletter
Treasurer’s Report: Will be printed out separately
Old Business : SHOW: Margaret Sharp gave a verbal accounting of the show and the final report will be given at our next meeting. Discussion again took place as to wanting or not wanting a show next year. Some members feel an every other year would be better. ALL are asked to give it some thought and we will discuss again. The Fairgrounds will be available for 2010. Some members would like to have a table for our own items, but this would be in direct competition with the Dealers who pay for their tables. Finally, Jo asked EACH member to WRITE down their ideas and bring them to the Club Picnic at her house on the 8th of August.
New Business
1) Steve Vieth, our Past President is not doing very well. It would be nice for anyone who would like to send him a card.
2) Chris Ponder had a Heart Attack and needed 2 stints. Again, cards would be nice.
3) Apple Days – A motion to indeed participate was made by Wayne and seconded by Teena. It passed. We will be having the Garnet Tables, Spinning Wheel for kids, information on the Club, etc.
4) Programs: September is taken care of, but will need someone for October and rest of year. A reminder that August 8th will be the Annual Club Picnic. It will be at Jo Farley’s (129 Martin Drive, Corvallis – off Christofferson Lane and the Eastside Highway. Please bring your own Lawn Chair and service if you want instead of paper plates, etc. Come at Noon and we will EAT at 1 pm.
5) By-laws: Ralph Luther reported that they are waiting on the Board of Directors to review the changes and give the committee the “go ahead”. This will then be published in our Newsletter for all members to review and be ready to vote at one of our September or October meetings.
6) Field Trips: Wayne asked Ralph to report on the 4th of July trip to our Opal Claim outside Salmon, Idaho. There were a total of 14 hardy participants through the heat, etc. Harvey again struck it rich with the top of the diggings and came home with much “blue” pretty opal and agate. A special one that he was NOT letting get very far away was Beautiful. Wayne and Dan Farley found some florescent material at our claim. Side trips were then taken by them (out of Challis, ID) to Spar Canyon via the Lone Pine Rd and then down an old Stagecoach Line road for Red and Yellow Jasper plus some florescent material. Then they went on to Lime Creek where they were able to pick up the agate from on top of the ground. Mostly they collected blue and green agate.
Future events and field trips are; the Show in Billings on August 1st week-end, and side Field Trips each day. Wayne and Dan are planning on attending. They will skip some of the trips and go back to Whitehall in search of more of the florescent materials.
August 26th thru the 30th will be the Rendezvous on the Sweetwater Road out of Dillon. Lots of different materials will be available including the garnets, jaspers, etc. There will be a charge of $25 for hireing the porta- potty’s. The phone numbers to make your reservations are our Wayne Farley at 375-1341 or Tim (someone) at 491-3587 (Butte Club).
7) Bob Riggs from the Missoula Club asked if we would like to participate by putting an ad in their Show Program. Discussion…a motion was made and seconded to participate. This then led to needing some business cards for the Club to use and thus give Bob one for the Ad. Wayne Farley made the motion and it was seconded by Mildred Soll to buy the Business Cards. Passed.
8) There were a few rings left from the Estate of Frances c/o Marilyn Wells for sale after the meeting.
A motion 2nd and Passed to close the meeting. Nice refreshments were enjoyed as well as lots of great conversations among the Members.
The 50/50 drawing was a total of $7.50 and was won by Harvey Sharp. Mildred Soll won the Door Prize.
PROGRAM: A great and fun program was presented by Robie Flynn. Assisted by Mick Mees.
They had examples of many, many rocks from all over. Robie brought several buckets from Arizona as well as beautiful colorful pieces of glass and slag. Others were things they had found on some of our local Field Trips and many were from Eastern Montana and the Yellowstone River. WOW…Lots to look at and she wanted everyone to take some “Home” with them. That way she could go out and get more.. It was very nice.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dianne Ayres, Secretary
Field Trip Report
July 3rd, 4th and 5th
As reported in the minutes, we had a good field trip to our Opal Claim in Idaho. Of course Harvey had to hog most of the opal. We had 2 Missoula Club members show up for the trip plus a couple of our members from Salmon. We had a total of 14 people show up. We did some reclamation on the upper hole but much more needs to be done.
