If you notice a recent abundance of poppy jasper on the market (I have seen bowling ball-sized boulders at a few shows) it is because the site was opened to fee-digging for the last year or so. For years this one site has supplied gem rough for lapidaries throughout the nation and beyond. Finally, exploratory holes were dug until two reliable veins were found just feet from one another. When that had all been removed rockhounds attacked outcrops with gads, prybars, and sledges hoping to find jasper in the host rock. Back then, the jasper could be collected as float material. Also, three collectors from the Monterey / Carmel area.) was hill climbing near his Morgan Hill home, South of San Jose, California and noticed some pretty, red rocks. Around forty years ago a young, local boy named Martin Kramer (That's Martin in the photo, characteristically swinging a pick.
The location is private, residential property and past owners were understandably protective of their treasure. With each cut exposing a succession of unexpected patterns I have often been surprised by my finished gems, (though I would always say, "Yep, that's the look I was going for.")įew people knew exactly where it came from, and fewer still were permitted access. What rockhound is not acquainted with the red and yellow flowers, orbs, and poppies in this highly sought after cutting material? We have all 'ooohed and aaahed' viewing the slabs and cabs at gem shows. The new owners show no interest in the mineral deposit and reportedly will be filling in and abandoning the site. The Morgan Hill Poppy Jasper property cleared escrow and is now off limits to the public. They haven't been back since.Thursday, May 14th, 2009 quietly marked the end of an era. The material was barely recognizable as Morgan Hill Poppy Jasper and I didn't see them sell any when I was there. No more from that source that I have heard about, though.Ībout three years ago some guys has a lot of the material for sale at our local Pow Wow (Snyder's Pow Wow in Valley springs, CA) but I looked through it somewhat and didn't buy a thing! The sellers said they found it as float. The local county sherrif went to the local rock shops and confiscated all that had been sold to them.Ī year or two ago I read where some people knew a rancher there who had a digging area for some really high quality material. He insisted that he got the stuff legally, which he obviously didn't do. He really screwed the local rock shops that bought material from him. He was brought back to California, but I never heard what the punishment ended up being. They went after him with a $200,000 warrant. The rangers said don't dig!!! He didn't listen and when the rangers got wind of his antics they went looking for him. The guy had moved the markers around to make it look like he wasn't digging in the park. The problem was that it was on the edge of the county park. Rainy day project.Ī few years ago a guy was quarring the material from a small hole in the ground. Often you find smaller pieces in rock shops that are really too fractured to cut, but I have a few set aside to try and stabilize with resins. It is often less fractured, but the poppies do not pop as much. In 2005 I saw the darker type vary from $6 to $10 a lb. may need to be logged into ebay to see completed auctions. Rocksj2b2 on ebay has had nice small pieces selling for $6 to $11 a lb, but some really nice bits went for $23/lb or even one lot that went recently for $33/lb. I have seen good stuff sell for $25 of $35 a lb. That chunk, which was about 7lbs cost me over $100 in 2008, and I was getting a discount because it was part of a shopping spree. I cut some slabs for material like that recently: Other poppies might show one or two rings around the poppy, and the color contrasts and sharper edges can be nice too. In my judgement, the darker varities are a little more altered and closer to MOHS 6 than MOHS 7. I cut some stones from material like that, which I got from Stoner, and was pleased: Some poppies are darker colored on darker background and have softer edges. Some of the nicest contrast poppies are in large older fractures that have filled with white quartz. Poppies usually form before fracturing (lots of fractured poppies), but there have been multiple waves of fracturing. It does vary across the area in how much iron (red/brown/purple jasper background) there is and the degree to which fractures are healed.
0 kommentar(er)
