|
|
» Click here for Gem & Mineral Club show listings.
Increase your website traffic
|
Oregon Sunstones at the Spectrum Mine We had a lot of fun at the Opal Mines and met some great people. We didn't find what we had hoped for at the Royal Peacock Mine but were satisfied with our findings at the Bonanza. It was now time to move on to another location in search of a different type of gem. It was the Oregon State Gem, "Sunstone". We also had seen this on the Travel Channel's show, The Best Places to find Cash and Treasures with host Becky Worely. We were only about 100 miles from the Spectrum Mine just over the Oregon border so it would be a nice easy trip. We made a brief stop at Adel, OR, to strecth and let the dog out. Oh, I forgot to mention, the dog was an Australian Sheep dog and it belonged to Bob and Barbara. They were our rock hound friends that we had been traveling with from back home in Southeast Arizona.
While we were stopped I checked the cracked hitch bracket on the Jeep and it didn't appear to be any worse. We only had about another 40 miles to go to get to Plush, OR, the last towm before getting to the Sunstone Mine.
We went North out of town for about 1 mile to the mine turn off which soon turned into rough gravel road. This road was much worse than the one back at the Opal Mines and we had 17 miles of it ahead of us.  As I was waiting in line behind our friends, one of the mine personel came up to my window and said my hitch was broken completely off one side of the bumper. I got out and looked, sure enough that strecth of bad road had taken it's toll. One side of the hitch was hanging down and almost dragging on the ground. It's amazing how the safety cable held and prevented me from completely losing the Jeep.
Once we reserved our mine belt
run for the next day I talked to the mine manager about my hitch problem.
He said he knew someone in the area that might be able to fix it for.
That would be great as I wouldn't have to travel back over that rough
road to do it. We went over to the BLM camp ground and got set up. I unhooked
the jeep and went back to see Mike, the mine manager. Once
Mike was finished with running the mine , we went looking for the person
he said could help me with my problem. As it turns out, he wasn't home.
We left a message with his wife to have him call Mike if he came back
before dark. Night time came and no call. We then decided that we would
have to go into Plush on Saturday morning as previously planned.
Depending on the temperature this can be very hot exausting work. The third option, which we choose is to pay $200 for a mine belt run lasting one hour. The mine personel bring raw material from the mine with a bucket loader and dump it into a hopper. At the bottom of the hopper is the end of the conveyor belt. As the belt is running material is released on it with water. The water enables you to see the Sunstones better. You can have several people help you look as we did.
Both us and our friends did very good on the belt run and look forward to doing it again someday. We spent the rest of the day sorting and high grading our booty.
The next day we got into the jeep and headed back into the town of
Plush, hoping to meet with the guy who could weld our hitch. We waited
around the general store where we were to meet but he didn't show up.
In the meantime we drove around the Plush area to view some of the lakes and mountains. Pictured below is some of what we saw.
I watched as this craftsman cut a piece of steel to match what had broken. He then drilled the hole for the clevis pin that secured the bar to the bumper. Now comes the last part, welding that piece to the bumper. After a total time of about 30 minutes it was all done. I now had to ask the big question, how much? I tensed up and held my breath as he slowly rubbed his chin, "how about $10.00", he said. I couldn't believe it. "Absolutely not" I exclaimed, "I'll give you $20.00, it's worth that and more". With the repair done and great feeling of relief and gratitude we headed back to the camp ground. When we got there, we found out that Bob and Barbera had been out in the desert and had been finding Sunstones just lying on top of the ground. They weren't same high quality that is found at the mine but they were ok. We spent the rest of the day in the desert looking for some ourselves. Our trip , this part of it, is now over. We had fun, had some minor problems, but all in all it was great. We got what we came for and met some wonderful people and got to see some beautiful parts of the Northwest U.S. Tomorrow our friends and us will be seperating to head back home on different routes. We do have plans to do some rock hounding in CA, other parts of NV and across Utah. More about that in my next story. Hope to have that up in the near future. So long for now.
I update frequently with new articles. Information contained in these is from reliable sources and personal experiences with a little humor thrown into the mix from time to time. So come back and visit often! NEW Rockhounds Store
Agate 2006 Baker Lode Mine, New Mexico Deming, New Mexico Oregon Sunstones The Big Luna Total Wreck Mine Virgin Valley, NV Opals Washington Camp Kids Corner:
Prospector Ron's Articles:
Comments? Questions?
Suggestions? Copyright © 2003 - 2008 RockRoost.com - All rights reserved - Copying is not allowed. (A Division of Sierra Creations - P. O. Box 914, Sierra Vista, AZ 85636) RockRoost website creators: R. Burgess & J. Brinker-Burgess
|
