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Rockwood Gem and Mineral Society
St. Louis, Missouri

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ROCKWOOD ROCKHOUND NEWS for MAY 1999

 

DATES TO REMEMBER

May 21 - Change of date. Regular meeting, Bill Theis will speak on Union Road Agates.

May 22 - Deer Creek Park Swap/Sale/Auction

May 29-31 Field Trip to Arkansas with the St. Louis Gem & Mineral Society. (See field trip page.)

June 6 - Annual Picnic at the Parrot’s new home in DeSoto at 1:00 P.M.

July 5-11 - 1999 AFMS/SFMS Annual Convention & Show in Nashville, Tenn.

August 18-20 - Greater Association Show at Queeny Park.

Claudia Uccello is delighted to announce the marriage of her youngest daughter, Cynthia, to Alan Sutherland in Monforte d'Alba, Italy on May 8, 1999. It was a true fairy tale wedding high up in the Italian Alps. The newlyweds will be living in London.

Please notice that the date for the meeting has been changed from the fourth Friday to May 21st. We made this change because of Memorial Day.

Comments, Etc

We still need people to sign up to work at the Greater St. Louis Association Show at Queeny Park. Please call Gordon Kummer at 441-0226 to volunteer. Remember if we make our chairman's job easy, we will be more likely to keep him!

Bob Morse has really been getting the message out for our hobby!. By the end of this school year, he will have made 41 visits to schools. He will have made 34 presentations in seven Rockwood schools and done seven programs in O'Fallon. Mo. Thanks, Bob, for all your hard work.

Picnic
Lot's all plan to be at the last meeting until September. It will be a picnic on June 6 at 1:00 p.m. at the Parrott's new home in DeSoto, Mo. Using a combination of Mary's Directions for the fight-brains and Computer directions for the left-brains, here is the way to get there:

1. From Highways 270 and 55, go south for 22.6 reties. (this will be the Bonne Terre exit)
2. Bear right on US 67 and go southwest of 13.1 miles (Go under the overpass for Olympia V'filage. Look for signs for Valle Mines.
3. Turn right on Hwy V and go northwest for 1.4 miles (Mary says 1.3 and the road is also called Valle Lake)
4. Turn left on Roberts Dr. and go southwest for about 100 feet.(Mary says to turn just before the fire house. The entrance will be on the left. Pass through the gate.)
5. Turn left on Spring Dr. and go South for 0.5 miles to 14212 Spring Dr. (Always bear left. Mary will have a sign or balloons out.

Here's hoping that in your editor's quest to please everyone, she has not confused all!
The gate will be unlocked from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. If anyone arrives after that time, there is a pay phone on the fence. Call Mary at 314-337-0092.

 

Minutes of the April 23,1999 meeting

President Bob Morse called the meeting to order at 7:30. The meeting was held at the Daniel Boone Library. Minutes were read and approved. The treasurer's report was as follows: $3829.44 total in our account.

Mary Parrott said that next month's meeting will feature Bill Theis, speaking on Union Road Agate. Mary also invited the club to come to their new home in DeSoto for the June picnic. A Sunday afternoon was suggested but a date was not chosen. Bob gave a show report and everyone was encouraged to sign up to help with the show. He also reported on the progress of the 2000 show and mentioned the June swap at the mineral museum.

Science Fair awards were mentioned by Dianne. David Miller was a guest and joined the club along with his wife, Janis. We currently have a display at The Poime, in Ballwin and are scheduled to put in a display at the Daniel Boone Library, for November and the Lindbergh Library for December. Hopefully these displays will give us some visability in the community and encourage visitors.

We discussed briefly the pros and cons of meeting at the library as opposed to Sachs. The members enjoy the Sachs location although the library may be more inviting to visitors. No change of location for the time being. Helen Heitland won the door prize. Our speaker for the evening was Bob Berm a geologist, who presented a program on "Uncommon Minerals of Missouri'. It was excellent! We had 12 members and 1 guest present.

Field trips were brought up and a sign-up sheet for the May 15 trip with Peggy Nuske was available for those interested. The Memorial Day weekend trip to Arkansas with the St. Louis Gem and Mineral Society was mentioned as well as the possible trip for our clubto the same area in early October. People must let Gordon know about the trip with Peggy.

Respectfully submitted,

Dianne Larson, sec.

 

FIELD TRIPS

April l0th - Saturday- Glen Williams will lead an Association field trip to a fossil collecting site nearby. Meet at 10AM at the Steak N Shake at 144 and 141. He will be going to Eureka, on highway W, where it crosses the Meramec River. He says there are lots of fossils at this site.

April 18th- Sunday- Washington County field trip. The Boeing Club is sponsoring a trip to Washington County and we are invited to participate. We are to meet at Washington State Park at 9:30AM. Meet at the petroglyph site parking area. Bring newspaper to wrap your specimens in. Also, a 5-gal bucket is a handy way to carry everything in. We will be collecting barite and maybe some druzy quartz.

May 15th, we will have a field trip led by Peggy Nuske, our February speaker. We will meet at Powder Valley Nature Center at 7AM. To get there take Geyer Rd to Cragwold. Turn west off of Geyer onto Cragwold. Cragwold is just north of where Geyer crosses over I44. You can get to Geyer from Manchester on the north or from Watson Rd on the south.

The St Louis Gem and Mineral Society is going to Arkansas on May 29,30 and 31, to Fiddlers Ridge to collect. They will be collecting on Sunday, May 30th. See Below!!

