Michigan Rockhounding

Michigan Rockhounding
August, 2007
Report by Mike Streeter
Pictures by Chrissy & Mike Streeter
(mcstreeter@charter.net)
Page 2

Southern Michigan

We made it to the Tri-Lakes Trails Campground near Marshall by late-afternoon. The campground, situated on a small lake, was very nice, quite expansive and bustling with happy campers old and young. It was like an oasis in a field of soybeans.

Sunrise at Tri-Lakes Campground

We met Everett and his brother Ben the next morning at 8:30 at a limestone aggregate quarry located about 1/2-hour from the campground. I'd tell you exactly where, but Everett obtained special permission to collect from the owner who hasn't yet decided whether he wants the location to be divulged to the general rockhounding community. So, it was indeed a privilege to be allowed to access the quarry that day.

Click on picture to enlarge

Everett had been to this location only one time before and had found some interesting dogtooth calcite crystals with pyrite and marcasite in limestone. He had confined his prior collecting to a large pile of loose boulders that contained crystal lined pockets.

Never being completely content with working boulder piles when a wall of bedrock is available, I decided to attack a wall hoping to find some crystals while Chrissy did some scratching of her own nearby. Everett and Ben joined me for a while until the lack of any real success and the brutal summer heat helped them decide to look for easier pickings in the rock piles. Opal found her own way to beat the heat.

I moved a whole bunch of rock and recovered some massive caclite and a couple decent dogtooth and scalenohedral calcite crystal plates.

On her section of wall, Chrissy found an excellent specimen that contained transluscent dogtooth calcite with some way cool oxidized capillary pyrite.

As the temperature rose to around 90-degrees by lunchtime, I decided that it was just too darned hot to continue banging and prying on the wall, especially since there was absolutely no shade there. So, after taking a short break with Chrissy, we moved over to a different rock pile section of the quarry to see what Everett and Ben were up to. Everett told me that the pickings were much slimmer than the last time that he had collected there, but I was able to find some beautiful small iridescent pyrite crystals on a limestone fracture surfaces.

I found that as the pyrite crystals got larger, the degree of oxidation increased.

Although not the largest or flashiest specimen of the day, perhaps the most interesting in terms of unusual crystal growth is a sphalerite specimen that I found in the rock pile. The dogtooth surface of one side of the sphalerite crystal is something that I have never before seen.

My ace photographer, Chrissy, didn't realize that she hadn't taken a single picture of Everett or Ben until we got home, but I assure you that they were really there! A big thanks to them and mother Celia for showing us that some great rocks and minerals can indeed by found in lower Michigan! Thank you Harringtons all!