|
President’s Corner
Paul Boni
Happy New Year! 2009 ended on a high note for our club and 2010 is off to a
great start.
Our Gem and Mineral/Model Train
Show was a great success. We brought in a record 2100 attendees! We also
welcomed 12 new members to our club. I’d like to thank each and every one
of you who pitched in. It’s something that we do together and the show
simply wouldn’t happen without you. So, from the bottom of my heart, Thank
You. On January 21st we will have a volunteer appreciation party for our
show volunteers, more information inside this newsletter. I also want to
thank our friends at the Boulder Model Railroad Club. I have especially
enjoyed the combined format that we’ve developed in the last few years.
Shaula Lee has stepped down as
our Field Trip Chair. Thank you, so much Shaula, for the memorable field
trips. Anita Colin and Gabi Accatino are our new Field Trip co-Chairs.
Shaula will continue as club librarian. Anita and Gabi are off to an early
start. Stay tuned for information on upcoming trips. Terry O’Donnell has
the first four months of programs arranged with the towel show, two
excellent speakers, and our annual silent auction. The annual towel show
will be in January this year.
Annual club dues are overdue. If
you haven’t paid your dues please do so at your earliest convenience. Those
who have not paid by the end of January will loose all privileges of club
membership.
That’s all for now folks,
****************
Winter 2010 Schedule
Jan
14—Our annual towel show: bring specimens you have collected or jewelry you
have made during 2009 and compete in one of many different categories,
including “ugliest rock”. Categories
for kids, too!
Feb
11--Our speaker for February is Beth Simmons, who will be giving a very
different and interesting presentation on Arthur Lakes, the founder of the
Colo. School of Mines!
Mar
11--March's talk is going to be given by Doug Bamforth. He's the CU anthropologist who recognized
the Clovis era tools found at the foot of Flagstaff and got them tested for
the protein residue! He'll be
talking about the cache and the work on it. Another very different and
interesting talk!
****************
Flatirons Mineral Club Annual Show
Sets Records
The FMC 2009 show was a good success. The show organizing committee wishes
to thank each and every club volunteer who worked at the show on Dec
11th-13th and who helped set-up and teardown the materials before and after
the show hours. Special thanks to this year's Show Chairman Ray Gilbert for
an outstanding job in managing all of the aspects needed to put on such a
good show along with the Boulder Model Railroad Club.
We
had had 1900 attendees on Sat and Sun and another 200 at the FMC show on
Friday for a total of 2100 for the weekend! Many club activities were held
such as the U-V room (not to be missed), live demonstrations of lapidary
arts, mineral identification, classes and lectures, exhibits cases and of
course, the kid's area activities.
The kid's area raised a record amount of proceeds for use in the
club's Colorado School of Mines scholarship endowment fund.
Extra
thanks to Alex Cook and Ed Raines on the excellent U-V room displays, to
Emily Epstein for arranging the lectures, Kristy Traynor and Shaula Lee for
running the kid's areas, to Paul Boni and the O'Donnell Bros for the
demonstrations areas, to Paul Ralston for organizing the exhibits cases and
to Ed (again) for a lecture with book-signing. Please mark your new 2010
calendars for Dec 10th-12th for the shows in the same Fairgrounds building.
Exhibit Cases
Judging Results from Show
Junior Cases
Fossils - Charles
Mock
Lapidary - Tie
between Max & Stefan Rosenboom (and) Preston Dailey
Minerals - Dylan
Sellers
Best Field Trip
(Club) - Charles Mock & Anita Colin
Best of Show -
Greg Linderham
Senior Cases
Fossils - Dennis
Gertenbach
Lapidary - Ray
Gilbert
Minerals - Craig
Hazleton
Best Field Trip -
Jeff Self
Jewelry - Martha
Towne
Best of Show -
Bill Hutchinson
Door Prize Winners
The 2009 winners
of the Show Grand Door Prizes are (pictured): Carleton Gamet of Longmont
who selected a Quartz Massive on Mangano-Calcite substrate. Additionally,
Polly Patterson of Berthoud won a large piece of banded Arizona Fossil
Wood.
