Any ''Rockhounds'' Out There ?

[Sgt Nambu]

I dabbled in rocks and minerals when I was a youngster, my grandparents and parents were nuts for rocks and since we lived out in the Nevada desert it was a stone paradise! I've got a number of Thunder Eggs and a really cool, five piece set of petrified wood from the same tree. The biggest log is about four feet long and weighs about 150#. Since I like Asian style gardens I've been able to do some very slick layouts in our gardens!

 

[jbett98]

I even made the leather sheath for it.
I was teaching myself how to work with rawhide and cured leather at the time.
My neighbor was learning the jewelry trade and he made a cool wolfs head with red garnet eyes for the pommel from a piece of walrus tusk.
A couple of years later, a cabin I lived in burned down to the ground and everything I owned went up in smoke. So in a way, it's probably better that he did sell it.
I sometimes wonder were that knife ended up.

 

[45alive]

Most Meteorites are mostly made up of Iron and Nickel, I believe some contain precious metals like Gold, Silver ,Platinum and even more. Those are the $ makers and are somewhat scarce. I saw a show a couple years ago about a guy and a woman that managed to steal a very valuable Meteorite from NASA. It was worth a crazy amount of money, I believe it was Millions and NASA kept it locked in a room with a secret code. The guy managed to get the Meteorite and he found a buyer on the Internet. That was his mistake and he got caught a little while after that. They ended up giving him something like only 2 years in prison. He was one of those guys that are real smart, but does not have common sense.

 

[45alive]

I dabbled in rocks and minerals when I was a youngster, my grandparents and parents were nuts for rocks and since we lived out in the Nevada desert it was a stone paradise! I've got a number of Thunder Eggs and a really cool, five piece set of petrified wood from the same tree. The biggest log is about four feet long and weighs about 150#. Since I like Asian style gardens I've been able to do some very slick layouts in our gardens!

Asian Gardens are neat and are real nice when they have water features and critters living in them. Something I would like to do before I fart out is Bonzai, there are so many types of trees that can be used. I had river rocks all along our driveway for 40 ft and I did not have any help moving to my house so all those nice rocks got left behind. Call me crazy but they had sentimental value and came from all over the place. I slowly have another pile starting so I will keep adding to it.

 

[Ed Guinn]

Anyone else here have ''Rocks'' in their head ? Show us any kind of Rocks you may have, and if you don't know what they are I might know ! Any Rock'll Do, I sound like a Rooster. Precious, Semi-Precious or even ''Leaverites'' - Leave Em right there cause they ain't worth nothin ! Rock On !

Love this forum - so many different and interesting threads by knowledgeable folks!
Thanks for starting this, here's some pix of the ones that stump me.
Large one weighs about 4oz. and the small one is right at 1 oz.
Both are non-ferrous, extremely hard, and highly resistant to discoloration.
Had them for years, and always wondered what they were.
We found the biggest one in the mid-Willamette valley, and the little one near Imnaha.
Hope somebody can help identify them.
Thanks, Ed

 

[jbett98]

The stolen NASA rocks were actually moon rocks and they are extremely valuable compared to run of the mill meteorites.

 

[45alive]

Love this forum - so many different and interesting threads by knowledgeable folks!
Thanks for starting this, here's some pix of the ones that stump me.
Large one weighs about 4oz. and the small one is right at 1 oz.
Both are non-ferrous, extremely hard, and highly resistant to discoloration.
Had them for years, and always wondered what they were.
We found the biggest one in the mid-Willamette valley, and the little one near Imnaha.
Hope somebody can help identify them.
Thanks, Ed

I am wanting to say Pyrite on both but I am going to it.

 

[nehalemguy]

Do these rocks count?




E

 

[45alive]

Do these rocks count?


View attachment 249162 View attachment 249163

E

Those are very nice! From what I can see some of those are made from Obsidian, Chalcedony- fancy name for Jasper and not so sure of the others. Some could be Chert, in the Flint family and looks like a few are. Guy I worked with found one in his yard as he was gardening and showed me. It was a small Point made out of white and brown Jasper.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Most Meteorites are mostly made up of Iron and Nickel, I believe some contain precious metals like Gold, Silver ,Platinum and even more. Those are the $ makers and are somewhat scarce. I saw a show a couple years ago about a guy and a woman that managed to steal a very valuable Meteorite from NASA. It was worth a crazy amount of money, I believe it was Millions and NASA kept it locked in a room with a secret code. The guy managed to get the Meteorite and he found a buyer on the Internet. That was his mistake and he got caught a little while after that. They ended up giving him something like only 2 years in prison. He was one of those guys that are real smart, but does not have common sense.

