Cache Rock & Gem Club
Volume 4, Issue 11
53 North 200 West, Brigham City Utah 84302
From the Top of the Rock Pile
Meetings are on the We are getting ready for the
2nd Tuesday of the holidays and some really fun filled
month at Summit events. Our first event will be the
Elementary 7:00pm November Auction where everyone
80 West Main will have a chance to bid on some
Smithfield
really nice material for cabbing and
just to have around for show and tell.
Junior club members All proceeds will go to the club to
meet separately after cover show and operating expenses.
opening This last summer, the club bought
announcements. out a private collection so we have a
lot of really nice rocks that we will be
Visitors are welcome. auctioning off. During the auction, we
will also need some volunteers to help
Annual Club with filling bags for next years show.
Membership We will have material there that is
going into grab bags. Jean will be in
Individual $15.00
charge of doing this. This will take
Family $20.00
place on November 10th at 7:00 pm at
Summit elementary School in
Smithfield. It will be the last meeting
November 10th that we have at the school for this
Auction year. For our meeting in December,
Remember to bring we have our family Christmas party.
in rock for the Dinner at Chuck-a-Rama, where we
members annual held it last year, has been scheduled
fund raising. for our group. This is always a fun
event with plenty to eat. We do ask
everyone to bring a $5 white elephant
December 8th gift for our exchange game. It is
Annual Holiday always a night full of fun and surprises
Dinner for the whole family. Make sure that
Chuck-A-Rama you put this down on your calendar for
138 South Main December 8th at 7:00 pm.
Street Logan, UT For those of you that did not go out
Remember to bring a to Hanksville with us this last month,
white Elephant you really missed a good outing. We
gift. (under $5.00) found new sites and got buckets of
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November 2016
material for the club and ourselves.
We are going to try and get a sched-
ule worked up for our outings next
year so that you can to plan for them.
I know that some of you have asked
about this so that you can get time off
to come with us. We will try and stick
to the schedule as close as possible,
depending on weather and such.
We have shut down the shed as it is
getting too cold, the water is starting
to freeze and we do not want to
damage any of the equipment. If we
get a few days where it is sunny and
warm, we may open it up but this will
be up to Larry who is in charge of the
shed. I also want to thank him for all
that he is doing for us at the shed in
working hard to keep the equipment
up and running. Over the winter we
may get in some more equipment to
use. That means we really need some
of you to come help us straighten up
and move things around at the shed as
we now have rocks everywhere. Larry
will put together a work meeting over
there, so get with him if you can help
out for a few hours, we will decide on
a time to do this within the next few
weeks before it really gets cold.
Well I hope to see all of you at our
Auction on the 10th and remember to
bring any rocks that you might want to
give to the club for the auction.
Gary Warren
President
Cache Rock and Gem Club
435-720-1775 (cell)
 Page 2
October Club Meeting
Les Tryon presented his collection of coprolite to the club. He is completely
enamored with the stuff and has been collecting it for years -- how can one not
be considering that the highly prized and sought after material originated in the
bowels of an animal and then fossilized. According to Les, three things to
consider when looking for the prized poo is how old the stone is in the area, is
there dung beetle bores in the stone, and are dinosaur bones found in the
area? Chances are that if there are bones, there is fossilized feces.
Next you have to train your eye on what you are looking for. They may be
broken and weathered nodules or they may be just barely sticking out from the
ground. Some look like real scat while others like old oddly weathered rock.
Shape is not always an indicator and neither is size. According to poozeum.com
there is a piece of coprolite that has teeth marks embedded in it, the largest
piece weighs in at over four pounds, and the smallest coprolite found is termite
frass. When you do find the elusive stuff, Les recommends that you make a
concentric grid because where there is one, there is likely more within a two
foot radius. You have to look for patterns and know what those patterns are.
The area or pit you are working may contain a variety of the material.
Les sited some good areas in Utah to scout for fossilized dung. Henry
Mountains in Hanson Canyon have horse biscuit coprolite that is absolutely
beautiful inside and Star Spring campground is a prime collecting site. A
topological map used in tandem with a geologic map will not only be helpful in
locating areas but will also come in handy when trying to identify the beast it
came from. Was it found in Triassic, Jurassic, or the Cretaceous period?
There are some people who study fossilized stools to determine not only what
animal it came from but also the animals diet. For example, a carnivores
sample may contain bone. These biological clues are important in helping
determine diets of ancient creatures so that paleontologists may one day
reconstruct ecological webs from the very bowels of prehistory.
Who knew poo could be so
beautiful? Other Meeting Notes
Gary Warren started the meeting off with a to rehome our equipment and collections. The
synopsis of the October field trip. The groups 20 winter months are much too cold to keep water
minute collecting for the club at each site has lines from freezing in the shed and we would
been very productive in gathering the amount of like to extend our operating days beyond
material we need for our annual show. We will summer months. If you have any ideas or
continue to do this at each outing. suggestions, please contact the committee
Bryce Hickson with the Division of Oil, Gas and chair, Shawndra Johnson.
Mining has donated 1500 rock bags, rocks and Jay Andersen attended a club members only
junior kits to the club. We will be working in annual rock show in Idaho and thought it would
tandem with him in growing our Jr. Members be an interesting idea for us to look into. No
club into something extraordinary. commercial venders were allowed. Items for
2017 will be our last show at BATC. We are still sale were made or collected by club members
looking for venues with at least 10,000 square only. It was agreed that we would consider
feet. We are also interested in identifying a place adding an additional members only venue.
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November 2016
 Novembers Future Rockhounds of America
Page 3
Stone
Topaz WoW! Fun times ahead for our Jr. Members
Silicate mineral
Our Jr. members will be
Al2SiO4(F,OH)2 participating in the American
Federation of Mineralogical
Colorless (if no Societies program for Future
impurities), blue, Rockhounds under the
brown, orange, gray, guidance of Shawndra
yellow, green, pink Johnson. Most content will
and reddish pink.
be covered in Jr. meetings
Mystic topaz is although some may need to
colorless topaz be completed independently.
which has been Badges in twenty areas are
artificially coated available for you to explore.
giving it the desired
rainbow effect. Content of the program can be viewed at amfed.org/kids.htm

