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

Affiliated with the AFMS and a member of the RMFMS

EL GAMBRISINO
June 2009 - Volume 51, Issue 6

Notes from the Previous Meeting:

President Dave Smith opened the meeting at 7 PM. As our speaker, Mike Graves, needed to leave early he went right to the introduction and the program for the evening. There were two guests with us this month: Steve Davis and Bunny Jones. Guests from last month, William and Kathy Duermyer were with us as new members this month. Dave thanked our refreshments host's Valerie Peebles and Julie and Brecken Uhl. They put on a varied and great spread which was enjoyed by all. Secretary' Report: Susan Banning stated that new Membership cards not picked up tonight would be placed behind the name tags. Treasurer Report: Lee Attaway stated that we have $1,644 in the bank and $45 Petty cash for a total of $1,689. We received a thank you card from Judi Keith. Our BRC annual membership is up this July 30th. As you know the Blue Ribbon Coalition is an advocate for public land use. Eric Fuller made a motion that it be paid and Ed Leake seconded it. It was approved by voice vote with one exception. She also mentioned that there are several free subscriptions to the BRC magazine so if anyone is interested please give her a call. It is first come, first served on these. Dave thanked Lee for all her hard work and great job she has done and a hearty round of applause followed. Programs: Eric reported on last month's field trip to the Iron Hill. It was a small group and they went to the Iron Hill mine on the Corralitos Ranch. From there they went up to Magdalena Peak. The gate is now unlocked and anyone can drive up to the top for the wonderful views. After partaking of the scenery there they went to an old World War II bombing range where there is a lot of metal scattered around. Not to worry, live ammo was not used for practice. This target is one of about twenty in Dona Ana and Luna counties. Eric found three old coins from the 1940s. Eric also informed us that they would leave for Mule Creek on Friday the 22nd at 7:30 am from Love's Truck Stop on I-10. He asked that anyone planning on going to please call him with your cell number in case of any change in plans. Maps were included in the last news letter.

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. Refreshments will be hosted by the Fullers and the Halls. Remember - no regular meeting in July. A great reminder from Lee: Expecting company from out of town? Why not take them to see the Zuhl Collection on the NMSU campus. They are open from 8-5, Monday thru Friday. It's a great collection of petrified wood, fossils and minerals that anyone should enjoy.

Gemcrafters and Explorers Club

"EL Gambrisino"

Volume 51, Issue 6

June 2009

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Program Notes:
Our speaker for the evening was Mike Graves of the UDSA, AHPIS (Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service), Wildlife Services. They handle wildlife conflicts with humans, endangered species, disease monitoring, wolf recovery program and agriculture problems. Their focus is heading towards the endangered species and disease monitoring. Raccoons are also rabies carriers, which is more common in them than in skunks. They eat chickens and cats. Coyotes also cause a lot of calls. They are evolving into "Urban Pests". They can easily jump a 5 foot fence and eat "Fluffy". A pair will work together to get their prey. In our territory they are only 20-25 pounds but when raising pups they will attack large dogs. They are very territorial and very clever and they cause much damage to livestock. They do not relocate as they will always return to their own territory. To keep them out of your property you will need a chain link fence 5-6 feet tall. Rattlers also cause a lot of trouble. In the summer heat they like cool places such as in flower beds, under decks, etc. Roadrunners will kill and eat small snakes. Wildlife Services does a lot of work at airports as bird strike issues are hazardous to air planes as can be the rabbits on the runways. Then there is the pigeon problem at the dairies. Pigeons will defecate in the feed and water and thus can cause a disease in cattle which will cause the dairy to be shut down and can cost tens of thousands of dollars. He told us a bit about the Dove problem. The imported Eurasian Collared Dove is overtaking our native species, the Mourning and the White Wing Doves. The Wildlife Service has not been able to stop this invader. The Service used several devices to trap or kill problem animals. He showed us a device, the M44, which is used to poison coyotes. Some of us when hiking have come across warning signs telling of them and to keep your dogs away. It's a spring loaded device that has chemicals that react with salvia to form sodium cyanide inside. It kills in 5 to 7 seconds. He is very selective as to its placement, never using if there is a lot of human activity or during bird hunting season. They also use two different types of traps and by law the area is posted when used. It sure was an interesting talk and I still can't get over the fact that there are so many beaver here in the valley. An interesting side note is that Mike is a 4H Leader in Hatch and has about forty kids in his group. Good going Mike. Contact info for them is: Wildlife Services, 527-6980.

