Prez Says...

by Dan Teich, MSDC President

A friend handed me a bumper sticker recently that said: Stop! I see a rock! Can’t disagree in the slightest. Living on Capitol Hill poses a bit of a challenge with geologic diversity, aside from clay and aggregate washed off the Piedmont. So last month when Ron Sloto presented on the minerals of Chester County, Pennsylvania, just over a two-hour drive away, I was hooked. 

I’ve always known about the Wheatley and Phoenixville area mines, but have never visited. Ron's presentation and mention about a symposium the next weekend at West Chester University reignited my interest in the area. So, that said, I registered and joined the Saturday symposium online, then drove up for the field trip the following day.

I will not rehash Ron’s talk – my Pennsylvania experience does no justice to his photos, knowledge, and story-telling skills. But it definitely was interesting to see several of the mine sites, including a smokestack within a small wooded area and broken foundations within the confines of a golf course.

Time has a way of eroding history, reducing buildings to unrecognizable rubble. Without the knowledge of the area’s past glory, one would never know that there were extensive mineral diggings right below their feet. 

My mineral finds included a rather large quartz point, a small pyromorphite on quartz, and an attractive sphalerite in matrix -- found in the creek, but who’s asking! After years of mineral collecting, the areas in the golf course are rather picked over, but it’s the experience, right? A great group attended the dig and I met several other club presidents amongst the mud. 

Never the one to not have a good rock from a collecting site, I pinged prior presenter Phil Persson and acquired two Phoenixville pyromorphites with another form of green. Remember pyromorphite is an ore of lead - these rocks are heavy for their size! 

A great thank you to everyone who donated minerals and more importantly, their time, to make MSDC’s mineral sale at George Mason University’s annual gem & mineral show a huge success. In fact, it was our best ever! We met many mineral enthusiasts and introduced ourselves to new friends, all while raising funds to support our scholarships and annual donation to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Department of Mineral Sciences.

Our December 3rd meeting will feature the second part, of two, of a presentation by Frederick Paraskevoudakis about the ancient silver mines of Greece’s Lavrion mining area, a timeless journey through history and mineralogy, chasing that lustrous, useful metal, silver. Not to be missed!

Happy holidays to all. May your December be full of warmth, family, and friendship. And rocks!