Actually only about 5% of meteorites are of the iron-nickel type. The vast majority, by far, are the stony meteorites.

 

[mikemenzie]

Hey, folks. Bit of an old post, and i hope it's ok to post this here - if not, i'll delete this, no worries.
But i just posted an ad on here for a lot of lapidary stuff, and figured i'd search for some folks who'd actually be interested, haha. Just wanted to let ya'll know, if you're interested!
Again, if it's not cool that i posted this here, just let me know!

-Mike

 

[USAF Medic]

Mike has a bunch of different rocks I'm
Sure he doesn't want to move check it out.

 

[ZA_Survivalist]

Pickins in the yard are pretty slim, pebbles mostly..

 

[Ura-Ki]

Growing up in the Sweet Home area when we were kids, my whole family were Rock Hounds. There were the Red Carnilion beds up on Chandler Mt, and Holly Blue from the beds out of Old Holly. Cant get back in there any more, all the dope smoking folks would take there rigs in there and tear up the place, or they would go in and camp and do a bunch of damage. The worst was stripping the bark off Ewe trees. I have buckets of Holly Blue, every shade of Blue to Deep purple you could imagine! We also went out to Mopin to the different Crystal fields and thunder eggs, or out past Brothers towards Burns for red and black Dragon Glass ( Obsidian) and there were a few times we would run across a big group of dudes having a big camp out and they would make arrow heads and other primitive tools! Up above Green Peter Res. across the Dam there are a few areas you can find Iron Pyrite too. Or you used to be able to go up the Yellow bottom and pan for gold! Pretty cool rock hounding in Orygun!!! I bet I have 500 pounds of "rocks" from when I was a kid! I bet my Dad has 4 times that amount!

 

[mikemenzie]

Mike has a bunch of different rocks I'm
Sure he doesn't want to move check it out.

Haha. For sure. We've moved these rocks 3 times already, and have more than we did last time. We've got somewhere between 2000 and 4000 pounds, i think.

Pickins in the yard are pretty slim, pebbles mostly..

Not sure whose yard you're referring to, haha.

 

[ZA_Survivalist]

Haha. For sure. We've moved these rocks 3 times already, and have more than we did last time. We've got somewhere between 2000 and 4000 pounds, i think.



Not sure whose yard you're referring to, haha.

Is no one a Shawshank Redemption fan here?

 

[mikemenzie]

Is no one a Shawshank Redemption fan here?

Hahahahahahaha. I just got that. No idea how much i laughed when i was introduced to my first pick hammer as a rockhound. "I know what that is!!!" Haha.

 

[jsparks747]

At my beach house in Puget Soung the beaches are mostly rock so I get some nice looking rocks. I will try to get some pics since I leave them all up there but here's one.

 

[Mistman]

My wife and I like rocks but aren't dedicated hounds. Dad grew up in southern Oregon and was into the old mines and panning the creeks and rivers. We did a lot of that when I was younger. In the early '70's he found Carnelian out in Columbia county, we started picking it out of the creeks then he and my uncle started digging it out of the hillsides. They used to have some pretty good tunnels, I was mostly a dirt mover but once in awhile when he'd get into something big he'd let me crawl in and finish digging it out. We'd fill 55 gallon barrels and take them back to southern Oregon where he had a friend who ran a rock shop. He'd give him 5 cents a pound for all he could bring down. We found some nice rocks, some upward of 25 lbs, stuff you can't find laying around. Laced w/quartz crystals, beautiful specimens. He would walk around w/a 3 foot, thin stainless rod and poke it the ground until he heard that sharp ring only a really hard rock will make, then we'd start digging. Usually when you found one there would be a vein of them, that's where the tunnels came in. Had a few close calls, my uncle and I had to drag my dad out, one on each leg after a cave in. I had to get in a clean all the dirt out while he recuperated. My brother and I probably still have marks on our backs from lugging burlap bags of rocks up muddy hills, fun stuff.

The wife and I have been all over the state, picking and digging. Got bags of eggs from Succor Creek, piles of obsidian from a 'secret' spot, I live in Col. Co. so have lots of Carnelian. Worked chert, obsidian, jasper and even carnelian but those aren't locatable. X-mas Valley, Benjamin Lake, and the Steens area fun places to look. Found some cool stuff along the east side of the Alvord desert and out toward burns.

 

[Certaindeaf]

At my beach house in Puget Soung the beaches are mostly rock so I get some nice looking rocks. I will try to get some pics since I leave them all up there but here's one.
View attachment 326052

That bottom one is super flat.. nice score!