Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
pretty sure Ive kept a couple in the buckets of stones stacking up in the garage. I need to break out the wet saw and see how soft it is. I get the impression its fairly soft but it gets a waxy polish to it.
There is something here I find on occasion that is olive green. Sometimes in veins, and as whole stones. River polished to a smooth glassy finish. If you shaped it as an olive it would match perfect color but it has tiny black specks sometimes. I have no idea what it is but it catches the eye in my world of blah stones and red clay.
It is translucent? If not,the perhaps epidote? A picture would help.
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
not translucent in the least. opaque, but it does take a polish. I assume its just a hardened compressed clay in a green color. Clay is baked here over burning coal beds and becomes red, yellow, grey, green, black depending on any number of impurities leached from the soils and gasses as the coal burns. We call it scoria and use it as road base and well pad coverage. I had plans to cut some slabs for knife handles but im not sure how durable it is. when i get some sun back from the clouds I'll see about some photos.
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
got to run a bucket of gravels through today but it was from a bench higher than the bar I am looking to work. As expected the usual gravel mix of nothing special. Some very small rose quartz, dendrite agate pieces, honey colored agate, and a chip of garnet. I really expected more garnet than that to show up. I could go to any field rock pile and find exactly the same mix of field stone, granite, glacial till. So hopefully when I get my chance to dig where I want, -300ft things will turn out better.
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
mother nature did the digging for me! Im actually 150ft further down than my grandfathers coal mine. That should be a good thing, assuming that deeper is possibly pre glacier. It appears to be more rock and less sand, but everything is rounded even the recliner size boulders. For gold that would mean bigger pieces because the small stuff would be washed farther down. Maybe for gems too? Again thats assuming its not glacial till and its river stones. The other option it could be is surf zone of some ancient lake or sea bed. Will know that the first sea shell I find fossilized in a rock. Time will tell. I did notice the reservoir dropped another few feet, if this keeps up Im going to walk out on the point I fished last year and reclaim my fishing lures from the rock that stole them. No snow melt, no rain. going to be a dry one this summer.
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
Well that was a bust! What I thought was another gravel bed turned out to be slough from the higher bench. As the hills erode and the clays wash away the larger gravels and boulders slide down and stack up. After a while it looks like a gravel bed at a lower elevation. Its not and there isnt much of interest. Went fishing today and cruised the shoreline for about 10 miles at .5 knotts Studied rocks as we trolled by, again not much of interest. 1 cloudy blue grey agate. Left it on the beach. Fishing was good, caught bunches of hard fighting white bass that all got tossed back. Everything is about a week from spawning. So I at least got out and was able to verify what was there. It was a very nice day, bright sun, little wind, about 50*. expecting more rain and snow next week. It never ends.
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
It's only 85 miles/ 140K to Williston. I understand the better agate hunting is nearer to Miles City Montana. Small islands in the Yellowstone river. Use caution if you plan to be on the water in late May. The mountain snow melt increases the river flow to peak levels that time of year.
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