I believe most of us had an enjoyable time plus we completed our assessment work for this year.
Member Field Trip Reports
Show and Field Trip Reports
By Wayne Farley
July 29, 2009: On Wed., 07/29/09, my son Daniel and I traveled 400 miles from Hamilton to Billings, MT to set up a display case for the 4-day 2009 AMS/NFMS Gem & Mineral Show which was scheduled for July 30 thru Aug. 2. We left Hamilton at 8:30 am and arrived at the Holiday Inn convention center mid-afternoon. Most show cases at the center were already set up, and a space was available for our case that we brought over. It took us about a half-hour to set up our display of Garnet Family Minerals. We then looked around at the other cases, 200 according to Bob Riggs, including six black light cases, and noted that the MT Council cases were utilized, and several cases used the recently furnished MT Council LED flood lights. Many Billings exhibitors did not like the LEDs, as they thought that they were too dim and too blue. One competitive exhibitor was adamant about the LEDs in his display case, and insisted on an immediate change to the old yellow tint flood lights. I agree that when the LEDs are used with a dark liner, the light is too dim, and maybe too blue. They give good results with light colored liners. I will work on obtaining splitters for the lights so that two LEDs can be used at each position, and mix in a warm-white with a cool-white at each position for better color balance. Since I bought the flood LEDs, I have discovered a better light source, a color balanced strip LED light, which I had in my Garnet Family Minerals case. When comparing the strip light to adjacent show-cases that had the old yellow-tint flood lights, I noticed a much improved color rendition from the LED strip light. With the LED strip light, the rocks and minerals show their true colors. I believe the LED strip light is the perfect light source, and will be building up the MT Council inventory. Presently I have one LED strip light of my own, and two for the Council. The LED strip lights cost about $100.00 each because they operate on 12 volts and require a 120 to 12 volt converter. The three foot strip light uses only 27 watts of power, compared to 150 watts for the old flood lights, and produces negligible heat.
July 30, 2009: We survived the night in the convention parking lot where the NFMS provided dry camping for $10.00 per day or 5 days for $40.00. The biggest problem was that there were no restroom facilities nearby. They should have set up porta-poties at the back of the parking lot. During the day we could use the convention restroom facilities, but at night the center was locked up, and the nearest restroom facilities were at the Holiday Inn Tower, a quarter mile away. There was a grass strip at the back of the parking lot and we managed. Sleeping was tough, as there was a thru- street at the back of the parking lot and a motel at the end of the street, which Harley bikers were using as a way-stop on their way to the big-meet at Sturgis, SD. Bikers do not go to bed early.
The show was open from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm the first three days and 10:00 am to 5:00 pm the last day. The attendance fee was $5.00 per day or a four day pass for $15.00. Daniel and I got in free as we were exhibiters. Before opening on the first day, Daniel took digital pictures of all of the display cases. He also took additional pictures of dealer specimens and special displays throughout the show. There were about 30 dealers at the show. Daniel will enhance the photos of the show cases and dealer specimens, if needed, and put them on a DVD for a club program.
The display cases were very impressive at this show, since many were competition cases. And since the show was at Billings, there were many outstanding cases of Montana Agate, including a 45 pounder. I was extremely impressed by the rock carvings by master carver Robert Sahli from Port Townsend, WA. He had an eight foot case with four glass sides, which displayed dozens of sea creatures in a massive seascape. Other carvings by Sahli, in four foot standard cases, showed three full sized red salmon in swimming poses, a ½ size beaver, a foot long bison lying down, and an oversized frog.
I bought a couple of mineral specimens at the show and a couple of Montana Agate slabs, and Daniel concentrated on the silent auction table. I was also looking for good garnet specimens to upgrade my Garnet Family Minerals case but did not find any from the dealers. However, Butte rock-club member Tim Hoff was showing me an excellent Grossular cluster he recently found at the Bald Mountain scarn, and agreed to sell it to me. Tim said he planned on doing more digging at Bald Mountain on Mon., Aug. 3, the same day we had planned on stopping there on our way home; and he would show us the seam that the specimen came out of. Tim also said that there were some excellent Diopsides mineral specimens in the seam. We told Tim we were going to Bald Mountain Sunday night after the show for a black light night hunt; would camp at the Toll Mountain campground Sunday night to see if any BGMS members showed up for this field trip; and would see him at the site Monday morning.
