THE BACKBENDER’S GAZETTE

President’s Message

Vice-President’s Message

In Memoriam

Section News

Notes from Neal

Shop and Building News

Education

Seam Agate from the Kokernot o6 Ranch

The Black Hole of Mineral Collecting

Bench Tips

A Important Message from American Lands Access Association

Minutes of the May 7th Board Meeting

Minutes of the May 28th General Meeting

Upcoming Shows

About Us

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Calendar

Officers and Contact Information

Happy June HGMS!

The last month has been a rough one, we have lost a member, Gary Anderson, who was with us since 1968. Neal is doing well after his triple by-pass from my understanding and has a few more surgeries to come. Our Treasurer and 2nd VP were hit hard with the Tornado/Derecho and I’m sure they were not the only ones. Let’s hope June goes a lot smoother.

I know the heat is here finally! Be safe and try to stay cool. It’s going to be a hot summer!

Our May general meeting had an awesome turnout and we practically filled the room. We’ve also had a number of volunteers stepping up to help out and hope more are interested! Show season is about to start and the show committee will begin planning soon! So if you’d like to help out with the show make sure to look out for their meetings!

Let’s keep digging those treasures out and having fun!

LT

The June 2024 General Meeting talk and demonstration, “Using and Making Stands for your Collection”, will be presented by Sigrid Stewart.

Get some tips on presenting your collection!

There are gorgeous and expensive custom acrylic stands, less expensive stands of various types, and some you can make yourself. Good for minerals and fossils.

Hematite with Calcite on homemade stand

Beading – Second Saturday, 12:30 PM  

 Always bring beading mat, scissors, wire, wire cutter, round nose and needle nose pliers, thread, and beading needles if you have them.  

Saturday, June 8th at Noon we will decorate the beads we made from fabric and felt scraps at May 11th with bead caps, wire, ribbon, and decorative threads and seed beads.

NOTICE: Do you have a bracelet or necklace that needs restringing?  The Beading Section will carefully restring your piece at an hourly rate of $15.00 + materials.  Contact Beading @HGMS.org to make arrangements.  All funds will go to the Beading Section.

Gemstones and Faceting – Second Thursday, 6:30 PM

The June 13th meeting will be announced. It will be a hybrid meeting.

Lapidary and Silversmithing – Third Monday, 7:00 PM

At the May meeting members worked on wax settings for the teardrop cabochon cut in April. At the June 17 meeting we will continue working with wax settings to prepare for casting demonstrations at our Annual Show. Free waxes are available and we will set the waxes up in flasks.

Tony will demonstrate making a poured silicone mold for wax injection to do metal casting. Once the mold is set, multiple wax models can be made using our Jewelry Shop’s wax injector. If there is enough interest, we will schedule time to make our own molds at a future Section meeting.

Refreshments will be served. Email Lapidary@hgms.org if you have questions.

Day Light – First Wednesday, 1:00 PM

The Daylight Section meets the first Wednesday of the month from 1 to 3 PM.

On June 5th at 12 noon, we will learn about enameling on metal. There will be a demonstration along with information about the step-by-step process. The participants will have an opportunity to enamel on metal if time permits.

Please register in advance to make sure we have enough materials for everyone. A $5.00 fee is necessary for each class to pay for materials. Register by sending an email to Nancy Searle at daylight@hgms.org. All programs are $5.00 and the fee is paid at the meeting.

Mineral – Third Wednesday, 7:30 PM

On June 19th Burton Dworski and Deirdre Prince will give a talk, “Review of Historical Mineral Labels”.

The link for the Zoom meeting is:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4517997588?pwd=SnZjckZBTnRMbHRxZitScE9WU3RWUT09

Paleontology – Third Tuesday, 7:30 PM 

We’ve started hybrid Zoom meetings that include members attending remotely via Zoom; if you’re intrigued by dinosaurs, trilobites, field trips to collect Texas fossils and all other paleontology-related topics we’d love to have you attend a meeting in one way or another and see what we’ve got going on. If you’d like to join the Paleo Section email list, send an email to hgmspaleosection@gmail.com and ask to be added.

