El Gambrisino 2013-08

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ELGAMBRISINOGem Crafters & Explorer's Club Bulletin,

P.O. BOX 3091, Las Cruces, NM 88003

July-Aug. 2013 - Volume 55 Issue 7

Affiliated with: American Federation of Mineralogical Societies www.amfed.orgMember of: Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies www.rmfms.orgMember of: Blue Ribbon Coalition www.sharetrails.org

2013 OFFICERS & volunteers:

President Cookie Saathoff 382-3464 [email protected] Vice President Sheri Gaines 526-7176 [email protected] Treasurer Pat Grace 202-2862 [email protected] Secretary - Brenda Gadberry 202-0200 [email protected] Refreshments- Patti Pickert 532-9351 [email protected] Don Saathoff 382-3464 [email protected]

Programs Eric Fuller 524-0204 [email protected] Field Trip Director- Eric Fuller 524-0204 [email protected] Editor- Maxine Wyman 649-4900 [email protected]

We meet on the third Friday of the month at Gardiner Hall, Room 118, NMSU campus, Las Cruces, NMat 6:30 pm for social and 7 pm for the meeting. There are no meetings in July and December. Duesare $10 per adult per year and each additional family member under eighteen is $2 per year. They aredue Jan.1st of each year. A membership form will be emailed or mailed to you in December to be filledout and returned with your check to the treasurer. There are no regular committees or board meetingsnor do we sponsor a show.

Our purpose shall be to gather knowledge and provide educationalbenefits to members on geological, archaeological, lapidary, andmineralogical topics of interest, to include assistance to members inall lapidary problems, the study and identification of minerals and gemstones in the rough, the field study of geological formations whichproduce minerals and gem stones, the collection of minerals andgemstones, and the exploration of any geological or archaeologicaltopic or area which may be of interest to the membership.

NOTE: All articles and photographs are by the Editor Maxine Wymanunless otherwise noted. Any address or email changes must be sent tome at: [email protected] 4680 St. Michaels, Las Cruces, NM 88011.

Permission to reprint is granted if acknowledgement is given.We reserve the right to edit all material submitted for publication

Info for the Newsletter: If you have information, articles, pictures or a website related to gem crafting, rock collectingor exploring and would like to share please give me a call at 649-4900 or email me at [email protected] If youhave a good idea or story to tell I will be more than happy to help you write it up. Also if you have minerals, outdooror camping equipment, etc. that you would like to sell please let me know for our FREE "Classifieds."Maxine Wyman, Editor

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Gemcrafters and Explorers Club "EL Gambrisino" July-Aug. 2013 - 2 -

Meeting Minutes June 21, 2013Submitted by Secretary Brenda Gadberry

Speaker: LeRoy Unglaub, spoke on SW Rock Art andHunting Weapons.

Treasurer's Report: $524.29 in the treasury (Theclub's 2010 treasurer's records were archived with theclub's Historian.)

New Business: The Blue Ribbon Coalition'smembership fees are due. Their purpose is working topreserve access to public lands both locally andnationwide. You can visit their website atwww.sharetrails.org . The club will vote onmembership dues of $100 in August.

Campout: After July 4th, Eric & Kathy Fuller will beplanning a club campout in the Cloudcroft or Mogollonarea. After details and the location have been decided,an email will be sent to club members.

Mineral Meeting: Wednesday, June 26th, gates openat 6:30pm. The topic of discussion will beorthorhombic minerals. If you need directions, contactDon Saathoff. (Note: There will not be a meeting inJuly.)

Club Raffle Party: Eric and Kathy Fuller will host theclub's annual raffle party on July 27th. The pool partywill start at 1:00 pm, potluck at 4:00 pm, and the rafflewill begin around 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. (Be sure andbring swimwear, food, drinks, money, and items youwant to raffle.)

Field Trip: Mike Bromwell will lead a trip to El Paso topurchase minerals from a Mexican mineral wholesaledealer. Meet behind the Dairy Queen on University at8:30 am on June 23rd.

Announcement: Both Joan Beyer and LeRoyUnglaub were voted into and hold the title "HonoraryClub Fossil". After over 30 years as members, theynow have a lifetime membership with theclub...CONGRATULATIONS!

Program Notes June 21, 2013

LeRoy Unglaub (Honorary Club Fossil) came to therescue again when our scheduled speaker had tocancel at the last minute. LeRoy did his presentationon Rock Art Hunting Images which he has recentlyupdated with additional images and information.

