Pick thru Emerald Creek, Idaho garnets

[jamesp]

Got a good bit if this stuff. Mostly 5-6mm almandine garnets. Starguy, what are the light pinkies in this gravel ? Which ones are star garnets ?

[snowmom]

speechless!

[Deleted]

Awesome.where'd you get them beauties from??
Dave

[jamesp]

Feb 11, 2015 18:25:34 GMT -5 @arrowheadave said:

Awesome.where'd you get them beauties from??
Dave

An old stash Dave.

[Starguy]

jamesp

That looks like Emerald creek garnet sand.  The lighter pink ones may be facet grade.  Star garnets usually look almost black in their rough condition.  It looks like you have some blacker ones in the mix.  Usually the rutile crystals that form the star are more concentrated near the center of the crystals.  

There are two forks of Emerald creek.  The east fork has stars, the west fork doesn't.  

If you tumble them without grit, the garnet will quickly grind away most of the other impurities.  They take a nice polish.  Try throwing an agate or two in the batch.  You will be surprised what a nice silky finish the garnet gives the agates.

I'm down to about 10 lbs of garnet sand.  They don't allow collecting in Emerald creek outside of the FS site.  I have another rich source and will probably go there next summer to get a few more pounds.  

It's cool to see that you have some of that material.  

Later 

Brent

[jamesp]

Feb 11, 2015 20:05:28 GMT -5 Starguy said:

jamesp

That looks like Emerald creek garnet sand.  The lighter pink ones may be facet grade.  Star garnets usually look almost black in their rough condition.  It looks like you have some blacker ones in the mix.  Usually the rutile crystals that form the star are more concentrated near the center of the crystals.  

There are two forks of Emerald creek.  The east fork has stars, the west fork doesn't.  

If you tumble them without grit, the garnet will quickly grind away most of the other impurities.  They take a nice polish.  Try throwing an agate or two in the batch.  You will be surprised what a nice silky finish the garnet gives the agates.

I'm down to about 10 lbs of garnet sand.  They don't allow collecting in Emerald creek outside of the FS site.  I have another rich source and will probably go there next summer to get a few more pounds.  

It's cool to see that you have some of that material.  

Later 

Brent

Certainly there are feeder creeks that have high densities.
When hunting larger garnets out your way did people used to use a little gold dredge to vacuum out pockets where heavier garnets settled.
And do larger garnets end up in the middle of the flow of the creek ?

[tyandnan]

Very nice pile of garnets! I would love to find some of those!

[Starguy]

jamesp

Every feeder creek in that area supplies garnet sand to Emerald creek.  The big question is where did the larger garnets come from.  There is evidence of an ancient streambed about 200 feet higher and 1/4 mile north of where the current east fork of Emerald creek is.  It must have taken some high energy flood events to concentrate the larger garnets in the areas they are found.  The area has a history of ice dams.  My opinion is that regular draining of the ice dams concentrated the larger garnets in one or two layers throughout the ancient streambed.

It's hard to explain why they are obviously stream tumbled in some areas and nearly perfect, unweathered crystals in other areas.  

I have seen some 12 inch Quartz nuggets that had perfect impression of garnet crystals in them.  Large impressions but no garnet left.  I would love to find that source, but so far nobody has found it.  It's an old source and it's difficult to understand.  All the local peaks have small garnets in the bedrock.

As reference, I have several crystals that are over 1" diameter.  I have found garnets that were 2 1/2" diameter and I have pieces of garnets that must have been softball size.  At local rock shows I've seen pieces of garnet crystals that must have been the size of soccer balls.

Idaho is garnet heaven.  Hail to the gem state.

Later 

Brent

[jamesp]

Starguy(Brent) Are the mountains that they washed from older ? Looking at photos on google earth they seem to be more rounded like our Appalachian mountains.
Apparently the Emerald creek area has settlement layers rich in garnet sand and were once dredged or dug and then sorted like gold is sorted.

Also, you mentioned using garnets for tumbling. How would they assist tumbling ?

