National Limestone Quarry
Mount Pleasant Mills, Pennsylvania
August 4, 2007
Report by Mike Streeter
 (mcstreeter@charter.net)

Page 2

 

Before bidding his farewell just before lunchtime, Eric informed RJ that he had directed his employees to extract and place several large boulders with strontianite and calcite for the express purpose of satisfying visiting rockhounds. WOW - now that is what I call service above and beyond the call! While there was no guarantee that the rocks contained anything worthwhile, all we had to do is bust the boulders open with hammer and chisel to find out. Since Ken and RJ had already satisfied their strontianite quotas for the year, Bruce and I went to work on the boulders and managed to recover many excellent specimens.

Click on each specimen picture to enlarge

Eric had also told RJ about an small area in the central part of the quarry where some excellent calcite crystals had recently been discovered. While Bruce and I were banging away with help from Chrissy for strontianite, RJ and Ken drove ahead to scout for calcite. After about half an hour, the duo returned to report that they had indeed found an area with beautiful calcite crystals. RJ showed me a very nice specimen that he had simply picked up off the ground. Since he and Ken had to leave soon, they gave us explicit directions to a spot where it appeared that other rockhounds had been digging in a wall for calcite. RJ was confident that we would be able to recover some calcite specimens for our very own.

After securing our strontianite specimens, the intense mid-day heat forced us to finally take a break. By then, I had developed a moderate case of heat exhaustion with some nausea and muscle cramping. Although I had been drinking tons of water all day, it was just too darned hot to be banging in the hot sun, so I found some shade next to our truck and laid down for a while in an attempt to cool down. Miami native Chrissy and young Bruce fared better than this old dude, but the heat was taking a toll on them as well. After about 1/2-hour of laying in the shade, Chrissy suggested that maybe we should visit a nearby convenience store to procure some gatoraid - at least we could take advantage of air conditioning in our trucks and in the store. We drove about 5 minutes to the convenience store where we purchased gatoraid and some food. Apparently, Bruce's remedy for heat is two big hot dogs washed down with gatoraid. We sat, ate and drank on a bench in front of the store while Opal made friends with just about every new customer who happened by and even a store clerkette who just had to come out for a visit after I encouraged Opal to climb up and stand like a panther on a wide windowsill.

After another half hour or so, we had all sufficiently cooled down enough to get back in the game so we drove out to the quarry to check out the calcite area.


Middle section of quarry with calcite mineralization

Bruce and I found an area on the wall that contained some beautiful calcite crystals, but recovering them would not be easy. At first glance, it appeared to me that whoever had last worked this spot had left a series of holes and indentations in the hard limestone wall that would be difficult to work. But, I wasn't about to complain after having had just about everything else handed to me on a proverbial silver platter that day - even this spot had been scouted out by RJ and Ken! So, I went to work with hammer, chisel and prybar while Bruce found his own opportunities. Long after my body had started screaming at me to stop rockhounding in the heat and hot sun, I finally gave in, but not before retrieving a whole bunch of striking calcite specimens.


Click on each specimen picture to enlarge

I won't tell you about all the cramps I suffered from that evening and into the night - but suffice it say that I won't be digging for 10 hours in that kind of heat again. Was it worth it? Of course! Would I do it again? Probably not . . . but, then again . . . maybe . . .

Chrissy and I can't express enough our gratitude to RJ and Eric for their incredible generosity, so a simple heartfelt THANK YOU will have to suffice, at least until we can return the favor.

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