We met at the Mammoth Mine dumps. Very old dumps from early mining operations. One of the collectors was either very intelligent, or thought he knew it all, as he was proclaiming one rare mineral after another he was finding. After I found out who he was, I do think he was probably an authority on the mine and its products. We were collecting on an area of the dump where there were many types of copper arsenates. The dump was hard to dig into, because all of the overburden would fall quickly into our holes. It became pretty frustrating. We collected here for a while, and then moved to the lower dump. There I was able to find some nice CLINOCLASE and TYROLITE, which were rare classic minerals to have from the Mammoth Mine. One of the collectors found some very showy TYROLITE Crystals. We were all sad to see that one of our friends there was going back to his car, lost his footing, and literally threw his entire day of collecting into the air as he fell. He lost much of his smaller best micromount pieces he worked so had to obtain.
I returned a couple of weeks later alone, (always a bad idea to collect alone). It was summer, and I worried about the heat, but while I was there I was very comfortable. I thought it was interesting how during the mining operation, this material was pulled out, from way below the surface of the mountain, in an area that is not now known, nor accessible to anyone now, and left in a pile, protected for us to go through at this time to find great and beautiful and interesting specimens.
I returned to the lower dump, where I was able to pull out some pretty large boulders of material, and fresh material. I did pretty well. I enjoyed myself today.
I have actually collected on the old mining dumps at the Mammoth Mine too! I found some great pieces! I actually found an old piece of rusted steel there which about killed me getting it into my Jeep. It is about 12″ in diameter, and about 10″ tall. it’s got to be over 200 lbs! I use it for an anvil when splitting rocks. It will not move, nor vibrate. I love the Tintic Distric in Utah. I would love to return sometime. Perhaps another reader who has been recently can bring us up to date on the collecting possibilities of the area. I’d love to get a fine piece of Rhodochroscite from the Burgin Mine!
I was able to obtain a large stack of the original hand drawn mine maps (as big as table top) from the Mammoth Mine, in the Tintic Mining District in Utah. There was a collector there when they threw out all of the old paper from the mine office. He was there with some people who said they were from the University of Utah, and was told to help himself. I will probably be selling this old mining ephemera online, maybe on ebay someday. I’ll have to take a few photos for you to post.