Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 29, 2024 14:57:51 GMT -5
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pebblesky
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Post by pebblesky on Apr 29, 2024 15:24:42 GMT -5
Love these!
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chris1956
fully equipped rock polisher
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Post by chris1956 on Apr 29, 2024 18:20:04 GMT -5
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Post by opalpyrexia on Apr 29, 2024 19:00:05 GMT -5
They sure look like that Hornitos poppy was worth the poison oak!
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rockbrain
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Post by rockbrain on Apr 29, 2024 20:37:53 GMT -5
Beautiful material and beautiful cabs. I got a real good case of poison oak up there looking for jasper and didn't find squat!
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 29, 2024 22:23:20 GMT -5
Gary, I had poison oak so bad the nurses took me around to show me to medical students. It was hard to convince myself it was worth it. *L*
Additional note: If digging into the side of a hill, make sure and note what is above you on the hill*L*. I did not get near any poison oak plants or leaves but did not consider that the roots from a poison oak thicket go a long distance underground and the juice from the roots is apparently very nasty.
Rockbrain, Since we owned a ranch there for about 15 years I got to know most my neighbors and had access to many private properties. Much of the poppy jasper is unfortunately on private ranchland. There are many sites on BLM land too, but it took me like eight years of looking to locate them after first finding deposits on our own place and I had help from a couple of other hunters. My buddy's dog actually found the original old pits for us. One was flooded and the doggy got hot and went swimming. My buddy found the dog and stumbled upon the original digs in the brush.
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goldfinder
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Post by goldfinder on Apr 30, 2024 13:17:12 GMT -5
Wow Mel Sabre52 that is really some beautiful material! That's crazy that variety all came from one vein. I really like the types in the second and fourth picture. I grew up around there and had been gold prospecting those hills for years before I got into lapidary. Your tips have been instrumental in being able to dig some poppy from out there. You are certainly the most knowledgeable person I've found about those deposits. I still can't wrap my head around how that stuff formed out there, it doesn't really seem to follow any set rhyme or reason. Thanks a lot for sharing all the info you have and pictures of the various types! The variety you just posted is definitely unique and some really nice stuff!
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 30, 2024 14:55:54 GMT -5
goldfinder: Glad some of my info has helped you score some material. There are really a lot of deposits scattered in the area, but as you know, it's rough country and difficult to explore. The site we found that had me the most nervous was the pit we called the " stinky horse hole" because a local was nice enough to dump his dead horse in the pit we were digging, and the horse carcass was clearly attracting bears. Digging while looking over your shoulder can be kind of nerve wracking, *L*
I was told, the poppy in this area is in highly altered Jurassic seabed deposits and formed as spherules in marine ooze. I did find an example on our own ranch that had loosely packed little spheres with no silica filling between them. That being said, it leaves me very confused because I found a lot of poppy lenses and veins in situ. So, did this ooze fill in cracks and voids in harder andesite looking rock while in the ocean floor? It further confuses me that this jasper often has little inclusions of gold bearing sulfides which must have flowed into the voids too. One thing for certain, the orbicular jaspers at this location have seen a lot of weird seismic activity and then been resealed, as there is Hornitos Brecciated Jasper in the area ( some of this has orbs too) and many poppy examples show significant distortion, offsetting or blurring of the patterns or even dissolving some of the poppies. The area shows a lot of parallels to the Stone Canyon Jasper ( it sometimes has orbs too) and to the jaspers of Big Sandy Creek near FT. Hunter Legget. Big Sandy, along with Stone Canyon type breccias had some very weird poppy types too. I left a boulder in my Ojai yard that was solid like Hornitos ( Hunters Valley) stuff and composed of orbs in yellow, green and red that were so tightly packed that you had to look close to see they were orbs. Different color palette but otherwise really like some of the Hornitos stuff. One pit we found at Hunters Valley had material that though, pretty fractured, strongly resembled Ocean Jasper. Without a doubt, the most interesting area I've ever hounded.
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goldfinder
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Post by goldfinder on May 1, 2024 12:15:49 GMT -5
Thanks a lot for the detailed info Mel! Sabre52 The altered sea floor depot of spherules in marine ooze is a very interesting theory. As you mentioned I have seen nodules that resemble that packed in the host rock. But also the veins and lenses that you've mentioned. Whatever happened out there highly altered the material. How heavy cooked the nearby greenstone is, it almost seems like there was a volcanic component involved at some point. I showed some of the material to a family friend who is a geologist, expecting a detailed answer. But he had no clue how it would have formed lol. I'd be interested to hear roughly where that old pit of the ocean jasper looking material is, if you wouldn't mind sharing. Feel free to send me a message if you'd like. I can take some pictures of the different types of material I've been digging and cutting from out there if you'd like to see it. I'd be curious if you have any names for the many various types or material from out there.
