Pre-Phoenix

[mohs]

Right on Dave

Being that weather as cooled
I’m making forays into the Papapago’s
a


Yesterday I found at least a 50lbs boulder of what I would consider to be Thomsonite.
It was just sitting up on the surface by the canal.
A black matrix rock with shells and quartz grit embedded.
I thought it very strange.

I’m not sure it would be classified 100% as Thomsonite?
It certainly seems like it came up from under a deep-water shelf.
Maybe it was discovered when the Hohokam canal was dug out?

Anyway I didn’t have my camera with me yesterday.
Only my cell phone camera and I don’t know how to transfer those pictures
.
So I’ll be going back soon to take other pictures.
Plus I’d like to talk to a park rangers or some geologically minded individual to unravels this mystery.
So stay tuned Dave

You’re the one to dig deep… 1dave



It looked a lot like this grayish black area
But a huge chunk!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomsonite
I’ll get pictures soon ….

[mohs]

In the meantime the video posted on the previous page
Mention how Ayers Rock color shade changes with the earth
angle to sun through the day/night night cycle and especially during the changing seasonal equinox, Winter time is the best time to view

The Papago do the same.
The above picture was taken about 40 miles away,
during January from,
South Mountain.
To me its very surreal.

[Rockoonz]

Nov 13, 2020 9:47:54 GMT -5 mohs said:

Right on Dave

Being that weather as cooled
I’m making forays into the Papapago’s
a


Yesterday I found at least a 50lbs boulder of what I would consider to be Thomsonite.
It was just sitting up on the surface by the canal.
A black matrix rock with shells and quartz grit embedded.
I thought it very strange.

I’m not sure it would be classified 100% as Thomsonite?
It certainly seems like it came up from under a deep-water shelf.
Maybe it was discovered when the Hohokam canal was dug out?

Anyway I didn’t have my camera with me yesterday.
Only my cell phone camera and I don’t know how to transfer those pictures
.
So I’ll be going back soon to take other pictures.
Plus I’d like to talk to a park rangers or some geologically minded individual to unravels this mystery.
So stay tuned Dave

You’re the one to dig deep… 1dave



It looked a lot like this grayish black area
But a huge chunk!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomsonite
I’ll get pictures soon ….

I can probably help you with the cell phone pics, I'm still between regular cameras and use the phone exclusively.

[mohs]

right on Lee

I'll just go over and take the picture with my camera
maybe we;ll do it together hint hint
you can help me figure the geology out

soo cool your down the road
really looking forward!

[mohs]

The mystery zeolite rock at Papago Park.



its somewhat like Thomsonite,
yet with further inspection its probably better classified a Amygdule

.
Here a picture from wiki that better shows the texture and clearer specimen shot



amygdaloidal


Like everything in the Papago region the crust is crumbly on the rock .
Can be broken off by hand.
I got some close up pictures of broken up piece
with splayed zeolites crystals.

Plus I got pictures of the proliferation of mollusks.
How the shells and and amygadule got in the Papago park remains a mystery?

My original thought was that boulder was dug up from the depth.
Not so sure that right now
Will have to do further digging to discover the truth…

Till then...
Ed

[1dave]

Veddy Interrresting!



I would like to see a close-up of the whire spots - shells or spheroids?

[mohs]

Right on Dave

This isn’t the most clear picture
w/ my shaky hands an inexpensive camera



You;ll have to give this some thought
Donchya think
origin and type of rock
Is a bit anomaly in buttes…?


Glad you brought the cards into the thread Dave

For this tale that hasn’t been told yet--- in this intriguing thread.

It concerns how Jacob Waltz rediscovered
the Lost Dutchman Goldmine…mostly

So roll up a rock, sit a spell and I'll spin the tale

Ya see back in 1853 Jacob Waltz (and Jacob Weiser) were down in old Mexico prospecting, of coarse.
They happened unto a high stake card game.

Waltz noticed that the dealer was cheating an old padre who was sitting in the game .
Waltz & Weiser intervened.

Its not sure if bloodshed happened.
But long knives & pistola’s were pulled.
Putting an end to a crooked game.

After that ruckus it just so happened
that one of the players being cheated was none other than that good padre

Don Miguel Nemecio Silva de Peralta de la Córdoba the III.

The same Spanish Peralta, who's descendant from Mexico in 1644,
were mining a rich gold vein in the Superstition Mountains.
In what then called the Primo Alta.
That what the Arizona territory was known as to the Spaniards at that time.

Not sure what the Hohokams called it besides home.

The famous Massacre of 1644 occurred in those mountain involving the indigenous natives .
At least 200 miners met their fate from an ambush.
The miners were driving a 20 Mule team
heavily leaden with leather bags of rich with gold ore
heading to one of their arrasta.



Tales told by later miners surveying the Massacre Trailhead
have found human bones, old deteriorated leather satchel bags & some rocks.
Surprisingly no mule bones.

The Superstition Mountains are sacred to the natives.
Not the gold-- but the mountains--- so that how the tale is told.
I have certain reservations on that theory.

Anyways an ever grateful

Don Miguel Nemecio Silva de Peralta de la Córdoba the III

(being saved by Jacob Waltz & his Buddy Weiser),

endowed those 2 chaps with a trail map to that gold vein!

That was the only surviving document from the few survivor of the massacre.
No miners had dared ventured north into Primo Alta after the 1644 Massacre.
For those mountains are cursed.

