Tag Archives: Rock Hunts

Lake Superior Agate Hunt; My Best one EVER

Slices ready for cabbing

I love Candy stripers

These Lakers were some I picked that day in Wisconsin.

Over the years Bonnie and I have had many rockhounding adventures. Some stand out above the rest. This month I would like to tell you the story of our best Lake Superior Agate Hunt Ever; a hunt both amazing and unexpected.

From the name of the agate, people might expect to find Lake Superior Agates only on the beaches of Lake Superior. However, Lakers (as we fondly call them) are found in a broad streak starting at Lake Superior and spreading to the southwest over several states.

Nothing better than a small stash of slices begging to be cabbed.

We were driving through Wisconsin, enroute to Minnesota, perhaps 20 years ago and noticed just outside Turtle Lake, Wisconsin, a road widening project, very extensive, with lots of land being moved with heavy equipment in preparation for a new four lane road. I mentioned to Bonnie that I thought we were in Lake Superior Agate area, but due to all the heavy equipment moving about, I never had a second thought about it UNTIL we saw a flea market just down the road.

I saw a large sign on one of the tents as we went by that said AGATES, so of course we stopped. I hit it off with the dealer, and he and I bonded over our love for Lake Superior Agates. He mentioned he had a friend that lived nearby and loved to show off his agate collection. He called the elderly gentleman (we surmised he was in his 90s), and subsequently we were invited over to his house to see his agate collection.

Unusual coloration and shadow

A wild guy in a wild Laker

We knew we were in the right location as we drove up the driveway and saw a full-sized petrified wood log among many other large rocks laying in the yard.

Unfortunately it has been so long that I do not remember the old guys name, so we call him George. We were welcomed into his house and noticed he had agates everywhere. Beside the four china cabinets filled with Lake Superior Agates, he had agate tables, agate lamps, agate counters, agate covered boxes, agate slices in the window, agates of all sizes; everything Lake Superior Agate–jaw dropping! George hinted that we had not seen anything, and should go look in his basement. He was in a wheelchair and couldn’t go down with us, but our excitement level was already elevated. The basement was another stony story. The walls were lined with shelves holding large Lakers of every sort, plus various other rocks collected from many locales.

Would you sell any of these? is a question any rock lover would ask when confronted with agates so amazing and abundant. His reply was to the negative. I accepted this, but wondered why George would not want sell a few. He clearly had health issues and none of us are going to live forever!

The final discussion involved hunting Lakers. I just love picking the old rockhounds brain. I ask him if he would go looking in the area for Lakers where would he look. He responded: Sonny, I’d look out in that road construction zone.

Ok Bonnie, I am going agate hunting. We rented a motel room nearby, waited until 5pm, and headed out to the construction area. I recall Bonnie opted to stay at the Motel. I found a safe place to park, briefly wondered if we were doing anything illegal. As the cars whizzed by on the old road, we hunted the newly smoothed landscape. I noticed a pile of gravel filled with rocks; and guess what–many of them were Lake Superior Agates. I filled almost a five gallon bucket and found at least a dozen fist sized or better, over a pound each. I actually felt guilty, and wondered where other rockhounds were; why am I the only person hunting here? The rock hunt took perhaps an hour or two to fill the bucket. I like to imagine what we would have gotten if it had been raining!

I think if old George had been able, he would have been there also. I often wonder what happened to him and his agate collection. I will never forget this amazing hunt. I think I still have some of the Lakers we found that day, but they are all mixed with other Laker Buckets.

Every Rockhound has stories like this. Sometime I will tell you about the deluge rain storm in the Keweenaw when Greenstones were actually flowing in little streams down the banks of a mine waste pile. A story for another day,

Hunting Michigan Greenstones

GREENSTONES GALORE

Thirty years ago things were different in the Keweenaw. Rock hunting sights were plentiful, and hunting was good. Today rock hunting areas are scarce, as mine spoil piles are bought up to be crushed and sold for road fill. Often logging companies purchase the piles to crush and use for logging roads. It seems to me that the Keweenaw has been pilfered of all its soil-based resources, and what is especially disturbing is that the whole area is a national historic park.

I’m setting on the base of what once was a pile of rubble far higher then full grown trees.

Much of the history of the Copper Country revolves around the mining of copper. With the disappearance of the mine waste piles, the history of the area is that much harder to experience and visualize. Most of what is left is privately owned and off limits to rock hounds, except a few times a year when sponsored events are arranged where mine owners are reimbursed for rock hounds hunting their piles.