Show Volunteers
appreciation party
There will be a
show volunteer appreciation party for the club volunteers starting at
7:00pm on January 21st at the "Clover" Admin Building (due south of
the main hall, perched on a small hill) at the Boulder County Fairgrounds
in Longmont. (Same place as last year.) Refreshments served by the club.
Please RSVP to Gerry Naugle by
3:00pm on Jan 21st so we know that you, or you and spouse/kids will be
attending.
****************
2009 Towel Show at
January 2010 Club Meeting
The
next monthly FMC meeting will be on Thursday January 14th at the West
Boulder Senior Center at 909 Arapahoe Ave.
The
meeting will start at 7:00pm and will be the 2009 annual Towel Show night
for senior and junior divisions of findings from (1) club-sponsored field
trips, (2) personal field trips, along with (3) jewelry and (4) lapidary
arts. Additional categories include (5) ugliest rock and (6) best
towel. Bring your best 2009 finds or
creations, and show them off!
The
2010 annual Towel Show will be held at the November meeting, when it has
traditionally has been held. A good
time should be had by all in January, please bring some snacks or
finger-food with you to the meeting. Thanks.
****************
2010 Field Trips
Anita
Colin and Gabi Accatino
Greetings
from Your 2010 Field Trip Coordinators!
Plans
are in the works for spring, summer, and fall trips. There will be museum visits, easy day
trips, and weekend trips for those with real stamina!
Trips
to collect fossilized leaves, wood, insects, and marine invertebrates are
all in the works.
In
the summer months, for you gem and mineral lovers, we will be heading to
Calumet Mine and Mount Antero.
Two
trips are already on the calendar:
On April 17, Dennis Gertenbach will lead a trip to North Table
Mountain to collect zeolites and August 12-15, we will head to Buena Vista
for the annual Contin-Tail (“cottontail”? – no – “continental tailgate”)
super rock show gathering. (Like
“Burning Man”, but in the mountains…with rocks!)
Volunteers
to lead trips and suggestions for trips are always welcome!
****************
FMC Board Meeting
Jan
25 (Monday) is the next Board Meeting, Paul Boni’s house. As always, all
club members are invited to the club's Board Meetings.
****************
An Elephant Never Forgets!
A friendly reminder that the annual dues to the FMC become due on October
1st, 2009. The dues are only $18 for individual and their member immediate
family. You can pay in two ways:
SEND A CHECK made out to: Flatirons Mineral Club (or) FMC
P.O. Box 3331
Boulder, CO 80307
or
you
can pay cash or check to Gerry
Naugle, Treasurer or Alex Cook,
Membership Chair at any FMC monthly meeting. One of them is at the sign-in
table upon entering the West Boulder Senior Center room for the monthly
meetings. The payment receipt is your new annual 2009-10 FMC membership
card.
Please do not send a cash payment to the Club P.O. Box 3331 by USPS mail.
Remember, you can receive electronic (or) paper club newsletters containing
the general meetings information, guided club field trips information,
annual show opportunities, silent auction opportunities and the club annual
summer picnic if you are a member of the Flatirons Mineral Club. Your
2009-10 dues must be received by Jan 31st, 2010 in order to stay current on
club newsletters and the many other club member benefits. Thanks.
****************
Wednesday Nights at Charlotte’s
Lapidary
Work/Grab Bag Samples Nights - Remember, use of the club's lapidary
equipment, including saws and lapidary machines, is open to all club
members every Wednesday night at Charlotte Morrison's home. Also on
Wednesdays, help is always welcome to prepare grab bag specimens for next
year's grab bags for the kids. Please contact Charlotte to let her know you
are coming.
