Apache Junction Rock & Gem Club April 2017 Next Meeting: May 11th, 2017

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1 Officers Apache Junction Rock & Gem Club April 2017 Next Meeting: May 11th, 2017 President Chuck Larson Vice President Chuck Fagen Secretary Ruth Flynn Treasurer Linn Mistrot Trustee Tom Sundling Trustee Con Higley Trustee Jerry Fellenz Submissions can be made to New Show Co-Chairs: Steve Sisk or Wanda Sisk or wsisk2@cox.net Dave Zellner & Terri Hunt or jdaviszellner@live.com Stacey Lindsey or slindse1@gmail.com Class Coordinator: Karen Moschinger or classesajrockclub@gmail.com AJR&GC is a member of the following mineralogical societies: American Federation of Mineralogical Societies Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies Page 1

2 Table of contents General Meeting minutes for 4/13/17 3 Nominations.7 Globe Onyx field trip..9 Superior Apache Tears and Silver King Mine..9 Perlite mine and Silver King Mine pictures.11 Terry and Connie s potluck.12 Field trip etiquette for guests..13 Payson Fossilized Coral field trip 13 Payson Fossilized Coral pictures.14 Sycamore Creek field trip pictures 18 Chilito Mine field trip pictures 19 Compass for your Cause.21 Page 2

3 General Meeting minutes for 4/13/17 by Ruth Flynn Chuck Larson, President Called meeting to order at 6:35 Requested that all members turn off phones Led the Pledge of Allegiance Introduced club Officers Welcomed new members and guests Announced Silent Auction, 50/50 and door prizes Still looking for webmaster. Ron Ginn is retiring June 1 st website will be shut down if no one volunteers Got a trailer for floats, thanks to Con Higley Nominations for club Officers will begin at the May General Meeting. Elections will take place during the October General Meeting. The President, Treasurer, Secretary and one Trustee are all retiring, so start thinking about good people to take their places. (see page seven for further details) Please place any donations for the Desert Vista Elementary School raffle on the Membership table. Donations need to be turned in by the end of this week. Contact Linn Mistrot if you have something to donate or ajrgctreasurer@gmail.com Thank you to all monitors, volunteers at our shows, field trip leaders and everyone else who helps keep this club going Linn Mistrot, Treasurer Gave financial report. Books are always open contact Linn at or ajrgctreasurer@gmailcom if you have questions Gave explanation of the OOMA phone we now have in the office. This phone is for recorded messages these messages will give shop hours only. Monitors will not be answering the phone. Page 3

4 Phone number is This phone cannot be used to dial 911 or to make long distance calls Ruth Flynn, Secretary Received pictures from Bonnie Almaraz that were taken last fall on the Sycamore Creek field trip and the Chilito Mine field trip. Pictures are at the club if you d like to take some. Thank you, Bonnie! Explained that the building was paid off quickly due to the efforts of our Treasurer, Linn Mistrot. If it weren t for her pinching pennies and holding everyone to their budgets, it could not have happened. The club owes Linn a huge thank you Two get well cards sent this month Minutes for last General Meeting were approved Con Higley, Trustee The club participates in local events. Keep the Festival of the Superstitions and the Flagg Show in mind. Signup sheets will be posted at the club in the fall for both these shows Sharon Koberna, Membership Chair Club now has 362 members, 10 of them are youth. 62 new members since the beginning of the year Dan Jarvis, Field Trip Leader Field trip Saturday, April 15 th to Payson for fossil coral, geodes and crystals. Meeting at McDonalds in Payson at 8:00. This is a new site for the club Passed around signup sheet for the field trip to St. Johns on April 28 th & 29 th for petrified wood. Need more people or trip will be cancelled Page 4

5 Field trip to Diamond Point for crystals and zebra agate on Wednesday, April 19 th. Paul Stearns will be leading that trip Alan Koberna, Temporary Field Trip Coordinator Will be planning field trips for May and June, either up north or east for cooler temperatures Trisha Olivas, member Natural Expressions Rock Shop will be holding a sale for club members on April 22 nd & 23 rd. You must wear your badge. Members will get 20% off their minimum purchase of $25 or more and will not be charged sales tax. Cash or check only there is an ATM across the street if needed. Barrels and crates of rock available both whole rock and slabs. 36 HP saw for sale, along with some cabbing units. Flyers at the club and will also be ed to members Ken Perkins, member Highly recommends Natural Expressions got some beautiful Indonesian petrified coral there Karen Moschinger, Class Coordinator Two classes scheduled this month you must contact Karen to sign up for either of these classes or classesajrockclub@gmail.com o Tuesday, April 18 th, 10:00 AM. Making a Pharaoh ring with Jim Meier this is an advanced class o Tuesday, April 25 th, 6:00 PM. Beginners class wrapping a tumbled stone with Deb Vincelette Page 5

