WEST SEATTLE PETROGLYPHS · WEST SEATTLE ROCK CLUB, INC. Mailing Address: P.O. BOX 16145, Seattle, WA 98116 The purpose of this Club is to promote the study and enjoyment of the Lapidary

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WEST SEATTLE PETROGLYPHS

Mike Wall, Editor P.O. Box 16145 Seattle, WA 98116

email: [email protected]

Monthly Bulletin of the West Seattle Rock Club, Inc.

Seattle, Washington

Our Club: Practices the Rockhound Code of Ethics

*** Website ***

http://www.westseattlerockclub.org

April 2012 West Seattle Petroglyphs Page 1

Volume 47, Number 4

WEST SEATTLE ROCK CLUB, INC. Mailing Address: P.O. BOX 16145, Seattle, WA 98116

The purpose of this Club is to promote the study and enjoyment of the Lapidary Arts with good Rock-hounding and good fellowship; and to further education and lapidary skills for all; to conduct field trips for exploration and collection of minerals, gems, rocks and fossils; to promote shows and displays; to publish a monthly periodical known as West Seattle PETROGLYPHS relating to club activities.

COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS (2012):

2012 Show Chairperson Programs Refreshments/Hospitality Historian Field Trips

Webmaster

AFFILIATED WITH:

Northwest Federation & American Federation of Mineralogical Societies Seattle Regional Gem and Mineral Show Committee

Washington State Mineral Council ALAA – American Lands Access Association

Meetings are held on the Fourth Wednesday of each month,

except for November which is the THIRD Wednesday and no meetings in July and December The meetings are held in Adams Hall of the Tibbetts United Methodist Church

3940 41st S.W. (corner of 41st S.W. and S.W. Andover Street) Seattle, WA 6:30 PM – Junior Meeting 7:00 PM – Adult Meeting

Dues are: $20.00 first year (including name badge), then: $10.00 per adult member per year or $15.00 for 2 adults in same family, $3.00 per junior member per year

VISITORS ARE INVITED AND ARE ALWAYS WELCOME TO ALL MEETINGS

All material in this Bulletin may be reprinted if properly credited - Exchange Bulletins are most welcome.

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OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS (2012):

President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Federation Director Director at Large Mineral Council Reps Seattle Regional Reps Newsletter - Editor Current Past President

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Leroy Christensen Michael O’Clair Diane Christensen

Audrey Vogelpohl Audrey Vogelpohl Ken Schmidt Brian Waters Lyle Vogelpohl Mike Wall Lyle Vogelpohl

(206) 938-0790 (206) 938-1541

(206) 938-0790 (206) 932-3292 (206) 932-3292 (206) 932-3626 (206) 290-2312 (206) 932-3292 (206) 935-4953 (206) 932-3292

Lyle Vogelpohl

<Vice President>

Janet Francisco

<Open>

Brian Waters Donn Ullery

(206) 932-3292

<Vice President>

(206) 938-0809

<Open>

(206) 290-2312 (206) 633-0721


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CLUB CALENDAR

April 21-22, 2012

WSRC Show

April 25, 2012

Junior Meeting (6:30 pm)

Program: Gold Panning & Prospecting

General Meeting (7:00 pm)

Program: Use of Metal Detectors – by Jeffrey Sarvis

Show & Tell: Show Appropriations

Hello Fellow Rockhounds - The long awaited West Seattle Rock and Gem Show is finally here this weekend! Lets' all hope for good weather and an exceptional crowd turnout. I'm sure everybody that is dis-playing a case is excited to show their "Earth’s Treasures". I can only hope the dis-play cases and show will spark the imagina-tion in others to venture out and start collect-ing as we do.

I want to thank everybody in advance that will be donating their valuable time to this show, I know it will be a huge success for the club with all your help.

Question for the next meeting:

What common mineral is in this snapshot? This is a little tougher this time.