****************
Scenes from the Club Show
For
those of you who weren’t able to attend the show, see what you missed! (And
make sure you put it on your calendar for 2010—Dec 10-12.)
Checking out the dealers
Gold panning
Children’s wheel
Dig pit
Cory with his specimens
Shark tooth screening
Grab bags
Hands-on lapidary
Looking at the display cases
The club field trip display
Preston with his display
Ray – show chairman
Learning lapidary
Dylan Sellers with his first place
display
****************
Jr. Geologists Activities
Earth Resources Badge
Where
do all those parts in your cell phone or computer come from? How about all those things under the hood
of your car? Everything we use every
day either comes out of the ground or is grown. In earning the Earth Resources badge in
January and February, the Jr. Geologists will learn about how minerals in
the ground become those things we use every day. Quartz will be the mineral of the month
in January, plus we will have great door prizes. The monthly meetings are the third
Thursdays of each month, starting at 6:30, at Charlotte’s home.
Displays at the Club Show
Eleven
Jr. Geologists put together display cases at the club show last month,
showing some of the best specimens they have collected and acquired. During the previous two months, Charlotte
worked with the Jr. Geologists to show them how to put together their
displays and techniques that will highlight their specimens. By putting together their displays, the
juniors earned the Showmanship and Collecting badges. Several of the displays won blue ribbons;
see the list elsewhere in this newsletter.
Eva
Klauber showcasing specimens she has collected
New
members Nicholas, Tristan, and Gabriel Sapsin with their display
Crystal Growing Days
We
will also have several crystal growing days for the Jr. Geologists in
January. Each Jr. Geologist will have
the opportunity to grow several different kinds of interesting
crystals. The dates will be
announced by e-mail to the Jr. Geologists families.
The
Jr. Geologists program is open to all Flatirons Mineral Club families. Each month we learn more about geology,
plus earn badges for different earth science activities. For information about the Jr. Geologists
program, please contact Dennis
Gertenbach.
****************
Fossils in the News
Dennis Gertenbach
Did
Illness Kill off the Mighty T-Rex?
A team of paleontologists led by Ewan Wolff of
the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Steven Salisbury of Australia's
University of Queensland reported that trench mouth may be been responsible
for the demise of Tyrannosaurus rex. They found holes in the jaws of T-rex
fossils that look identical to parasitic microbe bores holes in the jaws of
modern-day falcons and hawks. Nearly
15% of the 61 tyrannosaurid individuals they examined during this study
exhibited these holes.
The disease causes debilitating throat damage in
modern hawks and falcons, making feeding incredibly difficult. The tyrannosaurs with this disease most
likely starved to death. The researchers speculated that the tyrannosaurs
may have acquired the disease by eating each other.
A
Colossal Sea Monster Discovered
Paleontologists have unearthed the fossilized
skull of a giant sea monster along the Jurassic coastline of the United
Kingdom. This ferocious predator,
called a pliosaur, terrorized the oceans 150 million years ago. Pliosaurs were a group of giant aquatic
reptiles that dominated the seas at the time that dinosaurs roamed the
Earth. They had short necks and huge, crocodile-like heads with powerful
jaws full of huge, razor-sharp teeth.
The researchers estimated that this animal may
have measured up to 52 feet long and may have weighed 7-12 tons. It could swallow a human-size fish or
reptile in one gulp. The fossil,
which was found by a local collector, has been purchased by Dorset County
Council.
Oldest
Known Spider Webs Discovered
Spider webs dating back 140 million years ago
have been discovered preserved in amber in Sussex, England. Amber is formed from tree sap, which had
flowed over the spider webs and hardened, preserving the webs. They are the oldest spider webs that have
been found.
Various clues, including threads that were
twisted and coated with sticky fluid droplets, suggest they were spun by
spiders that are closely related to modern-day orb-web garden spiders. From the structure of the web, the
researchers speculate that the spiders fed on flying insects like flies and
the ancestors of bees, wasps and moths.