We travel the Keweenaw every August for art shows at Eagle Harbor and Copper Harbor and our retail outlet Copper World in Calumet. (Lake Superior Magazine listed Copper World at the top Michigan gift shop for the sixth year in a row! (It is great to be represented at such a fine store).

At the campground, sorting what to take and what to leave. We really could not tell until we washed the mud off them.

Took these home. I will either cut them out or hammer them out.

What Greenstone look like after being extracting from the mine rock.

Often Greenstone have fallen out of the rocks and can be found just laying on the ground or in the piles.

If you want to hunt Greenstones or other copper-related minerals currently two organized rock hunt opportunities are available, arranged by the Seaman Mineral Museum, and by the Copper Country Rock Club. The groups arrange to have the mine waste piles bulldozed and participants who have paid the fee get to have first look at trying to find a new treasure that has been buried for decades (or eons) and brought to the surface by the bulldozer.Â Â We have participated in many of these hunts over the years. Sometimes they are worthwhile and sometimes they are a disappointment.

Clearly there is Copper in this one.

Rain is the rock hounds friend, rinsing the dirt off the rock that was stirred up in the recent few weeks of organized hunts. This year we were able to go hunting between art shows on a couple of rainy days. We were successful in finding greenstones, datolite, prehnite, and native copper. Often we pick up muddy things that look of interest, and after cleaning may turn out to be wonderful finds. And sometimes a promising rock is disappointing. You often don’t know what you have until you do the lapidary work.

Dopping begins the grinding and polishing process. I use, nails, screws, rivets and glue the stones on to the Dops. Others use dopping wax.

Keweenaw Greenstones are especially tricky, they may have no pattern, or they may break apart. What appears to be a fine Greenstone, as you work it, may in fact be hollow; you have something, than you have nothing. Working Michigan State Gem Greenstones to their maximum potential takes a gentle hand, and lots of patience. When polishing a large stone I get excited if it has a great alligator pattern and a chatoyant surface. The other thing about greenstones is that it dictates how it can be cut. Sometimes the pattern layer is so thin, that you have to know when to stop grinding. YouÂ may or may not be able to eliminate inclusions that distract from a perfect stone. Â Those I give to teachers that teach Earth Sciences. Only experience tells you if you have the stone perfect, or if you can make it better. They are a uniquely difficult gemstone to get right, and in general the highest quality GreenstonesÂ can be pricey.Â Many greenstones must be cut before I get a one that has the qualities expected in a gem. If you have a large stone you want to have polished, be sure to have someone cut it that has experienced in cutting Greenstones. I’ve seen $1000 Greenstones ruined because the person cutting it did not know what they were doing. I liken some Greenstones to Fire Agate; You have to know when to stop, and there is no room for error.

Another truth is that Most Michiganders have never personally seen an Isle Royale Greenstone, and I have been asked things like “is that a Green Petoskey Stone?” or they’ll say things like “I found one of them on Lake Michigan” NOT! One of these , usually small stoned, would never survive the glacial transportation. A picture does not do justice to the lovely, silky, Chatoyancy or Michigan’s State Gemstone. You have to see one in person to appreciate it. They’re like an alligator wearing a shear silky robe.

This is a “Broll”. It’s made my life easier. Do a search if you are interested; it’ll save me answering a bunch of questions. This picture was takenon a Petoskey Stone Hunt.

Bonnie always takes home a couple garden rocks, and our Broll is a handy tool for carrying rocks back to the car. For those who haven’t seen one, you can see and buy a Broll online; we take it on all our rock hunts.

A beautiful Thomsonite flowered Greenstone from the Phoenix Mine.

People look for us at the art shows and bring something that they have found to have a special piece of jewelry made for them. Cutting their rocks and making their jewelry keeps me busy for a while.

Even though gemstone hunting is not what it once was, we still enjoy our trips. The art shows, natural beauty, wonderful sunsets, rock hunts, pasties, Vollwerth’s hot dogs, and monk’s muffins all contribute to a vacation atmosphere while we are doing our work!