I have traced a few garnet spots by looking in feeder creeks. That is a good excuse to explore pretty country.
Bigger garnets are elusive, and most of the mines in hill country were tunnels in hill side deposits where no creek touches them.
Many are lucky finds, most occurrences are hidden or unknown.

Lots of low quality iron rich garnets that were mined for garnet paper close to my home. They were crushed to get the glassy particles.

Rutile is another mineral found in garnet rich areas around here.

Sounds like your larger garnet sources are elusive too. Ours occur in schist for the most part, then gneiss, granite, sandstone and quartzite.

[jamesp]

Feb 11, 2015 23:37:29 GMT -5 tyandnan said:

Very nice pile of garnets! I would love to find some of those!

Wish I could have found them tyandnan, unfortunately they are purchased.

[snowmom]

jamesp, are you thinking the pinkies in here may be related to the pink in your mystery granite?
the photos you show here are awesome. Looks like what you'd expect to see in storybook about fantasy treasure.
glad you posted, interesting to learn more about them. thanks for the thread.

[jamesp]

Feb 12, 2015 8:10:37 GMT -5 snowmom said:

jamesp, are you thinking the pinkies in here may be related to the pink in your mystery granite?
the photos you show here are awesome. Looks like what you'd expect to see in storybook about fantasy treasure.
glad you posted, interesting to learn more about them. thanks for the thread.

Probably very similar garnets. Almandine family. Not worth much that small Deb, just pretty little stones.
A gallon of the weighs a bunch. they have a high density.
They were tumbled a few days in coarse grit, these pulled from tumbler and washed; so they are clean.

[hornseeker]

I think Starguy should help us setup a field trip!!

About 10 years ago my dad and i went to Emeral Creek and brought home 3 five gallon buckets of material... we ended up with about 30 dodecs... all are crusty with no "garnet" showing on the outside. I threw 3 in a tumbler (they are still in there) and with weekly checks they dont seem to have much quality. They are marble sized... you can see garnet in them, but they are mixed with ?? iron and such I gues... I may look at them again tonight and take a few photos...

So Starguy... are there still smoe good spots to go look around other than the developed site the FS runs now? You mentioned crystals... can a guy find good crystal digging around those areas too?

Love that area,

Ernie

[jamesp]

Feb 12, 2015 10:20:06 GMT -5 hornseeker said:

I think Starguy should help us setup a field trip!!

About 10 years ago my dad and i went to Emeral Creek and brought home 3 five gallon buckets of material... we ended up with about 30 dodecs... all are crusty with no "garnet" showing on the outside. I threw 3 in a tumbler (they are still in there) and with weekly checks they dont seem to have much quality. They are marble sized... you can see garnet in them, but they are mixed with ?? iron and such I gues... I may look at them again tonight and take a few photos...

So Starguy... are there still smoe good spots to go look around other than the developed site the FS runs now? You mentioned crystals... can a guy find good crystal digging around those areas too?

Love that area,

Ernie

Starguy is master garnetman. That area is beautiful, have looked at google photos. I could see someone likening it.
Most of our garnet sites are mountainous and beautiful.
FS = Forestry Service, ah, here in Georgia they don't seem strict about collecting lest you dig too deep.
But we do not have resources that are so large that would attract crowds.
You may have them in your creeks hornseeker. Garnet sand collects behind little eddies behind rocks sticking up in the bottom of the creek.
Finding the source is difficult.
How far away do you live from Emerald area ?

[hornseeker]

Oh... Im about 7 hours from there James, but my dad is just 1 hour north out of Couer D'Alene...

We have a garnet spot here in MT... more than one for sure, but one main one... its in the Ruby Mountain area... Ruby Reservoir is famous for just scooping up the gravel on the shore and finding garnets... but a geologist I work with and I have been looking at geologic maps and trying to find more sources. There are two big garnet mines just south west of the lake where they mine abrasive garnets. 7-10% garnet in some of the alluvium up there I guess. We want to locate some bedrock outcrops where the garnets are weathering out and poke around a bit. "Most" of the area close to the garnet hot spots is private, but there are a few pieces of public we are going to see if we can get into...