Venomous
Bird Fossil Found
Scientists from the University of Kansas and the
Northeastern University in Shenyang have found fossils of the world’s only
known fanged bird that was capable of injecting venom with its bite. Found
in northeast China, Sinornithosaurus was the size of a turkey and had long
saber-tooth fangs containing grooves for channeling venom. The fangs are located toward the middle
or back of the mouth, indicating that the creature probably used the venom
to immobilize, not kill, its prey.
Once the teeth were embedded in the skin, the venom would seep into
the wound. It also probably had
flight feathers on its back legs, which made it a four-winged gliding
predator.
Sinornithosaurus
thrived 128 million years ago in the tropical pine and fern forests of
China. These animals were preserved
in the muddy bottom of a lake after death.
The animal is a mircoraptor, which are related to velociraptors and
are through to be direct ancestors of modern birds.
Clovis-era stone
tools discovered in Boulder
(Article
from the Boulder Camera, February 2009—this will be the subject of our
March club meeting!)
BOULDER,
Colo. -- Someone left their tools in a Boulder yard --13,000 years ago. The
Clovis-era stone tools, uncovered last year, appeared to have been used to
butcher ice-age camels and horses that roamed this part of North America
until they became extinct. The find was announced by the University of
Colorado at Boulder in February, 2009.
Scientists
examining the tools found protein residue from extinct camels and horse
protein residue, said CU-Boulder Anthropology Professor Douglas Bamforth.
The tool cache is one of only a handful of Clovis-age artifact caches that
have been unearthed in North America, said Bamforth, who studies
Paleo-Indian culture and tools.
Named the Mahaffy Cache, after Boulder resident and landowner
Patrick Mahaffy, the collection is one of only two Clovis caches -- the
other is from Washington state -- that have been analyzed for protein
residue from ice-age mammals, said Bamforth.
In
addition to the camel and horse residue on the artifacts, a third item from
the Mahaffy Cache is the first Clovis tool ever to test positive for sheep,
and a fourth tested positive for bear.
The Mahaffy Cache consists of 83 stone implements ranging from salad
plate-sized, elegantly crafted bifacial knives and a unique tool resembling
a double-bitted ax to small blades and flint scraps. Discovered in May 2008 by Brant Turney,
head of a landscaping crew working on the Mahaffy property, the cache was
unearthed with a shovel under about 18 inches of soil and was packed
tightly into a hole about the size of a large shoebox. It appeared to have
been untouched for thousands of years, Bamforth said.
Although
the surface of the house lot had been lowered by construction work over the
years, an analysis of photos from the Mahaffy Cache excavation site by
CU-Boulder geological sciences Emeritus Professor Peter Birkeland confirmed
the approximate age of sediment layer containing the Clovis implements. The
site appears to be on the edge of an ancient drainage that ran northeast
from Boulder’s foothills, said Bamforth. "The idea that these
Clovis-age tools essentially fell out of someone’s yard in Boulder is astonishing,"
he said. "But the evidence I’ve seen gives me no reason to believe the
cache has been disturbed since the items were placed there for storage
about 13,000 years ago."
The
artifacts were buried in coarse, sandy sediment overlain by dark, clay-like
soil and appear to have been cached on the edge of an ancient stream, said
Bamforth. "It looks like
someone gathered together some of their most spectacular tools and other
ordinary scraps of potentially useful material and stuck them all into a
small hole in the ground, fully expecting to come back at a later date and
retrieve them." Bamforth said
he knew immediately that much of the stone used to craft the tools in the
cache originated from Colorado’s Western Slope and perhaps as far north as
southern Wyoming. The stone appears to have come from at least four
distinct regions, including sites in Colorado’s Middle Park, south of
Steamboat Springs, he said.
One
of the tools, a "stunning," oval-shaped bifacial knife that had
been sharpened all the way around, is almost exactly the same shape, size
and width of an obsidian knife found in a Clovis cache known as the Fenn
Cache from south of Yellowstone National Park, said Bamforth. "Except for the raw material, they
are almost identical," he said.
