FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[trickpats]

Hey so I am just starting out. My first time going out will be to St Peters Dome. If anyone has clues or hints on how to find crystals that will help! I have heard about quartz being a good indicator as well as mica. If anyone has been there or going there soon I would love to maybe learn some things from you!

[Psax]

Like a papal tiara adorned with sapphires, rubies, emeralds and other gems?
Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome is the only "St Peters Dome" I know. :))
What do you mean? Thanks.

[trickpats]

I am located in Colorado Springs. St Peters Dome is very close to here. sorry for not specifying. It is a mountain or "dome" that is told to have many many different gems.

[Psax]

Oh, I see.
The place seems really interesting!

[Herman van Dennebroek]

Hi trickpats,

The location is mentioned in the book "The Rockhound's Guide to Colorado", page 152/155.

I visit the site in the summer of 1997. It was a disappointing experience. I found some rough purple fluorite and some very small (less than 0,5 mm) brown crystals. I have no idea about the identity of the small crystals.
I followed the route description exactly, but it's possible that I was not on the right spot. It's also possible that the situation for collecting has improved because of work done by Rochhounds.

Success and let me know if you found something.

[Pete Modreski]

TP, one has to remember, in an international group like this, not everyone will necessarily be familiar with a somewhat local name like this! I'm pasting in my own picture of it. I would agree, that it is not real easy, to find good specimens here. I gather you know that it's located along the Gold Camp Road. There are some prospects and mining tunnels where, as mentioned, some purple fluorite is found, but it's rarely in the quality of good crystals. But if you walk along the closed-to-vehicles stretch of the Gold Camp Road (going northwards), there are many places where good specimens have been found in the past--but it will require searching, prospecting, and digging trial holes to find them. Zircon, smoky quartz, fluorite, rare earth minerals (bastnaesite and others), genthelvite, and many can be found--with luck and persistence; especially on the steep slopes of the hill known as Stove Mountain, located about a mile north of St. Peters Dome (as the crow flies; more like 2 miles, as the road winds). You probably know that there is an old mine adit called the "Eureka Tunnel" that has been a source of (small) zircon crystals, also around it, cryolite; and also in that general area, crystals (mostly embedded in solid quartz) of the black amphibole-family mineral, riebeckite, and the golden-brown, mica-related mineral, astrophyllite. Good luck and happy hunting.

[CodyDel]

Hey trickpats, I personally had no luck at St. Peters Dome when I went a few years ago. I mostly stick to Bear Creek Canon around Specimen and Sentinel Rocks. It's basically in town, (I park at the four way at Lower Gold Camp Road and High Drive) as opposed to driving Old Stage Road it's the easiest effort for mineral pay off. Old diggings are very apparent and there are a few active claims below Sentinel Rock. You could take a hike up there and look at all the float and rock that they were pulling out and that will teach you what the pegmatite looks like that you are looking for. Obviously don't dig on the claims but you can observe the rock so you can learn. Dig your own test holes and look for the same type of rocks. If you want to get out sometime and dig pm me!