The huntingimages were insequence as towhen theywere used. Hestarted out withthe Snares and

Traps used.There werefew images but

LeRoy Unglaubhe told of some thirty snares found in the U Bar Cavesite. Next came the Rabbit Sticks and Clubs with manysamples shown. Most of the sticks shown were curved.Bolos were also shown being used.

The Atlatls were next with again many images. I didntknow that an Atlatl could be thrown the length of afootball field.

The Bow and Arrow was introduced approximately 500

to 700 AD depending on who you believe. Again therewere a large number of images showing bow andarrows, even some human figures with arrows in them.

The Rabbit Nets were used extensively. One wasfound that was 151 feet long and 5 foot high and wasmade of human hair. It had some twenty thousandknots in it. It had to have been a team effort to use thisone.

The Spears and Lances came next and there weremany images shown.

Dogs appeared in later eras. They were apparentlytrained to kill as most had teeth showing.

LeRoy showed up some images from a cave in theGuadalupe Mountains. These pictographs were veryunusual in that they depicted a butchering scene. Theyare very small, about seven and a half inches high,with great detail and were done in red. Another cave inthe Guadalupes has been recently discovered withvery similar images.

An unusual image was found in the Centipede Cave.There were twenty-four people all holding hands.

As he has told us before, each culture had their ownversion of the human form, animals and such so thereis much variety. There are no Apache hunting images.

As always his presentation was very interesting andinformative and the photography - superb. Thank youagain LeRoy for stepping up and helping us out oncemore.

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Reminders and Gen. Info:

The next meeting will be as usual on the third Friday ofthe month, Aug. 16

thin Room 118, Gardiner Hall on the

NMSU campus, 6:30 PM for socializing and 7 PM forthe meeting. The speaker will be our own Don Saathoffwho will speak on one of his favorite subjects Mindat.

This photo is forJon Stewart, one ofour out of statemembers. He notonly missed thelast campout buthe missed hisfavorite treat. Wemiss you Jon.......

Photo courtesy of Kathy Fuller.

By the time you get this the pool party and raffle will

have been held but the details will have to wait untilSeptember.

Several of us attended Buckys Birthday Bash in June.It was well attended as usual with over 170 mealsserved. The raffle sold all tickets and the proceeds($2,500) went to the NMOHVA legal fund to assist intheir legal fight with the USFS over the closures in theSanta Fe forest. There was a donation jar also and thatfilled fast with a lot of large bills showing.

While there in Glenwood we discovered that theCatwalk was closed. The USFS has put up signsstating there was a rock fall, etc. but in truth they hadcome in and cut the Catwalk out and lifted it out of thecanyon with a helicopter. The town of Glenwood whoseeconomy depends on tourists is having hard times as aresult. Businesses have closed and others are hangingon by a thread. This is because someone in the USFSdecided that there might be a big flood some year andthe catwalk would wind up all the way to Glenwood.Big Brother is looking after us again.

This is not about politics, its about people and theirlives, be it work or pleasure as in ranching, logging,motels and restaurants, rock hunting, or just being outfor a scenic drive or whatever. Our roads are being

closed and livelihoods being taken away. We need toget involved, either individually or preferably as a club.Sitting back and letting someone else try and fight thebattle is not the way to go if we want to keep our landopen to use and enjoy.

The July issue of Rock N Gem magazine has an articleby Richard Pankey titled Advocating for Access. Ifyou can please read it. He details what and how wecan help to get involved in the process to keep ourroads open. Unfortunately it is not online.

Camp-Out Memorial Day Weekend, 2013Report & Photos by Kathy Fuller

The club took a trip to Luna, NM, for a campout overMemorial Day Weekend. The camp site is called,Head of the Ditch and has running water beside it, tallpines and generally a beautiful campsite. No campfireswere allowed and the local forest service guys came

through each evening to check on things. Breckenheaded up on Thursday to reserve a spot for us;posting a greeting at the campsite (mostly to scare offothers!). Most arrived on Friday around noon, withothers arriving late Friday evening. After setting upcamp, those with ATVs took some trail rides scopingout the territory.

Friday evening was our customary Happy Hour a.k.a.dinner time. Al Spencer brought a bottle of wine whichwas sent by Don and Cookie to enjoy since theycouldnt make the trip. Seems it was a peachsomething or other. Tasted like a brandy to me and we

toasted Don and Cookie. (Yum, Yum) As usual we hada variety of tasty dishes brought by the attendees. Bythe way, members present were: The Uhls, Fullers,Spencers, Rudins, Halls and Janette Hale, plus fourcanine members.