Anyone wishing to join them will be welcome.

We had previous talked about going to Arkansas in early October. If there is enough interest, we can pursue this. We could go there mid-week and return on the weekend, stopping at the swap in North Little Rock.

 

NEWS FROM OTHER CLUBS

AFMS SAFETYARTICLE-MAY, 1999.

ARE YOU READY FOR TROUBLE?
By Mel Albright, AFMS Safety Chair

Most of us cruise through life expecting no major health problems and getting none. But, fate has a way of surprising us. Accidents happen, strokes come, heart attacks come, sudden changes happen, snakes bite. And then we go or are taken to an emergency room to get help. When you get there, are you ready? Ready? How? Well , there are some things you should carry at all times. Otherwise, the emergency treatment may hurt you rather than help. What should you carry?

1. A list of af the medicines you take. This should include everything. Your regular prescriptions, of course are part. List the medicine, it's strength, and the frequency you take it. Over the counter stuff should be listed too. What vitamins do you take? What herbals? Anything you take regularly should be listed - name, strength and frequency. Then there is the occasional stuff. Over the counters pain killers,cold medicines, cough medicines, allergy.pills, etc. should all be listed.

2. A short health summary. List whatever problem you might have. Sinus, heart, diabetes, allergies, asthma whatever. Remember, you may not be in shape to tell the doctors

3. A list of who to contact if you are taken ill or hurt. Some hospitals either cannot or are reluctant to treat you without your family being aware of whats going on. Names, addresses, phone numbers, and relationships should be listed.

4. Your identification. Frequently, joggers and the like go out without idenfication. When they are stricken, no
one knows who they are or who to tell.don~ bet that you can remember aH of the above information while worrying of about your health.

5. And, of -course, your health insurance information. Surprise health prolleins are a 'shock to ail of us. We all like to pretend they won't happen to us. But they might! Dont make them worse by not being prepared. And don't bet that you can remember all the above informATION WHILE WORRING ABOUT YOUR HEALTH.


LOST? NO COMPASS? MAKE ONE!

To make a shadow compass follow these instructions:

In an open area, drive a straight stick into the ground. The stick should be at least 3' long. Mark the the shadow of the tip of the stick with a small rock or stick. Wait about 10 minutes and mark the new shadow position.

A line drawn between the two shadow markers is always oriented in an east-west direction. This works any time of day or year. North can then be determined by bisecting the east-west line.

Via BRECCIA 6/97 THE GEMROCK

DID YOU KNOW:

If all the diamonds mined in the world were fused into a cube, how big would it be? Answer:About 10 cubic feet

Half the silver ever mined was mined in this country.

Half the gold ever mined lies at the bottom of the oceans, in the holes of ships.

Lake Erie differs from the other Great Lakes in that the bottom is above sea level.

.

MAY TRIP TO COLLECT CLEAR QUARTZ, WAVELITE IN ARKANSAS

The last sponsored Club field trip to Arkansas for Quartz was in May 1995 and from the show of hands at the March meeting a quartz collecting trip is desired by many. As a result our Spring, 3 day, out of state collecting trip, will be to the Mt. Ida, Arkansas ama to collect Rock Crystal Quartz and balls of green Wavellite the last (holiday) weekend in May. We will be going to Coleman's Miller Mountain Mine north of Jessieville, Saturday May 29 and Fiddler's Ridge Rock Shop & Crystal Mine on Route 270 seven miles east of Mt. Ida Sunday morning May 30. The time to visit the Wavellite locality in Montgomery County will be determined Saturday. I will have the details for this trip at the Sunday Quartz Mine for those who will not be at Miller Mountain Saturday morning. For more info, see Bob's Rock Shop's Mailing list!

The distance to this area from St. Louis is about 450 miles. The best route is probably 1-55 south to 1-40 near Memphis, then 1-40 west to 1-30 at Little Rock. Continue on 1-30 s.w. to either state route 5 or US 70 west to the collecting areas. If you are interested in hunting for Quartz Saturday meet at Jimmy Coleman's Rock Shop on Route 7 at Jessieville, Arkansas before 8:00 am. Sunday morning we will meet at 9:00 am at Fiddler's Ridge Rock Shop on Rt. 270 about 25 miles west of Hot Springs near the little town of Silver on the north side of the highway. The fee for both of the Quartz collecting trips is $10 per collecting person. There is no charge for visitors who do not collect. Both single crystals and groups of clear crystals may be found at both areas.

Wear comfortable old clothing and preferably boots for collecting. At Miller Mountain we will be digging through clay mounds brought up from the mine by front-end loaders. At Fiddlers Ridge we will be looking for singles and groups in the debris of the hill top mine and digging in the walls for seams of Quartz, bring proper tools. If we are lucky perhaps Jim Fecho, the owner, may assist with his power shovel as he did during our 1995 visit. The WaveliRe locality is new to me. I am told that we can find green balls up to one Inch at this local. One of our members will lead us to this locality.

The names & phone numbers of several motels follow: Crystal ln Motel & Restaurant, within 1/2 mile of Rock shop, 15 units, Ph.(870) 867-2643,ask for Elizabeth; Royal Oak lan, a few miles further west, Ph. (870) 867-2169; Mt. Ida Motel about a mile further west on Hwy 270, Ph. (870) 867-3456. Questions, car pooling, weather, call me at 892-1991 or see me at the May meeting.

Field trip chair Glenn Williams