High Street, Franklin Trip

Attendees: Groundhog Dave, Steve “Pickles” Wien with “Discovery” Grace, Jeff “Mr Methane” Wilson, Derek Yoost, Julia Chien, Cory “Newbie”, Phil Crabb (property owner), pop-in by John Postas Seven club members were graciously allowed to collect at High Street in Franklin, NJ, on Phil Crabb’s property. It boasts a large outcropping that is the end of the zinc ore body in that general location. The ore body happens to be very close to or on the surface in the outcropping, in contrast to other nearby locations where the ore body is deeper. The weather throughout the day was mostly cloudy, blustery and chilly with brief periods of sunlight and warmth that would quickly revert to cold. A few flakes were noticed for about 15 minutes around noon, but that was short lived. Early on, Derek wound up finding a neat fist-sized chunk of Chlorophane Fluorite in a large rock. Toward the end of the day, he also came across a large thick slab of Franklin concrete that he broke into chunks, and other club members took some. They were tested in the field for fluorescence, and they did fluoresce nicely different shades of yellow and red. The Fluorite also was tested and had a nice characteristic teal FL with longwave UV. Jeff found a neat wine flask that was in very good condition and boasted some etched print on the flask. Other artifacts found were an old hand crank, an old garbage can lid, 1 or 2 bricks and some old broken glass bottles. Groundhog Dave tired himself out unearthing and tumbling downhill,a large bulky boulder from the dirt and boulder hill at the start of the outcropping. It was a dark grey boulder that had a substantial amount of ore material with pink Willemite and white Calcite andillemite on the outside. Once on flat ground we whacked away at it, and several pieces were collected. Steve found some neat marble pieces that had sharp green epidote microcrystals in small patches several inches across; in some rocks, these were more prominent than in others. Several smallish pieces of quartz were also found throughout. Julia found a really nice Salmon Calcite piece, about fist-sized, on the large dirtpile / hill. Just before leaving, Groundhog found in a seam some calcite pieces that boasted several 2/3 cm shiny Franklinite pieces. Several other small pieces had several 1/8 cm to 1/4 cm tetrahedrons as well. Other neat specimens were found throughout the day. Around 1:00pm Ralph Bonard drove up to show off some of his latest Franklin classics acquisitions.Attendees: Groundhog Dave, Steve “Pickles” Wien with “Discovery” Grace, Jeff “Mr Methane” Wilson, Derek Yoost, Julia Chien, Cory “Newbie”, Phil Crabb (property owner), pop-in by John Postas Seven club members were graciously allowed to collect at High Street in Franklin, NJ, on Phil Crabb’s property. It boasts a large outcropping that is the end of the zinc ore body in that general location. The ore body happens to be very close to or on the surface in the outcropping, in contrast to other nearby locations where the ore body is deeper. The weather throughout the day was mostly cloudy, blustery and chilly with brief periods of sunlight and warmth that would quickly revert to cold. A few flakes were noticed for about 15 minutes around noon, but that was short lived. Early on, Derek wound up finding a neat fist-sized chunk of Chlorophane Fluorite in a large rock. Toward the end of the day, he also came across a large thick slab of Franklin concrete that he broke into chunks, and other club members took some. They were tested in the field for fluorescence, and they did fluoresce nicely different shades of yellow and red. The Fluorite also was tested and had a nice characteristic teal FL with longwave UV. Jeff found a neat wine flask that was in very good condition and boasted some etched print on the flask. Other artifacts found were an old hand crank, an old garbage can lid, 1 or 2 bricks and some old broken glass bottles. Groundhog Dave tired himself out unearthing and tumbling downhill,a large bulky boulder from the dirt and boulder hill at the start of the outcropping. It was a dark grey boulder that had a substantial amount of ore material with pink Willemite and white Calcite andillemite on the outside. Once on flat ground we whacked away at it, and several pieces were collected. Steve found some neat marble pieces that had sharp green epidote microcrystals in small patches several inches across; in some rocks, these were more prominent than in others. Several smallish pieces of quartz were also found throughout. Julia found a really nice Salmon Calcite piece, about fist-sized, on the large dirtpile / hill. Just before leaving, Groundhog found in a seam some calcite pieces that boasted several 2/3 cm shiny Franklinite pieces. Several other small pieces had several 1/8 cm to 1/4 cm tetrahedrons as well. Other neat specimens were found throughout the day. Around 1:00pm Ralph Bonard drove up to show off some of his latest Franklin classics acquisitions.

Location: High Street, Franklin, NJ; Lang Shaft, Phil Crabb’s property, ,