Monday, June 9, 2008

Digging For Gems

OceanView Mine
Pala, CA
June 2008

Waiting to dig.



Mi familia.



Queen of the Mountain. This was the last bucket of the day. They still look excited and not too tired.



Screening.



Our finds. We also found some small pink stones and a couple of crystals.



From Wikipedia:

Morganite was first discovered together with other gemstone minerals, such as tourmaline and kunzite, at Pala, California, early in the twentieth century. This started a bonanza for these quite popular gemstones which drew the attention of gemologist George Frederick Kunz, who knew that pink beryl was quite a rarity. [1]

In 1911, Kunz suggested naming the pink variety of beryl "morganite" after J.P. Morgan (the famous financier), his biggest customer at the New York jeweler Tiffany's. [2]. Ever since, the stone has held a certain popularity with Tiffany's, though it still remains a relatively scarce gem.

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