NAME THAT ROCK

The banner photo (above)

changes each month -

can you identify what type of

rock it is? Answer is on last

page but don’t peek until

you’ve tried to guess!

NOTE FROM EDITOR

We need your input to make

this newsletter relevant and

interesting. Please submit

articles, photos to the editor.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Words from the

President 3

Meeting, Events,

Announcements 4

Features 6

Board Minutes 9

Volume 30, Issue 7 August 2020

Every July, our club presents the “Founders Award” to a worthy member. The award is prepared and presented by the previous year‘s recipient .Last year‘s, 2019 recipient was Lisa King. Because of the restrictions placed on large group meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, It was decided by; the board of directors, that the award would be presented at our club’s; Lapidary day and picnic, in September. So, Who will this year’s mystery recipient be? Only the presenter knows! Hopefully, we will all be able to meet in September. At that time, the award winner will be revealed and the award will be presented. If we are still locked out of large group meetings, we will find a different way to present this year’s 2020 “Founders Award” recipient. Lisa King, Senior Director

Rockonteur ❖ August 2020 ❖ Page 2

COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Santa Lucia Rockhounds

is a non-profit public benefit

corporation with the specific

purpose to promote the

study of mineralogy,

including (but not limited to) the fields of

lapidary, metal working, jewelry design and

fabrication, geology and conducts field trips

for collecting and education. We encourage

learning and good citizenship in a congenial

atmosphere. We respect both private and

public property, and we strive to protect

natural resources. Meetings are held during

the third Monday of each month, except

December, at the Templeton Community

Center.

We are a member of the California

Federation of Mineralogical Societies (CFMS)

and affiliated with the American Federation

on Mineralogical Societies (AFMS). Santa

Lucia Rockhounds, Inc. is also a member of

the American Lands Access Association

(ALAA).

Annual dues are $20 for the first adult

and $8 each for every additional member of

the same household. Annual dues are

payable between August 1 and the third

Monday of December, in person at Club

meetings or by mail to P.O. Box 1672, Paso

Robles, CA 93447.

The Rockonteur

This is the official monthly newsletter of the

SLR and an independent publication

containing news and information consistent

with the mission of SLR and of interests to its

members. Circulation is approximately 100

copies per issue.

Member submissions are encouraged and

may be sent to the editor. We reserve the

right to accept or refuse submissions

inconsistent with the objectives and purpose

of the SLR. Submissions may be edited as

needed without consent. Deadline are due

by midnight of the last day of the month but

early submissions are highly appreciated and

strongly encouraged.

Newsletter Editor/Publisher:

Amy Phillips | amyphillips18@hotmail.com

Website: www.slrockhounds.org

2020 OFFICERS

President Kim Noyes

805-610-0603 kimnoyes@gmail.com

Senior Director

Lisa King 805-467-0062 anoldcowhand @gmail.com

VPs Membership

Kathy Clarke ladykatephotos @sbcglobal.net

Assisted by Karen Hilchey 805-296-4183

VP Education John McCabe

805-464-0528 mccabewest@aol.com

VP Communications

Don Barton 805-434-1557

dsbarton @charter.net

Secretary

Jacque Hughes 559-359-5016 Jacque93257 @yahoo.com

Treasurer

Tina Russell 831-254-2115

stuartina@att.net

Junior Director Caleb Willis

541-274-9071 Calebwillis11 @gmail.com

Past President

Tina Clark 805-305-0246

tdkclark @sbcglobal.net

Library/Museum Barbara Bilyeu 805-434-2708 bbilyeu2001 @yahoo.com

Merchandise David Nelson 805-434-2708 Bbilyeu2001

Newsletter Editor/

Publisher Amy Phillips

Program

Coordinator VACANT

Rock & Gem Show

Chair Kim Noyes

805-610-0603 Kimnoyes

@gmail.com

Auctioneer Pete Duckworth 805-467-3413 Jasperjunkie1 @yahoo.com

CFMS Director Wayne Mills

805-481-3495 wwmills50

@hotmail.com

Drawings Deb Mecham

Field Trips

Richard Smitten (805) 440-1496

Historian

Mark Nelson mnelsonair@aol.com

Hospitality VACANT

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

realize might interest somebody else. Also, estate sales and similar are a great way to acquire rocks despite all the craziness going on.