July 31, 2009: On Thursday, I planned on attending a couple of speaker programs, but when I went to the Cottonwood Room where the program was to take place, there was a shoe salesmen in the room. He said the program had been changed to the Gallatin Room. When I finally found the Gallatin Room in the Holiday Inn maize, people were coming out as the speaker, Will Heierman, did not show up, another NFMS snaffu. Overall, the show did proceed quite well. I heard on the radio that they were expecting about 5000 visitors, but they said that there were only about 3000. From my observations, I thought the attendance was quite good, with Saturday being the best day.
August 1, 2009: On Friday Daniel and I attended the NFMS annual meeting. This was the first time I remembered to bring the NFMS Delicate affirmation forms signed by our club president. Usually about half of the delegates forget their forms, and have to be vote approved at the meeting. There was not much business, but it always takes a long time to resolve anything at those meetings. There were a few updates to the bylaws. The most important thing was the election of new officers. The new NFMS president is Evelyn Cataldo from my old stamping ground in Kennewick, WA, someone I know quite well, and someone who will be an excellent president. Since I know her well, and she knows me, she asked me if I would take the NFMS position of Resolution Chairman for the next year. I told her I had to turn her down, since I didn’t know how much work would be involved with my new BLM position on the Resource Advisory Council.
Also Shirley Leeson, one of our club members, and vice president of the American Lands Access Association (ALLA) wants me to get more involved with that organization.
August 2, 2009: After the show, Daniel and I packed up our case and specimens in about a half hour, and hit the road for Bald Mountain. About ten miles west of Billings we saw black clouds ahead. We went another couple of miles, and the sky opened up. It rained so hard that it was like driving through a water fall. We had to pull over to the side of the road, as we could not see the road through the water on the windshield. Most other cars and trucks also stopped. It lasted about ten minutes and we were able to continue. We got to Bald Mountain just before dark, perfect timing for our night hunt.
Bald Mountain Collecting: By the time we got our black light set up, it was dark and we walked the ¼ mile down the road to the lower pit by flashlight. There was a pallet of basketball size calcite rocks at the entrance to the pit. I put my black light on the pallet of rocks and half of them lit up a bright green, usually only on one surface, and a few on both sides. With the intensity and brightness of the fluorescence, I am quite certain that the fluorescence is coming from Hyalite Opal. We collected a couple of small flat fluorescent specimens from the pallet and then examined the rest of the pit. There were plenty of fluorescent specimens and after about an hour of leisurely looking for the best, we had our five gallon bucket full. A few small specimens fluoresced orange, probably caliche; and one small specimen fluoresced red, probably calcite with manganese activators. We split the load into two buckets and haled them back to the truck. We then drove four miles back down the road to the Toll Mountain campground where we spent the night. I wanted to be there Monday morning as I told our club at our last meeting that if anyone wanted to collect at Bald Mountain to meet me at the Campground no later than 8:00 am Monday morning. No one from our club showed up so we drove back to the collecting site. When we arrived, Tim Hoff was already there. He showed us the seam where he had obtained the garnet cluster I bought from him. He said he had dug for three days earlier this summer to remove the overburden and overlying rock to get down to the good parts of the seam. He was about ten feet down. The trench he was in was narrow so Daniel and I looked over material he was throwing out, and found a number of specimens with potential. Quite often the specimens have to be soaked in acid to clean them up and reveal the garnet, diopside or augite minerals. About 10:00 am we had our bags full, and told Tim we were heading for the barn, and we would see him at the Anderson Ranch Rendezvous later this month. On our way back to the truck, Daniel spotted a goose egg sized specimen in the mine road and picked it up. It has several excellent diopside crystals, and may be the best diopside specimen we found so far. I now have it soaking in white vinegar to clean off the powdery calcite. Muriatic acid in water will dissolve all of the calcite if you want to reveal buried garnets or diopsides. We arrived home about 2:00 pm, after a very successful trip.
