Hansen Creek August Update
This update will cover claim events and pockets hit for the month of August as well as some of late July.
Notable Pockets
(July 17, 18, 19) The “Breadcrumb Pocket”.
A mostly weathered pocket that started about 3 feet under a large stump on the western end of the “Chain of Stumps”. Lustrous amethyst crystals, often with sharp phantoms and glassy terminations, were strewn throughout the pocket-enriched dirt. The good crystals led me, like breadcrumbs, to a back wall where I pulled out two of the darkest amethyst I have found to date, including an exceptional cluster of scepters up to 5cm, and nothing else. I figured that most of the pocket had eroded downslope over the eons. In total, the excavation was a tunnel about 10-12 feet deep (almost 2 body lengths) and produced a few dozen pieces of amethyst, worked over a span of 3 consecutive days. The clear quartz was unremarkable.
Top amethyst scepter specimen from the Breadcrumb. Note phantom and rich, dark color.
Spread of amethyst crystals from the first day of digging the Breadcrumb Pocket.
(July 25) The 2021-01 “5-Gallon” Pocket.
The first numbered and cataloged pocket on the claim! Michael invited up about a dozen close friends to dig and improve the claim one Sunday. I picked a hole that had some exposed bedrock around 15 feet directly under the Breadcrumb and I figured that the same mass of bedrock might house more amethyst pockets. Branden, Dustin, and I worked the hole, mucking out and trying to expose more of the bedrock. After moving at most about two cubic yards of material, I spotted a shattered quartz seam running downwards - a clear indicator of at least a small pocket. Some more rock was moved and soon enough the quartz shards gave way to slender clear crystals. The pocket eventually was emptied out and we scooped out just over 5 gallons of debris from it, hence the name. I kept some choice plates and singles up to 3.5” and a gallon of crystals, and couldn’t be bothered sifting through the vast amount of muck. Once the crystals were clean, alongside the usual chlorite and actinolite inclusions I also found three crystals with sharply modified pyrite inclusions.
Spread of crystals fresh from the 5-Gallon. Note long crystal to the left, measures 8cm.
(Aug 21) The 2021-02 “Birthday” Pocket.
Along the same “Chain of Stumps” was a hole that was quite deep several years ago but has had multiple collapses. In the back reaches was a vein that produced several large vugs, one which was probably the size of a bathtub (unfortunately I never got to see the crystals from this one, would’ve been a thrill if it were unbreached!). I identified a couple of target areas on the vein weeks prior, and as I didn’t have a productive hole to work I decided to go try my luck. Less than 50 pounds of rock were chiseled away and soon I was into broken quartz shards… then an odd-shaped crystal rolled out. Turns out, it was actually an amethyst scepter head! I excitedly dug back further in the pocket, eventually finding a ~4cm glassy amethyst scepter with light smoky zoning and a rhombohedral inclusion of what we believe to be an oxidized carbonate. In total the pocket produced about 20-30 pale amethyst and about a matching number of clear crystals.
Amethyst crystals, with 4cm scepter (center) from the Birthday pocket.
Quartz cluster with huge 10cm+ crystal from the SK Pocket. Collected by Michael, Aug 21st.
(Aug 21, 22, 23) The 2021-03 “SK” Pocket.
Michael came up late on the same day as I opened the Birthday pocket and started working the same promising vein just a few inches to my right. Soon, he located a small chamber of clear crystals and clusters on the floor of the hole but to our dismay, it went dry rather quickly. I left the hole for a few minutes to poke around other holes and when I got back, he had a fantastic pile of points and was reaching his arm in for more! The quartz seam eventually opened up to about 2 feet wide, 1 foot tall, and 3 feet deep. Michael dug the majority of this one, eventually getting some points (on matrix!!) in excess of 4 inches and some top-quality clusters reminiscent of the material from last year’s Father’s Day pocket. Some of the plates a bit higher up were of exceptional quality with flawless, glassy crystals. A few pale amethysts were found in the corners of the pocket. In total, there were about 6-7 gallons of points recovered and several flats of clusters.
(Aug 23, 24) The 2021-04 Pocket.
A large pocket was discovered by Joe and Branden. Unfortunately, the main chamber of this one was already breached by the elements, leading to a pocket nearly devoid of crystals but many concentrated zoned downslope. We located several side chambers of the pocket and extracted some huge chunky frosty to light smoky scepters. Some have phantoms. The pocket, when done, was about 6 feet x 3 feet x 3 feet - absolutely giant!