On that note, Mike Lyons and I are busy pre-paring another rock sale for local club members that will occur on Sept. 12, in rural East Atas-cadero. That is the same Saturday as we would have had our annual club gathering at Galen Mo-yer's rock ranch were it not for COVID-19 Pandem-ic and Quarantine. I chose that weekend on pur-pose in hopes of offering this to you as a consola-tion prize for losing that event. This is the rock shop and jewelry-making inventory of the host's late father who died in 1979 and the store sum-marily shut down and the inventory stored up into the present. There are lots of slabs and mineral specimens and even some jade. None of this stuff has been in circulation for the past 41 years or more so it is fun to see stuff that was out back in the 1970s. Please bring cash or personal checks and be aware that prices are reasonable but these people aren't stupid having grown up around rocks and having a general knowledge of their relative worth so don't expect to steal anything via material being given away out of ignorance. Please respect the legacy you will be browsing through!

Santa Lucia Rockhound emeritus John McCabe and his wife are leaving us within the month and moving to Austin, Texas. He will be greatly missed by both the club and our youth, but also by those of us who have had the high honor and privilege of getting to know John and call him friend. He leaves two BIG shoes to fill. We thank John for his service to our club over the years and wish the McCabes blessings in the next season of their lives. We, as a club, need to find someone to take over his role in this club as Vice President for Education and its at-tendant directorship of the Junior Rockhounds. Please contact me if you are interested in this task or know someone in this club who might be. I promise anybody coming into this position that they will receive plenty of assistance and support in doing that job for our club.

I am also sad to announce that esteemed San-ta Lucia Rockhound Deb Mecham is leaving us for Wyoming where she and her husband are relocat-ing within the month. She served our club diligent-ly during the past few years, most recently over-seeing operation of our club drawing during our general meetings as well as dutifully serving our club in multiple tasks at our April rock shows. We thank Deb for her service to our club and wish the Mecham's blessings in the next season of their lives. Anybody interested in taking over manage-ment of the club drawing during general meetings when they happen again are asked to contact the club.

Continued on p5

Well fellow Santa Lucia Rockhounds, here we are languishing in the heat, smoke, and humidity, waiting for the other shoe to drop as it were. How are you all holding up? Keeping busy? Staying healthy? Choosing to be happy? Accentuating the positive? Staying connected to other people? Doing any rockhounding and/or rock shaping and/or jew-elry-making? Let's hear from you via email and send your club images of any rock-related activi-ties you have been up to during quarantine with short blurbs describing what you did and what we are seeing in the image that we can feature in fu-ture editions of this newsletter!

Our next board meeting will be via Zoom and occur on Sept., 7. All club members are welcome to drop in and watch happen the democratic/bureaucratic process of administration of your club. PLEASE stop in and visit us even if you are a tech-nophobe and fear you won't be able to make it work. Trust me, if you are smart enough to drive a car then you are overqualified to join us via Zoom. Just click on the link and your device will open up in it even if you have not downloaded it into said device. Respond YES to any prompts about using Internet Video and/or Internet Audio. If you have any questions at the time just call me at (805) 610-0603.

Something we will be discussing at our board meeting is getting our loyal membership to renew their memberships during Pandemic & Quarantine. I know it is hard to get excited about a great many things and this club has not been given the oppor-tunity to serve you as we would have liked due to circumstances well beyond our control. We also re-alize that many of you are financially struggling during this time and paying your annual member-ship dues this year might very well be a problem. For this reason your board has voted to waive dues fees if you so chose when renewing your member-ship. If you wish to pay your membership renewal that is great, but if not, don't worry about it for 2021 membership renewal. What we do ask you to do is completely fill out the membership renewal form and return it to us, membership fee included or not. The form is on p8 and our website.