Prehnite and Other Pebbles from the Keweenaw

I discovered quite a few samples of Prehnite mixes that I found in the Keweenaw. All of these came from my cabochon collection, so I decided, this month, to follow up my blog on Patricianite in October, by showing you a small sample of what can be found on the beaches and in the hills of the Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. Out of all the rocks and minerals in the Keweenaw, these little Prehnites are one of the most common treasures. On the beaches they wash in as pastel pebbles standing out against a rocky background of reds and browns. In the forest roads, quite often, Prehite’s have a white crust ( a little secret Rockhounding tip) with no clue as to what is hidden under the crust. I just pick them, take them home, and grind off a bit of crust. Maybe there’s treasure under the crust, maybe not.

I do not own expensive scientific instruments like a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), so I do not have the capability of analyzing every Prehnite mix I find, but I can tell you there is no limit to Nature’s recipes in regard to these beautiful pastel Treasures.

You may know that in the past, because of their resemblance to the Zeolite Thomsonite, this variegated, sometimes eyed Prehnites, were thought to be Thomsonite. Research done at Michigan Tech revealed that these “U.P. Thomsonites” were substantially Prehnite Mixtures. The old time rockhounds still refer to these as U.P. Thomsonite.

Sometimes you feel like an eye, sometimes you don’t. I suspect the suspect on the left may include Datolite.

Lovely pastel greens and pinks (color caused by micro-copper inclusions) dominate U.P. Thomsonite.

The patterns are so varied it's amazing.

The patterns are so varied–collecting is fun and addicting!.

Notice the brachiation (various spellings) in the right hand stone.

Jewelry grade

Ribbons of Pink Petoskey Stone

Top shows exterior Pattern. The bottom shows the color change in the next slab.

Top photo shows exterior Pattern. The bottom shows the color change in the next slab.

Snob Appeal Jewelry has written the book on Pink Petoskey Stones (AKA Pink Pets). (See Rocks and Minerals magazine, May/June 2013) Pink Pets are one of our specialties (see Pink Petoskey Stone Jewelry in our catalog).

The last trip to one of my very secret hunting areas produced a bucket of very nice Petoskey Stones, including several coveted Pink Petoskey stones. Many Pink Pets are not quite jewelry grade, but some special ones are suitable for Snob Appeal Jewelry.

Bonnie and I have harvested tons and tons of Petoskey Stones over many years, generally avoiding the often substandard beach stones, popular with tourists. Tourists generally do not know a good Petoskey from a bad one, they are just so excited to find one! I am not critiquing anyone for picking up these Northern Michigan souvenirs, but quality is what we look for, and beach stones can be muddy, have poor patterns and poor coloration. The scarce pink stones are seldom found by the tourists. The reason being they just don’t look for pink. We know most Petoskey Stones are various shades of white, gray, and brown, and that is what the eyes are trained to look for.

Close-up of typical crushed pattern in Petoskey Stones.

Sometimes, among Pink Pets, a really rare one shows up. This happened to me on one of the years’s first hunts. I found a Pink Petoskey Stone with ribbons of pink. Not only did it have pink ribbons, it also had a “crushed” pattern. The “crushed” pattern is indicative of great weight of the overburden literally crushing the normal Petoskey Stone Hexagonal pattern. Sometimes the fossil pattern is flattened and deformed into something almost unrecognizable compared to the original. I have only found a handful of crushed Pink Pets over the years, and have never found one with a clear pattern and ribbons of pink in the stone.

I love the “what is this?” moments I sometimes have hunting stones, and this was one of those moments. I have trained my eye to pick out pink stones, but this was something new.

Wonderful Petoskey Stone Ribbon cabs.

When I hunt, I put very special stones in my pocket. These I refer to as “pocket rocks”. I’ve found most rockhounds do the same as I. I removed my pocket rock when I got home and put it on the saw. You never know how deep any pink coloration runs into a stone, and in this case the answer was not too far. The second and subsequent cuts continued the ribbon pattern, but it changed to bluish except for the pink edges. This darker ribbon will also make wonderful jewelry. The other side of the stone was also a pink ribbon.

Did I like this one? Nope....I LOVED this one.

Iron causes the pink coloration in Petoskey Stones. The coloration in this stone was almost a maroon red, also very unusual. Still, after all the tons of Petoskey Stones I have harvested over many years, I get a big thrill about finding something unusual and surprising. This was sure one of those cases.

Petoskey Stone Christmas

Christmas Day 2014

The new Treasure Scoop is a bit bigger and beefier than the old one.

