Gem Crafters & Explorer's Club Bulletin, Las Cruces, NM

Affiliated with the AFMS and a member of the RMFMS

EL GAMBRISINO

September 2009 - Volume 51, Issue 9

Notes from the Previous Meeting: President Dave Smith opened the meeting by introducing the speaker Tom Townsend who then presented his program. After the program Dave introduced Jan Hoffman who had brought along some Petoskey Stones plus others that she had collected on her recent trip to Michigan. She spoke briefly describing her specimens and collecting experiences. Treasurer's Report - Lee Attaway stated that we had $1,588 in the bank and $34 in petty cash for a total of $1,622. She reported that no word has been received from NMSU as to where to send the scholarship check. Dave said he would talk to Kristine Kitchens again. Lee also mentioned that a number of membership cards haven't been picked up yet. They have been placed with the meeting name tags for easy pick up. Refreshments for the evening were supplied by: Old Business: The Federation show in Roswell was discussed. Dave Smith and Kristine Kitchens are to be delegates from our club. Eric Fuller made a motion that reimburment be made to delegates. There was much discussion as to how much would be paid. A final motion was made to pay up to $200 per delegate for expenses. A motion was then made to reimburse Maxine $50 toward attending the Editors Breakfast. Both motions carried by voice vote. It was noted that anyone wanting information on Roswell could pick up same at the Visitors and Convention Bureau downtown. Don Saathoff also noted that at the end of the Roswell Show there would be a three or five day rock hounding experience led by very knowledgeable collectors and miners. There will be a Field Trip to Bob Cat Springs tomorrow to be led by Eric Fuller. Meet at Ashley's at 7:30 am. Expect to find petrified wood and artifacts. The Fullers will also lead a Labor Day campout to the Kingston area. Further information and maps will be sent out later. Program Notes: Our speaker for the evening was Tom Townsend who is an expert on snakes and he spoke extensively on the Rattlesnake. There are a number of different rattlesnakes and he advised it would be good to know the difference between them especially if bitten. Note that there is no vaccination for snake bite. Rattlers have a delta shaped head and elliptical shaped eyes. While they don't see well they have pits on each side of their head which are highly evolved heat detectors which aids in hunting. The venom delivery system is interesting as they inject like a syringe as opposed to biting, however if this is any comfort to you about 35% of bites don't inject venom. In this area there are about six to seven bites a year reported. Many illustrations of these bites were shown, none of them pretty. Besides the venom, their bite also has a digestive enzyme which causes many problems. The snakes are most active in the temp range of 55 to 80 degrees which means they are out from dusk to dawn. Snakes stop eating around Thanksgiving; they then den up emerging around March 15th when they start mating. The young are born in 60 days, sometime in early May and don't be fooled by their size, the little ones are very mean.

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Following is a list of some of the snakes that we might encounter out here in our territory. Black Tailed Rattlesnake: Not very aggressive and usually won't rattle until you are on top of him. Massasauga: Very aggressive, don't fool around with this guy. Up to 22 inches long. Banded Rock Rattlesnake: Fairly aggressive, fairly toxic, up to 5 feet in length. It is rare in our area and is also a protected snake. Arizona Black Rattlesnake: no information Western Diamond Back also called the Coon Tailed Rattler: Fairly aggressive, they get big. This snake accounts for 80% of rattlesnake bites. Tail is black and white. Mojave Rattlesnake: More toxic than a cobra or coral snake. It's small but can get up to four foot in length. It's easily confused with the Diamond Back but its tail has more white in it. It's found in the bootheel of New Mexico. Coral Snake: Very toxic but have to chew their victim to get venom in. They can get up to 4 feet in length. ID by the fact that the red and yellow bands touch each other. He again noted that it is important to ID snakes; size, type, etc. if bitten. When out and about protect yourself; don't handle any snakes, wear protective shoes and clothing (boots not tennis shoes). Carry a flashlight at night, have spare batteries handy. Don't put your hands where you cannot see as in bushes or rocks. Use a stick or your rock scoop to check out hidden areas. Don't be alone out there. Carry a Sawyer Yellow Kit which features reverse hypo suction. First Aid recommendations: Use your Sawyer Kit and start suction immediately. Let the hypo fill up, empty it and fill again, etc. Immobilize extremity, NO ICE, no alcohol, no mediations, no tourniquets, and no incisions. Rubber bands may be used to slow movement of venom. It is important to get to the hospital ASAP even if there is no pain as damage is being done to your body. Bringing the dead snake in or knowing which viper bit you would help the doctors greatly in treating you as the venom in different snakes varies. Tom recommended a book called Deserts by James A. MacMahon. Its a great reference book covering plants, mammals and cactus as well as snakes. Mineral Meeting News: The Mineral Meeting was interesting as always. There was a lot of review on identification of minerals which we can never have enough of. It was a beautiful evening and we spent some time sitting outside enjoying it. There were about eight of us, my visiting daughter Jackie being one of them. All in all it was another enjoyable and informative meeting. Reminders & General Info: Next meeting will be, as usual, the third Friday of the month, June 19th, Room 189, Breland Hall on the NMSU campus at 6:30 for social and 7 PM for the meeting. The speaker will be author Jack Staley. He will speak on the trilogy he is writing about the many aspects of gold. The basis for these books is his extensive research into the Dr. Noss and Victorio Peak Treasure. It should be interesting especially since it has taken place here in Dona Ana county. Refreshments will be hosted by Al Spenser and Jannette Hale. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who stepped up and helped me out with items for this Bulletin while I was "laid up" with the knee thing. Lee who taped the last meeting and speaker for me, Eric and Kathy who did the trip report, Brecken who did the Bob Cat Springs field trip report and Don for his great article on the Moon Rocks. Also thanks to everyone else who called to check up on me. Gemcrafters and Explorers Club "EL Gambrisino" Volume 51, Issue 9 September 2009 -2-