As you all probably guessed, our annual club gathering at Galen Moyer's rock ranch is not hap-pening this year due to COVID-19 nor the Arroyo Grande Gem & Mineral previously slated for the same weekend. Hopefully our annual tailgater at the Brewen rock ranch can still happen in Nov. There are still plenty of rock-related things that our club members may do while under Quarantine. You may rockhound locally or out of the area if you go on day trips or multi-day locations. You may hit yard sales and look for rocks both for sale and in the yard which interest you that the owners did not

Rockonteur ❖ August 2020 ❖ Page 4

From the Paso Robles Daily News Obituary:

Cathleen Quint Clemons McIntosh, 65, complet-ed her earthly race on July 19, 2020 in her home in San Miguel, CA. Cathy, affectionately as “Catmom,” born on April 29, 1955, in San Francisco, CA. Her parents relocated to Orcutt, CA where she attended Righetti High School, graduating in 1973. Later she went on to attend Allan Hancock College. In 1986 Cathy began working at Camp San Luis Obispo as a Civilian Finance Clerk and worked her way up to become the Civilian Finance Supervisor before she retired in 2013. Cathy was very active in her community, a member of a Paso Robles Wine Club where she learned how to make wine and entered them into the Paso Robles Fair. As a member of the Gold Country Explorers, she learned how to pan for gold and collected rocks to polish for jewelry and craft projects. Cathy also loved to quilt and would always have one crafting project or another in progress (sometimes two or three at the same time). She was an outdoors person who loved to work in her yard growing beautiful plants and gardening, playing and caring for her cats and dogs, going to yard sales, or having one herself. Family and friendships were very important to Cathy. No matter who she met, she always looked for the good in that person. She would give you the blouse off her back if she felt that you needed it or help you in any way that she could. Birthdays and holidays were very important to Cathy. She always made sure that you received a card from her on your birthday and any other occasion that pertained to anyone in her life.

Cathy, on left, was a volunteer during the 2018 Rock Show.

In 1998 Cathy met Dennis McIntosh. On March 17, 2001, they were married and lived happily in Paso Robles until his death in 2017. It was July 19, when the voice of God spoke, Cathy’s new residence was ready in the mansion of heaven, far above where she had to leave behind those she knew and loved – it was relocation time. Mother of three children: Billy Clemmons (San Miguel, Melissa and Stan Whiting (Nipomo), William and Iryna McIntosh (Portland). Grandmother to two: Charlotte and Veronica; her brother Clayton along with a host of relatives and friends.

A poem for Cathy:

When God saw you getting tired, and a cure was not to be He put his arms around you and whispered come to me He didn’t like what you went through And he gave you rest His garden must be beautiful, he only takes the best And when we saw you sleeping, so peaceful and free from pain We wouldn’t wish you back to suffer that again Today we say goodbye, and as you take your final rest That garden must be beautiful, because you are one of the best

Cathleen Quint Clemons McIntosh 1955 – 2020

FROM ROCKS TO ICEBERGS, THE NATURAL WORLD TENDS TO BREAK INTO CUBES By Adam Mann Perhaps the Cubists were right. Researchers have found that when everything from icebergs to rocks breaks apart, their pieces tend to resemble cubes. The finding suggests a universal rule of fragmentation at scales rang-ing from the microscopic to the planetary. Read story in AAAS Science Magazine: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/rocks-icebergs-natural-world-tends-break-cubes

Rockonteur ❖ August 2020 ❖ Page 5

Hi Juniors,

I am happy to announce that Sam Allen, Chey-enne Allen and Savanna Allen earned their FOSSIL badge. Cheyenne Allen was awarded her ROCK-HOUND certificate.

John McCabe, Junior Rockhound Leader

Jr. Rockhounds

SCHOLARSHIP

WINNER

The 2020 Santa Lu-

cia Rockhounds $1,000

scholarship was awarded

to Ashley Phillips, a graduate of Templeton High

School. Ashley will be attending Cal Poly San Luis

Obispo and majoring in agriculture communications

with a minor in crop science. After earning her Bache-

lor’s degree, Ashley plans on obtaining a teaching

credential. “I want to be able to do my part in my

community by encouraging kids to grow and do great

things,” Ashley said.

