Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Inside this Issue:
Program 1
Events 2
New Members 2
Birthdays 3
President’s Note 3
Field Trip Report 4
AFMS News 5
On the Road 6
Minutes 6
Committee Positions 7
Club Info 7
This newsletter is distributed
the 3rd week of each month.
Send articles, announcements, &
editorial corrections by the 2nd
Tuesday of the month to:
Janice Craddock
Permission is granted to reprint
material from other sources
provided credit is properly cited.
January 2014
Fort Worth Gem and Mineral Club Newsletter
Special Announcements: Send in your dues: $15 individuals; $20 families. P.O. Box 123975, Fort Worth, TX 76121
Meeting, Tuesday, January 28th:
Video “Hunting the Elements”
POTLUCK starts at 7:00
Meeting at 7:30.
Events
Cowtown Cutter, January 2014 page 2
Feb 13-16 – TUCSON, ARIZONA: 60th
Annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.
http://www.tgms.org/
Feb 15-16 – Georgetown, Tx, Williamson
County GMS; Rock, Gem & Jewelry Show.
Feb 15-16 – Plainview, Tx High Plains GMS; Ollie Liner Center; Business I-27S; Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; Rock, Gem & Jewelry Show.
January and February -- Quartzside, AZ is the place to be in January and February. There is so much going on, can’t all be listed. Here are a couple of websites that you can check out more if you are interested. http://www.desertusa.com/cities/az/quartzsite.html http://desertgardensrvpark.net/Desert_Gardens_Rock_Gem_and_Mineral_Show.html April 11th -- Austin annual Rock Swap. New for 2014 - the Texas Faceters’ Guild will be joining and bringing Texas Topaz Days! Offering demos for the general public as well as at least one children’s activity. Rocks, minerals, gems, fossils, petrified wood, agates, fluorescent minerals, crystals, rough rock, gift items, jewelry, beads, tools & equipment, local mineral & fossil specimens can be found. Potluck for our “vendors”! Bring some stuff to swap, bring a potluck dish, bring your sodas, come with your best gneiss joke and join the fun! To reserve a booth/table [email protected] Time: 9am to 3pm; 6719 Burnet Lane, Austin www.AustinGemandMineral.org
Feb 1st 10am: (weather permitting – meaning above 55 degrees) There will be a safety class for those that would like to work in the lapidary shop. This class is required for anyone that would like to use the saws, grinders & sanders in the shop. Contact [email protected] if you want to attend. I will send you a confirmation email if we have enough people sign up.
Cartoons by Erston Barnhart, Rock Buster News, Central PA Rock and Mineral Club via Chips and Chatter Jan 2014, Pleasant Oaks Gem and Mineral Club of Dallas, TX
Charlene Smith
Stay up-to-date on the latest happenings…
Fort Worth Gem and Mineral Club
Cowtown Cutter, January 2014 page 3
January February: 07-Annie Phillips 13-Fran Loyd 25-David Kessler 13-Steve Miller
28-Don Loyd 23-Michael Hartz 28-Irene Stemple
29-Carl Silvey
A Petrified Fact by Ed Wengerd
Many pieces of petrified wood, especially those from the northwest, have a center that looks like wood, but with a layer of chalcedony or pumice between the center and the outside. This indicates that the tree was green when it was buried in hot ash. The water in the green wood evaporated making the wood shrink. The outside was made into a cast by the heat, so the areas left between the cast and the wood were filled with chalcedony, making beautiful pieces of petrified wood. From MOROKS Newsletter, to SCFMS by The Redstick Rockhound News, Feb 2013, via SCFMS Newsletter Nov-Dec 2013; via Fredericksburg Rockhounds news, Dec 2013, image from the internet.
Happy New Year to all of you! Hope you had an enjoyable Christmas holiday. I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. We still have some work to do at the Club house, and we also need to start preparing for our annual Gem and Mineral Show in May. My hope is that we can get the building ready so we can begin having some classes this spring. We are planning on working at the InterGem
show in Fort Worth on Jan. 23-26. We already
have some members signed up to work that
weekend. If you are interested in helping out,
please contact me or Janice. This is really a
good way to advertise our Fort Worth Gem and
Mineral Club.
Hope to see all of you at the Jan. 28th meeting.
Let’s make this a productive year at the Club!
Mary
DID YOU KNOW?
Petrified wood is a type of FOSSIL, in which
the tissues of a dead PLANT are replaced with MINERALS (most often a SILICATE, such as QUARTZ). The PETRIFACTION process occurs underground, when wood or woody materials suddenly become buried under sediment. Mineral-rich water flowing through the sediment deposits minerals in the plant's cells and as the plant's LIGNIN and CELLULOSE decays away, a STONE cast is left in it place From T-Town Rockhound 6-05, via The Roadrunner 11-05 via SCFMS newsletter Jan-Feb
2014
Cowtown Cutter, January 2014 page 2
President’s Note:
Cowtown Cutter, January 2014 page 4
Field Trip to Bridgeport and Wise County (after rescheduling many times it actually happened) This field trip day happily fell on my idea of a perfect Texas winter day; high by late morning in the 50's, mild wind and warm sun.
