Field Trip Report:
Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum Photos and text by Steve Bonney Collectors worked hard and were generally well rewarded for their efforts with nice examples of Eureka Mine fluorite.
Fluorite and smithsonite
Not everything of interest at the Eureka was purple. Some interesting smithsonite, galena, sphalerite, greenockite, calcite, and quartz specimens were also unearthed. Some combination pieces were especially interesting.
Smithsonite coated fluorite
Galena crystal about an inch across.
Galena and quartz
Micro sphalerite and quartz It was impressive to see how hard just about everyone worked this trip. A lot of dirt, clay, and rock were moved in search of personal treasures.
On Saturday evening the folks at the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum provided us with refreshments and a heartwarming tour of the museum. This ore loader could have come in handy at the Eureka earlier in the day!
The Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum collection is simply breath taking. If mineral collecting isn’t enough of an enticement to visit Marion, consider it to view the collection and offer some modest support to keep it secure and available to the public.
A small group of die-hard collectors partook of a fluorescent collecting trip at the Columbia Mine after the museum tour. Buckets were quickly filled with fluorescent hydrozincite, calcite, and cerussite. Some were lucky enough to find some very nice phosphorescent specimens. By day three of the club dig the group of collectors had dwindled considerably as folks had started towards home, many with vehicles sitting a little lower than normal. Nice finds continued to be made right up to the time of our departure. We had to walk away from several visible fluorite pockets when we simply ran out of time to extract them.
Check out http://www.clementmineralmuseum.org for further details on the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum and their public dig schedule. Their annual show, typically the first weekend of June, is an excellent time to schedule a trip as multiple mines are often available for collecting.
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