Mike Graves The Wildlife Service does everything from mitigating bird strikes at airports to getting skunks out from under trailer houses. One of their jobs was to protect the 9/11 site from the thousands of sea gulls that converged. They had crews of four that worked around the clock for months as searchers were looking for body parts. Some of the more common problem critters: Badgers who chew water lines but on the good side they do eat rats. They can be relocated. Beavers are an especially Big Problem in the Mesilla Valley. They plug culverts and destroy irrigation ditches and cause much damage to agriculture. Unfortunately there is no place to put trapped animals so they are euthanized. Mt. Lions that come close to town and eat pets are becoming a problem. They can lose their fear of man and thus become a major problem. Their number one predator is another lion. A male will kill and eat another male. They will return to their home territory if relocated. Skunks are the most common problem as in 800 to 900 calls a year. (One of Mike's least favorite calls). They can be rabies and distemper carriers.

Gemcrafters and Explorers Club

"EL Gambrisino"

Volume 51, Issue 6

June 2009

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Mineral Meeting Notes:

Wednesday's meeting was crowded as there were twelve us gathered around the table and microscopes, a good size crowd for the lab. Several people brought specimens to show us and a lot more to be checked out under the microscope. Don and Alan were busy helping out. Of course there is nothing like a little Django Reinhardt playing in the background to mellow one out. There was a lot of discussion on various mines and hot spots for minerals. Some of the younger members of the group get out exploring a lot and are full of information on different sites. Blast, if only I were ten years younger. Also a couple of those younger members were "gimping" as bad as I have been lately. Good luck you two, I hope you're both "repairable" and that you're back on the trail in good health, minus the gimps, again soon.

Some of us took Cookie (well known for her "Green Thumb") up on her offer to show us her gardens which are alive with flowers and cactus not to mention the neat things she does with rocks around the yard. I sure enjoyed the tour; her garden has changes in it every time I see it. There's a lot of work involved there.

All in all it was a fun, informative meeting and would like to take this opportunity to thank Don for sharing his expertise with us.

Gemcrafters and Explorers Club

"EL Gambrisino"

Volume 51, Issue 6

June 2009

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Mystery Location? This months Mystery Location is one that is very popular with historians and tourists alike. The mountain in the background is a well known feature, can anyone tell me its name or where these features are located? It is on one of the many state scenic drives. Send your answers max4680@fastwave.biz to me at

And now for the answer to last month's Mystery Location. It was correctly identified by a number of you as the old ranch house on the Corralitos Ranch on the way to the Iron Hill location. We've passed it many times on various club trips. Congratulation to: Don & Cookie Saathoff, Leroy Unglaub and Elaine Franz,

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All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

Gemcrafters and Explorers Club

"EL Gambrisino"

Volume 51, Issue 6

June 2009

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Field Trip Reports: Campout at Mule Creek, May 22-25, 2009

