Minerals of the Lucky Strike quarry, Mason Co., Washington
A great stilbite cluster with a 3.5cm primary spray.
After a good summer season collecting in the mountains, winter hits fast. During the winter months, in order to stay sane many of my friends go up to the mountains for snow sports, many of them especially fond of snowboarding. Due to my lack of skill in such areas, I have to resort to collecting numerous low-lying localities. One spot I particularly like is the Lucky Strike/Manke Pit near Kamilche.
At first glance, the rock looks pretty drab. Your usual black pillow basalt, with a few streaks of white here or there. However discouraging this looks, amazing crystals of stilbite, heulandite, calcite, apophyllite, and pyrite hide within the tough pillows. The quarry consists of two levels: a lower level with a huge slope of debris going straight up into an upper level which has a face of solid rock. As I haven't learned to rappel yet, I resort mainly to the boundary between the upper and lower levels and dig in the quarry’s shattered bedrock under the external debris. As a general rule of thumb: if you see a pillow, head towards the center. In my experience, about 1 in 5 to 1 in 10 average 1-2ft sized pillows will contain a pocket of zeolites, calcite or apophyllite. Finding a pocket is really up to chance - but you can increase that by just moving more rock and rubble.
You’ll soon be able to quickly identify any minerals you see. Stilbite forms in its usual habit: sheaves or simple hexagonal sheets. Heulandite also forms in its usual habit: curved crystals with modifications and coffin-shaped terminations. Apophyllite is one of the rarer minerals, forming 4-sided crystals that terminate in either a point or a flat face (modifications common). Pyrite forms in its usual cubic habit, as small blebs around pockets. Sometimes finger-like stalactites of pyrite cubes may occur. Last of all, calcite is one of the rarest minerals you will be able to find a well-crystallized specimen. It forms either in a modified scalenohedral habit (as shown) or in twinned cubes.
