T ROCK-A-TEER Newsletter of the Puyallup Valley Gem & Mineral Club Jillian Higgins Issue 24 Volume 77 January 2020 THIS ISSUE President’s Perspective P.2 Special Recognition P.2 Field Trip Report P.2 Club House Schedule P.3 Meet a Member, Debbie Overman P.4 Topaz Mountain Adventures P.5-6 Mineral of the Month P.7 From the Bench P.7 2020 Show and Tell P.8 2020 Officers and Chairs P.9 Word Search P.10 Happy Birthdays P.10 P.O. B O X 1 3 4 , P UYALLUP , WA 9 8 3 7 1 PVGAMC@ GMAIL . COM WWW . PUYALLUPVALLEYGEMANDMINERAL CLUB . COM (253) 9 8 7 - 6 7 5 1 President’s Perspective Tony Johnson Happy New Year! I would like to thank all of the members of PVGMC for the chance to be your president and to represent all of the members of this club. When I first joined the club in 1997 it was a lot smaller, but the people in the club were great to be with and full of hope. Now we are the largest club giving our members more opportunities to learn many lapidary skills, rock hounding, easy access to machinery for cutting and the best rock show around. The reason for this all coming together is the great people that we have in our club giving of themselves. I have much pride knowing that I was a small part of this. I know we will have a good time this year. Special Recognition Person Being Recommended: Brett & Sherry Lawrence Recommended by: Jillian Higgins Reason for Recognition: Brett & Sherry Lawrence have been members of the club for 13 years and have been helping the club in many, many ways. For my part, they help me behind the scenes, working month after month to make sure our newsletter goes out to everyone who wishes to receive it by mail. They print, fold, label, and mail all newsletters. They provide content to the newsletter and Brett makes all the wordsearches which we enjoy. Brett is always available if I have questions, of which I have had many. He always responds to my emails & answers the phone when I call. I really appreciate these behind the scenes warriors for everything they do for the club and myself. Field Trip Report January 18 – No Field Trip No Field Trip Due to weather and access February – No Field Trip No Field Trip Due to weather and access Please remember that even though we love to meet new people, fieldtrips are a member benefit and part of your membership dues covers you for injury liability. Though injuries are rare, and we do everything we can to avoid them, we are going out into nature, and uncontrollable environment. All individuals attending field trips will have to sign a release of liability, and if you are bringing guests, we will try to entice them into join the club by having Membership applications available. 2 | Page JANUARY 2020 CLUB HOUSE SCHEDULE DATE DAY TIME ACTIVITY LOCATION INSTRUCTOR 1 Wednesday Holiday - New Years 2 Thursday Holiday - New Years 3 Friday 4 Saturday Holiday - New Years 5 Sunday 6 Monday 10:00AM-2:00PM Members Open Access Club House Bill Clark 4:00PM-8:00PM Members Open Access Club House Ed Knoll 7 Tuesday 7:00PM Club Board Meeting Fruitland Grange Jim Christian 10:00AM-2:00PM Members Open Access Club House Dennis Batchelor 8 Wednesday 4:00PM-8:00PM Opal Cutting Club House Tony Johnson 9 Thursday 4:00PM-8:00PM Members Open Access Club House Renera Barnes 10 Friday 7:30PM Club Business Meeting Fruitland Grange Tony Johnson 11 Saturday 10:00AM-2:00PM Darcy's Wire & Bead Bracelets Club House Darcy Calchina 12 Sunday 10:00AM-2:00PM Members Open Access Club House Bill Clark 13 Monday 7:00PM-8:00PM Opal Club Business Meeting Club House Tony Johnson 14 Tuesday 4:00PM-8:00PM Members Open Access Club House Ed Knoll 10:00AM-2:00PM Members Open Access Club House Dennis Batchelor 15 Wednesday 4:00PM-8:00PM Wire Wrapping Club House Tony Johnson 16 Thursday 4:00PM-8:00PM Members Open Access Club House Renera Barnes 17 Friday 10:00AM-2:00PM No Field Trip Field Trip Dennis Batchelor 18 Saturday 10:00AM-2:00PM Members Open Access Club House Dennis Batchelor 10:00AM-2:00PM Silversmithing Work Shop Club House Dave Sanderson 19 Sunday 20 Monday 10:00AM-2:00PM Members Open Access Club House Bill Clark 21 Tuesday 4:00PM-8:00PM Members Open Access Club House Ed Knoll 10:00AM-2:00PM Members Open Access Club House Dennis Batchelor 22 Wednesday 4:00PM-8:00PM Opal Cutting Club House Tony Johnson 23 Thursday 4:00PM-8:00PM Members Open Access Club House Renera