Saturday we went to a secret location for Luna Blueagate. Al Spencer was seen digging away with a largespud type bar and Julie Uhl also tried her hand withthe bar and shovels. Im not sure of the total weighttaken home, but it was a lot! It was nice to see somewater near the location where the collecting was done.Brecken showed the metal detectorists a couple of oldhomesteads.

The damage from the fires of last year was evident aswe traveled throughout the forest. We did a lot ofexploring on the ATV's and found some beautifulcountry, nice trails, springs, elk and future sites toexplore. Some of the group left on Sunday and a fewstayed until Monday. Eric and I stopped at Camp Codynear Deming on the way back for some final metaldetecting and had some good luck. Nothing superspectacular, but did find most of a pocket watch. Imlooking forward to the next club trip in July that is if theforests are still open.

CampWelcome

Sign

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The Luna Gold field

Als Big Rock (?)

Happy Hour

Wonder Dog Rubyhad no problem

jumping into the tankbut getting out was

another story

Ingredients of an ArrowheadAuthor Unknown,

The American Indian wasnt fussy about what he usedto make an arrowhead as long as the material wouldsuit his need. Throughout the ages, the Indianschoicest material for arrowheads was flint and flintrelated rocks such as chalcedony, agate, novaculite,

jasper, opal, etc. He liked obsidian too. These aresilicon dioxide glass rocks of nature and, like glass;they flake beautifully in conchoidal fractures and shapeeasily into sharp cutting edges. Quartzite, which ismore granular silica, was used extensively, but wasmore difficult to shape.

The Indians of the eastern seaboard were starved forgood flint-like rocks and their arrowheads are theugliest of all since they are made of slate, quartzite,trap rock, schists and other forms of rocks, which aWyoming Indian would have written off as junk. Thereare rumors of Wyoming jade arrowheads but they

probably arent true. The Indians of the Valley ofMexico made beautiful jadeite sacrificial knives, butthey werent flaked. They abraded, honed and polishedthem into shape.

Probably the most spectacular arrowhead ever foundwas a fabulous fluted early-man Clovis Point struck outof a large quartz crystal. This diamond clear point wasfound by a farmer in North Carolina, who then took ithome and used it to strike against steel to start kitchenfires. The now damaged point rests in the Smithsonian.

Some arrowheads and spear points were made of

wood, especially the stunning arrow. Many were madeof bone, antler and tusk. The Indian tribes borderingthe Gulf of Mexico used Garfish scales extensively.Everywhere bottles, insulators and other glass articleswere popular. Best of all, Indians liked the white mansiron. Barrel hoops were a favorite source. The Indiansalso traded fur pelts to the white man for steelarrowheads.

Source the Petrified Digest, 07/03Via Gneiss Times 09/06

A Petrified Fact

By Ed Wengerd in Gem Cutters News,

Many pieces of petrified wood, especially those from thenorthwest, have a center that looks like wood, but with alayer of chalcedony or pumice between the center and theoutside. This indicates that the tree was green when it wasburied in hot ash. The water in the green wood evaporatedmaking the wood shrink. The outside was made into a castby the heat, so the areas left between the cast and the woodwere filled with chalcedony, making beautiful pieces ofpetrified wood.

Via Gneiss Times 09/06

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HONORARY CLUB FOSSILS

There are several folks in the club that have beeninvolved and active for many, many years, as in thirtyto forty some. The Club officers have been thinkingabout it for some time and finally decided to resurrectthe Honorary Club Fossil title and bestow it uponLeRoy Unglaub and Joan Beyer. This gives them a lifetime membership for the many years of leadership andtime volunteered that they contributed to the Club.

They have both served as officers in most categoriesthroughout the years. LeRoy has been a member forforty-six years. Many of us have followed along inLeRoys dust when he led us on our quests for rocksas he was the Field Trip Leader for quite a few years. Itwas a trick keeping up with him as he tends to notwaste time shall we say and we sometimes lost evenhis dust trail. Thats when I learned to track. Joan, who

joined a few years after LeRoy, is a geologist and

always had time to help all us newbies on trips inidentifying our treasures. She, like Don Saathoff, is amicro mount collector and has been bashing rockslooking for those little treasures for years. She hasbeen unable to attend meetings these past severalyears but has retained her membership and keepsabreast of what is going on.

