Example: bachelor of science

Rockhounding on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Canadian Rockhound: Rockhounding on Vancouver Island, British Columbia Page 1 of 11. Rockhounding on Vancouver Island, British Columbia By Rick Hudson, Let's start with the basics, because even finding Vancouver Island on the map can be a mite confusing. There's Vancouver , Oregon, and there's Vancouver , Washington, and then there's Vancouver , ; but none of them are on Vancouver Island. They're on the "mainland", or "over there", as the islanders call it, and pity them for being stuck on a continent. Vancouver Island, on the other hand, is about 20 miles offshore of the city of Vancouver , BC, and stretches like a long, flattened football up and down the coast. Its west coast is cut by deep fjords and steep, forested peaks, while its east coast (the one facing "over there") is flat and inhabited by less than half a million people.

Rockhounding on Vancouver Island, British Columbia By Rick Hudson, Ph.D. Let's start with the basics, because even finding Vancouver Island on the

Tags:

  Islands, Columbia, British, British columbia, Vancouver, Rockhounding on vancouver island, Rockhounding

Information

Domain:

Source:

Link to this page:

Please notify us if you found a problem with this document:

Other abuse

Transcription of Rockhounding on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

1 Canadian Rockhound: Rockhounding on Vancouver Island, British Columbia Page 1 of 11. Rockhounding on Vancouver Island, British Columbia By Rick Hudson, Let's start with the basics, because even finding Vancouver Island on the map can be a mite confusing. There's Vancouver , Oregon, and there's Vancouver , Washington, and then there's Vancouver , ; but none of them are on Vancouver Island. They're on the "mainland", or "over there", as the islanders call it, and pity them for being stuck on a continent. Vancouver Island, on the other hand, is about 20 miles offshore of the city of Vancouver , BC, and stretches like a long, flattened football up and down the coast. Its west coast is cut by deep fjords and steep, forested peaks, while its east coast (the one facing "over there") is flat and inhabited by less than half a million people.

2 When my wife and I moved there, the general feeling among my Rockhounding friends was "nice place, but poor hounding country". Boy, did we find out differently! Vancouver Island is a 250 mile long island off the west coast of Canada offering a wide range of great minerals and gemstones. 23/10/2005. Canadian Rockhound: Rockhounding on Vancouver Island, British Columbia Page 2 of 11. Rhodonite Country Victoria is the provincial capital and home to half the total island population. If you go to any tourist store you'll see carved rhodonite figures -- bears, salmon, eagles. "Where does it come from?" I asked many a store owner. " Vancouver Island," they always replied proudly. But where exactly, no one seemed to know.

3 After a lot of digging in the mineral titles office, I finally tracked down the two best known sites. "Hollings" was a small rhodonite quarry that Fred Hollings mined in the 50's and 60s. It's located on the southern end of Salt Spring Island, which means you have to take another ferry from Vancouver Island to get there. (Either Swartz Bay to Fulford Harbour, or Crofton to Vesuvius). Once on Salt Spring Island, it took us several weekends of hard hunting to track down the exact location. The locals had either never heard of it, or weren't telling. We never figured out which. The quarry itself has just been sold as part of a new housing project, so is now on private land, but there is still loose material laying around.

4 Rhodonite (which is a manganese silicate, H = 6) weathers from brilliant pink to a black oxide that makes it tough to notice among the host basalts. A hammer blow can turn an otherwise dull-looking 'leaver' into that strawberry pink 'keeper' that just makes your heart leap. The Hollings quarry produced some of the best and hardest rhodonite on Vancouver Island, but it is by no means the only deposit. Vancouver Island is probably best known for its rhodonite (a manganese silicate) that produces fine jewellery. It is found in the Cowichan Valley, and on Salt Spring Island. Close to the town of Lake Cowichan (west of Duncan), a high ridge on the north side shades the town in summer. Known as Hill 60, there are several rhodonite outcrops, found along the crest.

