My first photo thread using my new/old screen name

[denbot]

Of course it will be about Turquoise.

The kids working the muck piles of the now defunct Toltec Turquoise Mine of California. If you look closely at the lower left corner you will see Blaise pecking around the twin tunnel opening.



Blaise next to an unclaimed turquoise dig. The only veins exposed were low quality chalk like turquoise, but this site might produce if someone was willing to risk digging through very hard granite.



Ali is talking to the owner of a nearby claim and our host for last weekend. Mike is a true blue conservative, but one of the nicest guys you would want to meet. He lives near his claim, pretty much like the desert miners did a hundred years ago. One of the last of the old time miners.



This is a picture of me at one of Mike's claims. He let me work a little vein of very high quality turquoise. It is extremely hard work pecking the turquoise out of granite host rock. You will notice that if I took one step back, it would be a drop down a twenty foot shaft. He and his buddies with claims in the area only use hand tools. The work they have done, in the harsh conditions they face is nothing short of amazing.




This is looking down the shaft I was perched above. My hands are bruised and bloodied from coaxing a couple hundred carets of turquoise out of the surrounding granite. All this work was done by hammer and chisel, hard core, old school mining.



All that work, hardship, and dedication for this.. Gem quality turquoise from the Apache Canyon Mine Complex. It beckons me.



Thanks for looking.

denbot
A.K.A. puerco-bellies

[XemaSab]

1. I swear rocks and minerals are my next challenge

:bounce:

[denbot]

2. If rocks and mineral are your next challenge

Then swearing will happen. Especially after Mr. Hammer kisses Miss finger..

[XemaSab]

3. No doubt

I think swearing also happened the day we walked into advanced soil lab and the FIRST THING was a rock and mineral quiz. x(

[denbot]

4. Are you a ag or geo major.

I had to study a little bit of soil geology in a stratigraphy class. It was way tougher then I expected.

[XemaSab]

5. I was a soils major

We had to take a bunch of geology, which I liked, but the rocks and minerals? Notsomuch. x(