LeRoy has spread his wings and has been involved indocumenting petroglyphs and pictographs these pastfew years. A lot of his time is spent on the go all overthe west but he still attends meetings, his schedulepermitting, so we were surprised when he showed up

at the May meeting where we were going to plan howto do the presentation. As a result he got his diplomathat night.

Joan was another story. As she has a problem gettingaway from the house we had to wait until she could getfree. Cookie and I asked her to lunch, which we dooccasionally anyway, and so she set a date. Expectingto see the two of us, she was surprised when oldfriends Eric and Kathy Fuller, Brenda Gadberry, DonSaathoff and Lee Attaway showed up also. LeRoywanted to be there also but was unable to make it.Cookie got right down to business and presented the

diploma to her. She got a big kick out of it and we hada good time reminiscing about old times. There were alot of funny camping stories told. How things havechanged. Oh and the lunch was at Pisanos and wasvery good and NO those bottles in the picture arentour empties.

Brenda did an outstanding job in hunting up this olddocument in the history files and then adding the ElGambrisino figure to it. I wish I could give credit to theauthor but no one now remembers who wrote it. It sure

is a piece of work as the saying goes and there is acopy of it on the next page so all can enjoy it.

LeRoy Unglaub

Joan Beyer

(Just makes you want to get up and volunteer tobecome a leader in the Club so that one day you toocan become a Honorary Fossil doesnt it?)

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MARBLES

Marbles are, without doubt, among the oldest it notthe oldest plaything in human culture. Clay and stonemarbles are found in Indian graves all over America.The ancient Chinese worked agate and Jade intomarbles. Glass and clay marbles have been found inEgyptian tombs. The Romans introduced them intoEngland.

In modern times the production of marbles centeredduring the 19th century in the Austrian Alps andSouthern Germany: stone, agate, alabaster, onyx andglass were the common materials used. Imitations inthe U.S. and elsewhere followed. Hand methods ofmaking marbles tended to disappear when marblemachines were invented about 1900.

Chalk marbles were used by poor boys of the 18th and19th centuries because they were cheap, being roughmolded and dried. They are generally gray-white oryellow- white, made of compacted calcium carbonatewith varying amounts of silica, feldspar, and/or othermaterial impurities. Clay marbles were veryinexpensive and common in the 19th century. They arefound in great numbers on Civil War battlegrounds, lostby soldiers who whiled away spare time playing gameswith them. They were rough-shaped from wet clay,some were left in natural colors, and others were dyedsolid, mottled, spotted or marked with lines.

Stone marbles were made in great numbers in theGerman provinces of Saxony and Thyringen in the19th century. They were rounded mechanically bybeing rubbed between larger heavy plates of stone andwood. The common stone material was quarried out oflocal deposits of calcareous limestone.

Agates are among the most beautiful of marbles,showing solid or banded colors of red, brown, white,and green chalcedony. Some agates, depending on

the luck of the cut, show white or yellow spots at one orboth ends. These were called bulls eye agates.

China marbles are made of mostly porcelain or purewhite clay, the material of which fine dishes, cups andsaucers were made, hence, the name china. Most ofthem were made in Germany. The glass consists ofsilicon dioxide, boric oxide, aluminum oxide, etc. Each

marble was originally a segment of glass cane, whichhad been built up of colored rods embedded in clear orcolored glass. One end of the cane was heated, onesegment twisted in a spherical shape, then broken off.The pontils were ground down when the marble hadcooled.

The first glass marbles made by machines competedwith the attractive agates and were called imitationagates or acro agates. The colors were dark red,brown, green, blue, and purple mixed with smallstreaks of white. There were also plain white mixedwith clear glass. These first appeared in the l890s.Milk glass was a popular substance for Victorian bowls,water glasses, kerosene lamps, etc., so it is notsurprising that it was used for marbles. Milk glass isopaque or translucent white glass made from silicondioxide or boric dioxide mixed with stannic oxide. Theyare still manufactured. Opalescent glass marbles are arefinement of milk glass. These marbles are trans-opals. They come in various colors, mostly varyingintensities of white.

.. . $. , , , # 0 #00

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MINERAL GROUP MEETING

June 26, 2013

As it had been another HOT New Mexico day and itwas cooler outside than in, tables were set up outsidethe lab where there was shade and a breeze. Abouteleven of us gathered and listened as Don explainedand demonstrated the crystal orthorhombic form to us.

Don holding a huge Barite crystal of orthorhombic form.