5 The most famous is the 'Hill 60. Mine' at the east end, where many tons of the material was cut from the steep hillside and slung down a cableway to a railway in the valley below. 23/10/2005. Canadian Rockhound: Rockhounding on Vancouver Island, British Columbia Page 3 of 11. To reach the Hill 60 Mine, you'll need a 4WD vehicle and a lot of courage. The last two miles of track up to the ridge are very steep and washed out, and the short track down the other side has a grade of about 1 in 1! But the views from the top, and the material to be found at the site, are well worth the effort, even if you have to walk those miles like we did, before I. convinced Rockhounding buddy Simon Deane to bring "Thunderpaw" (his 4x4) to haul us up the hill in comfort.

6 Developed in 1919, the open face quarry on the steep south slope has a band of black manganese-rich material set in banded green and red tuffaceous cherts, with occasional lenses of jasper. A few thousand tons were taken out in the 20's, and then in the mid-80's prospector Earl Jacques took out more high grade material, which he had carved in China. Some of that material was so good, it was gem quality. Today, the mine is under claim, but inactive. Check with the Gold Commissioner's Office of the Geological Survey Branch in Victoria (250) 952-0542 for the latest information. At the west end of Hill 60 Ridge, another quarry just below the old fire lookout is worth a visit. Not nearly as steep to get to, the rhodonite content is lower, with more quartz, brown/yellow rhodonite, and psilomane.

7 Blood Jasper Running almost parallel to the rhodonite outcrops in the Sicker Formation are outcroppings of some of the North-West's best red jasper, shot through with white quartz. On the west side of Salt Spring Island there's a dyke that stretches up and down the hill over a hundred yards in length and ten yards wide, but the ownership of this remote deposit is unclear. Instead, better to head up the Chemainus River valley just north and parallel to the Cowichan Valley. South east of Reinhart Lake a large jasper outcrop butts right onto the road, sticking out through the spruce trees with no other rocks around. We heard about this deposit from Winnie Espitalier, who is the grande dame of Rockhounding on the island.

8 Canadian-born Winnie and her French aristocrat husband settled in Nanaimo in the late 40's. He was crazy about ocean sailing. After his death, Winnie felt she couldn't handle their huge sailboat alone. Instead, she developed a passion for rocks and minerals at a time when the hobby was unknown in these parts. Over the following four decades, she accumulated some incredible specimens. Today she can still point to a rock, casually placed in a corner of her garden, and tell you instantly when and where it came from. Despite Winnie's description of what we were looking for, and where it was, that huge jasper boulder next to the road looked too easy! On the third pass, we stopped and scraped away some of the layers of dust to reveal a stunning monolith that has to weigh 50 tons.

9 It's still there. What can you do with 50 tons? 23/10/2005. Canadian Rockhound: Rockhounding on Vancouver Island, British Columbia Page 4 of 11. Blood-red jasper dikes, cut with quartz stringers and pyrite are found in the Chemainus River valley. The material polishes well, and has a wonderful variety of colours and forms. There are other, more manageable deposits in the neighborhood, located on back country logging roads, bedded in green chert. Perhaps the easiest to find is up Boulder Creek. If you're just looking for float, then approach from the south side (Chemainus River). The creek is full of bright red chunks, washed down from the source. But access to the motherlode is difficult from the south, on account of the local forest company de- commissioning the road.

10 That's a polite way of saying they dug a deep trench across it! The first time we followed the creek upstream, looking for the source of that beautiful cutting material, we left the vehicle at the trench and walked, took several wrong turns, waded the stream twice (it was spring, and there was snow on the surrounding peaks), and generally had a great time getting nowhere fast. After a lot of bush thrashing, we gave up trying to keep dry, and just walked up Boulder Creek in our wet boots. At a particular point, the jasper in the river bed disappeared. After scouting around, we identified a small side creek just a few feet wide that had to lead to the source. Fighting our way up this for about 400 yards, we saw a clearing in the trees with a rock outcrop that looked interesting.


Related search queries