6 Steve & Wanda Sisk, Stacey Lindsey, Dave Zellner, Terri Hunt Show Co-Chairs Will be providing information in September regarding the fall show Richard Holle, Shop Manager Trained some monitors who needed retraining and trained a couple of new monitors Machines are all working properly will be replacing bearings on some machines Will begin doing fire agate classes on Fridays again Karen Moschinger can give cabbing classes to those who are interested When cabbing, use light pressure on the grinding wheels. Heavy pressure will just scratch your rock and ruin the wheel Glenn Troyani, Monitor Coordinator Always need more monitors. Please come in on Mondays or Saturdays to talk with Glenn Please put your name on belts and buffing wheels if you leave them behind, he ll know who they belong to 50/50 and door prize drawings Mikayla did a great job calling the numbers thank you, Mikayla! Chuck Fagen, Vice President Introduced speakers Dan Ware and David Squires of ProMack Treasure Hunting Page 6

7 Dan Ware & David Squires gave a very informative talk on gold prospecting Club members wearing a badge receive a 10% discount at the store store closed April 17 th through May 2nd Membership to the Superstition Mountain Treasure Hunters (SMTH) is $75.00/year, though you can attend one meeting and one field trip for free Field trips are the third weekend of every month, always on one of the club s 13 active gold mining claims across the state Discussed various types of metal detectors and answered lots of questions from club members Chuck Larson, President Announced that Silent Auction would be closing in 15 minutes Meeting adjourned at 7:50 Nominations by Ruth Flynn Nominations for club Officers will begin at the May General Meeting, with elections held at the October General Meeting. Nominations are for President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Trustee. The President, Treasurer, Secretary and Trustee are all retiring, so the field is wide open. The newly elected Officers will have some fun decisions to make regarding improvements and additions to the club. With the building now paid off, there will be funds to possibly create a silversmith area, add more machines or air conditioning or whatever other improvements the members would like to see Following are thumbnail job descriptions for each position; who do you know who would be a good fit? President The duties of this office shall be to assign the work of the Club, to preside at all meetings: to be Chairperson of the Executive Board and to appoint all Standing Committee Chairpersons and any other such committee as deemed Page 7

8 necessary to conduct the business of the Club, subject to approval by the Board of Directors Vice President - The duties of the Vice-president shall be to assign and direct the Field Trip Chairperson, to assist the President in all duties assigned and to assume all Presidential duties during the absence of the President. Schedule six speakers each year for General Meetings Treasurer - The duties of the Treasurer shall be to maintain an accurate accounting of all receipts and expenditures and other financial activities of the Club; to serve as Club bank liaison, making all deposits and paying all bills authorized by the Board of Directors or associated with approved budgets. The Treasurer shall present a report monthly to the Executive Board and at the General Meeting of budget accountability, and balances on hand. The Treasurer shall participate in an annual audit review of Club accounts and shall file applicable tax forms and reports Secretary - The duties of the Secretary shall be to notify all members when board and regular meetings are to be held, keep an accurate record of all Regular Board, General Meetings and special meetings. To conduct the correspondence of the Club by means of and/or USPS: keep hard copies of all correspondence, act as Sunshine Coordinator and to provide the Newsletter Editor with a copy of the General Meeting minutes in a timely fashion. The Secretary will also create and maintain an Action Item list and have said list available at all meetings of the Executive Board Trustee - The duties of the Trustees shall be to conduct an annual audit of Club accounts of the Treasurer, after the January General Meeting, and present the audit findings to the membership at the February General Meeting. The Trustees shall also review and recommend updates to the Club By-Laws at a minimum of every two (2) years from the last revision date. The Trustees shall also perform such other duties as deemed necessary by the Board of Directors, including management of the Festival of the Superstitions and the Flagg Show Page 8

9 Globe Onyx field trip pics by Mitch Lee and Ed Lindsey A DOUBLE FIELD TRIP ADVENTURE Superior Apache Tears and the Silver King Mine By Dan Jarvis Some days you just get lucky. March 25 was one of those days we should have played the Lottery. What a glorious morning welcomed the small group of nine members of the club as we all gathered at the Imerys Perlite Company Plant in Superior. This was one of those short notice field trips, and only a small group was given permission to collect Apache Tears from the perlite ore pile at the Perlite Plant. No, we did not go to the perlite quarry as we have done in the past, but in less than two hours each of us was able to pick up hundreds of Apache Tears of all sizes. The quarry manager, Tom Hawk, showed all of us a monster Apache Tear the size of a baseball, and he said he found it in the quarry. One of these days a club Page 9

