It was another perfect early spring day in the desert for a field trip, not too hot and with mild breezes. Even the ocotillos were in bloom, their bright red flowers a vibrant sight. We met with Ed Davis, the mine owner, who led us out to the collecting sites and provided his expertise in finding our quarry. Three separate spots yielded Amethyst, Fluorite, and fluorescent minerals. The Amethyst vein was our first stop, and there was plenty of material to
collect. Ed had a polished slab of this material, and it looked like a stained glass window with the sun shining through it. Some of us attacked the hard rock vein directly with hammers and chisels, while others were happy
picking up the abundant material lying all around. Down the hill was a Fluorite seam that required some hard work to break loose, but the specimens we found had small yet beautiful blue cubes. We drove to our third spot, had a nice lunch, and Ed gave us a tour of the diggings. There were several excavated pits nearby, and the main mine shaft was located up on the hill. The mine had some hard rock seams at the entrance of the tunnel that contained beautiful, dark blue crystals of fluorite, along with neon blue Chrysocolla in a black matrix. Many of us waited until after sundown to stumble around in the dark with our UV flashlights and search for fluorescent minerals. It was amazing to see unimpressive rocks during the day transform into glowing jewels with colors of orange, violet, blue, and the occasional pink. We also learned that scorpions glow bright green under UV lights, as we found two of the little critters scampering about. It was another fun and productive field trip, and I would like to thank everyone who attended, especially Ed, who showed us around his claims and shared his extensive mineral knowledge with all of us. We had a great time and look forward to the next field trip.