PRESIDENT’S

MESSAGE

WHAT’S INSIDE

Club Calendar 3

President’s Message 3

What’s Inside 3

March General Meeting Minutes 4

Dues are Past Due 5

Refreshments – April 5

April Junior Program 5

April Program 5

Rockhounding on the Stillwell

Ranch, Southwest Texas 5

Damage Report Form 7

Shop Tips 9

Field Trips 10

Rock Shows 10


Place your answer in the suggestion box to be eligible for the drawing giveaway at the next rock meeting. Rock On LeRoy Christensen Club President

WEST SEATTLE ROCK CLUB – GENERAL MEETING MINUTES March 28, 2012

Business:

• The meeting was brought to order at 7:10 p.m. by club President LeRoy Christensen.

• There were 20 adult members, 8 junior members and 15 guests present.

• Janet Francisco distributed the door prizes to this month’s winners. April Hichens, Jackson Higuera, Jack-

son Colby and Andy Ganter were the lucky winners.

• LeRoy asked if there were any additions or changes to the February minutes, since there were none, they

will stand as published.

• LeRoy asked if everyone who read the Petroglyphs put their answers into the suggestion box to win this

month’s prize. The question was “how is petrified wood formed?” Mike Blanton knew that it was formed by being buried by mud, sand, and/or volcanic ash and over time the organic material is then replaced with minerals.

• Audrey reminded members that dues are now past due. She also mentioned that she has application forms

if any of the new guests would like to join the club.

• Audrey Vogelpohl reminded club members that our show is April 21st and 22nd, with set up on Friday the

20th. She had numerous sign-up sheets for everything from who is bringing snacks to our monthly meetings to all the volunteers needed for the show. If you are interested in volunteering to work at our show on April 21st and/or April 22nd, please notify Audrey at [email protected] or by calling 206-932-3292.

• If you need help with your display case, please contact Audrey or Lyle Vogelpohl. (see information above).

• Mark McLaren has 100 posters and some flyers to display in libraries, stores and community centers. If

you would like to help by putting up some posters around your neighborhood or place of work, please let Mark know. His e-mail address and phone number are [email protected] or 206-962-9119. (The WSRC also has a website, twitter and Facebook page).

• Currently the website is down; however, it should be up and working shortly. The club will need to up-

grade the website because of the number of hits it gets.

• Audrey asked if anyone would like to be a delegate at the NW Federation show in Kennewick this May. Bo

Jeffers said he could be available for this.

• In Brian Waters’ absence, LeRoy mentioned that shows and field trips are listed on page 10 of the Petro-

glyphs. Upcoming field trips are on April 14th to Racehorse Creek, April 21st and 22nd to Saddle Mountain on the 29th of May, there is a field trip to Wasco, OR ($25 registration fee must be paid by May 1st for the Wasco trip).

Show and Tell:

• Mary Bentler - salt deposit from Death Valley

• Michael O’Clair – Flashlight

• Lucie O’Clair – Chisel

• Lyle Vogelpohl – crystal cluster

• Logan Higuera – safety glasses

(Continued on page 5)


(Continued from page 4)

• Margie Bradley – rockhound wine

• Heather and Kyle Kennedy – jade turtle and gold Kyle panned

• Layla Markovich – snail shell fossil she got in Texas

• Miya Markovich – quartz and petrified wood she got in Texas

• LeRoy Christensen – large rock pick and a split rock with crystals in it

• Ken Schmidt – Holley blue samples

• Diane Christensen – small handled rock pick

Diane Christensen won the drawing and got the crystal cluster Lyle brought.

Program Grab bags were filled (for the show), Diane Christensen demonstrated what some of the kids’ activities would be, Audrey briefly described where volunteers are needed and provided sign-up sheets for each category; and there was also a silent auction.