What Waltz and Weiser did with map is the stuff of further legends...

Question?

Are the Peralta Stone Tablet faithful reproduction

or

just a fraudulent engravings
perpetuated by
James Addison Peralta-Reavis,
the so-called Baron of Arizona?

[1dave]

Mom Nature is tricky!

[Rockoonz]

1dave I was there too and identified the zeolites. They have a radial crystal structure like the ones I've seen in basalt vugs in the NW. They are pretty weathered, any delicate crystals were gone, and I figured it was probably illegal to try to go deeper than the little crumbly bits on the surface. The truly interesting thing about the rock is that the other side of it had pockets of quartz crystals.
The other baffling thing is the abundance of small mollusc shells on the banks and all around the canal, not fossils.

[1dave]

Aye lad, a worthy tale!

[mohs]

[mohs]

Last week I toured the Wesley Bolin Plaza Park
at the Arizona State Capitol Complex.
The Pearl Harbor name display emotionally affected me.

Went back yesterday and captured some pictures.
All the 1,177 names from USS Arizona are stamped on metal slabs and individually hung.







The artist/architecture of Arizona are real ingenious about capturing the sunlight & solstice shadow.



the Memorial is difficult to capture in with my photo skills
Hope you enjoy them for what was solemn occurrence

have an interest there is plenty of information on the Memorial and USS Arizona

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Bolin_Memorial_Plaza

[1dave]

Thanks for THIS sharing!

[mohs]

Trying to find out the source and origin of amygdule
I talked with a couple City of Phoenix guys.
Helpful friendly …

All they knew was that some of the rocks were brought in
He did show me a boulder, from South Mountain Complex,
that had a Hohokam petroglyph. Easy to overlook

They also remarked that the shells/mollusks are brought in from the canal works



Anyway I going to try and catch the park ranger
They may have more info
Have feeling its going to remain an ongoing mystery...

[rickb]

Dec 7, 2020 10:11:05 GMT -5 mohs said:

Last week I toured the Wesley Bolin Plaza Park
at the Arizona State Capitol Complex.
The Pearl Harbor name display emotionally affected me.

Went back yesterday and captured some pictures.
All the 1,177 names from USS Arizona are stamped on metal slabs and individually hung.







The artist/architecture of Arizona are real ingenious about capturing the sunlight & solstice shadow.



the Memorial is difficult to capture in with my photo skills
Hope you enjoy them for what was solemn occurrence

have an interest there is plenty of information on the Memorial and USS Arizona

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Bolin_Memorial_Plaza

mohs My first duty station when I joined the Navy in 1968 was at the
boat house on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor Hawaii. Some of the time I worked
on the shuttle boat that took visitors to the USS Arizona Memorial. Still have
some faded photos I took of it then. Even as a young sailor it was an emotional
place to work.

Edit: PS - Two week's pay for a newly enlisted sailor in Hawaii was about $60.00 every two weeks. That was very depressing.

[HankRocks]

Dec 7, 2020 10:11:05 GMT -5 mohs said:

Last week I toured the Wesley Bolin Plaza Park
at the Arizona State Capitol Complex.
The Pearl Harbor name display emotionally affected me.

Went back yesterday and captured some pictures.
All the 1,177 names from USS Arizona are stamped on metal slabs and individually hung.







The artist/architecture of Arizona are real ingenious about capturing the sunlight & solstice shadow.



the Memorial is difficult to capture in with my photo skills
Hope you enjoy them for what was solemn occurrence

have an interest there is plenty of information on the Memorial and USS Arizona

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Bolin_Memorial_Plaza

My wife and I went there many years ago and also took the shuttle boat out to the Arizona memorial. Seeing those 1177 names on the wall was an emotional moment that neither of us will ever forget. Thanks for posting.

[mohs]

The Ancient Desert Dwellers

The ancestors of present-day Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian and Gila River Indian communities were farmers who lived in central and southern Arizona for about 1,400 years before European and American explorers came to the region. The intricate canal system that they built spanned nearly 500 miles and may have served as many as 50,000 people at one time.

Archaeologists don't know exactly why the ancient farmers stopped maintaining their canals around 1450 A.D. It is thought that environmental changes, drought, violent floods or eroding rivers may have made it difficult to farm the Salt River Valley.

The ancient desert dwellers set the groundwork for the SRP canal system, which follows many of the same paths today.

I'm on that canal path
trying to stay of the ditch

...m stly

[1dave]

Jul 24, 2021 11:30:11 GMT -5 mohs said:

The Ancient Desert Dwellers

The ancestors of present-day Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian and Gila River Indian communities were farmers who lived in central and southern Arizona for about 1,400 years before European and American explorers came to the region. The intricate canal system that they built spanned nearly 500 miles and may have served as many as 50,000 people at one time.

Archaeologists don't know exactly why the ancient farmers stopped maintaining their canals around 1450 A.D. It is thought that environmental changes, drought, violent floods or eroding rivers may have made it difficult to farm the Salt River Valley.

The ancient desert dwellers set the groundwork for the SRP canal system, which follows many of the same paths today.

I'm on that canal path
trying to stay of the ditch

...m stly

THEY ( the Cibolans) did an amazing job - as did the Pre-Bolivians and Pre-Incas. How was the knowledge passed on?

[mohs]

Good question 1dave Dave!

I really don’t know
maybe I have some insights later

Thanks!!!

Ed

[mohs]

mosly