Ten of us gathered a little after 10 a.m. near Bridgeport and headed out following Steve's pickup. His itinerary was carefully preplanned and provided us with four localities; each of which had things of interest. He really had reserved a time to have lunch together but that didn't work because the hunting was so great that we preferred to eat our peanut butter sandwiches or whatever just whenever. The first stop was at the shore of Lake Bridgeport. The Pennsylvanian age rocks there weathered out some tiny to few inch long crinoid sections. A few of our group evidently had had good breakfasts and hammered and pried away to get the most interesting specimens. The shoreline held rocks that fascinated me. Huge blocks of limestone had weathered and split away from the shore.
The second stop was a short distance away behind a church. A bank toward the end of the property had weathered away and provided some nice gastropods and crinoids. The third stop was the best hunting of the day. Everything from crinoid sections, echinoid spines and plates, gastropods, sponge sections, bryozoans, etc. A few of our group with super vision located some small trilobites. We spent a few pleasant hours there ooing and awe-ing over each other’s good finds.
Field Trip Report:
Cowtown Cutter, January 2014 page 5
I think Steve thought we might be tired of fossils so for a change we drove to Wise County Park to hunt for arrowheads. The water on the lake was way down exposing sand and gravel for several acres. We all spread out with eyes to the ground --or looking at the ducks, etc, swimming around. After a good stroll I SAW A GRAY ROCK---THAT WAS -YES ...... AN ARTIFACT. Steve identified it as a 'graver'. It had been shaped from a gray flint evidently as a point a little over an inch in size. A side piece evidently broke off and some enterprising knapper redid it. That was a great ending to the day for me. Thanks Steve and Mary for a really fine day. Submitted by Irene Stemple
AFMS Raffle American Federation of Mineralogical Societies holds an annual drawing during the Convention. This year it is on July 12, 2014 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This endowment supports numerous programs that benefit affiliated member clubs. In the past this has included badges for junior programs, digitization of old AFMS slide programs that can be used by regional federations, purchased new commercially produced programs for regional federation libraries, and supporting the Judges Training Program. Help support this cause by purchasing raffle tickets. Contact [email protected] or (225)683-9264 between now and June 30th; one ticket for $5 or five for $20. You can also help by donating a prize to the raffle by contacting Catherine Rouchon,
We would love to hear of your
rockhounding adventures. Please
send stories and pictures to
Cowtown Cutter, January 2014 page 6
Don and I went to the Fredericksburg Gem and
Mineral show Saturday and found a good rock
shop that has been open for 3 years. It has good
prices and are very friendly, lot of rock or big
rocks.
Submitted by Donna Pelikan
Red Rose Rock Shop
7678 E. US HWY 290
Johnson City, TX 78636 just south of Henly.
Fossil Seashells of Sarasota County, Florida
Along the gulf coast in Sarasota County many of the walkways and drive paths are filled with fossil seashells, sharks teeth and fossil corals. Under just a few feet of sand in this area of Florida are the ancient sea beds from the Pliocene Epoch in the Tamiami Formation.
Though some of the seashells still live today in Pacific coastal areas, many are now extinct. Although not considered valuable as a gem, pearls have also been found inside bivalves. The shells are composed from layers of Aragonite and Calcite which overtime will simply dissolve. The seashells are considered fossils from being buried intact in the sediment, 3-5 mya. Amazingly, some of the Olive Shells (not extinct) are found in better condition than the ones that wash up in the surf; shiny with the retention of its color.
While cleaning the dirt that was compacted inside my seashells I found that tiny shells were on the sidewalk where I had been washing my shells. From there I began to sift the dirt to comprise the "itty-bitty" collection. My personal favorites are the corals, some of which encrust the seashells but are now extinct. In the photographs I tried to include only the extinct species with the exception of the "itty-bitty" collection .................................... Reference SOUTHERN FLORIDA'S FOSSIL SEASHELLS, Carol and Bernie Peterson
Submitted by Debbie Woods
Rockhounds on the Road
Cowtown Cutter, January 2014 page 6
Minutes
No minutes from December. We had a holiday party with the exchange of hobby related gifts.
Dora, Linda, Alice, George, Don, Donna, Susan, Lilly, Schuyler and his mom, Hope, Steve, Michelle and a friend, Judy, Carl, Kathy and the grand kids, Debbie and her sister. Janice on the other side of the camera…
Cowtown Cutter, January 2014 page 7
President/Sunshine Chair/Show Chair
Mary Hilliard - 817.995.8351
1st VP of Field Trips
Schuyler Bullock - 682.365.0517
2nd VP of Programs
Kathy and Carl Silvey
Secretary
Hope Porter -817.495.2331
Treasurer
Schuyler Bullock - 682.365.0517
Membership
Susan Thielker -817.247.8467
Site Manager
Stephanie Moran – 817.449.8414
Newsletter Editor/Shop Foreman
Janice Craddock
The Fort Worth Gem and Mineral Club was founded in 1950. It is also a
member of the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies and the South
Central Federation of Mineralogical Societies.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this club is to promote the study of geology,
mineralogy, and the lapidary arts. We also strive to stimulate the interest in
the searching, and collecting, of minerals and fossils.
MEMBERSHIP: Membership shall be open to anyone interested in the
purpose described above.
DUES: $15.00 per person, per year. $20.00 per family, per year.
MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 123975, Fort Worth, TX 76121
PHYSICAL ADDRESS: 3545 Bryan Avenue, Fort Worth, TX 76110
CLUB WEBSITE: www.fortworthgemandmineralclub.org
Cowtown Cutter, August 2013 page 6
Officers & Committee Positions:
Cowtown Cutter, January 2014 page 8