After refreshments were served, the meeting was adjourned. Thanks to Heather Kennedy and Mike Wall for bringing treats. Respectfully Yours, Diane Christensen, WSRC Secretary


APRIL JUNIOR PROGRAM

6:30 Juniors - Gold Panning & Prospecting

Gold is a popular mineral and has been highly valued throughout human history as a precious metal. Have you seen the "King Tut" display for uses of gold in earlier times? This badge will teach you why. We will have a "Gold" Activity Book for you at this meeting. AND there will be chance to pan for gold at our show ($10) and again later (free to Juniors) when we take a field trip this summer to the Vogelpohls’ back yard.

Audrey Vogelpohl, Juniors’ Advisor

REFRESHMENTS – APRIL

Please take note if you are on the hook for refresh-ments this month. THANKS to everyone who has volunteered to bring goodies this year.

Snacks: Mark McLaren

Drinks: Mike O’Clair

ROCKHOUNDING ON THE STILLWELL

RANCH, SOUTHWEST TEXAS by Jim Miller

In late February I spent a week in southwest Texas to explore a part of the USA that I had never visited be-fore. A friend of mine from Oklahoma, Neil Garri-son, met me at the Midland airport and we drove about 4.5 hours to our lodging destination at the Still-well Ranch. The ranch is located just outside the northeast border of Big Bend National Park and in-cludes thousands of acres of “old west” ranchland. This very remote and picturesque part of Texas has a fascinating and colorful history, much of which is ex-plained in the small museum located at the ranch. The ranch also has a small general store and camping spaces for RVs and tents. An Internet search will pro-vide you with more information about the ranch and its history.


APRIL PROGRAM

Jeffrey Sarvis is our guest speaker this month and he will discuss the use of Metal Detectors. He has a website with information about the products and serv-ices he provides:

http://treasuredudedetectors.com/

DUES ARE PAST DUE

Annual dues are $3 per junior member; $10 per adult member or $15 for 2 adults in same household. Checks, made out to West Seattle Rock Club and cash accepted at our meetings. This will be your last news-letter if dues are not received by our show date.



Neil and I don’t have a RV, but we had arranged to stay in the “bunkhouse” on the ranch. It wasn’t luxurious, but this old trailer served our needs and was our home for the week.

Our primary goals in visiting this interesting part of Texas were to hike and explore the wonders of Big Bend National Park. We made numerous excur-sions to see the highly variable geology, terrain, archeology and ecology within the park boundaries. Back at the bunkhouse in the evening, we met several of the other visitors who had traveled to the Stillwell Ranch in their RVs. We learned that a couple of these folks were repeat visitors, and that their primary purpose in traveling to the ranch was to go rockhounding! Although I was

aware that the geology of the area was quite interesting, I had no idea that the Stillwell Ranch catered to rock-hounds. Now, this visit to Texas was getting even more interesting!

Upon inquiry, I learned that the most productive rock collecting location was on the gentle hillsides near the “black water tank” about 5 miles east of the Stillwell Store. One of the rockhounds visiting the ranch offered to take Neil and me on a collecting trip the following morning. We happily accepted the offer. There’s no better way to learn about an area than to have a knowledgeable guide show you the way!

During our adventure to the water tank area, we learned that the primary ob-jective of the rockhounds was to find high quality plume agate, moss agate and colorful jasper. These desirable lapidary rocks are found within ancient gravel terrace deposits that cap some of the ridges and hills in the area. The hills in the middle distance in the photo to the right show the terrain on the Stillwell Ranch where the gravel terrace deposits occur.

Once we arrived at our destination near the black water tank, we found that the terrace gravel consisted of an enormous variety of rocks. The terrace deposit represents the remnants of ancient erosion of several thousand feet of sedimentary and volcanic rocks located to the north. The gravel and cobbles exposed on the ground, be-tween the thorny brush and cactus, included fine-grained basalt, rhyolite, tuff (heat-welded volcanic ash), lime-stone, chert, petrified wood, chalcedony, agate and jasper.