Rockhounds get really excited when a new rock hunting tool appears under the Christmas Tree. This happily happened to me today when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a new Treasure Scoop. I already own several scoops. The older ones were known as Gem Scoops, but they are the same. The older scoops are 36″ in length, but my new tool is a beefy 42″. I think size really does matter here. These longer scoops are something new.

The new scoops are well made tools from The Fundamental Rockhound. www.myrockhound.com. I have no connection to this company, but I recommend these scoops, and believe every rockhound should own at least one. As you get older and wiser, you try to find easier ways to get those rock treasures. These Treasure Scoops lessen your bending, increase your reach into the water or rock pile, and are a nice walking stick.

Before using any tool, some, but not all, rockhounds will read the directions on any new tool. Let’s examine these directions, especially the warnings:

DO NOT use this tool for any of the following:

Hammer, pick, shovel, or pry bar. I admit to violating these rules occasionally, but I can see why this CYA warning is listed.

DO NOT use in a lightning storm–No lightning in the winter, so we’re good on this.

This tool is NOT to be used by children-Our kids are grown, so we are good to go on this also.

Please use this tool responsibly-OK

Is there anything about NOT using this tool in the snow?-Nope; good to go.

“Hey Bonnie, lets go Petoskey Stone Hunting”. How great is it to have married a woman nearly as crazy as me. Let’s see; snow on the ground, 32 degrees, wind chill 15 degrees. I guess all we need are good coats, hats and gloves. We’re off!

Semi-insane Petoskey Stone Hunting.

Nice Petoskey!

A Petoskey Stone hunt on Christmas. How cool is that? The story continues at one of the gravel pits we hunt. There is indeed snow, but some exposed stones. Lets get some! Difficult to find, but we are rockhounds, and we will prevail. I have my new scoop and as I search I hear that old Kenny Rogers-Dolly Parton song:

“Petoskey’s in the snow

That is where they are are

No snow in between

How can we be wrong

Scoop away with me

To another world

And we rely on each other, ah ha

From one rockhound to another, ah ha”

The Christmas Collection 2014

“Adventure” rockhounding, gotta love it.

Snob Appeal Jewelry-Cleaning the Barn

Just a few of the many buckets we sorted today.

I'm pretty excited about this job.

“How do you know what’s in this barn?” is asked regularly by Bonnie. The answer is usually vague. I know mostly what is in the barn, but there are rocks in there from many old collections I’ve bought over the years. I have no idea what exactly is in some of those buckets. Sometimes you just have to have a look.

These are some nice Lakers.

It's always nice when you re-find a whole bucket of Lakers.

Fossils

We hauled out random buckets and began sorting. I found stuff I had forgotten was there, and a few rocks I had no idea I had!

Binghamite before and after. It's a shame you cannot see the tigers eye like colors in this beauty from Minnesota's Iron Range.

I found a bucket of unsorted Lake Superior Agates I recall buying from a friend that owns a gravel pit in Minnesota, as well as another small selection of what appeared to be grade “A” Lakers I must have sorted years ago. I took a picture of the sorted stones in water. Are they nice…great jewelry potential!

A bonus bucket of nice Jaspers.

Another bucket was assorted Jasper and Jasperlite and other interesting quartz material from Minnesota gravel pits.

I found a bucket of Petrified Wood and one of fossils. On top of that bucket was a floating rock.

There were lots of jewelry grade stones, specimens, and a few garden rocks. One larger rock piqued my interest, so I cut that one. Although the inside was colorful, I donated it to Bonnie’s rock garden. I found an old piece of Binghamite that is always an exciting stone to work with. This particular rock was very discreet, and it was fortunate I was sorting in the sun, or I would have missed the telltale golden flashes from the stone.

Petrified Wood.

Dinosaur Bone, Ruby in Zoisite, Ruby in Fuchsite, and Kammererite.

I think my favorite find were a few rocks I knew I had, but have not seen them in a year. The closed bucket. A large piece of Dinosaur Bone, a piece or Ruby in Zoisite, one of Ruby in Fuchsite, and one specimen of Kammererite (and Bonnie remembered how to spell it) that I got on a recent trip to Russia; no, wait that was the trip to Tucson where I bought it from a guy from Russia! Just seeing if you’re paying attention. I’m sure pleased I found these. I have other stuff to look through, but I think I have to wait for Bonnie to ask me “How do you know what’s in this barn?” again.

A large rock I found in a bucket. Let's cut it!