Ashley was president of the California High

School Rodeo Association, District 7. She is a five-

time California state high school rodeo qualifier, and,

in 2018, Ashley qualified for the National High School

Rodeo in Rock Springs, Wyoming where she compet-

ed in the pole-bending event. Demonstrating her ro-

deo skill level, Ashley was selected to join the Cal

Poly Rodeo Team.

She is a member of the San Luis Obispo County

Cattlemen’s Association. In 2018, Ashley raised

$12,000 in sponsorships for the Cattlemen’s Associa-

tion to support the Cattlemen’s Playday Ranch Rodeo

in 2019. The president of the association commented

that the organization likely would not have been able

to hold the rodeo without Ashley’s initiative in obtain-

ing the sponsorships.

Ashley is also an active member of the Templeton

Future Farmers of America (FFA). Over the last four

years, she has shown both a steer and a heifer at the

California Mid-State Fair. Demonstrating her leader-

ship capabilities, Ashley has taken part in speaking

competitions and helped organize many FFA activities

at Templeton High School.

She was president of the Link Crew Club/Class

where juniors and seniors help freshmen successfully

transition into high school. Ashley was also a member

of the Environmental Club where club members ex-

plored a variety of earth science topics.

Ashley achieved a 4.0 GPA in high school, and

her community and high school engagement, volun-

teerism and performance are examples of why the

Santa Lucia Rockhounds could not have selected a

better candidate for this scholarship. We wish Ashley

much success as she embarks on her college adven-

ture.

President’s Message continued from p3

The local clubs received an email from a Frank Peters in regards to a computer-controlled faceting machine this person claims they are developing. They would like feedback regarding this device from any facetors in our club as well as investment, undoubtedly. Frank invites you to check out some photos of the de-vice as well as his bio and investment pitch be-low. Remember, checking out the link is free as well as giving him feedback is free. Investment in his idea is optional. The Santa Lucia Rock-hounds endorses no Kickstarts. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fbp/gemcreator-a-semi-automated-gem-faceting-machine

I regret to announce, although with little to no surprise to you or me, that there will be no Sept. Cambria Gem & Mineral Show as Mike Lyons and I had hoped. If things were as good with local Quarantine rules as they got briefly earlier this Summer this might have happened. However, with indoor eating a no-no and our indoor show not even essential, so no-no is our indoor show. We have not yet given up on something in Oct. or Nov. at the same venue, perhaps outside. Stay tuned!

Kim Patrick Noyes

President

Rockonteur ❖ August 2020 ❖ Page 6

THE MANY FORMS OF CALCITE Pictures and part of text by Wayne Mills, OMS

Reprinted from the Ore-Cutts July 2019 Newsletter

Calcite (calcium carbonate) has many forms and is widely distribut-ed. Since seashells are made of calcite, and since he oceans cover ¾ of our planet, this is not hard to imagine. When shells decompose, they form limestone (calcium car-bonate). When the oceans recede and the limestone is exposed on the land, amazing things can hap-pen to it. As rain and surface water contact the limestone, dissolution can take place (as limestone is rel-atively easily dissolved). Caves and sink holes are formed by the dissolution of limestone. After the cave is formed, precipitation of lime from dripping water can form an amazing variety of cave for-mations including stalactites (hang from the top of the cave), stalagmites (built up from the bottom of the cave), helictites, soda straws, flowstone and oth-er shapes. When lime-rich water is bubbled to the surface of the earth at Hot Springs, the mineral traver-tine is formed. This is also a form of calcite. Aragonite has the same chemical formula as calcite (CaCO3-calcium carbonate) but it has a different atomic structure. Arago-nite replaces Halite (Salt) at Point Sal (salt in Spanish) to form pseu-domorphs (false forms) of the original salt hopper crystals (which were huge (imagine an individual (cubic) crystal of salt 2 inches on a side!) Near Yeso, in De Baco County, New Mexico, Dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate) has re-placed hexagonal aragonite crystals creating pseudomorphs nicknamed “Aztec Coins” Cobaltocalcite refers to an intermediary mineral between Cal-cite and Sphaerocobaltite in a solid solution series. It is most often perceived as a cobalt-rich variety of Calcite with a rich pink color. (Cobaltocalcite may also be mistak-enly used as a synonym for Sphaerocobaltite). Dogtooth Calcite-Calcite has