While at the show, we had originally planned on going on the NFMS Bear Canyon field trip for black& white agates on Monday. However, after hearing that 200 people had signed up for Bear Canyon, we changed our plans. We figured people would be tripping over each other. Besides, we had been there ten years ago, the last time Billings hosted the NFMS show. Also Daniel purchased a couple of Bear Canyon agates at the show, so we had samples.
We will be bringing a couple of Bald Mountain samples for auction at our August picnic/auction.
End of Report
Mining Committee Report
The assessment forms or assessment waiver forms need to be filed this month.
MT Council Report
None
N. W. Federation Report Nothing to report this month.
Programs
Where are those that said they could put on a program at our meetings? You don’t need to do it by yourself, get another person to help you that is interested in the subject you are presenting. Also the person that gives the program does not have to be a member. Try and find someone to put on a program in your stead. If we do not get volunteers I will be assigning you to put on a program or we will have to watch a video.
Jo Farley, Chairman
For Sale. An ore car from the Betty O’Neil Mine near Battle Mountain, Nevada. In good shape. $500.00. Contact Posey at 961-4116
Mildred has a Trim Saw with a 6” blade plus an extra blade for $75.00 call her. 363-5224
Jim Rayner in Hamilton has a 12” Rock Sat for $500 and a Fram Tom Tock Grinder Set-up with 2 diamond wheels, and a 10” trim saw with new blade, new motor on a steel stand for $800. 375-0663
Fossil Collecting on Public Lands
On March 30, 2009, the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA) became law when President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act (OPLA) of 2009, Public Law 111-011. P.L. 111-011, Title VI, Subtitle D on Paleontological Resources Preservation (OPLA-PRP) requires the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to manage and protect paleontological resources on Federal land using scientific principles and expertise.
The OPLA-PRP does not change the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) basic policy for allowing casual collecting of reasonable amounts of common invertebrate and plant fossils from public lands for personal use without a permit. Nor does the OPLA-PRP change the prohibition on bartering or selling common invertebrate and plant fossils.
Consistent with existing policy, the OPLA-PRP includes provisions allowing for casual or hobby collecting of common invertebrate and plant fossils without a permit on public lands under certain conditions.
Casual collecting in Section 6301(1) of PRPA means:
“… the collecting of a reasonable amount of common invertebrate and plant paleontological resources for non-commercial personal use, either by surface collection or the use of non-powered hand tools resulting in only negligible disturbance to the Earth's surface and other resources.”
The OPLA-PRP requires that the Secretary develop regulations implementing the legislation and will include defining certain commonly used terms.
In addition, the OPLA-PRP does not change BLM’s requirement for issuance of a paleontological resources use permit for the collection of vertebrate and other paleontological resources of paleontological interest by qualified researchers.
On April 24, 2009, the BLM issued an instruction memorandum, IM 2009-113 , on Casual Collecting of Common Invertebrate and Plant Paleontological Resources under the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act of 2009 which provides guidelines on casual collecting under the OPLA-PRP.
What fossils can I collect from public lands?
Visitors to public lands are welcome to collect reasonable amounts of common invertebrate and plant fossils without a BLM permit.
No permit is needed for plant fossils, such as leaves, stems, and cones, or common invertebrate fossils, such as ammonites and trilobites.
Petrified wood can be collected too for personal use —up to 25 pounds each day, plus one piece, but no more than 250 pounds in any calendar year (43 CFR 3622).
These materials must be for your personal collection and cannot be sold or traded.
Commercial collection of any type of fossil from Federal lands is not allowed, except for petrified wood which was designated a mineral material by Congress in 1962, and therefore, is salable under the Mineral Materials Act (43 CFR 3622.)
More information about fossil collecting on public lands can be found at your local BLM office and in the BLM brochure, Fossils on America’s Public Lands .
Paleontology Permits
The OPLA-PRP does not change BLM’s requirement for issuance of a paleontological resources use permit for the collection of vertebrate and other paleontological resources of paleontological interest by qualified researchers.
The permit requirement in Section 6304 of the PRPA provides:
“Except as provided in this subtitle, a paleontological resource may not be collected from Federal land without a permit issued under this subtitle by the Secretary.”
To be continued next month.
