Amethyst Mining

Doug and his 3 buddies from the Lapidary club decided they were going to go on an ATV trip to mine for more amethyst. The ladies weren't invited on this trip and we gladly stayed home. The fellows rented a gas powered diamond bladed concrete saw for the day. The blade alone was worth $90 if they broke it! They headed off into the mountains about 0830 hours headed for a mountain range just west of Superior where the Woodpecker mine was located. We had all visited this mine on a previous trip and the fellows had found a very thick, rich amethyst vein they wanted to try and retrieve. Of course the only way to do this was to cut the stone out of the mountain side!

 Bruce is chipping away small pieces of amethyst

 Jim & Trent eying the vein of amethyst

 Trent cutting a chunk of amethyst into s smaller piece as it was too heavy to carry back to the ATV's

 Lunch break for the big time miners!

 Doug had to take some pictures of the wild flowers for me

 Of course he also had to take a picture of the scary creatures also - a scorpion!

 The Ocotilla bush is flowering a bit more than when we were out for a drive 4 days earlier

 The fellows found another mine that went back at least 60 ft to where there was a cave it and beyond the cave it they could see the tunnel go back a further 60 ft or so and then turn a corner.

This was why they didn't take the women! We wouldn't have let them go that far into an old abandoned mine shaft!!

 They found another old abandoned mine with a sluice box coming out of it. They think it was a sliver mine

 This was the mine opening at the top of the sluice

 Of course they can't resist trying to go down the ladder into the mine!

 Coming down off the mountain at the end of the day

 Doug found a bird's nest in the center of a cholla cactus with little chicks in it

 A different look at the entrance to the bird's nest. Amazing how the birds can build their nests in these prickly cacti!

 Large chunks of solid amethyst.

 Another view of the rocks they brought home

A smaller rock of solid amrthyst

The  big chunks of solid amethyst will be stored in one of the fellow's sheds for the summer as they will need to take the big rocks into the Apache Junction lapidary club this fall to have them cut there as our club doesn't have a big enough saw. The fellows think they will get some wonderful slices of solid amethyst we can make clock faces and jewelery with. Doug is going to cut a few of the smaller pieces before we head home.

We had the walk through of our new winter home today and the old owners gave us a set of keys. They hope to be gone by 0900 hrs Monday morning so we will make the first trip over to our new house after I finish water aerobics Monday morning. It will take a few trips to get all the things over to the house we want to leave there permanently. We are getting excited!