June 18th^th meeting will be announced if held; Neal is out.

Youth, First and Third Saturdays, 10:00am – 12:00pm

Mostly we will be working on cabochons. June meetings on June 1st and 15th.

Participants must be at least 5 years old to attend meetings and be accompanied by a parent or guardian at all times when at the clubhouse.

Our latest auction was held at 2:00 on May 18^th at the club, thanks to donations! Many members were probably cleaning up their yards and fixing blown-down fences after the combination derecho/tornado that hit Houston on the evening of the 16^th, but we had power at the clubhouse, so the auction proceeded. Sorry you missed it! These are all the people who have donated to HGMS since Ray Kizer began as Donations Chairman:

Gregory Cooper: some small pieces of lapidary material and a few minerals like Amethyst crusts, and sp,e of the small jewelry bench tools.

Michael Patterson: some minerals and beaded jewelry pieces, and big Amethyst and Citrine cathedrals. Also, the big polished vertically-mounted slab in the library and some polished lapidary materials like spheres and a stone egg.

Norman Lenz: the jewelry bench and saw (without) the cast iron stand, the folding case for tools, some slabs and polishing powders and sticks.

Scott Brennan: the last donation of two car loads of cutting rough, small tools like the Dremel, Foredom and YOCA flex shaft tools. Also Slabs, Labradorite, Wonder Stone, Lepidolite, Bloodstone and some small mineral specimens.

Ross & Linda Heiland: big petrified wood and Dinosaur bone pieces, the high end Quartz and other mineral specimens. This material was donated on behalf of Stephen Newburg, Linda’s brother, who was a member of Rollin Rock Club. The Heilands are also making a donation to the Scholarship fund in memory of Stephen.

A memory of Stephen Newburg: Steve Blyskal and Sigrid Stewart ran into Stephen Newburg at every Gem & Mineral Show show and nearly every estate sale around Houston.

Neal is out, but I am reprinting this in honor of Gary Anderson and to show the value of their collaboration.

History of our Recoated Sanding Wheels – Gary Anderson first proposed that we recoat our wheels and I created the process we use. We did that because (before Covid) the Diamond Pacific 100 and 200 grit sanding wheels would last only 1/2 a year and cost about $150 each. The club was spending about $2500 a year on wheels. My formula uses 15 cts of diamond grit per wheel vs Diamond Pacific use of 5 cts. My recoats cost less than $10 for diamond and Locktite epoxy and I have saved  the club easily $40,000 in the last 15 years. I realize that saving money is no longer a priority for the board but it is for Gary and myself.

History of Sintered Wheels. – We used to use cheaper plated wheels but they were not cost effective. Gary could dull a brand new 80 grit wheel in one afternoon. I went to the board and gave them two options – we could either shoot Gary or buy better wheels (i.e. sintered). The sintered wheels last about 10+ years and even though they cost more than $500 each, that makes them cost effective. Since Gary is still here, obviously the board went for the better wheels.

History of the Super Grinder. – The sphere makers were using up our plated wheels. I created the Super Grinder out of cheap pavement saw blades because they grind 10x faster than even the sintered wheels. My great discovery was that I could increase the grinding rate by 3x by putting a spacer between each wheel so that it would produce more chips. This is also the reason that you must wear SAFETY GLASSES when using that machine.\

I showed it to Aaron and he said he had found the same stuff nearby and suggested handling it carefully, because some that he found had purple drusy quartz on it. We collected a half a bucket-full, and I think it is going to be great lapidary material! In the meantime, Jessica had found another interesting piece and started working on it, and Steve went to check out the area where Aaron had been digging and found a slightly different tan and gray seam agate with a drusy coating and collected some of that. Then he went back to work with Jessica. That find got bigger and bigger and refused to budge. Eventually they came down and said they couldn’t move it. One of the other collectors said, let me help, and they went back up with a 5-foot pry bar. Leverage got their prize loose in 5 minutes! Of the by-now three pieces, they carried down two and had to leave the biggest one. Jessica is now the proud owner of a large and interesting agate specimen.

