Prez Says...

Hello MSDC members; welcome to May!

I hope everybody had a wonderful Easter and Passover holidays!

My wife Heather and I spent the holiday in Florida visiting her family in Boca Raton for three days and then driving across state and visiting my aunt and uncle in Sarasota for another three days before returning back home in time for me to drive to New Jersey for the Franklin mineral sale at the Franklin Mineral Museum April 23rd. As you can imagine, by the time I got home I felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation.

While at the Franklin mineral show and sale, I had the opportunity to dig on the “Mill Site Pile” which is a big pile of rock that was hauled to the Franklin Mineral Museum from the Palmer Plant #2 and put in a special fenced in area. The museum periodically allows patrons to dig on the pile for a pre-registration fee of $75.

What can you find on the pile? You have the chance to find fantastic fluorescent minerals and rarities of the Franklin mine. Unfortunately, this time I didn’t find anything too special, but a good friend of mine did find a beautiful fluorescent axinite mn that was valued at around $4,000 so that was a great find and a beautiful specimen which I’m sure she will treasure for years. I included a few pictures so you can get a visual of what the “Mill Site Pile” looks like and some of my best finds from collecting there the last few years.

Axinite Mn found on Mill Site Pile. Photo by Ken Reynolds.

Another view of the Axinite Mn found on Mill Site Pile. Photo by Ken Reynolds.

The actual mill site pile from Palmer Plant #2. Photo by Ken Reynolds.

Rare blue fluorescing (fl.) margarosonite with orange fl. clinohedrite and green fl. Willemite. Photo by Ken Reynolds.

A fantastic fl. orange calcite and fl. purple/blue hardystonite with green fl. Willemite. Photo by Ken Reynolds.

If anyone else had any collecting trips or has gone to any shows we would love to hear about them. Please write up a short article with pictures if possible and send them to Ken Rock, our Mineral Minutes newsletter editor.

Your contributions add so much to our newsletter and is fun to see what our members are up to so please do. I’m looking forward to seeing all of you on our May 4th Zoom meeting!

Thanks, Ken Reynolds