The All New Adventures of Dances With Snakes

Lincoln, MO, Hamilton, IL, and Canton, MO

May 5th - 7th, 2006

Another McRocks Field Trip Perspective

Continued from Page Two

Everett and I work the wall and begin building the talus pile, later on I sent Carol over to continue where I left off after filling a five-gallon bucket full of nice geodes.

    Later on Bill and Rich tear a little more wall down in the same place. Eventually, nearly everyone worked this section of wall to finish filling their bucket(s). This section was a great producer of geodes of all sizes, from marbles to softballs, and a few even larger. Many will have Calcite, Kaolinite, Quartz, Limonite, Ankerite (to be confirmed). Some will have Blue Barite, Pyrite, and other minerals as well. Up to seventeen different minerals are known to occur in these geodes.

Area C-61

    It was around three o'clock when we finally decided to head out from Jacobs'. After a short pow-wow regarding where to meet, and what we were going to do about dinner, it was decided that a couple of people would make a grocery run for pork steaks, baking potatoes, and other "grillables". and we would meet back at Hickory Haven for a cookout and social. Everett and I and a couple of others decided that since we had some spare time, we would go and check out another location about thirty-five miles south of Keokuk for a Sunday morning hunt. Everett had scouted this site on Thursday and determined there was potential for some good collecting here. He wasn't wrong! We drove back to Keokuk where Bill and Rich dropped off their vehicle and piled into the DWS rock-hound wagon with Floyd and myself. Everett wasn't sure if the lower clearance vehicles could get over an earthen berm and up the hill to the site due to recent rains. Cori rode with Everett and Celia. Their plan was for Celia to drop them off at the road and they would hike up the hill. When we got to the site, Bill and Rich got an introduction to the DWS rock-hound wagon way of doing things, stuff it in low and put your foot in the throttle... No worries! Actually, it was a relatively easy entry and climb up the hill, the old 'burb took it like a pro, and leveled out the berm enough to where we determined we could get all of the vehicles in the next day.

    Once at the top of Area C-61, we found a large expanse of the hill had been excavated for road building material for the highway expansion. We immediately began finding geodes of all sizes lying around. Like kids in a candy store we were running in all directions, tossing rocks, and pawing through rubble for geodes. It was rather extraordinary... Eventually, we began to notice holes in the ground where the dozers had cleared a large staging area. They were small holes, but somewhat dark and mysterious. In some we could see water several inches, and sometimes nearly a foot down in the hole. Well of course curiosity set in, and finally someone got brave and stuck their hand in one... "Wow!" "It's full of crystals and stuff!" Eventually, I discovered one that Everett has termed "The Black Hole Pocket" since that what it turned out to be. Rather than a well formed Geode, it was an interlaced pocket of quartz veins and hard tan shale that contained virtually everything to be found at the site, botroidal quartz and calcite, kaolinite, poker-chip calcite, nails-head calcite, hematite, stacked rhombs of calcite, druzy, all mixed up in a mish-mash of cave-like formations. Of course, initially, we didn't know it was a pseudo-geode, and the task of trying to remove it intact began immediately.

The beginning stages of excavating "The Black Hole". Everett and Cori pitch in, this things appears to be massive!

Another excavation is underway nearby. Bill has located a similar pocket and is seen busily chipping away at the surrounding tan shale. After a couple of hours, we decide it's time to head back to camp and see how the others are doing. Besides, if we time it just right, dinner will be waitin'!

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