Then it was time for a break and some lunch. After that we headed to Sagenite Hill, where we had found sagenitic agate in the past.  Now we just need find time to clean the material we found at Sagenite Hill that afternoon and at Happy Hill and The Window sites the next day. I’ll bet there’s some great stuff there too.

I have been collecting minerals for 60 years and have managed to acquire an extensive collection without investing large sums of money. I have never acquired or dealt in “high-end” minerals, the kind with 3 or more zeros in the price or even a “price upon request” sticker. Despite that, over the years I have heard tales of a “Black Hole” collector, someone who bought specimens and secreted them away, never to be seen again.  I have seen lots of high-end collections in person and in Tucson Gem Show displays and great specimens in articles in mineral magazines, and thought I knew something about what it took to be a high-end collector.  Recently I received my new issue of the Mineralogical Record, with an article about the Red Ledge Gold Mine in California.  Perusing it, I saw an article on the owner of the Red Ledge Gold Mine, who had passed away in 2023.  Reading it I realized this was the legendary “Black Hole” collector I had heard about.  He bought the best specimens from the best finds and put them into storage, never to be seen again.  He apparently bought and operated gold and gem mines on several continents and sometimes bought the entire contents of significant finds of minerals.

Dear Fellow Rockhounds,

As this year unfolds, it is proving the point we’ve been stressing for quite some time, which is Rockhounds across the country need to become more involved in protecting their collecting areas. Also, we all need to do our part to help the clubs in other parts of the country where their collecting areas are being threatened.

Campaigns for the recently proposed Kw’ts’án, Chuckwalla and Sáttítla national monuments in California and Bahsahwahbee in Nevada are increasing.

As of May 2, 2024, the current administration through Presidential Proclamation announced the expansion of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in California, and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in California.

With what we know today, an advisory committee under chapter 10 of title 5, United States Code, will be established on behalf of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. The advisory committee shall be a representation of interested stakeholders, including State agencies and local governments; Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples with cultural, traditional, or ancestral ties to the area; recreational users; conservation organizations; wildlife, hunting, and fishing organizations; the scientific community; business owners; and the general public in the region. If you have collecting areas in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument expansion, you as Recreational Rockhounds will be able to have your voice heard. 

However, with our current understanding in the expansion of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, Recreational Rockhounding will not be allowed, period.

In addition, the campaign for the proposed Chuckwalla monument will threaten our access to the Wiley Wells’s geode beds, which include the famous Hauser Geode Beds. The Wiley Wells area has long been a favorite collecting area for Recreational Rockhounding since the 1930’s.

For those of you who have clubs in these territories where monuments are being planned and expanded, and just as importantly if you are an individual who rockhounds in these areas, we all need your help, so we can help you. You are the boots on the ground because you know the collecting areas, your routes and what’s collected there.

As we found with the Mojave Trails National Monument, it has been important to get your comments in at the beginning of the planning, because sometimes the BLM will not allow comments from the public who were not involved in the planning from the beginning. Please remember, our experience with the Mojave monument planning. The BLM stated they received by far, more comments from Rockhounds than any other organization. That is a huge success statement for Recreational Rockhounding to let in, and one to congratulate yourselves on. It took effort, and you did the work to create that. This tells you what Rockhounds can do when they put in the effort.

As we continue to experience the creation of more national monuments, and our collecting areas being closed, one of the continual problematic common denominators, is there aren’t enough Rockhounds working with Public Lands managers to make them aware of our existence and recreational history on these lands. We have to keep introducing ourselves each step of process, with the documentation ALAA has been stressing for many years. No one is going to do this work for us, only you as Rockhounds can. That old saying, “out of sight, out of mind,” is exactly what a part of this problem has been. If you do not participate, Recreational Rockhounding will not be recognized as a historical aspect of the land use, and no one will know about us. We will be forgotten.

Please attend the public meetings or virtual meetings the government provides. If you cannot attend the meetings, written comments are equally important.

Please don’t give up because there are more of these monuments and changes in public land use threatening our collecting areas. Get involved, stay involved.

In regards to the Wiley Wells Geode Beds, it would be a huge shame if we lost this collecting area. In the year 2000, ALAA together with the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies created and signed a MOU with the BLM on behalf of continued rockhounding in this area.

