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The Mineral Museum of MT Tech of the University of Montana, hosts summer
programs for kids and adults like some other colleges are doing these
days. This one especially "rocks" <snort> because they're always
geology programs and field trips and my son is a born prospector.
Saturday we went on one of their field trips.
The man who's lately been the guide on these trips is Ed Laird, a self
taught rock hound who found the 400lb smokey quartz crystal now on
display at the Museum.
If you've never seen a 400 pound smokey quartz crystal, well, it's big.
He found it at a place called Pipestone Flats, which is where he led this
field trip with the hope of seeing all the little kids find a good
crystal or two. The trouble was, most of the folks on the trip were
adults and geologists, a happy accident for my son and pretty interesting
for Mr. Laird too, it seemed. Last year when we went there were a lot
of homeschool kids and some adults who were, yes, geologist, so Dylan
remembered that, and when he saw all the adults this time he simply asked
"Excuse me, are you a geologist?" Yup.
The guy who drove our van was a (guess!) geologist at the Dept. of Mines
and Geology. A very cool guy. The museum director, also on the trip, was
a hydro geologist. So, for six hours Dylan had direct access to smart
folks who loved talking about rocks. Nothing is better when you're ten
and you have a rock pick and a big idea that you can dig up anything.
Pipestone Flats is just spitting distance from the continental divide, if
you know how to really launch one, and high elevation, open sage-brushy
country with some junipers and Douglas fir, but sparse. Turns out it's
the perfect place to find crystals, where granite meets feldspar in bony
ridges that jut out of the ground like a dragons back. If any of you
have ever been over Homestake pass you'll know what I mean about the
granite. Massive ancient boulders have weathered out of the ground here
like giant vertebrae, spectacular and rugged.
It was hideously hot. I know you folks who live where it's 100 degrees
and 100% humidity can't abide whiners like me, but 107 in Montana is hot
because it's just not supposed to get 107 in Montana. Not where I live
anyway, up north and down south some, Great Falls and Billings ( hello
Lisa and Dana ) but not here. Really, it just doesn't happen.
We walked and poked and dug and sweated and crowded into the shade when
we found some and told stories about finding great rocks or, like
fishermen, about losing the big one to some other rock hound.
It was a marvelous day, and we did find crystals! Dylan found a pocket
full of smoky quarts - two rather large ones, a nice clear quartz crystal
about three inches long, and others that were smaller, some green
epidote, and two very nice axinite. We filled up another egg carton and
started a new dish of rocks on the bookshelf and decided to go dig
sapphires or pan for gold next weekend. It's supposed to cool off to the
frosty mid eighties. Yea Haw!
Anyway, this was going somewhere, Ed Laird is in the early, beginning
stages of writing a book about his adventures digging for rocks. About
how he learned by doing, and by being curious and patient and observant
and about how he taught himself to cut gemstones and make jewelry and
take little kids and big geologist on hot field trips. And about digging
400 pound crystals out of Pipestone Flats.
It should be a good book for unschoolers.

Deb L