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Maricopa County Rincon Road/4WD trail mines (Amethyst hill, Monarch Mine, and the Purple Passion Mine)
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[2006] [2006]
Bill Jaeger (yellow cap) was our
trip leader. We gathered at 9 AM in the McDonalds parking lot
in
downtown Wickenburg, AZ. After three or four tour buses
entered
the parking lot for breakfast, we decided to meet at the rodeo fair
grounds the next day. [2006]
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| [2005]
Bill Gardner of Glendale, Arizona
was our trip leader for day two in the Wickenburg area. He is
the
manufacturer/fabricator of the "Way-To-Cool" florescent lights which
many
of us had purchased during the previous year's R.R. field
trips.
He also has several old mine claims in the area
north of
town.
Our first stop driving out of Wickenburg was for small (1 in.
to
3 in.) geodes that were eroding out of a road cut. I did not
see
many and what I did see were not of great interest. Our group
moved
on to the next stop called Amethyst Hill after only about 20 minutes at
this road cut. [2005]
[2005]  Amethyst hill collecting area. (Massive alternating bands of smoky quartz and amethyst - NOT very abundant!) |
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[2005]
 The road to the pit. |
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[2005]
 The Pit. . . . |
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[2006]
 [2006] This year Bill Yaeger, owner of the Rowley wulfenite mine out of Gila Bend was our trip leader. |
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[2006]
 (l-r) Larry Landry, Vic Anderson, and Darrel Young at Amethyst Hill [2006] |
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quartz.  Malachite "Bow tie" |
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[2005]
 View from the top of the Monarch Mine... |
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[2005]
 another view from the Monarch Mine... |
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[2006]
 The
small parking area on top of the ridge at the Monarch Mine.
The mine road up the hill is quite narrow and steep in
places. I sliced the casing on my front truck tire during
this trip!
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[2006]
 Ron Burk near the top of the tailing pile . . . Darrel Young in the foreground . . . |
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[2006]
 Faye Burk working the tailings . . . |
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[2005]
 The "boys" hard at work . . .??? |
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[2005]
 Busting rock!!!! |
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[2006]
 Ron Burk high grading his specimen finds at the Monarch. |
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[2005]
 malachite covered chalcopyrite crystals |
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[2005]
 malachite covered chalcopyrite crystals |
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[2005]
 Center left - needle shaped (acicular) crystals of malachite! |
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[2005]
 Center right - needle shaped (acicular) crystals of malachite! |
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[2005]
 Azurite/malachite in ore rock. |
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[2005]
 needle
shaped
(acicular)
crystals of malachite sprays
along with quartz crystals covered by malachite and azurite.
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[2006]
 malachite encrusted specimen. . . |
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[2005]
 |
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[2005]
 Close-up of the above specimen. . . |
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[2005]
 Photomicrograph of the malachite "Bow tie". |
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 Photomicrograph of a vug filled with a large spray of acicular shaped crystals of malachite. |
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The
Purple Passion Mine produces some needle shaped crystals of wulfenite
(acicular)
and "fuzzy tabs" (needles growing on top of tabular crystals are
properly
known as epitaxial, acicular wulfenite on wulfenite).
Other than the wulfenite, the most sought after material at the Purple Passion is the fluorescent rocks. Under shortwave ultraviolet light, the calcite in these rocks fluoresces cherry red, bubble-gum pink or fire orange, and the willemite hues are from white to yellow to shades of green. Although the fluorite and calcite fluoresce slightly under short-wave, with long-wave ultraviolet light, the fluorite ranges from tints of blue to a brilliant neon violet, the calcite exhibits pale yellow to peach-colored shades, and some of the wulfenite fluoresces a weak orange. Therefore, you may end up with a rock which fluoresces with four or five colors! The best deal is to stay till after dark so you can really survey the surrounding piles of material for those spectacular fluorescent specimens. |
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[2006]
 Digging for wulfenite in the tailings above the old mine entrance. |
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 Portable "Darkroom". . . To determine which florescent specimens to keep from the Purple Passion Mine. |
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For
access permission to the Purple Passion mine ,
please
contact:
William
Gardner III
4608 West Bluefield Avenue Glendale, Arizona 85308 Telephone: (602) 547-2234 Contact via e-mail at wggardner@aol.com |