Trips & Such: Bob Cat Springs Field Trip:

Report & Photo by Brecken Uhl

The group took off from Ashley's furniture just north of highway 70 at about 7:30 AM in three vehicles. Doug & Nancy McDonald, Brecken & Julie Uhl, Janette Hale, Eric Fuller and of course Eric's dog Ruby made the trip that morning. It started as a very overcast, but not rainy, day which made the hiking very comfortable. The site is the southernmost of two closelyspaced springs just outside of Hatch behind a retention dam. The dam had been recently bulldozed, so a little path finding was required. Signs of occupation, both prehistoric and historic, were readily apparent. Ancient campfire rings and stone circles high up on the sandy bluffs overlooked an old washedout homestead site in the arroyo bottom. The arroyo was not running, but was very wet in the narrows near the stream. This made for some very cool hiking on the way back once the sun broke out. The arroyo bottom near the springs was like a little dense forest about 1/4 of a mile long, and a resident owl played hide and seek with us over the course of the day within the Bosque. Eric came out ahead, but everyone found some petrified wood. The wood came in a variety of colors, but was generally dusted with a white, chalky exterior. I even found a slightly green piece of wood, but with the same chalky white exterior. A group discussion came to the conclusion that the layer containing the very pretty petrified wood was long eroded away, as the wood was widely dispersed. A later trip to the site would do well to seek the higher layers to the West of the site that form the mesa wall of the plateau that runs all the way to Lake Valley. Hike too far south and the Hatch-

Deming highway would be met, but only after passing the Hatch airport. It was a very nice trip, and the weather was especially cooperative given the time of year. No one got rained on or sun burnt either!

Two typical pieces of the opalized wood that was found.

We could all learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

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Campout to Kingston Area

By Kathy Fuller, Photo by Eric Fuller On Friday morning, September 4 six members of the club headed up to Kingston. Doug and Alice couldnt camp due to the arrival of grandkids later in the day, but wanted to make the trip and see where the club camps. Mitch and Pat also had commitments for the weekend, but stayed through Happy Hour. We arrived at camp and set up quickly and headed to Carbonate Creek. We went on a short (?) hike to some old cabins to do some metal detecting. Kathy found half of an oxen shoe, but not much else of interest was located except a few old shells. Just before we arrived at the cabin it began to rain. We picked up the pace and arrived just in time to seek shelter from the rain. There is nothing quite like a mountain rain shower. After about 30 minutes it let up enough to allow a little more exploring. We decided to head back to the vehicles before it really let loose. Back at camp we found Ed and Nellie and Darwin and Valerie. We finished setting up the Happy Hour Tarps and started a campfire. By the time Brekken and Julie arrived Happy Hour was well underway (not that they were so late, but we started early!) There was a lot of great food and no shortage of conversation. By the way, no more rain that evening. Mitch and Pat departed for Las Cruces that evening. Saturday morning was a lazy start and we were expecting Janette Hale. Just as we were about to head out to Mineral Creek, Janette arrived. What great timing. We were able to depart as a group. Our hike that day was absolutely beautiful. Even though things were somewhat dry, the creek was running and the flora and fauna along the creek was very dense. It was very photographic and we saw several large pools of water. Kathy hiked a little beyond the group at one point and ran into a javelina. He was on the opposite side of the creek and going for a drink of water. Once he heard (rather than saw) her he turned and bolted in the opposite direction much to her relief. Some metal detecting was done that day and again old shells were the main finds. It was a special day detecting in that Janette Hale had her first find with her new detector: half of an oxen shoe! We did run across some Indian grind holes. After a fun day it was time to go back to camp for another great happy hour. Sunday morning we departed for Cave Creek to look at the Barite Mines and the associated ruins. Little did we know what exciting roads awaited and what death marches we would undertake after the visit to the mine. Eric helped guide vehicles on some of the bad spots and finally the cars were parked and only hikers and quads proceeded. Most of the group ended up hiking to a far off cave which involved plowing through very dense brush. No one emerged without a few scratches. Darwin was the leader and as such he ran
th