Im a fish biologist (and wildlife) and have spent a lot of time picking rocks out of creeks, but I cant say I've ever run into a good concentration of garnet sand... I suppose I may have missed it, but I am ALWAYS looking for rocks!!!

I"ll get some pics of my garnets tonight maybe and put them up to see what Brent thinks!

[jamesp]

Feb 12, 2015 17:40:17 GMT -5 hornseeker said:

Oh... Im about 7 hours from there James, but my dad is just 1 hour north out of Couer D'Alene...

We have a garnet spot here in MT... more than one for sure, but one main one... its in the Ruby Mountain area... Ruby Reservoir is famous for just scooping up the gravel on the shore and finding garnets... but a geologist I work with and I have been looking at geologic maps and trying to find more sources. There are two big garnet mines just south west of the lake where they mine abrasive garnets. 7-10% garnet in some of the alluvium up there I guess. We want to locate some bedrock outcrops where the garnets are weathering out and poke around a bit. "Most" of the area close to the garnet hot spots is private, but there are a few pieces of public we are going to see if we can get into...

Im a fish biologist (and wildlife) and have spent a lot of time picking rocks out of creeks, but I cant say I've ever run into a good concentration of garnet sand... I suppose I may have missed it, but I am ALWAYS looking for rocks!!!

I"ll get some pics of my garnets tonight maybe and put them up to see what Brent thinks!

Ok then, you get out doors a lot. Look at the eddies and look on the edge of a creek where sand has pushed up on the side. Dig an inch to 4 inches and look for a mini alluvium.
Will probably be small particles, but it is a start. Or right at the waters edge say 1/2 inch deep in water for particles around a pool.
My garnets are old alluvium dug and run thru a shaker, then size screened. So the shaker gets the high SG garnets.
Half of N Georgia is Nat Forest and has a lot of Nat Forest roads skirting next to creeks. So easy and remote access.
Has anyone figured out that rock w/the giant amoebas ?
Looking forward to garnet pics

[Starguy]

@ hornseeker I've never dug anywhere but the Forest Service site.  I have reliable information that the quality of garnets went up a lot last year.  I know a few other places where garnet sand is abundant.  It's like jamesp said.  Roll over a rock and the garnet sand is all located in one piece.  

James;  With regard to tumbling, I was tumbling some garnet without grit to try to get rid of impurities.  I decided to throw in some agates to make up volume.  I was surprised how smooth the agates got from the garnet grit.  Garnet is very durable and tumbles slow.  Garnet sand makes decent grit but it's obviously not as aggressive as SiC grit.  

I'm not the garnet master.  I got lucky and dug the FS site at a good time.  Jan, gingerkid is the garnet master.  She has killer garnets from all over the globe.  If you haven't seen her garnet post, you should check it out.  I don't know how to insert a link to her post.  It's the most impressive collection I have seen.

[jamesp]

Feb 12, 2015 20:07:30 GMT -5 Starguy said:

@ hornseeker I've never dug anywhere but the Forest Service site.  I have reliable information that the quality of garnets went up a lot last year.  I know a few other places where garnet sand is abundant.  It's like jamesp said.  Roll over a rock and the garnet sand is all located in one piece.  

James;  With regard to tumbling, I was tumbling some garnet without grit to try to get rid of impurities.  I decided to throw in some agates to make up volume.  I was surprised how smooth the agates got from the garnet grit.  Garnet is very durable and tumbles slow.  Garnet sand makes decent grit but it's obviously not as aggressive as SiC grit.  

I'm not the garnet master.  I got lucky and dug the FS site at a good time.  Jan, gingerkid is the garnet master.  She has killer garnets from all over the globe.  If you haven't seen her garnet post, you should check it out.  I don't know how to insert a link to her post.  It's the most impressive collection I have seen.

Yes, that girl is a garnet collector. She has a lot of knowledge of them. I think she would be in heaven at Emerald creek.

thanks for the tumbling answer. I remembered you mentioned tumbling results w/them

[Fossilman]

Beautiful garnets James-THUMBS UP!!

[jamesp]

Feb 13, 2015 11:03:47 GMT -5 Fossilman said:

Beautiful garnets James-THUMBS UP!!

Shipped yesterday Michael.