September 2024 Program Information
September 2024 Program
We asked members to relate a place that would be good to look for rocks or a place to buy them.Where to look for rocks in VA,MD & WV:
• Rose River in Madison county
• Roadcuts near Monterey in Highland Co., Rockbridge Co., Bath Co. (roadcuts around Franklin, WV}
• From Cindy - Fossils - Calvert Cliffs - Maryland and Stratford Hall as well as Westmoreland State Park, VA
• Join the Tidewater club - they do fossil collecting on the James River 2-3x/year
• Streams and shaley roadcuts in Bath, Highland, Augusta, Rockingham counties - not on National Forest land and ask permission first on private land
• Willis Mt near Dillwyn, Only once a year when invited by Lynchburg club & must have proper equipment & forms
Books to reference:
• Roadside Geology of VA by Keith Frye (1986);
• Roadside Geology of WV by Joseph G. Lebold & Christopher Wilkinson (2018);
• Virginia Rocks! by Albert B. Dickas (2019);
• Fossil Collecting in the Mid-Atlantic States by Jasper Burns (1991)
Where to purchase rocks online & venues in VA:
{A word of caution - some specimens from ebay or e-rocks may be fakes or enhanced with heat or radiation}
• Micromounts (from Mike Pabst): Two copper minerals purchased from the e-rocks auction site https://www.e-rocks.com.
⁃ Specifically, from the dealer MinTreasure https://www.MinTreasure.com.
• From Bob & Mary https://www.packardstampandrock.com/
• In Staunton, Little Shoppe of Crystals and South Horizon
• In Harrisonburg, Elk Run Mining, Horizon Gifts
• Our club members, Jack & Jilly, run AGQ Design & they're at our show!
• Bob & Mary McIntire, club members, run Treasure Tree Jewelry in Stuarts Draft, and will be at the show as well.
• Near Salem, Dixie Caverns gift shop.
• Charlottesville, Excalibur Minerals and Minerals & Mystics
• Nelson County, David Lipscomb has Virginia Rock Shop
• Verona Antique Mall, John Hammer (a club member) has The Valley Rock Shop
Other states:
• Spruce Pine, NC has a vendor show every year the last week of July through the first week of August
• New Mexico, near Magdalena is Bill's Rock Shop
• Maine, Leighton's of West Paris (they have tons of tourmaline); Maine Mineral & Gem Museum at Bethel; Dig Maine Gems
• Franklin, NJ Franklin Mineral Museum and Sterling Hill Mineral Museum {fluorescents}
• AR - Ron Coleman Quartz Mine (I ordered a box of clay that I sorted through and found lots of pure points); Mt. Ida has quartz
• New Mexico, Utah and Colorado have many mineral sites to visit and stores to purchase state specimens