"I wouldn’t stake my reputation on it, but I could almost
imagine the same person making both tools." Climatic evidence
indicates the Boulder area was cooler and wetter in the late Pleistocene
era and receding glaciers would have been prominent along the Front Range
of Colorado, he said.
"The
kind of animals that were wandering around present-day Boulder at the end
of the last ice age -- elephants, camels, huge bears and ground sloths --
are creatures we would expect to see in a zoo today." "There is a magic to these
artifacts," said Mahaffy. "One of the things you don’t get from
just looking at them is how incredible they feel in your hand --they are
almost ergonomically perfect and you can feel how they were used. It is a
wonderful connection to the people who shared this same land a long, long
time ago."
Mahaffy
said the artifacts will likely wind up in a museum except for a few of the
smaller pieces, which will be reburied at the cache site.
****************
June Culp Zeitner,
1916-2009
Published
in the Rapid City Journal on 10/14/2009
Feb. 7, 1916 - Oct. 11, 2009 RAPID CITY - June Culp Zeitner, 93, died
Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009, in her home after a lengthy illness. An
internationally-known author, speaker, and mineral and gem authority, the
Michigan native lived in Springfield and Aberdeen before making her home in
Mission in 1937. After extensive travel across North America, Zeitner
permanently settled in Rapid City in 1986 with her beloved husband Albert.
She published books and magazine articles until shortly before her death.
Zeitner first moved to Mission to begin her career as an English teacher.
It was there she met her future husband, whose family owned both a hardware
store and a natural history museum. Zeitner taught for seven years before becoming
superintendent of Todd County High School in the 1940s. She left teaching
when she and Albert began a natural history odyssey that was slated to last
for one year. Instead, it occupied their entire mid-life period. The
couple's 30-year cross-continent adventure was a trip from one gem or
mineral locality to another. Each new mine created an impetus for another
side-trip and an opportunity to work with miners and scientists in the
field. The process also provided Zeitner with her first major book project,
a series of authoritative, practical, and popular "Gem Trails"
books in which she recorded detailed locality information to guide rock
enthusiasts. It would not be long until Zeitner became one of the world's
best-known rock, gem, and mineral experts. Over the ensuing decades,
Zeitner's expertise formed the basis for a dozen books and more than 1,000
magazine articles covering many aspects of the subject she loved most. Many
articles appeared in Lapidary Journal, the primary magazine for the lapidary
arts of gem carving and jewelry manufacturing, where Zeitner held the post
of Special Assistant Editor for more than three decades, ending in 2002.
Zeitner's accomplishments in her chosen field are remarkable. A selection
includes: being crowned at the White House by the International Gem Show as
the First Lady of Gems in 1976; receiving the 2006 Carnegie Museum of
Natural History's Mineralogical Award, which celebrates significant
contributions to the science of mineralogy; having the largest emerald found
and cut in the United States named after her; founding a dozen gem and
mineral clubs and the National Rockhound and Lapidary Hall of Fame;
founding the State Stone Program, where every state adopted an official
state gem, mineral, fossil, and/or rock (South Dakota's gem is the Fairburn
Agate, its mineral is Rose Quartz, its fossil is Triceratops); and
assembling a collection of gemstones for display at the Smithsonian
Institution. For her writing, Zeitner was honored as South Dakota Woman of
Achievement by the National Federation of Press Women in 1976, and in 1985
received the A.H. Pankow press award, which is given to the South Dakota
journalist whose "coverage and promotion of the state's visitor
industry is unparalleled." The Zeitners amassed a significant
collection of rocks and gems, portions of which are currently on display
at: the Pioneer Auto Show, a museum in Murdo; the Museum of Geology at the
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City; and the Black
Hills Institute and the Black Hills Museum of Natural History, both in Hill
City. A memorial has been established at Black Hills Museum of Natural
History, P.O. Box 614, Hill City, SD 57745.