across the first of two rattlesnakes seen that day. He said the head was as big as Kathys fist! Luckily it was only a close encounter and no one was bit. Later, on the hike down from the cave, Nellie encountered her first rattlesnake in the wild. Needless to say she was just a little excited. Not to worry as Darwin came to the rescue and made sure the snake went off into the bushes and allowed the rest of the hikers to pass in a rather narrow, steep area. At the end of Sundays adventures we were all beat. We arrived at camp well after 6 pm and Valerie had started our campfire and cook fire! Our last day was mostly a rest day. Eric and Kathy did take the quads and set out to try to drive to the Virginia Mine. It was definitely a quad road. At some point on the drive down the unmaintained forest road we ran into a family from Las Cruces. The man just retired from the Joranda Experimental Range where he worked with John Smith (a previous guest speaker for the rock club and field trip leader on the range). The mine has not yet been reclaimed, so it was fun exploring around the area. There are many old stone (house?) ruins and an old wooden cabin which is suffering badly from the weather. We took lots of photos and plan to return another time for metal detecting. All in all it was a very fun campout.

Kathy at the Virginia Mine

Getting ready for Happy Hour

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Article of Interest:

Woodon the MOON??

by Don Saathoff Since 1969 our various Apollo missions have brought back 843 pounds of rock & dust from the Moon. Apollo 17 was, in 1972, our last trip to the Moon and the President, Richard Nixon, decided to gift each of 135 countries with a Goodwill Moon Rock. Each of these samples, about the size of the end of your little finger, was embedded in a lucite ball and affixed to a plaque with that countrys flag (which had been unfurled on the Moon) also attached. In the thirty-seven years since a good number of those Goodwill Moon Rocks have disappeared only to show up in private collections or for sale at auction..and some offered for sale are outright scams! Well, recently the National Museum in the Netherlands announced that what they had been displaying as a Moon rock was actually a piece of PETRIFIED WOOD. Does this indicate that trees once grew on the moon? The stone had passed from our ambassador to the Netherlands to then Prime Minister Willem Drees as a personal gift. When the former Prime Minister died in 1988, the stone was passed on to the museum. When it was discovered that NASA wouldnt have parted with ANY Moon rocks at the time of this gift (1969) a team of researchers from the Amsterdam Free University were asked to check out the rock. The true nature of the rock was revealed!! Exactly how or when the Moon rock had been replaced by the chunk of petrified wood remains a complete mystery. The Goodwill Moon Rock presented to Honduras in 1972 was retrieved as part of a sting operation in 1998 and the asking price was five million dollars. Ownership went into the courts and the U.S. won. The rock was cleaned up by NASA and re-presented to the Honduran Government. Other nations losing their Goodwill Moon Rocks include Malta, Afghanistan, and Romania. Gemcrafters and Explorers Club "EL Gambrisino"
Lunar Ferroan Anorthosite #60025 (Plagioclase Feldspar). Collected by Apollo 16 from the Lunar Highlands near Descartes Crater. This sample is currently on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

Actually only about two dozen of the original 135 presentations can be accounted for..but the petrified wood replacement takes the prize as the most bizarre!! Information for this article came from: Joseph Richard Gutheinz, Geotimes, November, 2004 and Toby Sterling, The Associated Press, August, 2009.

Qipup!gspn!Xjljqfejb! ! !

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Mystery Location?
This Month's location should be an easy one for all. Its huge folks, a huge gaping hole in the ground. It's an easy stop on one of the most scenic routes in the state (my opinion). It has already swallowed a whole town and is close to swallowing another revered landmark. If you need more clues give me a holler. Email your answers to me at: max4680@fastwave.biz

And now for last month's Mystery Location; I was with a number of people when we came upon this, guess it didn't impress them as much as it did me. The sign was found a bit west of the ghost town of Old Hatchita. Lee Attaway was the only one who knew where it was. Way to go Lee. Note: (Guess I won't use the pictures of the longhorn cattle that I took for any future Mystery Locations).

A POEM
By Irene Westbeld Members, please tell me - what's new? Anything - Funny? Dull? Or Blue? Did you give an interesting talk? Did you take a cold winter walk? Or fall on the ice and bruise your hip? How about a vacation trip? Were you sick and confined to bed? Were friends visiting at your homestead? Did you drop a rock on your big toe? Any of these things - I'd like to know. This valuable space is filled with a verse Please tell me your news, as the next one could be worse.

