Thursday, January 11, 2018

Looking for Silver and Apache Tears


One day when I was at the RV Park in Mesa, Max took 3 of us on a 4-wheel drive trip, out near Superior, AZ.


Our first stop was out to look for Apache Tears, which are obsidian nodules, usually encased in perlite rock. I found quite a few.


They are fairly easy to find - a lot of the rocks in this photo are Apache Tears. You can just barely see the black obsidian peeking through. There's also a large ant making off with a flower bud...


You can see Weaver's Needle in the distance.


We also went to see some very impressive wagon ruts from long, long ago.


And then we went to Silver King Mine, which is now on private property. Fortunately, there was a phone number on the gate, and Max managed to get us permission to walk up to the mine.


Silver King was once the richest silver mine in the world - back in 1881.


Today, it's looking pretty down and out.


I didn't find any silver, but I was happy, because -


There was lots of RUSTY STUFF!

2 comments:

  1. Those wagon ruts are impressive. How many must have passed that way?

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  2. The wagon ruts... amazing how close to being a standard width those old wagons were. I suppose many of the wagon makers were working from the same basic plans for the undercarriage. Even though there was no automation such building plans were sold by mail order to the various carriage makers and blacksmiths.

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