Crinoidal Limestone Sphere, China

Flowstone (Cave Formation) Location unknown

many crystal forms. One of these is the scalenohedron. An individual or grouping of scalenohedral calcite crystals is sometimes called Dog-tooth Calcite. Iceland Spar (Optical Calcite) is a translucent, double refractive and rhombohedral form of calcite coming from Iceland (surprise!) and other locations. Due to its unique double refractive property, optical calcite was used for bombsites during World War II (and maybe afterward?) Manganocalcite is Calcite with manganese impurities resulting in a pink color. Onyx Marble--Travertine or Tufa in the mineral form of Aragonite or Calcite that exhibits color banding. Rice Grain Spar--Calcite grouping of small, white scalenohedral crys-tals appearing as grains of rice. Salmon Calcite—is on orange-red, "salmon" colored variety of Calcite that is usually opaque. Sand Calcite has trapped sand par-ticles in its interior while it formed. Some neat examples are the calcite crystals from Rattlesnake Butte, Jackson Co., South Dakota. Tufa is a form of precipitating cal-cite (or aragonite) containing leaves, twigs, moss and other or-ganic matter.

** Many definitions from www.minerals.net/ (specific) mineral-variety

Slice of Stalacite (Cave Onyx) Kokoweef Mt., San Bernardino Co., CA

Rockonteur ❖ August 2020 ❖ Page 7

The Santa Lucia Club (SLR) did a great job on their 28th annual show. Attendance was lively for both days, and several of the dealers I talked to seemed pleased with their sales. There were 31 dealers plus the “Gravel Pit”, Gold Prospector’s, Kid’s treasure wheel and Rock Balance area among other activities. SLR had a neat way of counting the kid’s attendance by giving each kid a yellow square of paper that they traded in for a free rock and often for a 15-item scavenger hunt that when completed was worth another free rock. The yellow squares show that they had 224 kids on Saturday, and 225 on Sunday. There were about 1,500 adults admitted to the show. Admission to the show is $5 for adults, and kids under 16 and military are free. One of the dealers at the show had this sign. I thought it was pretty clever! As one of the two “Rock Docs” (my Rock Brother, Jim Mills, helped me for a few hours both days) I saw a lot of rocks, and I think we helped a few folks identify their treas-ures. A couple of the more in-teresting ones were the man who brought in a big, rose col-ored and carved egg on a wooden base that he got at a yard sale for $5.00!! It was very well carved with parrots and tigers, and my guess was that it was rose quartz, carved in China. I am not an antique specialist, but one of our guests suggested that it could go for $1,000.

One of my favorite visitors was the lady who showed me the ring her husband had re-cently bought her. When I told her it was “Fordite” and she dis-covered that Fordite was paint, she gave her husband a pretty funny look and he shrugged. One of the other names for the material that she turned up on the internet via her Smart Phone was “Motor City Agate.” Jim Mills and I got a good chuckle out of that one. (The piece pictured is from my col-lection.) SLR kept us well fed with doughnuts, deli sandwiches, veggies and other snacks, and they had some great displays. The theme this year was Crys-tals, and there was broad inter-pretation of that theme. For their People’s Choice Award, SLR’s award-winning Editor, Amy Phillips, got the President’s Award for her creative case of

ROCKIN’ THE FAIRGROUNDS

Story and Pictures by Wayne Mills from May 2019 Ore-Cutts Newsletter

Since 2020 has been pretty much a “no-show,” we thought it appropriate to look at how much fun our shows have been in the past, and how much fun they can be when we can have them again!

A Rock Show participant brought in this rose quartz egg to be identified and got a very pleasant surprise of its worth.

crystals (her first), and the Two Dons (Huntington and Pierce) got First place (again) for their Solar System Case. Eva Rodri-guez was recognized for her creative beach rocks case, and Frank Imhoff was another win-ner with his Crystals in Spheres case. So it was a fun, busy two days, and Kim Noyes and his crew are to be congratulated for another well-organized and en-joyable show.

Ava Rodriguez display showcasing the variety of minerals found on local beaches.