It looks nice, but not jewelry. Next stop; Bonnies Rock Garden.

Hallelujah Rockhounding

This sign leads to some awesome rock picking.

Some of the best rock pickin around.

My last blog mentioned Black Hat Trading in Deming, New Mexico. It is owned and operated by the Searcy Family, Jan, James and Jess. When we were in Quartzsite Bonnie talked with him and was intrigued because he said that he takes people out on field trips in the area, so she carefully kept the business card in case we came through the area again.

So, indeed we find ourselves in Deming, and we lucked out to come just when the Deming Rockhound Roundup was held. While we talked at the Black Hat Trading booth, he invited us to go over to his store and told me where to look for some agate I was after. I was lured by the promise of old Luna Agate. The Luna Agate turned out to be blue agate, not quite what I was after, but that didn’t matter, because I found lots of other stuff, including Fun!

Old buckets buried in the sand burrs. I hear that Angelic Note that is played when the heavens open up.

HALLELUJAH!!!!!

North of Deming, on Silver City Highway, you might overlook this if you didn’t know to look for it. As soon as you pull in the driveway the curiosity begins. The front of the shop is surrounded by crates that hold assorted local agates and rocks from the Big Diggins, Fluorite Hill, Baker Ranch, and other agate-rich hunting grounds. Of course there are lots of petrified wood, and assorted rhyolites including the local banded rhyolite bedrock. I was encouraged to “Go out back and check the buckets.” Certain buckets were off-limits, but when I went and took a look, the Hallelujah Chorus played in my head. I would rather hunt a bunch of old dirty buckets than take a chance at unfamiliar hunting grounds. (Besides, I have a bad leg…) Now let me tell you, I know these buckets had been sitting there for 2-3 years, because when I tried to move one, the bucket would disintegrate from UV deterioration. The buckets were filled with leaves and had sunk into the ground 2-3 inches. Hundreds of 5 gallon buckets, everywhere you looked, made this a roll of the dice as to which one to dig through. Rocks purchased from old collections were brought back and left in rows in the sand burr-infested grounds, waiting for future work. I kept an eye open for snakes, rodents, and unwelcome spiders before I stuck my hand in the buckets. Many of these were so dirty I couldn’t tell what they were until I sprayed them with water.

One bucket to set on is a good idea.

My cursory search produced some great cutting and jewelry making material, both from local sources and around the world. Since this was old material I expected to find some quality local rocks that were picked up many years ago before I was not disappointed when I found some nice banded agate from the Big Diggings, some bryzoa material, colorful petrified wood and chrysocolla. I was overwhelmed by the amount of stuff, and the good quality. I had one bucket to sit on, one to sort into as I moved down through the buckets in front of me and another for the rocks I wanted to purchase. I had lots of fun, but I limited myself to one bucket to go home with me. When you have already been to Quartzsite, Tucson, Deming’s Rockhound Roundup, the RV is pretty loaded.

I was not in the market, but if you wanted to buy a big rock for your rock garden, wow, this would be a fun place to shop. Bonnie asked what time of year to come back to see their flowers in bloom, as this was clearly not the peak season for this, but May-June would be great. Meantime while I was digging through dirty buckets Bonnie was studying and shopping inside where they had an extensive bead room, and lots of kumihimo supplies and other bead findings. And they do classes on several beading topics, so it sounds like an inviting place to spend a while!

If you are in that area, go to Black Hat Trading. This is the kind of rock shop that a TV network might visit if they were doing a reality show on “Rockin’ Rock Shops”, with a family of rockhounds, an old timer, a shop full of equipment, outside piles to explore and a store full of treasures. Can it get any better?

Keweenaw Rocks, Minerals, and Copper Country Jewelry

Our trip to Keweenaw was great.

Wire wrapping on the top of Brockway Mountain awaiting the sunset.

Even though we are older, less agile, and spry than we used to be, we had great adventures in the Keweenaw. I hit a mother lode of SISU Agate, and spent a few very hard days banging this agate out of hard rock. I cannot give you the exact location, but it is south of Copper Harbor. Bonnie says that EVERYTHING is south of Copper Harbor. This is fairly true, so this is a nice, vague clue.

The view from Brockway Mountain in just amazing.

The art shows in Eagle Harbor and Copper Harbor were very successful; as were our Demonstrations at the finest gift shop anywhere, Copper World in Calumet.