The agate and jasper represented only a tiny fraction of the terrace gravel, the proverbial “needle in the haystack.” But there was a secret to spotting the good stuff. The chalced-ony, agate and agate-rich zones of jasper typically had a thin, white oxidation/hydration layer, or patina, on the outer surface of the agate. The piece of translucent agate here shows how this opaque patina forms a white skin on the rock. The secret to success was spying rocks that had white patina, or patterns of white, on a rock that was otherwise gray, red or brown.

The photos below show two different sides of the same piece of banded jasper. The first photo shows the side of the rock that was exposed at the surface. Note the white patina following the more agate-rich seams in the stone. The second photo shows the interior of the rock and the typical thickness of the patina skin.

In two separate visits to the collecting area and a total of about 6 hours of hillside wandering, I picked up about 40 pounds of beautiful rock from Stillwell Ranch property. The ranch charges a mere 50 cents per pound for raw rock that you find and remove from the property. Neil was kind enough to mail my treasures home by USPS Priority Mail.

The variety and quality of jasper and agate that I found was amazing. The jasper typically is mixed with at least 10 percent agate in exquisite swirls and plumes. Three of the whole rock pieces that I found are show below.

Of course, I couldn’t wait to slice up some of this beautiful rock at home. The photos below show slices of some of the varieties of jasp-agate and




moss agate that I found in the terrace gravel. WOW! You can get lost in the color and complexities of the moss agate.

People have searched for useful stone in the hills of the Big Bend area for thousands of years. Native Americans traversed the area for millennia seeking stone that could be used to make sharp-edged tools like knives and arrowheads. While searching the slopes, I often found discarded stone flakes that had been removed from rocks in the past to test their color and workability. Many of these flakes were made by recent visitors, but some of the flakes had significant patina on them, indicating that they were quite old and made by Native Americans. The photo below shows a jasper biface (or pre-form) that I spotted peeking out of the ground in a small erosion channel on one of the hillsides. This piece of flaked jasper is likely several centuries old.

I understand why the Native Americans were inter-ested in some of the stone varieties in the gravel ter-race deposit. Much of the agate, jasper and petrified wood flakes very well. The photo below shows a col-orful collection of arrowheads that I made out of rock that I found at the Stillwell Ranch.

Most of you readers are lapidary enthusiasts, not flintknappers. The photo below shows a sphere that Dennis Borden made for me out of the center of the largest piece of moss agate that I found on the Still-

DAMAGE REPORT FORM

By Brian Waters, WSMC President Hi all,

Attached (next page) is a new damage report from the Washington State Mineral Council.

The WSMC is asking that people keep a copy of this Damage Report in their vehicles so that they may re-port people that are involved in illegal or unethical rock collecting. It might be a good idea to keep a copy of it with a copy of Fish & Gold which anyone rockhounding in the state of Washington should have in their vehicle at all times.

The reason for the Damage Report is that in recent years our community has seen quite a few collecting sites closed to us due to a very small amount of peo-ple damaging property and ecosystems while collect-ing rocks and minerals. For the most part, people that are doing this sort of rock collecting do not belong to rock clubs, yet their unethical and sometimes illegal collecting practices effects us all.

At a time when the WSMC the PSK and other groups are attempting to open up new areas for us to collect on it is imperative that rockhounds step up and start policing our own hobby.

It might also be nice for the newsletter editors to re-print the Rockhound Code of Ethics to remind every-one of them as the rock collecting season in our part of the world gets into full swing.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Thank you,

Brian Waters President, Washington State Mineral Council (206)290-2312

well Ranch. Nice!

The Big Bend area of Texas is a long way from most places, but it is well worth the visit. The remote-ness of the area means that the Stillwell Ranch property doesn’t get excessive pres-sure from rockhounds. Erosion from occasional flash floods in the area assures that new rocks are gradually exposed on the terrace slopes. So, if you ever visit the Big Bend area, don’t forget to go rock collecting at the Stillwell Ranch. Now that you know what to look for, you won’t be disappointed!


