Lapidaryforum.net
Let's Rock => Rockhounding Tips, Maps, Trips Etc. => Topic started by: lithicbeads on June 04, 2017, 01:25:58 PM
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Come on folks.
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Your a lucky guy. Wish that river passed by me....
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Nice photos! What is the location?
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North Cascades.
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Are these stones jade? I know nothing about jade ... but I see rocks that look kind of like these on the saltwater beach near my house in Maine. Could some be jade?
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There is a small bit of jade i Newfoundland but it wouldn't make it to Maine. Jade can have many looks but some areas just have the wrong geology. I lived in New England and collectible rocks are pretty rare unfortunately but now you can buy anything on the net.The white stone in the third picture is jade. The multi ton boulders in the first picture have some 200 lb pieces under water near them and I found half a dozen pieces where the last picture was taken.Mostly junk but fun.
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Maybe not great, but not junk as they are still awesome yard rocks. Really glad you did mention that just because they are jade does not mean they are valuable. I even have some very valuable jade (as in I paid money for it) that is also worthless except for yard rock. It sure looked pretty. ha
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There is a small bit of jade i Newfoundland but it wouldn't make it to Maine... I lived in New England and collectible rocks are pretty rare unfortunately but now you can buy anything on the net.
I was wondering. I do find very interesting rocks that were carried by the glaciers to Maine sometimes, but probably not jade, it sounds like. Too bad! Though I am not much of a rockhound and rely on others for identification and for doing the legwork most of the time, I know you are wrong about there not being collectible rocks here. There are some areas about an hour or more north from me where pegmatites of various kinds abound and there is even a camp for rockhunters though I've never gone. People I know seem to often find quite a bit of tourmaline and cookeite, tons of purple lepidolite with pink tourmaline inclusions, sheets of mica, amethyst and the occassional rare gem that is not a tourmaline.
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It is a game of percentages. A tiny amount of jade up north is unlikely to be found a few hundred miles away. There are very good pegmatite minerals in Maine but I have heard some wild stories about the folks who have had the claims.
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I just posted a picture of my black rock in the mineral identification area and it seems like it actually might possibly be jade. It scratched with quartz, but not with stainless steel (left behind a graphite like mark with the stainless steel).
I haven't heard the wild stories of Maine mineral mine owners, but can believe it. I did go to one area that had tailings regularly dumped from Mt. Mica. They had clearly "seeded" the top of the pile with tiny tourmaline crystals so I wouldn't go back there. However, everything else looked pretty authentic, lots of lepidolite and quartz and such. The funny thing was that at the restaurant across the street (the only one nearby), the fellow had used rocks that light up under blacklight to make the impressive stone fireplace into a monument of Christian symbolism with crosses and other things that lit up. The food was good. Perhams though was the place that used to be famous. Perhams had amazing tourmaline ... truly amazing... and many other minerals they had found over the years. Nearby they had land where they said I could go dig for free and pretty much the entire area was just one giant glittering heap of mica and quartz and such. I didn't have my shovel or anything with me but picked up a few things. There was no one else around. They have since closed the store, sadly. I loved going to look.