We consumed many Pasties and Vollwerth Hot Dogs, watched the Isle Royale Boat come into Copper Harbor while consuming a gourmet meal at the Harbor Haus. The waiters and waitresses do a can-can on the deck to welcome the boat each evening. In tune with the town theme, the restaurant has a huge double copper door, with warnings not to touch the Copper. It does get really hot it the sun, as you can imagine.

This is the Firebrick Pendant I made up on Brockway. It sold the next day.

We saw many old friends and met many new folks. I know we are getting a big following and a wonderful reputation, when we see women wearing our jewelry wherever we go up there. We were featured in the summer issue of the Copper-UP newspaper that featured Copper World with a color picture of our jewelry covering half the front page.

We found local miners willing to part with Greenstones, Datolite, and Thomsonite for some cash. I hand picked the best for future jewelry.

SISU (Cliff) Agate from my hole.

The only disappointment was we signed up (and paid money for) an organized hunt to the Central spoil pile that did not happen because the County had moved in a crusher and equipment. Another former fantastic greenstone and copper rock hounding location is disappearing to become asphalt, etc. Sad.

The weather was good and the bugs were sparse. Bonnie volunteers to go rock hunting and be bait for the remaining bugs, and they ALWAYS choose her. No further comments on that. She edits this, so I suspect a comment about this will be added. She is the jeweler’s wife, and is expected to suffer for being able to pick from thousands of pieces.

Random Pendants and Earrings of Lake Superior Agate, Datolite, and Firebrick.

I’m typing this as we navigate the Seney Stretch, M-28, a barren wasteland of scrub pine that is the longest straight stretch of Michigan road, flat also. You could go really fast out here except for Moose, Deer, Wolves, Bear and the like that you would be killed if you hit. The State has no bug-killing quota in the Seney Stretch. This is fortunate for all those that cross this area. An RV window can really take out a lot of bugs at once.

The roads are paved in copper in the Keweenaw.

When you look at the random pendant picture, take note of the far right pendant in the middle row.. It is a banded Laker floating in an Amethyst sea. I had four slices off this agate, wrapped them all, and sold four pendants in 5 days on this trip.

One day, while headed to the top of Brockway Mountain, I stopped to check out an outcrop on the side of the road. The roadway to the top of the mountain is in dire need of repair and is crumbling apart, but I noticed a glint in the blacktop. I was not surprised to see copper embedded in the blacktop. I have a friend that actually hunts copper on warm days with a metal detector in the roads. I will not say who this is for his protection from the law.

I have to say something about Firebrick for those that do not know what it is. When the Copper Smelters were build, they were made of brick. Over the years the Copper vapors and molten copper permeated into the brick and replaced everything except the Silica (Quartz) in the brick. When the smelters were torn down the copper bricks were disposed of by dumping them in the water, taking them to landfill, or burying them. Some were removed for landscaping or lapidary uses (bookends, jewelry, paperweights, etc.). I have a 70# piece I have been gradually cutting and making jewelry from it. This is a wonderful, rare, historic material and many purchase it not only for its’ beauty, but for its’ historical story.

We expect a return trip to the Keweenaw in October for colors and to dig more SISU. What a great time we had.

Keweenaw Ledge Agate-AKA SISU Agate

Visiting the Seaman Mineral Museum is always a treat. Their Fluorescent display is shown.

The Keweenaw Peninsula always amazes us. We have had the most wonderful couple weeks. Business has been robust, with loads of lovely ladies sporting our jewelry made from local Copper Country rocks. We pulled into our new campsite at Lake Linden last night, and while I was talking to the campground

The Pink Petoskey Stone and the Favosite I donated to the Seaman Mineral Museum.

host, I told her I sold my jewelry at Copper World. She said “Are you the guy that makes that amazing wire wrapped jewelry”. I admitted that I am and she told me that someone was in the campground who had a new Lake Superior Agate necklace she had bought at Copper World. It is so nice to get complements like “I could not believe that was wire wrapped jewelry, it was so perfect.” How nice is that? Coffee and a complement first thing in the morning–a great way to start the day.

Bon nie chats with some customers at the Eagle Harbot Art Fair.

Bonnie chats with some customers checking out some earrings in a mirror at the Eagle Harbot Art Fair.

I expect since it is a perfect day, I’m just going to relax and make some jewelry in my lawn chair.