Barnes 24 Friday 7:30PM Club Program Night Fruitland Grange Tony Johnson 25 Saturday 10:00AM-2:00PM PMC Bird House Pendants Club House Becky Conwell 26 Sunday 27 Monday 10:00AM-2:00PM Members Open Access Club House Bill Clark 28 Tuesday 4:00PM-8:00PM Members Open Access Club House Ed Knoll 10:00AM-2:00PM Members Open Access Club House Dennis Batchelor 29 Wednesday 4:00PM-8:00PM Opal Cutting Club House Tony Johnson 30 Thursday 4:00PM-8:00PM Members Open Access Club House Renera Barnes 31 Friday For questions about a specific class or event, contact the instructor Jim Christian (253) 720-9502 Ed Knoll (253) 651-7453 Dennis Batchelor (360) 870-8741 Tony Johnson (253) 863-9238 Bill Clark (360) 893-6919 Dave Sanderson (253) 380-8273 Renera Barnes [email protected] Jillian Higgins (253)355-3146 Glen Ripper (253) 508-7545 This schedule is subject to change. Please check website for updates. 3 | Page MEET THE MEMBERS Name: Debbie Overman Favorite Quote: “What’s up Chickenbutt?” What are your skills/past experience with the rock Club or rock hounding? Several years ago, my brother & I (along with our spouses) began clearing out my parents home to put it up for sale when they moved into a Care Center. Lo and Behold, we discovered buckets of rock, buried rock, slabs, polished rocks, tumbler & wind chimes my Dad had made with rock slabs. What do I do now?, I said. That’s when my friend Randy Summers led me to Puyallup Valley Gem & Mineral Club. So I’ve not gone on a “true” rock hounding trip, I just go look thru my Dads stones and think of him. What is your favorite rock, mineral or gem? I really like Pinolith, it is beautiful, and the history behind it is amazing. What is your favorite thing to do with rocks, minerals or gems? Cabbing has become my passion, and is very relaxing to me. What are your three favorite books/podcasts? Outlanders Series Gardening books (especially flowers) Cookbooks with lots of pictures (even though I don’t cook a lot any more, I love them!) What is your favorite memory surrounding rockhounding? Outings with my friend and fellow RockGirl Renera to the Swiss Park Shows & the Puyallup Valley Gem & Mineral Club show. In your opinion, what is the best thing about the Puyallup Valley Gem & Mineral Club? LaVon, Mike, Herb (miss you Spencer). Visiting with friends, meeting new ones and talkin’ Rock! In your opinion, where/how does the club need to improve? The Club has already made some positive changes in the last year! Rock ON! 4 | Page Topaz Mountain Adventures By Kevin Higgins Last October for my wife and I’s Birthdays, we decided to hop on plane and fly First Class from Seattle to Salt lake City Utah to do a bit of Topaz mining. I had learned about Topaz Mountain Adventures from watching a YouTube video posted on my favorite rock hounding channel “The Crystal Collector”. If you haven’t already, go check him out, he’s got great stuff about mining minerals in the United States and Canada. Upon arriving in Salt Lake we took a shuttle to the nearest rental car outfit, picked out a high ground clearance vehicle and set off. Our destination of Delta, UT is a little town at the junction of HWY 6 and HWY 50 and a 2-1/4 hour drive from SLC. This would be our base camp for the next few days. If a guy wanted to, you could camp up closer to the mine in the desert, but this guy is fond of daily hot showers. We checked into a Budget Hotel (I would not recommend staying here) and then swung by the grocer to stock up on water and lunches for our packs. From Delta to the Topaz Mountain site is about an hour drive. It’s pretty easy driving until the last few miles where the pavement turns to sand, and in turn the sand into ruts. The path is marked reasonably well by signs, but does lack the clarity to keep you from feeling like you might be going the wrong way. As long as you are going toward what looks like the remnants of an ancient exploded volcano, you are on the right track. Once we arrived at the mine we were greeted by Ronda and her Bangled cat (aptly named “Topaz”). Rhonda stays in her trailer at the mine site to check people in and accepts credit cards. That is, when she is not busy running off claim jumpers and earning her nick name of “The Wicked Witch of Topaz Mountain”. I however was treated kindly and she even came up and showed us the ropes of hard rock mining Topaz.