Report by Kathy Fuller
It was a great campout for those of you who missed it. We had a total of 19 people in attendance, 4 ATVs, 2 motorcycles and 5 dogs! The happy hour tarp was set up in case of rain, but was never needed. We did have a few rain sprinkles on the drive up and a little rain during the night Sunday. The collecting was good. Some nice specimens of amethyst crystals were found by the Peebles and Uhls. We managed to squeeze a few more beads out of the usual collecting area. Eric and Kathy found 10 between them and Brecken even found one. Dorian was also persistent and collected several as well as Jannette Hale. Ed, Nellie and Ally worked hard bashing rocks as well. Mitch and Pat Mauer spent lots of time walking the known arrowhead sites. collected firewood, but special thanks go to the Halls and Julie Uhl and her two assistants, Angela and Donnie. Besides the bear, we saw lots of deer, a hawk in its nest high in a pine tree near camp, rabbits and squirrels. We heard lots of turkeys, but none were actually seen as far as I know. Fresh Elk droppings were everywhere, but again no Elk were sighted.

Photo by Bill Uhl Breckens dad, Bill, joined us and provided lots of information about survival and even some private ATV lessons to the teenagers. He also gets credit for taking photos of the most exciting event of the campout (ok it was exciting to me!). One evening during happy hour, just after cooking some great sausage over the fire.Doug Hall spotted a black bear about 100 yards from the happy hour table. (Ok so maybe women are not good at measurements!) We think he/she was young, but appeared to be nearly full grown. Brecken saved the day and scared it away. He didnt want it to become a camp bear and subject to trapping or worse. Before the bear ran off, Breckens dad managed to snap a couple of photos with his digital camera. Our campfires were outstanding. Thanks to Doug and Alice Hall for digging out the fire pit and providing the copper tubes filled with garden hose. The tubes produce brilliant colors in the flames. Everyone

Photo by Bill Uhl Eric collected some coins from the old hippie bus and we brought back a very mutilated teddy bear from the bus for our camp mascot. We had so much food at happy hour that we decided to start divvying up food assignments each night. There is no need for everyone to provide food each night and we cut down on waste. Thanks go out to Darwin Peebles and Bill Uhl who worked at removing small tree stumps and bashing rocks from the road into the campsite. We also need to thank Ed and Nellie for once again providing Agavero at Happy Hour.

Photo by Cindy Fuller

Gemcrafters and Explorers Club

"EL Gambrisino"

Volume 51, Issue 6

June 2009

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Articles of Interest: How about those Limestones?

By C.E. Johnson

Many rockhounds and prospectors are not aware of the significant role of these formations in the search for minerals. If you have read this far, I congratulate you. If you read the rest of this article, I sincerely hope you profit by it in some way. There are numerous ways limestone formations serve us, but for the moment, let's consider only the rockhound point of view. Sedimentary limestone formations of course give rockhounds the chert & flint varieties of Chalcedony, and sea life fossils and shells, and some contain gypsum, aragonite & pyrite, etc., Much of the worlds oil has been produced from natural reservoirs in porous limestone's and dolomites, and as sedimentary rocks, limestone's are a major source of lime used in the manufacture of cement and fertilizer, some are used a paper-filler, etc. Some are used as building stone and many other industrial purposes. In addition to the sedimentary values, the effects of dynamic metamorphism (changes due to natural pressures in the earth), converts the limestone family rocks to marble & calc-schists, etc., which often converts the original limestone's minerals to more desirable ones, and when these rocks are intruded by bodies of magma they make excellent host rock formations for ore deposits, and rockhound minerals. In the contact zones with the magma, they will convert to calc-silicate rock and skarn, which then often contain metallic ore deposits and other non-metallic minerals, including certain kinds of garnets, diopside, epidote, wollastonite, fluorite, calcite & dolomite, serpentine, tremolite/actinolite. Any precious metals would be very sparse in this environment. Any metals would most likely be ores of iron, copper, and tungsten. Graphite is frequent. Any two or more of these minerals may occur in any one deposit. They are typically coarse-grained, with broad & distinct cleavage surfaces. These deposits show gnarled pocket like outcrops. The moral of this story of course is that regions with these limestones and intrusive rocks together, especially if the limestones are overlying or adjacent to, the intrusive rock formations, are happy hunting ground for rockhounds & prospectors. This example is only one of many examples of the primary clues that rock formations give us in our search for minerals, but of course if you dont know where those favorable geology areas are, this information is only academic, right? Read on. The most reliable and fairly easy way to find favorable places for many minerals is to obtain a geologic map of your area or any other area you may be interested in exploring. Geologic maps show rock formations and many other very helpful bits of knowledge about the areas shown on the maps. Those geologic maps are available at places such as the USGS offices (United States Geologic Survey) and their State affiliates, some office & stationary suppliers, some state geology departments, bureaus of land management offices, etc. If they don't have them, they probably will direct you to the most likely sources that have them on hand. I recommend that those who are computer-wise log in on <usgs.gov> and follow the links to what you need. Its easy if you do it right. If thats not an option, you can call 1-888ASK-USGS for information, or write to USGS Information Services, Box 25286, Denver, CO 80255.

