We usually travel to Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, in August, where we participate in Art Shows, and do wire wrapping demonstrations at Copper World in Calumet. Because our art shows were cancelled and demos were not possible due to the Virus, we focused on rock hunting in the Upper Peninsula.
We camped and rock hunted to our hearts’ content. While camped, I was able to work on the rocks we found with my mobile shop setup and made jewelry on my work bench.
Was rock hunting successful? Yes, considering the good areas becoming more scarce. Most of you know that many of the old rock piles have been crushed and hauled away, leaving large flat area and small piles. Where rock piles used to be as high as the trees, they’ve now ground level. You have to work harder to find what used to be relatively easy.
Bonnie’s goal was to find the worlds’ largest Greenstone, which was not happening, while mine was to survive the rock piles while still recovering from and ankle fusion. I accomplished my goal, and was stronger at the end of our trip. It’s amazing to me that you do not feel much pain when you are actually rock hunting, but it catches up after the hunt is finished for the day.
We hunted close to a dozen locations, with limited success in every locale. We stocked up on rocks and minerals we could use in our grab bags, that we sell 3 for $10 at art shows and elsewhere. Some things everyone loves in their grab bags are, small Greenstones in matrix, shiney Calcite, Prehnite, and small copper pieces.
A Garden Rock of Great Size
Other things Bonnie looks for are new garden rocks. You should have seen us hauling a 70# chunk of mine rock with calcite and Cuprite seams. That one was hard to miss in the pouring rain.
It was quite a trek to the car, and we tried, with limited success to fit this rock into a 5 gallon bucket on our Broll (Bucket Roller). Bonnie steadied the rock, while I pulled the cart to the car. We only dumped it a couple times; each time stopping, and hoisting it back into the stretched bucket. It’s amazing what greed will make a person do.
Hunting with Friends
In the great out doors it seemed safe to rock hunt with others. We took some friends from our rock club around to some places for them to hunt. I can testify they too were greedy, filling up the back end of their pickup. We all had great fun, and tested our mettle in the rain.
We found some fine gem grade Prehnite, a few fine Copper Crystals, a limited supply of possible Greenstones, and a couple small Datolites.
The Swap meet at the Quincy Mine produced several Copper Agates, a couple fine Candy Striped Lakers, and much visiting with old friends at an Unsociable Distance.
Of course we also made a visit to the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum on the campus of Michigan Tech, to see all the specimens from the area that we drool over. The great colored Datolites (and huge too) are big favorites.
All the campgrounds were totally filled, and continue to be, so if you go rock hung in the UP or Keweenaw, get reservations.
This year was a more restful visit than usual, but we still missed the Art Shows.