FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[simonoff]

I did some asking around concerning the exact location of this locality: Exceptional find at the Holyoke Trapps. No one I asked could come up with a possible location that is legal to collect. Can you clarify?

Thanks
Bob

[vic rzonca]

The trapp sheet flows in western MA. cover many square miles with many road cuts, closed quarries and trails that skirt and climb this vast formation. I've been a field collector, rock climber and hiker for 40 years and have had occasion to access unfriendly ground. Let me say the location is south of Mt. Holyoke and north of Provin Mt. . Please understand my reticence, we may not be finished with our work. I would in no way encourage or condone collecting, in as you say, an illegal location. One point about preservation, not enough gets done by quarry owners to preserve our mineralogical history. As a naturalist, there are few things that fire me up more than to get a look at an exposed working quarry face, to be witness to the time and change written there always leaves me amazed. And to consider that this history gets crushed into road iron sit uneasily with me. Thank you for your time.

[Riccardo Modanesi]

Hi Vic and hi to everybody!
Vic: why are the conditions of researching minerals in that area so "unfriendly" as you defined them? Is the ground unsafe to be walked through (for example dangerous), or is it simply forbidden to get there and pick minerals up from there? Is it a national park, does this area require special permissions to be got there and pick minerals up...? Please clarify it us! Your specimens are very beautiful!
Greetings from Italy by Riccardo.

[Jordi Fabre]

I separated and created a new thread with this three messages connected with the question of the precise location of the Holyoke Trapps in order to maintain the thread Exceptional find at the Holyoke Trapps related with its primary idea: display such wonderful find.

Thank you to everybody.

[vic rzonca]

To reply to Riccardo's question. Unfriedly ground, in this case, means steep, vertical to overhanging rock with some exposure and accessible only with mountaineering techniques. Original strahler stuff, ropes, biners, aiders, risk of death, all the fun things. All in the pursuit of science and beauty. And - no,no, no and no to the other parts of Riccardo query.

[Riccardo Modanesi]

Hi Vic and hi to everybody!
Ok very kind of you, Vic! I hope you didn't get angry for what I wrote before! I just wanted to submit you a simple question! I know not everywhere in the world minerals are allowed to be picked up, expecially if unlimited. If the example of Vic is not among this case it's ok. I think I won't go there if it is so dangerous to be walked over, I am just a collector, not a hero! For example, six years ago Jordi told me something similar about Nortern-Spanish deposits of sphalerite and fluorite (Jordi, do you remember, when we met each other in your home in Barcelona?), where it is required to dive (yes, DIVE!!!) for a while to get there!
Greetings from Italy by Riccardo.

[vic rzonca]

Not at all, Riccardo, but no heroism here, aggressive, passionate, persistent, yes. It's the way I was raised. I'm sure I read of divers collecting datolite nodules in the Great Lakes. Great fun! I'm sure I'm not the first to be vague, part of the hunt. If it was easy, everyone would do it. Thank you, Riccardo, for your kind words.