Field Collecting

Self-collecting of minerals is a growing challenge for Bay Area mineral enthusiasts. Great swaths of the federal lands in California have in recent years been placed completely off limits to collectors (local examples include Mount Tamalpais and San Bruno Mountain), and most remaining accessible sites on public lands are subject to ever-increasing governmental restrictions. Many if not most mine owners have justifiably banned public collecting because of liability fears. In the immediate Bay Area (and increasingly in other parts of Northern california), private lands which used to yield collectible minerals are often buried under housing tracts.

Yet, in spite of this increasingly bleak situation, there are still a few opportunities out there (but in most cases be prepared for a long drive). Get to them while they last.

DriftMine has not found a significant amount of precise information on good California collecting sites on the internet, perhaps in part because mineral enthusiasts are quite reasonably torn between their desire to share the hobby they love, and their worry about losing their best sites to excessive and even abusive collecting resulting from expanded and unsupervised visitation. The best way to get into field collecting now, as always, is to befriend experienced folks and convince them to show you where to go, or tag along on a club excursion. (A few books, like the "Gem Trails of Northern California," can also point you to the best-known sites.)

Nevertheless, there is some good information on California mineral collecting available to be "mined" from the internet. The list below is just a start, we'll be adding to it over time.

I. Shows offering field trips or nearby collecting

Shows are a nice way to ease into field collecting, since there's lots of entertainment for the family besides hammering on rocks. The shows offering field trips do charge nominal fees.

The Big Sur Jade Festival (Columbus Day weekend): A DriftMine favorite, not because of a super-abundance of collectible specimens, but because it it a very pleasant gathering in a delightful location, at a time of year when the coastal weather just can't be beat. This is the place to buy specimens of California jade, while enjoying good music and food and other arts&crafts offerings. Sand Dollar beach (a jade collecting locality) is right across Highway 1 from the festival location, and Jade Cove is just a short distance south.

Searles Lake Gem & Mineral Society Gem-O-Rama (second weekend in October): This is an outstanding opportunity to dig (or even just pick up off the surface of the ground) your own specimens of such minerals as hanksite, or pink halite. A long drive for us Bay Area folks (about 6-1/2 to 7 hours), but lots of fun and well worth it.

Valley Springs Pow-Wow (first weekend in May): We haven't been to this yet, but it is well known and would appear to be a great opportunity to find chalcedony and jaspers of various sorts, and other specimens or lapidary materials.

II. Fee digs

The nice things about fee digs are: they're usually easy to find (decent road access), have some amenities, and there's a good likelihood you'll actually find something with modest effort. We haven't gotten to these yet ourselves, but we're passing the info along.

Some - actually most - of these are a long drive from the Bay Area. Oh well.

Opals in Northwestern Nevada: There are several mining claims in the Virgin Valley of Nevada (in the far northwestern part of the state, near Denio). A few of these are the Royal Peacock, Rainbow Ridge, and Bonanza. The public can dig in tailings piles (and in some cases in the clay walls of the mines) for a fee.

Quartz: One of the most famous localities for Bay Area enthusiasts to hunt for quartz crystals is Peterson Mountain, also known as "Hallelujah Junction (the name associated with the "California side" of the mountain). Located north of Tahoe, this is a reasonable weekend trip, and the locality can produce extremely good quality smoky (and more rarely amethyst and citrine) quartz elestials and scepters -- however the entire top of the hill where the best crystals are found in situ is under claim and being actively mined. The best of these mining operations has in the recent past offered fee digs by appointment, although the web site currently no longer mentions this. If you are interested you should check with Kystal Tips Mining and see what their current policy is. Of course, there are other quartz collecting locations on public land near Hallelujah, including Crystal Peak (off Dog Valley Road, between Hallelujah and Verdi, on Forest Service land).

Tourmaline in San Diego: There are at least a few mines that provide opportunities to find gem tourmalines from the Pala district pegmatites, including the very famous Himalaya, Oceanview and  Stewart mines. Unfortunately, as of September 2007 the Himalaya halted fee digs directly on the mine dumps (though on-site digs are still featured in the 2007-8 season's "Cash and Treasures" episode). Himalaya dump material can now only be searched at a regularly refreshed pile located at the Lake Henshaw Resort. The Himalaya website provides necessary info for a visit, but it is a little vague on how to find the fee pile at the resort - you'll need to get a combination to a gate to the campsites (Himalaya is at the lower campsites) from the Lake Henshaw Resort folks. For a really far superior pegmatite experience, the Cryo-Genie folks now offer mine tours and unlimited digging at their dump at the mine mouth - the $20 for the tour and $10 for all-day digging is a great value, though the odds of finding gem rubellite are low because of the efficiency of a modern mining operation (on the other hand muscovite, lepidolite, quartz, schorl, and other associated minerals are abundant). And the view from the Cryo-Genie is spectacular.

Benitoite in Clear Creek Management Area (CCMA): The newly renamed California State Gem Mine is a remarkable place, the only source of beautiful gem-quality benitoite in the world. Until recently new owner Dave Schreiner had been doing the mineral collecting world a big favor by allowing access to the old tailings piles on a fee basis. Although the old producing vein of benitoite-bearing natrolite was thoroughly mined out years ago, people were still finding benitoite and neptunite and other goodies in the rubble. Check out Dave's website for more detailed and current information. Unfortunately, as of summer 2008 the BLM has been forced by the EPA to close the CCMA to visitors, due to the EPA's desire to prevent human exposure to asbestos in the soil. Hopefully the Gem Mine won't be off limits forever though.

III. Public lands

Public lands (including abandoned mine sites) are probably the most significant source for collectible rocks and minerals, since few active mines (the best possible source) are likely to permit the public to collect. You'll always have to do some homework on local restrictions and permit requirements before setting out.

Perhaps the only really world-class collecting locality that you can get to and back on a single tank of gas from the Bay Area is Clear Creek. This area offers a remarkable range of minerals, some of which are quite rare and even unique. Sadly, the EPA has forced the Bureau of Land Management to at least temporarily close the CCMA to everyone except miners with valid claims, due to statistical and experimental studies (non-epidemiological; i.e. no evidence has been presented of actual elevated disease levels) which raise concerns about the risks of elevated exposure (especially among OHV enthusiasts) to naturally-occurring asbestos found in the soil of that area. Although permanent rules haven't been promulgated yet, it is hard to be optimistic that the various governmental entities involved will take pity on the small number of rockhounds that stand to lose one of the last, best places where they might legally collect a decent crystal specimen on public land in Northern California.

IV. General resources for learning about California Mineral locations

Here are some interesting links DriftMine has come across.

Mines of the Sierras: lots of raw data on mines (active, inactive, and possibly reclaimed)

Locality Index provided by the Southern California Friends of Mineralogy