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Post by jasoninsd on May 1, 2024 22:51:50 GMT -5
Thanks a lot for the detailed info Mel! Sabre52 The altered sea floor depot of spherules in marine ooze is a very interesting theory. As you mentioned I have seen nodules that resemble that packed in the host rock. But also the veins and lenses that you've mentioned. Whatever happened out there highly altered the material. How heavy cooked the nearby greenstone is, it almost seems like there was a volcanic component involved at some point. I showed some of the material to a family friend who is a geologist, expecting a detailed answer. But he had no clue how it would have formed lol. I'd be interested to hear roughly where that old pit of the ocean jasper looking material is, if you wouldn't mind sharing. Feel free to send me a message if you'd like. I can take some pictures of the different types of material I've been digging and cutting from out there if you'd like to see it. I'd be curious if you have any names for the many various types or material from out there. Reading Sabre52's explanation, I immediately started comparing the Poppy Jasper formation to Ocean Jasper...and figuring there has to be a similar way in which both of them were formed... Mel, those examples are amazing! goldfinder - of course we'd all love to see pics of your finds! LOL
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on May 2, 2024 16:40:21 GMT -5
Goldfinder: When you make the turn on the dirt road in and start going south paralleling the terraces to your right towards Trumbells old claims and Dream Ranch West you will cross several dry creek beds running sort of east and west. The first one, that had a wet creek in the bottom sometimes, has several small pits I dug in its north bank sort of below an outcrop of bull quartz that shows up nice and white. You should see jasper stringers in some of the boulders near the bottom. Those pits yielded the Firefly Jasper and some awesome red orange poppy. The second main ravine you come to, a smaller one, had two or three small pits maybe fifty yards or so north of the ravine and maybe 75 yards west of the dirt road. The larger of the two pits, the one furthest west, had the ocean jasper looking material next to a vein of dense cocoa colored poppies. My buddy and I only dug that one maybe three feet or less deep. All over that terrace above the ravine we also found brecciated and a dot filled red jasper as float. Actually though, all those terraces contain float, though I have no idea how much the big fire changed how it looks now. We actually had to crawl though massive thickets of buckbrush and manzanita when we were hounding.
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on May 2, 2024 16:50:43 GMT -5
*LOL* Goldfinder: One of our members drove like 20 hours straight to my place in Texas and got most all my Hornitos rough and lots of other stuff. He pretty much had a pickup load. The rest I sold off or gave away before I left California for Texas as it was just too much to move. Almost made me cry when I had to give away a huge quantity of Hornitos Brecciated jasper and Cosmos Jasper. Of course, I still cry about the big boulders of Stone Canyon type jasper from Big Sandy Creek and Creston that stayed in my old yard too. Some of those weighed like 90 pounds and had to be carried out of the creek on my back. Man, those were the good old hounding days!
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Post by roy on May 3, 2024 10:43:43 GMT -5
Thanks a lot for the detailed info Mel! Sabre52 The altered sea floor depot of spherules in marine ooze is a very interesting theory. As you mentioned I have seen nodules that resemble that packed in the host rock. But also the veins and lenses that you've mentioned. Whatever happened out there highly altered the material. How heavy cooked the nearby greenstone is, it almost seems like there was a volcanic component involved at some point. I showed some of the material to a family friend who is a geologist, expecting a detailed answer. But he had no clue how it would have formed lol. I'd be interested to hear roughly where that old pit of the ocean jasper looking material is, if you wouldn't mind sharing. Feel free to send me a message if you'd like. I can take some pictures of the different types of material I've been digging and cutting from out there if you'd like to see it. I'd be curious if you have any names for the many various types or material from out there. sounds like you both need to do a show and tell lol interesting stuff
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goldfinder
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Post by goldfinder on May 3, 2024 21:15:45 GMT -5