This MOU is a Memorandum of Understanding which constitutes an agreement between the Unites States Department of the Interior, BLM, CFMS and ALAA. It is an agreement to protect the area for continued collecting. It is an agreement among rockhounds we all will comply with the BLM’s regulations (CFR Title 43 8365.1-5(b)(2)). Rockhounds and BLM were very happy with this agreement, and updated this MOU in 2016.

At this time, it is important for Rockhounds to contact their congressmen to let them know we’ve had a MOU with BLM for the geode beds located in Wiley Wells for the past 25 years. And, that we have been complying with the (CFR Title 43  8365.1-5(b)(2)) for personal collecting. And, we want that area to be kept open to us in compliance with the CFR Title 43 if the bill passes for the monument.

Below is a link to the BLM’s regulations (CFR Title 43  8365.1-5(b)(2)). It explains in general that members of the public can collect reasonable amounts of nonrenewable resources on public lands. Rockhounding on Public Lands | Bureau of Land Management (blm.gov)

We are all in this together. Put your hearts to your pen and in your voice. It is an honor to help serve you as the American Lands Access President this year. But what I have known for many years, this is not a one person job, it takes everyone working together.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Haley, ALAA President 2024

American Lands Access Association

May 14, 2024

President’s Comments:
We created a priority list for the club to set expectations for handling items. We will discuss this in future meetings to settle what is expected.
Call to order (upon achieving a quorum) 7:43 pm. Eight voting members attended.
Approval of April BoD meeting minutes:
Motion: Motion to approve April BoD meeting minutes by: LT Wilcox
Second by: Sharon Halton Approved: YES, Yeas Nine Nays 0
Treasurer’s Report:
· Electrical Contract update: In place to start with NRG. Start the first business date of the end of our existing contract. NRG handled all the transferring over from Amigo to NRG
· Profit & Loss Excel spreadsheet: Key issues need to be resolved. Have settled by the end of June.

Board of Directors Meeting / Last Updated 2024
Membership: Sarah Metsa not present for comment

Old Business:
· Tony – Smithing Room Ventilation: Working out final details for going forward with plans. Closed: NO – must find someone to do the work.
· Oil price – “Sharon stated that the Cost Per Gal is $16.68”: Still in the process of making the final decision on what to increase the price of sale to. Richard suggested the cost of selling the oil should be $20 a gallon. Closed: NO
· Zettle/iPad – No new pads, 2 need to be returned to the club – by Sigrid Closed: NO – pending returns of machines to the club.
· Thermostat Updates: Honey Well – $170: Still researching by Sharon Halton. Closed: NO
· Paypal.me link to be set up by LT Wilcox for Kitchen and Shop to take payments. QR code will be set up to make a payment through paypal.me link* Closed: NO

New Business:
· Stafford Center and having a second show possibly – Jeanean is doing research on this new location for a second show. Closed: NO – still doing the leg work on this – in process
· Security System review – New Cameras – Recent Incidents Closed: NO – future information needed to move forward
· MS365 – Start Using it to have everything club-related all in one place. Closed: YES
· Google Suites – Cloud for Web
· Section Leads, Member, Club Participation

Board of Directors Meeting / Last Updated 2024
· Soda/Water Fridge Updates: Sharon is now handling this for the club. Closed: Yes
· Starting a Priority List – LT to Review the list and add items as needed to help the board and section leaders stay on top of things better. Closed: NO – in process

Section and Committee Reports:
Volunteer Committee: None
Show Committee: None
Program Committee:
Jeanean requested more participation from the section leads, and board members. So far, she has yet to receive a response to this request. Concern from
board members and section leads on how to coordinate programs if their meetings are done via Zoom. Jeanean explained that it is still possible to have
programs via Zoom. There should be shared responsibility from both the 1st VP and the Committees as this would be the most beneficial. We have a small group of people who participate, and we need to figure out how to encourage others to be more involved in giving programs during the general meetings.