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Upcoming Show Dates:

Sep. 18-20 Oct. 2-4 Oct. 9-11 Oct. 10-11 Nov. 7 Nov. 13-15 Denver, CO; "The Denver Coliseum Mineral, Fossil & Gem Show", Denver Coliseum, contact Lowell Carhart (719) 886-7046 http://eons-expos.com There are also numerous shows in other Denver locations - See www.rockngem.com for info. Roswell, NM: Chaparral Rockhounds "Roswell Rock Rendezvous", Roswell Civic Center. The RMFMS Convention is held in conjunction with this show. Plan to attend if you can. Moab, Utah: 50th annual show; Moab Points & Pebbles Club; Old Spanish Trail Arena, free
admission; dealers, demonstrators, field trips, raffle, spin wheel; contact Jerry Hansen, (435) 2593393; e-mail: moabrockclub@live.com; Web site: moabrockclub.net Sierra Vista, Arizona: 35th annual show, Huachuca Mineral & Gem Club, Elks Lodge, free admission; live demonstrations, educational displays, gems jewelry, fossils, equipment, lapidary supplies, etc. Contact Ingrid Baillie (520) 459-3718; email: ibaillie@cox.net Midland, MI: Annual show; Mid-Michigan Rock & Gemcraft Society; Midland Resort Convention Center, Sat. 9-7; free admission; rocks, fossils, gems, jewelry, lapidary, contact Deb Acord, (989) 430-4471; e-mail: jackdanred1@aol.com

Nov. 27-29

New Mexico Mineral Symposium, NMT, Socorro, NM - This is a must for all mineral lovers. It is a 2 day symposium held at Macey Center on campus and filled with lectures, a tour of the museum along with a free breakfast each morning. Friday evening at the Comfort Inn in Socorro there is an informal tailgating and social hour in the individual rooms. There are dealers and collectors from all over - lots of fun with many bargains to be had. For details and registration form go to: www.geoinfo.nmt.edu/museum/minsymp/home.html Terlingua, Texas: Show; "Rock & Gem Fest"; Chihuahuan Desert Gem & Mineral Club; Big Bend
Motor Inn Conference Room, free admission; dealers, rocks, gems, jewelry, Kids' Corner; contact Mary Brogan, (432) 837-3824; e-mail: marybrogan@rocketmail.com; Web site: www.agates123.com.cdgme/

For further information or shows please go to www.rockngem.com There just might be a good rock show in the area of your travels.

Thought for the Day:

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?
Some Interesting Web Sites for you to check out:
Members occasionally send me web sites to check out and pass on plus the ones that I run across. Please send me any of your favorites that you think our members might be interested in.

www.spaceweather.com Space Weather http://www.steve-riner.com/nmhighways/nmhome.htm NM and MN Unofficial Highway pages, an interesting site of history on highways in NM and MN and another reminder of the federation sites where you can read or download their Newsletters and see what is going on with them: www.amfed.org and www.rmfms.org

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Gemcrafters & Explorers Club, P.O. Box 3091, Las Cruces, NM 88003
Member of: American Federation of Mineralogical Societies: www.amfed.org Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies: www.rmfms.org Blue Ribbon Coalition: www.sharetrails.org

2009 OFFICERS:
President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Refreshments Historian Programs Newsletter Dave Smith Kathy Fuller Lee Attaway Susan Banning Pat Mauer Don Saathoff Eric Fuller Maxine Wyman 521-3103 524-0204 523-4017 532-9612 526-4939 382-3464 524-0204 649-4900 joandaves@msn.com kathyf@nmsu.edu leeretired@comcast.net skstauffer@aol.com mpmauer@comcast.net auagte2@comcast.net ghosthiker@gmail.com max4680@fastwave.biz

We meet on the third Friday of the month at Breland Hall, Room 189, NMSU campus at 6:30 pm for social and 7 pm for the meeting. There is no meeting in July. Dues are $10 per person per year and each additional family member is $2 per year. They are due Jan. 1st of each year. A membership form will be emailed to you to fill out and to be returned with your check BY MAIL to the treasurer.

Info for the Newsletter:

If you have information, articles, pictures or a website related to gem crafting, rock collecting or exploring and would like to share please give a call or email me at max4680@fastwave.biz. If you have a good idea or story to tell I will be more than happy to help you write it up. Also if you have minerals, outdoor or camping equipment, etc. that you would like to sell please let me know for the "Classifieds."

Gemcrafters and Explorers Club

"EL Gambrisino"

Volume 51, Issue 9 September 2009

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