Thanks so much for the detailed info Mel! Sabre52 Excellent directions, I know exactly where you are talking about. Depending on how the weather is tomorrow I might head out there and check it out. They are forecasting rain so if it's raining too bad I might head underground to work some of our hardrock mines. Ok fine jasoninsd and roy , here are some pics lol. Mel you mentioned the orange poppy, that's one of my favorites varieties and I don't think I've ever seen any posted online. I just polished this one a couple days ago but need to sonicate it to get the cerium out of the vugs. ![](https://res.cloudinary.com/drrf37sib/image/upload/v1714787943/vfe8jxfkngbjdxevvvma.jpg) You mentioned the brecciated jasper so I thought you might like these. ![](https://res.cloudinary.com/drrf37sib/image/upload/v1714787987/hem0zbxa9oup642n8t3v.jpg) ![](https://res.cloudinary.com/drrf37sib/image/upload/v1714788003/ufjpco9fxfm11rfr1ptn.jpg) This two look like a distant cousin to the ones you and rockbrain posted. ![](https://res.cloudinary.com/drrf37sib/image/upload/v1714788067/acc0v9uniy1yn7mijo4l.jpg) ![](https://res.cloudinary.com/drrf37sib/image/upload/v1714788078/cw3hhro0hucmcz0lqrht.jpg) You mentioned the very tight poppy where there isn't much space between the poppies and I thought of this type. I don't know what the black metallic iron looking stuff is but it polishes amazingly well. ![](https://res.cloudinary.com/drrf37sib/image/upload/v1714788167/ou7qz6wxkuynmubtev2q.jpg) I entered this one in the "flower" themed cab contest last year. Mel, I though you might like to see it. ![](https://res.cloudinary.com/drrf37sib/image/upload/v1714788803/gs0esnlfuoahbwdd6uxv.jpg) Thanks it for now folks, I've been digging this stuff for a couple years now and have been pretty hush hush about it and this is the first time revealing it on the forum. Most my buddies don't know how to research claims or file them, a few years back helped a buddy get a couple gold claims a few hills over. Once I started researching the poppy deposit (with the critical help of Mel's info), I already knew all the surrounding claims and their maps and put 2 and 2 together and figured out that the poppy claim had been closed. I started to dig and assess the ground and over the next few months and liked what I saw. There is a local fellow who will refile on any closed claims, and promptly sell them on eBay for usually 10x what it costs. He was doing that to a bunch of nearby claims so I couldn't risk him doing that to this spot, so we filed on the poppy area to secure it from that guy reselling it.
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Post by jasoninsd on May 3, 2024 21:21:50 GMT -5
goldfinder - I've kept my mouth shut! LOL - Thank you for posting the examples! ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) This is the same material you sent me quite a few chunks of: ![](https://res.cloudinary.com/drrf37sib/image/upload/v1714788167/ou7qz6wxkuynmubtev2q.jpg) The "metallic" sections in this material are intense. I believe on some of the material you sent me actually has the metallic poppies in it!!
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goldfinder
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Post by goldfinder on May 4, 2024 0:41:38 GMT -5
goldfinder - I've kept my mouth shut! LOL - Thank you for posting the examples! ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) This is the same material you sent me quite a few chunks of: ![](https://res.cloudinary.com/drrf37sib/image/upload/v1714788167/ou7qz6wxkuynmubtev2q.jpg) The "metallic" sections in this material are intense. I believe on some of the material you sent me actually has the metallic poppies in it!! Haha yup you did! Yeah I thought I tossed some of that type in there. That cab you made of it sure looked good. I almost want to try cutting a cab of just the metallic stuff to see how it'll look.
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Post by jasoninsd on May 4, 2024 11:28:13 GMT -5
goldfinder - I've kept my mouth shut! LOL - Thank you for posting the examples! ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) This is the same material you sent me quite a few chunks of: ![](https://res.cloudinary.com/drrf37sib/image/upload/v1714788167/ou7qz6wxkuynmubtev2q.jpg) The "metallic" sections in this material are intense. I believe on some of the material you sent me actually has the metallic poppies in it!! Haha yup you did! Yeah I thought I tossed some of that type in there. That cab you made of it sure looked good. I almost want to try cutting a cab of just the metallic stuff to see how it'll look. It'll look SICK...in a good way! LOL
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choochoorocks
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Post by choochoorocks on May 6, 2024 22:50:35 GMT -5
Love how this stuff looks! I'm just about to post pics of a few pieces of tiny orbed poppy jasper I found recently and came across this thread. Wish I had this material!
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on May 20, 2024 14:58:50 GMT -5
Wow, awesome cabs Goldfinder. I only ever found one piece of that flowered stuff. The small red orb stuff we found came from the Stinky Horse Hole and from our own ranch where that, along with the big red orange poppy, was the main type found in situ. I pegged the metallic stuff as hematite as some of the clear agate sections in the poppy jasper actually had specular hematite crystals. In my examples it ranged from silvery to purplish. Your breccia is dead on for what we were getting and some actually had some poppies and dotted type effects. Incredible what the area yields. The most frustrating spot I found was near the old digs and was a beautiful example with big golden poppies. Found it on dumps and never found another example. I have a small boulder of opalized material from that location too. I also hiked the hill above the old pits on the east side of the road and found poppy signs back in the manzanita thickets. That belly crawling hounding sucks though. *L*.
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tribeunited
fully equipped rock polisher
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Post by tribeunited on May 29, 2024 20:48:13 GMT -5
That's some really beautiful finished work!
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