10 member is going to find Apacheous Tearous Obsidious Gigantus, or whatever you call those super-sized orbs of obsidian. Apache Tears were so plentiful that we all got tired picking up so many of them. The majority of the group did not know it in advance, but upon arrival at the perlite plant all were notified that when we finished picking up Apache Tears we were all invited to drive three miles north to what is known as the Silver King Mine. No, this is not the Silver Bell Mine we visited several weeks ago near Marana. According to information found on the internet the Silver King Mine was the richest silver mine in in the State of Arizona. It originally operated from 1875 to 1900, and large chunks of native silver were found lying all over the surface of the ground. The towns of Silver King next to the mine and Pinal a few miles south were built to house the miners and process the silver ore. Both of these places are now ghost towns. Currently the mine is privately owned, and thanks to club member Darryl Burnett we were able to get access. Mining is not in operation at the Silver King, but the owners plan on mining very shortly. King Mine. The friendly mine caretaker gave us his name and telephone number, and he has invited us to return. At the mine there are beautiful crystals available for those willing and able to do some hard rock mining and rock busting. Beautiful chunks of shiny clear-white pure quartz the size of watermelons are scattered all over the place. There is enough to fill up several large dump trucks. The remains of the old Silver King homes and buildings along with stories of people finding gold coins and antiques of all kinds wait for any who know how to swing a metal detector. Old mine roads scatter in all directions leading to other old mines and interesting sites, but sideby-sides or quads are needed for these adventures. This place has enough exciting stuff to do that will take several field trips to accomplish. Are you ready for another wild adventure? A new field trip in the near future might be planned to go to the Silver Page 10

11 Perlite Mine pic by Joyce Bowman Silver King Mine pics by Joyce Bowman Page 11

12 Terry and Connie s potluck pics by Mattie Gadd Page 12

13 Field trip etiquette for guests by Ruth Flynn The member sponsoring the guest is responsible for the guest and must ensure that they follow all rules and procedures of the club. Your guest is probably not aware of how possessive we all are about that great rock we gathered and that we don t want anyone else touching it. THE PAYSON FOSSILIZED CORAL FIELD TRIP By Dan Jarvis What more could a person ask for? The morning in Payson was beautiful, the temperature was perfect, and some of the finest people on planet earth were gathered together for another rock hounding adventure. On the morning of Saturday, April 15, twenty-two club members, one guest, and two youth headed out with high hopes of gathering fossilized coral and geodes. Upon arrival near the collection site two club members, Alan Koberna and John Douglas, helped shuttle everyone in the group to the collection site. A rough and rocky section of forest road blocked access to all vehicles except for a side-by-side and a jeep. Once all were at the collection site everyone scattered all over the nearby hillside like starving ants gathering food. Small pieces of fossilized coral were plentiful, and geodes were found everywhere. Several club members found large flat rocks covered with incredible marine fossils. What an amazing find the flat rocks were, and everyone seemed to be pleased with their new fossil treasures. Time flew much too fast and around noon the group was tired and ready to head out. Alan and John helped shuttle everyone back to where the vehicles Page 13

14 were parked, and the group headed home. This collection site will certainly be visited again sometime in the future. For those who could not be present all we can say is you missed a great outing. Oh, by the way the temperature when the group left at 1:00 p.m. was 71 degrees. What a perfect way to end another grand adventure. Pics by Ruth Flynn Page 14

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18 Sycamore Creek field trip, 2016 pics by Bonnie Almaraz Page 18

19 Chilito Mine field trip, 2017 pics by Bonnie Almarz Page 19

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21 COMPASS FOR YOUR CAUSE PROGRAM Are you considering changing banks? Are you thinking about opening a new checking account? If you are please consider BBVA Compass Bank. Apache Junction Rock and Gem Club, Inc. uses Compass Bank and we ve been very happy with them. The Club just signed up for the Compass For Your Cause Program. Every time any of our members (or any other supporter) opens a new BBVA Compass Bank Checking Account the Club receives a $50 royalty. There is no cost or charge to you. All you have to do is give Compass Bank the Club s code when you open the account. And if you use the Visa Check card that comes with many of the accounts, the Club will get 0.25% of the purchase amount. Still no cost to you! The Apache Junction Rock and Gem Club code number is Compass has several checking account options available. One that is particularly attractive is the Clear Choice Free Checking account. Features include: Minimum opening amount of only $25.00 No monthly service charge One complimentary Visa Check Card Unlimited check writing There are other benefits and other accounts. Ask a bank representative to explain them to you. They have several locations but the one closest to the Club is on Baseline near Crismon Road. Be sure to give them the Club s code: Page 21