3rd Natural History of the Gila Symposium

3rd Natural History of the Gila Symposium
Western New Mexico University (Silver City, NM)

Presentations: Thursday, October 14 (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM) & Friday, October 15 (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM) 2010 Field Trips (8:00 AM -1:00 PM) on Saturday, October 16 2010

ABSTRACTS and POSTERS on RESEARCH and MANAGEMENT PROJECTS are encouraged in all topics related to archaeology, botany, conservation biology, ecology, ethnobotany, forest management, geology, hydrology, stream restoration, ichthyology, herpetology, ornithology, mammalogy, entomology, and similar subjects of southwestern New Mexico or regions of Arizona affected by the Gila River

Send abstracts (not to exceed 150 words) to Martha Schumann Cooper (mschumann@tnc.org) by May 15 2010. Publication of accepted papers in proceedings for this symposium are planned

Partners for this symposium include: The Nature Conservancy of New Mexico, Native Plant Society of New Mexico, Native Plant Society of New Mexico - Gila Chapter, the Audubon Society (SW New Mexico Chapter), The Gila Conservation Education Center, United States Forest Service, Western Institute of Lifelong Learning and Western New Mexico University.

Steering Committee Members: Marcia Andre, Carol Campbell, Jack Carter, Richard Felger, Kelly Kindscher, Frank Merritt, William Norris, Martha Schumann Cooper, Roland Shook, Ellen Soles, Art Telles, John Titre

Rockhound on the Road - Utah and Nevada

Alan with a chunk of the blue gray quartz

Alan and I decided to test drive two more rockhounding books since we enjoyed our September sojourn to northern NM. We purchased two books by William A Kappele, Rockhounding Nevada and Rockhounding Utah and headed out. Just east of Zion National Park, we stopped at Joe’s rock shop in Orderville, Utah where we were given a free map and quick lesson on finding Septarian Nodules. We headed out to Joe’s claim and within a couple of hours we found several keepers.

The next two sites were duds in spite of the authors rave reviews. It was then we realized that the two books were published 12 and 13 years ago! The obsidian site near Milford was as described, and was quite interesting. We picked up a bag of fist-sized chunks.Before heading into Nevada, Alan highlighted all of the book’s sites on our map, which made route finding so much easier. While both books have good detail maps of the sites, the state-wide maps are much too coarse of a scale to effectively plan a trip.

After spending a night in Ely, we headed to Garnet Hill just outside of town reported to have good signage into the site. As a result the directions in the book were sketchy. We easily found the Garnet Hill sign on the highway but all of the other signs had been destroyed. We found sign remnants here and there, but after searching for a couple of hours, we gave it up and continued west.

We enjoyed the scenery along Highway 50, the state-proclaimed “Loneliest Road in the US”, for a couple of more hours. With some exploring we found the Bench Creek Fossil site where the book said “you will have no trouble finding leaf fossils on the white hill.” We found the white hill, climbed all over it for a couple of hours, and found 2 very small, poor quality fossils. From there we headed to the wonderstone sites east of Fallon, but with heavy rain falling, we pushed on to Reno for the night.

After a week in California, we headed home this time down the west side of Nevada on Hwy 95, and again found beautiful views and little not quite ghost towns. The petrified wood site near Mina was a wash-out, but we found lots of Jasper there. At the Kernick Mine we found several small pieces of Selenite, but not the foot wide pieces described in the book. Following a night in Tonopah, we located the Carrara Mine which produced the lovely blue-gray quartz as described in the book, but in very limited supplies with no jackhammer.

We gained new appreciation for this stark and wild country, enjoyed some interesting spots, and met a few crusty rock shop owners along the way. And as always, we just like hitting the road!

Admiring the Many-Headed Barrel Cactus with the Carrara Mine in the background

Ahhh, the Open Road!

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A new venue for the show!!!!

Yesterday, the 2010 Gem and Mineral Show Committee met with Grant County officials and confirmed the location for our next show at the new Event Center. Stay tuned for more information!!

Rockhound on the Road - Sedona Show

Vendor list

From Sedona Pines

Karen and copper

Name the mineral?

Kid's corner

Vendor name tag

Outside show

Raffle announcing

Around the show

Rockhounds on the Road

by Karen Murphy & Tim O’Donnell (club members & newsletter co-editors)

Imagine our sheer pleasure that the Sedona Rock and Mineral Club had its 10th annual show while we were visiting Sedona! We’re reasonably certain they didn’t hold the show on purpose for our visit, but we felt honored nevertheless. Held at the Sedona Red Rock High School Cafeteria on Saturday October 17th and Sunday October 18th, the show provided enough parking for all visitors. In addition to free admission, there was something for everyone, speakers, kids' crafts, meteorite and other displays, raffles, mineral identification, sphere making and other demonstrations, rocks, gemstones, minerals, fossils, beads, jewelry.

Our first impressions were the size of the show, the layout, and the tables and carpeting. The 40 vendors displayed their wares inside the cafeteria and outside under the clear sky. The layout was interesting - something we might want to institute if we’re in the new civic center next year. The layout was sort of a patchwork quilt, with square tables and round tables, almost no long lines of rows, and ample light. People were able to zig-zag around from table to table. All of the tables were covered with blue table covers. The entire indoor part of the show was carpeted, which didn’t seem to hamper the sales. Think back-when you ate in the school cafeteria, was it carpeted? Many of the vendors had rented multiple tables. The outdoor part of the show was on cement walks, some with shades. Every vendor and assistant had a name tag displayed, and in back of the name tag was a card with cell phone information of the show chair.

What did the vendors offer? Lots of jewelry! Beads, equipment, fossils, slabs, and polished specimens all abounded. Very few large rough specimens were available. Children enjoyed the free Kids’ Crafts booths, making their own beaded jewelry. One adolescent entertained her instructor with stories and jokes throughout the procedure. Did we say that there was lots of jewelry?

The Speaker sessions were a first this year. We went to a fascinating session on meteorites by Club member Dr. Carleton Moore from Arizona State University. The Club also paid for a paleobotanist, Mr. Walt Wright, to visit from southern California. He showed numerous examples of petrified wood and shared information about discriminating between coniferous and deciduous wood. He had also made a presentation at the club’s October meeting.

The hourly raffle tickets cost $1 per ticket or $5 for 7 tickets. I won the first raffle that I entered. All of the hourly raffle tickets were put back into the bucket for the drawing at the end of the show for the three grand prizes. We’re glad we didn’t win the alligator head! Maybe we just haven’t been notified of the other grand prize yet.

The annual show is their big fund raiser. The club awards $1,000 scholarships to two high school students each year. Apparently the publicity paid off. One vendor described a show for which he had been publicity manager. He sent between 20 and 30 flyers with the contract to each vendor, asking the vendors to distribute flyers at shows they went to. Some did, some didn’t.

The temperature reached a high of 87 degrees both days, and the clear sky was as awesome as our own skies. The difference is the red rocks of Sedona. Sedona is beautiful but very commercial. We prefer our little side of the world better, but when you need to get away, this area is first-rate.

This was clearly a very successful and fun show, and the 150-member Sedona Gem and Mineral Club worked hard to insure its success. See http://www.sedonagemandmineral.org/ for club information and past issues of the newsletter.