Rockonteur ❖ August 2020 ❖ Page 8

Rockonteur ❖ August 2020 ❖ Page 9

Zoom board meeting was called to order at 7:02 p.m. ROLL CALL: The following members were present: Kim Noyes, President; Lisa King, Senior Director; Tina Russell, Treasurer; Tina Clark, Past President; Don Barton, Com-munications and Jacque Hughes, Secretary. TREASURER REPORT: Tina Russell reported the account balances of the checking ac-count and the CD. Last month, checks were sent to the web-master, Cliff Brewen for the storage space, NCI, Tina Clark for the Zoom app, and to the scholarship award recipient. COMMUNICATIONS: Don Barton requests more pictures and videos be sent to Amy for the newsletter. MEMBERSHIP: Tina Clark reminded the board that Au-gust is membership renewal time and it is unknown if the membership form has been amended to include the $10 increase in membership fees for individuals requesting a hardcopy of the newsletter. Tina Clark will attempt to

amend the membership form herself. Since some members do not have email, they would need their membership forms mailed to them. Kim Noyes stated that he would contact these individuals and if they are still interested in renewing their membership, forms will be mailed to them. EDUCATION: Kim Noyes in-formed the board that sadly, John McCabe will be moving soon to Austin, Texas, to be close to family members. We need to take steps to replace him in this important position. Mary Beatty has been assist-ing John; however, her role was more clerical, and she can continue to do this for whoever is chosen to take over the position. It is pre-ferred that someone who is enthusiastic and has a strong background in geology be considered. Lisa King noted that Glenda Frame, a new member to the club seems to be quite knowledgeable in minerology and is also very enthusiastic and may be a possible candidate. OLD/NEW BUSINESS: Kim has continued to work on

JULY 6, 2020 BOARD MEETING MINUTES

organizing the storage unit and he needs more room for the gravel pit items and potential items from John McCabe. Lisa King offered to store 24 five-gallon buckets of intermediate grade (giveaway) rocks at her property to give more space. Kim will deliver to Lisa. Lisa King questioned how the Founder’s Award would be pre-sented and it was agreed that this could be done at the annual picnic at Galen’s. She also questioned where the club owned equipment list was locat-ed. Tina Clark stated that there was an old inventory list in the file, but she is sure that it re-quires updating, Tina Russell will follow-up and send copies to Lisa King. Lisa will update the Assets/ inventory list and add any equipment that has been overlooked. It was unanimously agreed that there will be no July Zoom Gen-eral Meeting, due to the lack of attendance. Kim Noyes thanked everyone for their service to the club during this difficult time. Meeting was adjourned at 7:51 p.m.

AN UNUSUAL METEORITE, MORE VALUABLE THAN GOLD, MAY HOLD THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE By Joshua Sokol

As the fiery emissary streaked across the skies of Costa Rica, an unearthly mix of orange and green, Marcia Campos Muñoz was in her pajamas, watching TV on the couch. It was 23 April 2019, a bit past 9 p.m., when she heard a foreboding rumble. Heart racing, she tiptoed outside to calm her barking dog, Perry, and to check on the cow pastures ringing her small house in Aguas Zar-cas, a village carved out of

Costa Rica’s tropical rainfor-est. Nothing. She ducked back inside, just before a blast on the back terrace rat-tled the house to its bones. A space rock the size of a washing machine had bro-ken up in the skies over the village, and the excitement was about to spread globally. Read story:https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/unusual-meteorite-more-valuable-gold-may-hold-building-blocks-life

Photo by Laurence Garvie, Center for Meteorite Studies, Arizona State University

PERIDOT IN VIETNAM

Vietnam is an important source of peridot for the international gem market. Gemological and geochemical characteristics of Vietnamese peridot from the

Central Highlands are similar to those noted for other localities originating from xenoliths in alkaline basalts. This peridot was derived from a spinel lherzolite

source and appeared to form at temperatures between 910° and 980°C and an assumed pressure of 2.0 ± 0.5 GPa, corresponding to a depth of around 60 km.

Learn more: https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/fall-2016-peridot-central-highlands-vietnam-properties-origin-formation

P.O. Box 1672

Paso Robles, CA 93447