Most had brought examples and had a goodlyassortment with Anhydrite, Aragonite,Danburite, Olivine, Topaz, and Sulphurto name a few. We were challenged tofind the axes a, b and c and a challengeit was. The explanation that they areperpendicular to one another and all ofdifferent lengths helped a good deal. Ofcourse some of the group had done theirhomework and already knew that.Others, including me I have to admit,werent so well versed this time. Finding the axis onodd shaped crystals comes hard for me but Don did agood job of explaining and it helped some that Lee hadbrought a paper orthorhombic crystal along.

It was a good meeting and ended with a beautiful redsunset which was to the smoke from the Silver Fire.

The following is an email I received from CharlieChristensen of the El Paso Gem & Mineral Society.This concerns new fossil collecting proposals that ourForest Service is proposing and that no one seems tohave heard about. Maxine

From:

Sent:Monday, July 22, 2013 9:22 PMSubject:New Fossil Collecting rules

Hello everyone,

It has come to my attention that the Forest Service hasput forth a proposal to restrict fossil collecting in thefuture. The new proposal includes that you may onlycollect up to 5 specimens of a particular fossil eachyear. They have this proposal open for public commentuntil today at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time which is only 40minutes from the time that I am writing this email toyou. I myself have been trying to submit comments onthis proposal for the last hour and the website will nottake my submission so even though I tried, mycomments will not be viewed by anyone. It is sad thatnews of this only came out yesterday and we ascollectors have no time to voice our opinions on such amatter. Nonetheless, I thought I would make you allaware of what was proposed. Here is a link to the SaltLake Tribune Article online:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56598999-78/collecting-fossils-rules-fossil.html.csp

Also, here is a link to the actual proposal:https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/05/23/201

3-12173/paleontological-resources-preservation

Please feel free to pass this on to anyone you mightknow that this would affect or who would have interestin viewing the proposal. Thanks.

Reed PendletonWasatch Gem SocietyWebmaster/Newsletter Editor

Cloth Of Gold

Until the Middle Ages, underwater divers near theMediterranean Coast line collected golden strands of the penshell, which used the strands to hold itself in place. Calledbyssus, the strands were woven into a luxury textile clothof gold and made into ladies gloves so fine that a pair couldbe packed into an empty walnut shell. Examples of this lostart exist in some museums, where the cloth retains its colorand softness.

Via Golden Spike News 11/01

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Campout at Cloudcroft

July 12-14

Report & Photos by Kathy Fuller

We had a total of eight campers and two day visitorsfor the campout. I, Eric, Doug and Alice Hall went upon Thursday, July 11

th to secure a camping spot. We

had a lovely candlelit dinner that evening of salmon,fire roasted onions and tomatoes, shrimp scampi andrice, broccoli and dessert. What fun! A fellow camperin a pickup truck advised us he saw two yearling bears

just around the corner from our camp and suggestedwe keep our food put away.

Friday we were joined by Jannette Hale and Mandy.That evening after dinner we went for a walk. About amile or so from camp we came across a large meadowand Jannette spotted about four elk coming out of thetrees. Over a period of 30 minutes or so we saw over50 elk, including some babies who were playfully,

running and jumping all over the place. Too bad no onehad a camera or binoculars! We returned the nextevening, but not one elk was to be seen.

Saturday we were joined by Pat, Tony and Nancy. Forhappy hour we had some wonderful gazpacho madeby Nancy. Some of us played dominoes after happyhour and the unsuccessful walk looking for elk. Atsome point when it was dark, Ruby, the wonder dog,let out a deep ferocious bark. Everyone came runningand Jannette was able to see a bear run off into thewoods. Needless to say it was an exciting evening.During the day, Dave and Joan Smith showed up for afew hours. The Halls and Fullers were off riding ATVsand missed their visit.

Sunday morning the ATV riders ran across some deernot too far from camp and we were able to get somenice photos. Later in the day we discovered a new roadback to camp from Bluff Springs. I was riding point onthe ride and saw a bear in the road a couple hundredfeet ahead. He squirted off the road so fast I was justable to see him. It was a busy weekend for bear! Laterin the day, Eric and I did some metal detecting for acouple hours and had some good luck. Eric found a1913 penny and I found a 1906 Barber dime and a1915 Mercury dime as well as a few other items of

interest. On the ride back to camp we saw four elk andwere able to get a couple of photos.

It was a nice cool campout. It poured down rain onSaturday night, with thunder and lightening. We leftbehind 100 degree temperatures for low 70s. Thenights were in the low 60s.

Tony Nunez, Pat Grace, Eric Fuller, Alice & Doug Hall &Jannette Hale

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El Gambrisino 2013-08

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