****************
Upcoming Events,
Nearby & Elsewhere
Ongoing -- USGS Free GPS, Map, & Compass Classes on the second Friday
of each month, beginning January 8, 2010. The sessions are held in Building
810 on the Denver Federal Center, Lakewood; Map & Compass sessions are
in the morning, 9-11:30 a.m., and "Using GPS with Topo Maps" in
the afternoon, 12:30-5:00 p.m.; you may sign up for either or both classes.
Free to anyone, but reservations
are required and space is limited; call 303-202-4689.
Saturday,
Jan. 9, Western Museum of Mining & Industry, Colorado Springs: Family
Exploration Day -- Geology; 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Do you have a rock collection and would
like to know what type of rocks and minerals they are? Bring them down to the Western Museum of
Mining & Industry where we will have representatives from the Colorado
Springs Mineralogical Society here to help you identify what is in your
collection. In addition, Richard Sweeny of the GoldCo Mine will be here to
demonstrate the use of a Mini-Highbanker (recirculating sluice) along with
presenting information on assay techniques and modern day assay equipment.
Younger family members will enjoy an exercise in Cookie Mining. Customary
Admissions apply - Museum Members entered free. For more info see http://wmmi.org/.
Jan.
20 (Wed) -- MAlice in Wonderland:
Extinction, Biotic Interaction and Climate. A Denver Museum of Nature &
Science Curator's Lunchtime Lecture with Richard Stucky, PhD. 12:15 p.m.
Ricketson Auditorium.
Feb.
11-14 – Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, sponsored by the Tucson Gem and
Mineral Society. Tucson Convention Center, 260 S Church Ave., Tucson, AZ.
10-6 Thurs.-Sat., 10-5 Sun. Theme: Mineral oddities. $9, 14 and under free.
Info: 520-322-5773.
Feb.
26-28 – Denver Gem and Mineral Guild Jewelry, Gem, and Mineral Show.
Jefferson County Fairgrounds, 15200 W. 6th Ave. (W. 6th & Indiana),
Golden, CO. Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 11-5. Lapidary supplies, crystals,
fossils, unique jewelry, gem & mineral dealers, gem, mineral &
fossil exhibits, gem cutting demonstrations. Free admission.
Mar.
5-7 – International Gem & Jewelry Show. Denver Merchandise Mart, 451 E.
58th Ave., Denver, CO.; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 11-5. Admission: $7.
Info.: 301-294-1640.
Mar.
26-28 – 49th Annual Gem & Mineral Show, sponsored by Fort Collins
Rockhounds. Lincoln Center, 419 W. Magnolia St., Fort Collins, CO. 4-8 Fri., 9-6 Sat., 10-5 Sun. Theme:
Nature's Treasures. Gem & mineral dealers, exhibits, door prizes,
silent auction, demonstrations, grab bags. Admission $3 daily or $5 for
3-day pass, students age 12-18 with ID $1, children under 12 free with paid
adult. Info.: Dave Halliburton, 970-493-6168.
Apr.
8 (Thurs.) – Flatirons Mineral Club Silent Auction. West Boulder Senior
Center, 909 Arapahoe Ave. (9th and Arapahoe, northeast corner), Boulder,
CO. 7 p.m. Rocks, food, conversation, and shopping–what’s not to love? All
are welcome!
Apr.
23-25 – Colorado Mineral & Fossil Show. Holiday Inn, Denver Central,
4849 Bannock St. (I-25 & I-70). Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5. Great
dealers from around the world. Minerals, fossils, meteorites, decorator
items, gems, beads. Free admission. Free parking. Info.: Martin Zinn
Expositions.
****************
Return to Facets Index
Return
to Flatirons Mineral Club
Home Page
Return to Boulder Community Network home page
Updated 2/7/10
|
