The GemHunter Finds Gemstones Using Geology

Rocks and minerals are addicted to me! No matter where I go, they seem to find me. Sooner or later, they climb into my back pack using stealth. 

Corundum-vermiculite schist from Palmer Canyon, Wyoming, with two Hall of Fame induction rings sitting on a stock certificate from the 19th century.
Photo by the author. 

Suddenly, I'm surrounded by rocks and minerals - they're everywhere! So, when I arrive home from an outing, I find gray, black, white, green, purple and other rocks and minerals hitched a ride - I have no idea what to do with them, so I place them in gardens and even show fellow rock hounds, geologists and grand kids. 

Years ago, I occupied a research office and lab in the Wyoming Geological Survey at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. People on the first floor were concerned by the weight of these hitchhikers on the second floor that always came back from the field with me. Maybe the next trip would bring the second floor crashing down  to the basement of the Dr. Daniel N. Miller, Jr. building. But, after decades, the rocks continued to pile up, and, the 2nd floor remained fast (with periodic creaks and groans). 

People claimed the 2nd story was starting to bowl: I wasn't convinced. So, I continued to bring those rocks and minerals that snuck into my top pocket, pants pockets, back pack and field vehicle as they increased in number like jackalopes on a spring outing. I would have to dig them out of their cozy hiding places, clean them, and label them before finding a place for each to reside in my laboratory.

I registered the minerals and rocks for therapy, hoping to help them find a cure for their addiction. It was prevalent not only to common quartz and sandstone, but also infected other rocks and minerals. They seemed to have the addiction with no discrimination to color or size. As they lined up for therapy, I noticed gold and gemstones that use to reside along I-80 and other highways. Some were from the middle of nowhere, others from mines, and many were from Wyoming, and others came from Montana, California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Alaska, Africa, Australia and Canada. 

"You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared". Ezekiel 28:13

Some specimens were frustrated because no one ever paid attention to them until I came to their villages. For example, in Albany County, Wyoming, tonnes of high-quality labradorite (spectrolite) were abused by the Wyoming Highway Department and were made into county, road-bed material for parts of US-34. And sitting next to one of these, was what appeared to be a couple of kimberlite (diamond) blows (eroded volcanic necks)! 

There were summers I spent in tents while searching old mines and ancient rocks. I would head out during the day and return to my campsite, just to find my tent filled with rocks and minerals. This happened at Radium Springs and Lewiston Lakes at South Pass - where I didn't see another person all summer. It happened at Bradley Peak in the Seminoe Mountains. And it didn't stop there. Everywhere I searched for old mines or mapped quadrangles, the afflicted stones, would sneak into the tent and into the back of my truck. 

Once I went to Australia. On my return, custom agents looked at me with enigmatic expressions as they opened my very heavy suitcases to find dozens of stowaway gold-bearing breccias and diamondiferous lamproites. Not sure how they got into my luggage? The same happened when I returned from Yellowknife Canada - bags full of diamondiferous kimberlite!

Then there were sojourns to Alaska and around the US. Dang, more rocks! While working as a consultant for WestGold, a company formed by Selection Trust and DeBeers of South Africa, gold and greywacke jumped into my bag and made their way from Donlin Creek to Anchorage by way of bush plane. Somehow, they found passage on a flight from Alaska to the University of Wyoming. 

Yes, I enjoy writing about their addiction to help others understand this problem. Not long ago, I submitted my 1,000th publication on this subject to various publishers.

 

Because this affliction was common among rocks, many geologists and rockhounds became curious and needed answers. Suddenly, I was in demand for lectures, field trips and excursions for local rockhound clubs and geological associations. Presented an AAPG certificate for best talk at a conference (I'm not even a petroleum geologist), presented Wyoming Geological Association's "Distinguished Service Award", awarded "Distinguished Speaker" at the Laramie Lyceum and "Distinguished Lecturer" at the University of Wyoming Department of Geology and Geophysics. And I was inducted into the "National Rock Hound Hall of Fame". Soon, many began to confess they and their pet rocks had similar addictions.

I once offered a couple of prospectors a case of beer to dig out collapsed mine portals so I could get in to map (prospecting old mines and finding new gold and gem deposits is better than sex - well, not really). I was the first person in some mines in 100 years. At the "Tabor Grand", I could see where a miner wrote in mud on the mine rib '1890'. Amazing it was still there and looked like it had been written yesterday. I mapped an old mine in California where miners in 1911 and 1939 did the same, but instead they burned numbers on the ribs (walls) with candles. One problem with mines, there are a lot of rocks and minerals in tunnels that suffer from addiction and want to go home with you.

I took leave each year to consult around North America. When I left the WGS at UW, I went to work as VP of US Exploration for an Australian diamond company. While working for the Aussies, I found a few hundred cryptovolcanic deposits in Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming; told them to pick up placer ground, and got them an actual diamond mine, but Bush's economic crisis of 2008 put them out of business. But, at least we found homes for many of the rocks.