This last week we started digging a hole in some hard rock ledges south of Copper Harbor, and we struck the mother lode of Ledge Agates like I have seldom been seen. This is a special type of Lake Superior Agate not as well known as the traditional fortification (or banded) agate. I was finding this agate in seams rather than in nodules, or single rocks.

Here I am "slamming" agates out of a ledge. I call these SISU Agates, because they are so hard to get.

The normal Ledge Agate is a dull brown or pink/white, non-banded, drab agate, but some of these are bright red, some with white Quartz. I have been literally working my meals off in this hole. I have a special “slammer” tool my buddy Chris made for me. I cannot imagine how much harder these would be with a chisel and hammer. I did dig this hole: bend and twist, sweat and ache. I saw color and from a deathlike state I come back to life and kept beating at the rock. The local Finns have a word for going above and beyond your ordinary: SISU. I am definitely in SISU working on this hole-struggling above and beyond. I hereby dub these SISU Agates!

Agates in the hole.

I guess I am in the Agate Greed mode right now, so we will go get more the next couple days.

A whole bucket of SISU Agates.

Finally the Monks at the Jam Pot had a full supply of their famous Muffins and other goodies.

Greenstone Hunting Plus Fun and Funny Adventures

Chris Cooper makes a tool he calls a "Slammer". It is much more precise, easier, and lighter than a sledge hammer. I love it.

Our current trip to the Keweenaw Peninsula is fun filled with hunting rocks and gemstones that I can make jewelry from, Wire wrapping demonstrations at our retail outlet, Copper World, in Calumet, and art shows in Eagle Harbor and Copper Harbor.

The awesome Copper World

The awesome Copper World hosted me for a couple days, and honestly we were selling jewelry as fast as I could make it. I love chatting with the tourists and locals about Copper Country jewelry and the local rocks and minerals that my pendants are made from. You can always tell the locals (they actually know what Datolite is) and we know many of them that are faithful customers year after year.

Doing my job at CW.

Greenstone (Chlorastrolite) is one of our staples on our website and here in the U.P. We have been concentrating on finding some of this rare gemstone the past couple days, but it is just not easy to find many good gemstones anymore. The good spoil piles from the copper era have been gradually crushed and hauled off for road fill. It is all very depressing. We were signed up this week for a paid hunt at the Central Mine, but it was cancelled because crushers and equipment have been moved in to destroy and remove the piles.

The impossibly rare Blue Datolite from Centennial #2 flies out of the display case at Copper World.

Wouldn't you think there were some Greenstones in this pile of poor rock? They are so hard to fine.

I think these waste piles are an historic treasure in the Keweenaw, and when they are gone, so is the history of them. The Seaman Mineral Museum (Michigan’s Official State Mineral Museum) sponsors hunts this week in an event called the Copper Country Mineral Retreat. We pay for heavy equipment to stir up the piles we have rented from the landowners. Treasures in them are then searched out.

This little bag of Greenstone suspects might produce a couple good ones.

Jacob's Falls

Also we went to the Jam Pot, a bakery run by the Monks (yes real Monks), between Eagle Harbor and Eagle River. We got there at 2pm, thinking there would be a good selection left..NOT. They were pretty much sold out of all their famous, big, tasty muffins. I have withdrawls for Carrot Raisin Muffins. Bonnie found sone Hermit Cookies and some Apricot Muffins, and I found the amazingly decadent rum soaked brownies with raisins and nuts. Right next door is a waterfall (Jacobs Falls) that you can walk over and appreciate.

The strangest thing that happened thus far: I swear this is true: We see a day glow sign advertising a yard sale. There was so much writing on it you would have had to stop in the road and spend 10 minutes reading the fine print. Bonnie saw the word “Copper” so we headed down the road where the sign pointed. Possible error in judgement after 5 miles. What the hell. let’s see where this goes. After 10 miles we see the sister day glow sign on a pole and a front yard landscape comprised of lots of random scrap metal things. The sign had printed (scribbled) on the bottom: (entry fee $2)..If you buy something you get your $2 back. Only in the U.P. has there ever been an entry fee to a yard sale. I spent $4 worth of gas to get there. I should have stopped and charged him $2 to make us even. I think I go up after dark and add a sign that says, “Entry fee ONLY $2”. By the way, I turned around in his drive and back to town we went.

We’ll probably get out today for some hunting and back to Copper World tomorrow. Come see me if you are up here. The adventures continue..stand by.