DAMAGE REPORT

This damage report is to let you know that members of the clubs associated with the Wash-

ington State Mineral Council have observed behavior that could or has caused damage at

the following described site. This information is provided as a public citizens concern with

our environment and the proper use of our public and private lands.

Site Location:

Date: _______ Time: ______ Vehicle License Number: ____________________

Make and color of vehicle: ________________________________________________

Number of persons involved: ____________

Names of individuals (if known) ____________________________________________

Describe what you observed

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Would you be willing to testify if necessary? Yes ___ No ___

Your name _______________________________________

Your phone number: _______________________________

Below are contacts for public lands management agencies. If you’re not sure of which one

to contact ask your club officers or contact the Washington State Mineral Council

Colville National Forest: Colville National Forest 765 South Main Street Colville, WA 99114

Gifford Pinchot National Forest: 10600 N.E. 51st Circle Vancouver, WA 98682

Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest: 2930 Wetmore Ave., Suite 3A Everett, WA, 98201

Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest: 215 Melody Lane Wenatchee, WA 98801

Olympic National Forest: 1835 Black Lk Blvd SW Olympia, WA 98512

Bureau of Land Management Oregon/Washington: 1103 N Fancher Road Spokane, WA 99212

Washington State DNR: PO Box 47000 1111 Washington Street SE Olympia, WA 98504-7000

Washington DFW: 600 Capitol Way N. Olympia, WA 98501-1091

Preserving Iron Meteorites – by Shawne Lardin

A new way to preserve your iron meteorites, espe-cially etched ones, is to submerge them in ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) in a small Tupper-ware container. This prevents rust better than older methods, such as gun oil and WD-40.

For meteorites in glass display cases, you can enclose a VCI (Volatile Corrosion Inhibitor) with them. These Emitters contain special compounds which evaporate, forming a very thin layer only a few molecules thick, on the surface of all metals present.

For more information go to CortecVCI.com.

(via The Tumbler 3/09; via Golden Spike News, 2/09; via

Rockhound Rambling, 2/08)

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Marking a Girdle Line

How many of us had trouble marking a girdle line around a rough shaped cabochon when we were first learning? We learned that aluminum would mark the stone and not wash away while grinding so many of us “borrowed” our wife’s knitting needle or headed for the nearest thrift shop. Then we would lay the needle flat on the bench only to find that the girdle was too thin, so we looked around to find anything (piece of cardboard, ruler, etc.) to shim up the knitting needle to mark the width of the girdle we desire. What a pain and waste of time!

I found a piece of oak in the scrap bin, and drilled an angled hole the same size of the knitting needle I “borrowed”. I drilled another hole at right angle to intersect the hole I just drilled for the needle. Then I screwed in a large hook allowing it to be hung near your work and to tighten down on the needle once adjustment is completed.

The girdle line can be ad-justed to the bezel material being used by first adjust-ing the needle to the de-sired height, tightening the hangar, and move the jig around your stone or visa versa. No more wasting time hunting for the proper shim.

I find the jig very useful for students or anyone just learning to make cabochons. Once you have devel-oped the eye, you may only find it useful on odd shaped stones.

Happy Cutting! Art Class, Everett Rock & Gem Club.

(via Pebbles, 5/08)


SHOP TIPS

Editor’s Note: Shop tips featured in this bulletin have not been evaluated for safety or reliability. Please use caution when trying out any new idea.

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How To Cut Fire Agate

The “fire” in fire agate is actually a very thin layer of limonite. When obtaining fire agate, look for thick brown areas because that’s where the fire is. If there is white under a thin layer of brown, the piece is not good; however, if white is on top and the brown un-derneath, there’s a good chance of fire. If you grind too deeply, there will probably be more fire under the layer you ground away. It’s easy to grind or sand through fire, so carefully orient the fire. Look for the tops of bubbles on the top of the stone. The bottom of the stone should be the area where it was attached to the host rock.