Gemcrafters and Explorers Club

"EL Gambrisino"

Volume 51, Issue 6

June 2009

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Upcoming Show Dates: Carlsbad, NM: Annual show, road Runner Gem & Mineral Club, Living Desert Zoo & State Park. Free Admission. Contact Cathy Hamilton (575) 885-8572. June 19-21 Santa Fe, NM: 5th Annual show, Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum, Palace of the Governors Courtyard. Contact Carlotta Boettcher (505) 476-5112. July 3-5 Farmington, NM: San Juan County Gem & Mineral Society, Farmington Civic Center. Free admission. Contact Mickie Calvert, (505) 632-8286 July 11-12 Roseville, MN: Har Mar Summer Show, Anoka County Gem & Mineral Club, Har Mar Mall. Free Admission. Contact Martha Miss, (651) 459-0343 July 11-12 Culver City, CA: 48th Annual Fiesta of Gems, Culver City Rock & Mineral Club, Veterans Memorial Auditorium; contact Robert Thirlaway, (310) 213-7677 www.CulverCityRocks,org/fiesta Jul 30-Aug 2 Billings, Montana: AFMS/NFMS Show & Convention, Billings Gem & Mineral Soc.; Holiday Inn Trade Center. Contact Doug True (406) 670-0506 www.amfed.org/nfms/nfmsshow Aug. 6-9 Buena Vista, CO: Continental Tailgate at the Rodeo Grounds, outdoor show. Free admission. (303)833-2939 or (720)938-4194. www.coloradorocks.org Aug. 14-16 Lake George, CO; Lake George Gem & Mineral Club, next to Post Office, free admission. contact John Rakowski (719) 748-3861 www.LGGMClub.org Aug. 29-Sept. 7 Apache Creek, NM: "Agate Rendezvous 2009", an Inter-federation Campout & Field trip Event. Please RSVP by Aug. 24th. Contact Yonis Lone Eagle, RMFMS VicePres. at 505-860-2455 or rockymountainrockhounds@yahoo.com Sep. 18-20 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 locations - See www.rockngem.com for info.

June 19-21

Nov. 13-15

New Mexico Mineral Symposium, NMT, Socorro, NM - For your planning, more information to follow.
For further information or shows please go to www.rockngem.com

Thought for the Day:

How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZm037jPNgc&NR=1 You Tube attack dog & wolf attack styles http://sar.lanl.gov/maps_by_name.html Topo Maps on line USGS http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm ISS Comes Together - really cool.
And finally an interesting piece of info for all the tourists who think they're putting a hand or foot in each of four U.S. states at the Four Corners area. They are apparently missing the mark - by about 2.5 miles. Check this out: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30327372/from/ET/

Gemcrafters and Explorers Club

"EL Gambrisino"

Volume 51, Issue 6

June 2009

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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 or trade please let me know for the free "Classifieds."

Gemcrafters and Explorers Club

"EL Gambrisino"

Volume 51, Issue 6

June 2009

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