Adjourn
Motioned to adjourn the Board of Directors Meeting 1st by LT Wilcox and 2nd by
Sharon Halton. The meeting was adjourned at 9:32 pm.
Approved: YES Yeas 8 Nays 0

President LT Wilcox called the meeting to order at 7:40 pm. There were twenty-three attendees present (we are all so happy about the large number in attendance) and four attendees online.

President Comments

• Sarah has a go-fund-me page for her home damaged by a tree during the recent storm. Please keep her family in your thoughts. Contact LT if you want information regarding the go-fund-me information.
• Sharon had an electricity and internet outage due to recent storms. They are still waiting for the recovery of these utilities so information for the treasury may be slow coming, please bear this in mind. Their next-door neighbor had a tree hit their home, so Sharon has been busy helping her neighbor with the issues caused by the damage as well. Please keep her family in your thoughts.
• Neal just had major open-heart surgery this week. He is doing very well according to his wife & Foster. He is still in the hospital for at least 3 more days. They will update all of us again soon.

OLD BUSINESS

• None

NEW BUSINESS

• Auction 2-5 pm on July 18th
• Tech day 10 am-2 pm & 2-10 pm June 15th, 2024

Cost: $10 per member & $20 per non-member

• Foster updated us on donations given to the club by Mr. & Mrs. Heiland for the auction completed on May 18, 2024, by Ray Kizer. The club earned $1,800 from the auction and the Heilands’ are sending a check for $2,000 to match the auction money collected to be used for the school scholarship fund.

SECTION NEWS

• None

COMMITTEE NEWS

• None

SHOW AND TELL

• Sigrid Stewart (now 1^st VP of the South Central Federation of Mineral Societies) and husband Steve Blyskal attended the AFMS National Convention, held at the “Seaside Gems at Ventura” show hosted by the Ventura Gem & Mineral Society, at the Fairgrounds in Ventura, California. It was a good show, held in two large Quonset huts, one for club activities and one for vendors. The Club part featured 50 competitive cases, judged by several people including former HGMS member Ron Carmen. One case, put together by the President of the VGMS, showcased exquisite pieces of California Poppy Jasper. Another, which Sigrid will show later, featured a mock-up of a rockhounds garage. They also had the kid’s activities, demonstrations, silent auctions and talks that make club shows popular, and a field trip to collect rocks on the beach. There were interesting dealers at the show; Wolfe Gems had the biggest area on the show floor (and also in Tuscon, AZ). Steve and Sigrid showed specimens purchased in California and some of the new agates collected from a recent trip to the Kokernot o6 Ranch near Alpine in West Texas. Steve will present a talk about collecting on the Kokernot o6 at the Clear Lake Club on June 16, 2024

• David and Susan Fitzhugh: They happily shared their rock collection from South Africa. They live in South Africa and only return to the States once or twice a year. The rock collection comes from the Manganese, Zimbabwe, and Namibia areas. You are not allowed to go digging/hunting rocks or fossils on your own accord. You must be with a group or tour to set up a day to dig in certain areas.

The business meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm. Motion approved: Yes 26 No 0

We took a 15-minute break for refreshments: everyone enjoyed assorted cookies, fruit tarts, and lovely apples provided by Debbie Seid, our Social Chair.

Door Prize Winner:

1st winner was Ryan McDowell

2nd winner was Debbie Sied

PRESENTATION: Given by, Jeanean Slamen

She has been an HGMS member since the early 1990s. She is involved in Lapidary and jewelry-making. Jeanean’s son showed her some fossils they found in the locations, and she became interested in researching this site herself.

Famous Late Pleistocene Sites of Central Texas were discovered in 1920.

• The Waco Mammoth Site
• Friesenhahn Cave is in San Antonio, TX

This area is World-renowned for the Homotherium serums’ cat fossils.

No site has yielded more invertebrate fossils than this one. The most experienced researcher, Russell Graham, pointed out that this site has the most fossils of the Homotherium serum cat and baby mammoths. The Homotherium serum cat’s main diet was baby mammoth, bison, and horses. This is known since they were also in the cave in large amounts. These fossils were formed 2.6 million years ago and up to the ice age 240 thousand years ago.

The cave is in the middle of a golf course development now closed off by a small fenced and gated area. The site is used for educational purposes for high schools and colleges in the area.