This trip to Harrodsburg has been one of the best trips there so far in my several times of hunting there.
Mother and I started out from home here in Michigan around 12 noon on Friday. It was 16 degrees F and snowing when we left. I had seen on the weather channel it was going to be a warmer 50+ degrees where we were going and sunny.
We came into Bedford IN around 4:30 that afternoon. Having some time on our hands we decided to drive around a little and see if we could spot any new locations. After studying the map we decide to take some of the dead end side roads around the Harrodsburg exit where we would be hunting the following day. Upon taking a couple side streets that didn’t pan out we found one road where a new Arena had been built for horse shows and what looks like possibly a rodeo arena. As we drove down the road we noticed a whole field right in front of the place that is littered with geodes of all sizes. They seemed to be weathering right out of the yard/field. Some were the size of footballs! We drove up to the barn area and looked for somebody to get permission from to hunt it. To no avail, nobody could be found. We decided to come check this out again on sat evening to see if somebody was there.
We went and slept well from the long trip down. Saturday morning came quick as we were up and showered by 8:30 and out the door we went. We were at the North Harrodsburg road cut by 9 am; we enjoyed a nice breakfast on the way. Looking the cut over I decided to head up to where Mike and I both took our famous dueling photos of the road cut view.
Mike’s Photo Dec 2003
My Photo Oct 2003
| |
Even though there were ice cycles hanging around me it was a nice collecting day.
On this level is where the millerite is found from what I’ve read. I billy-goated down the ledge to where I thought I could get some nice geodes out with some fair work. After hunting for a several of hours or so I found a hole, which where I looked into it and all I seen was hairs. I worked at this geode for another hour and finally freed the geode from the hard dolostone/limestone matrix. I carefully packed it in newspaper on the narrow 12 inch ledge I was hunting on and headed down. More on this geode later… By this time I had around 12 baseball sized geodes and was feeling pretty good about the trip. I was told by a good friend who showed me around this area a few years ago that some of the millerite is also found incased in calcite filled geodes. I picked up a few of these including one which had pink and green mixed calcite filling it. Later etching proves that this geode was indeed garnished with one small millerite spray.
| |
|
We decided it was around lunch so we headed up to the gas station to get a bit to eat. Then checking the Topo map we have we seen other roads that run parallel to IN highway 37. After taking a few minutes to reach the same area that we hunt in the North cut of Harrodsburg we found another cut on a back road.
| |
At first we didn’t find much here. Then as we dug deeper into the rubble from a very recent fall I found a large slab of half grey and half brown limestone. I saw a few geodes sticking out of the 5 ton rock so I decided to split it to see what other treasures were hiding in it. As I took off the top layer, which was about 4 inches thick and a good 3 foot square, I seen one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen on a collecting trip. It was a full 8 inch geode with beautiful honey colored baryte blades and two huge gemmy calcite crystals. The half which was still in the slab I lifted off was still intact and very easily removed from its captor limestone. The bottom half with the calcites and barytes in it was fractured in several places but was still collectable in pieces. I took plenty of time trying to get out the bottom half as whole as I could. The geode split into three pieces and during the split the calcites came loose. In all the excitement of finding such a monster geode I forgot to take a photo of it in-situ.
Baryte geode found in grey/brown limestone
| |
| |
|
The bottom geode half was full of loose barytes so I brought them home for thumbnails
and miniatures
|
After finding this geode I had a new mission, to find more. I split several more pieces of the same type of rock only finding a few smaller geodes that I would wait till I was home to split with my soil pipe cutter. Mother said she had found one which had been open for some time and was collecting the loose baryte blades out if it. I went over to give her a hand as my spot was running low on excitement…
She had very gemmy baryte blades in the geode she found with some type of inclusion in them. I believe after looking around on Mindat that this is Marcasite crystals imbedded in the baryte.
After collecting the loose barytes off the top I broke out as much of the geode that was whole. From the looks of the geodes, the baryte was deposited first then the calcite was a second stage of mineralization. As can be seen in the photos, the calcite crystal growth was truncated by the baryte blades causing some very strange crystal habits.
| |
By the time we had looked over the rest of the talus the sun was setting ending a magnificent day of collecting. We retired to our motel room and fell asleep quickly.
The next morning we checked out of the Super 8 and headed for the newly found Arena place on the side road. We went once again to see if we could gang access to the promising collecting location. As luck would have it we were just in time for the livestock’s breakfast. The gentlemen I spoke to said it would be no problem to pick up some rocks in the field if we wanted to. We drove down to the area where we had spotted the geodes the day before. This was a pasture of some sort with I high tensile 5 strand fence surrounding it. I walked over to the fence trying to figure out a way to get to the geodes calling me from the other side of the fence. I pulled up on the bottom strand and it moved up enough where I was able to roll under it. I laid on the ground and started to roll under and my sleeve of my coat snagged on the wire, as I reached up to push it off me I was surprised by a extremely unexpected shock! The fence was an electric fence and I was testing it for the owners…After a few moments gathering my now fried senses I collected a bucket full of the geodes. These geodes are well modeled after fossils and you are able to see some features of crinoids and other ancient sea life. Most of the geodes found that I have opened have shown some weathering inside causing a very pretty iridescent play of color. Some of the geodes have an etched form of calcite inside them which is what I think caused such a nice iridescence to them.
After collecting for a mere 30 to 40 minutes we decided that would be enough..
We drove home and started to split the geodes from our trip. About 85% of the geodes we brought home were indeed solid. The millerite geode I found at Harrodsburg turns out to be some sort of cocoon from some sort of bug. If you look closely at the photos you will see that it really does look like millerite but upon further scrutiny I found the shells from what ever larva made the hairy fibers incased in the mass.
Till next time….remember…..millerite is not millerite unless its millerite…and geodes are always bigger on the other side of electric fences…
Further photos can be seen at this link:
Click Here
KOR
E
CLICK THE LITTLE MINER TO RETURN TO THE FIELD TRIP PAGE