Once you have oriented the fire and the top has been determined, carefully grind away colorless or white agate to expose the fire. When the excess material has been ground away and the fire exposed, establish the base and perimeter of the fire. The base should be parallel to the top of the cab. After size and shape have been established, work the same as any stone except that fire agate is very heat sensitive. Use lots of water, grind a little and look a lot. You can polish with cerium, tin. or chrome oxide or diamond.

(via The Tumbler 3/12; via GCLFS Newsletter, 2/12; via

The Rock Collector, 2/12; via Rock Rustler's News, 1/12;

via Gem Cutters News, 2/96)

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Cutting A Bolt – by Brad Smith

Whenever you have to cut a threaded bolt shorter, it's always difficult to get the nut to thread back onto it. The smaller the bolt, the more difficult this is. The problem is easily solved by screwing a nut onto the bolt before cutting it.

So here's how I do it. Screw a nut onto the bolt, grip the bolt by the piece to be sawed off, saw the bolt to the desired length, taper the end with sandpaper or file, and unscrew the nut from the bolt. Unscrewing the nut over the freshly cut end of the bolt straightens out any damage to the threads.

Gripping the bolt by the piece to be sawed off local-izes any crushing damage to the piece you're throwing away.

(via Bench Tips by Brad Smith at groups.yahoo.com/group/

BenchTips/)

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HOW CAN YOU HELP

Your Federation: Save stamps and give to our club treasurer.

Your Hobby: Join ALAA. - Contact Lyle Vogelpohl

Other: Volunteer to teach beginners what you are good at.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ...

Cabbing … contact Lyle Vogelpohl … (206) 932-3292

2012 FIELD TRIPS

April 21 & 22 All American Pow Wow Club Field Trip – Saddle Mountain – meet at 8:00 am at South Matawa Boat Launch – Petrified Wood – Dig & Light Hard Rock Tools – contact Cliff Matteson at (253) 475-8433 or [email protected] for more details

May 19 & 20 Marysville Field Trip – Wasco, Oregon – meet at 8:00 am at Goldendale – Registration Required – registration open from 3/16 to 5/1 – $25 deposit – Picture Jasper – contact Stu & Kathy Earnst 360-856-0588, [email protected] for more information

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See WSMC http://www.mineralcouncil.org/index.htm for additional field trips and details

2012 SHOWS

Apr 21 10am-5pm West Seattle Rock Club Annual Show

Apr 22 10am-5pm Alki Masonic Temple, 4736 40th Avenue SW, Seattle WA

Apr 28 10am-6pm Hatrockhounds Gem & Mineral Society Annual Show Apr 29 10am-4pm Hermiston Conference Center, 415 S. Highway 395, Hermiston, OR

Apr 28 10am-5pm Gray’s Harbor Rock & Gem Club Annual Show Apr 29 10am-5pm Gray’s Harbor County Fairgrounds, 43 Elma – McCleary Road, Elma, WA

May 4 10am-6pm Spokane Rock Rollers Club Annual Show May 5 10am-6pm Spokane County Fair &Expo Center, North 604 Havana (at Broadway), Spokane, WA

May 6 10am-4pm

May 18 10am-5pm 2012 NFMS Annual Gem Show May 19 10am-5pm Hosted by Lakeside Gem & Mineral Club May 20 10am-4pm Benton County Fairgrounds, 1500 South Oak, Kennewick, WA

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See the Northwest Newsletter for additional show listings and times.

Available online at: http://www.amfed.org/nfms/newslet2.htm


Documents

WEST SEATTLE PETROGLYPHS · WEST SEATTLE ROCK CLUB, INC. Mailing Address: P.O. BOX 16145, Seattle, WA 98116 The purpose of this Club is to promote the study and enjoyment of the Lapidary