An English As Papa Jay likes to say, rockhounds dont grow old, they petrify.
superstition held
that topaz cured
Jay Andersen will be keeping his lapidary equipment available to our Jr. members
lunacy.
during winter. You may contact him at 435-754-9742 to schedule a time.
Topaz Mountain is
part of the Thomas
Range, located in ANCIENT GLUCOCORTICOID
Juab County, Utah, ARMADILLO HADES FLOWER
approximately 36 BABOON KAKAPO
miles Northwest of BEHAVIOR KILLER WHALE
Delta, Utah. The CERRADO KNOWLEDGE
mountain lies on CHINOOK MIDDAY
publicly owned land CONSERVATION OFF COURSE
managed by the COPROLITE PIROUETTING
DECENDENT POO CITY
Bureau of Land
DISRUPTION POPULATION
Management (BLM).
DROPPINGS REPRODUCTIVE
Collection of rocks DUNG BEETLE RETRIEVER
and mineral is EXCRETED SILICONE
permitted at Topaz EXTINCT SNIFFING
Mountain. Our club FINGERPRINT STRESS
frequents the area TANZANIA
and is generally the
first annual trip out
rock hounding.

sciencenewsforstudents.org

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November 2016

Rock with embedded fossils.
Glass Mountain.
Looking for Devils toenails.
Due to weather, the shed is now closed.
Wire wrapped creations made in
class.
Page 4
October In The Field
Photos by Sally Warren. Temple of the Sun at Capitol Reef.
The last trip for the year found
the club out towards Hanksville,
Caineville and points in between.
Seventeen, including Junior
Members made it out to explore
new areas. Rick Hepworth arrived
a couple days early and scoped
out sites to visit, so kudos go out Glass Mountain.
to him for making sure the group
had a very successful trip.
They located a mountain of
gypsum known as Glass
Mountain, devils toenails at
several sites, coprolite, wood and
solid agate. There were plenty of
trails to follow for adventure. Gypsum from Glass Mountain.
Not only does Utah have
abundant and varietal materials
to collect but we also have some
pretty amazing scenic vistas. At
the edge of Capitol Reef National
Monument the group came
across a rock outcropping known
as The Temple of the Sun. We are
Glass Mountain.
sure to be revisiting the area.
Wire Wrapping
Jim and Marilyn Johnson hosted a wire
wrapping class for Carolyn Eddy, wire
sculpture and artist, it was attended by
Anita and Donette. The class ran from 8-5
and was a complete immersion into right
brain creativity with just the right amount
of left brain ideas. Topics covered were
extensive and addressed different types of
wire, gauge, tempore, grain in metal, tools,
design and methods.
Class in session at the Johnsons .
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November 2016
 Club Officers Page 5

Club President Gary Warren rock_hunter1@hotmail.com

1st Vice President Craig Stewart candmstewart@msn.com

2nd Vice President Dave Nielsen dsnielsen@live.com

Secretary Jean Daddow jean.daddow@gmai.com

Rocky Mountain Federation of
Treasure Kathy Farnsworthd farnsworth@hotmail.com Mineralogical Societies, rmfms.org

Board Members

Head Chair Dave Farnsworth dfarnsworth@hotmail.com

Shed Mngr. Larry Christophersen Larry-0021@comcast.net

Assist. Jay Andersen jandersen2014@outlook.com Special Congress
Representing Involved
Trip Mngr. Dave Nielsen dsnielsen@live.com Bulletin Editors
Trip Assist. Dustin Lofthouse scribe.rbnet.net

Jr. Member Mngr. Shawndra Johnson calandshawn@gmail.com

Assist. Sally Warren and Shelly Lofthouse
Rock Show Mngr. Craig Case case2cn@gmail.com
Assist. Jay Anderson

Advertising Mngr. Craig Stewart candmstewart@msn.com

Assist. Luann Wilmore
American Federation of
Web Master Craig Case case2cn@gmail.com Mineralogical Societies, amfed.org

Social media Mngr. Vacant

Welcoming committee Debra Fabre` n/a

Assist. Marsha Christophersen

News Bulletin Editor Anita McCollum anitamccollum@comcast.net

Bob & Maria Stewart

Mexicanroseagate.com Rock Buckets
Large collection of silicates, mainly agate, jasper and quartz
We still have 3 gal buckets of varied rough
from Mexico for sale online and at various rock and gem
rock for sale from club collection trips . The
shows. Our mission is to find, collect and sell the finest agate,
cost of a bucket is $10.00 to club members.
jasper, geodes and other forms of chalcedony, mainly from
If interested, contact one of the club
family-owned property in Mexico, to offer to you at
officers.
affordable prices.

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November 2016