inside this issue - arlington gem and mineral clubfossils an dshells, agates and wood, we hunted,...

Rockhound Club News of the Arlington Gem and Mineral Club1408 Gibbins Road, Arlington, Texas 76011

The Hound’s Tale Newsletter December 2007

Volume 57, Issue 12, Dec.. 2007

Inside This Issue

A Rockhounds ChristmasLetter…………………...1President’s Message . . . . 2Class schedule

December Calendar . . . 3Jewett Mine Report...…...4The Barnett Shale………5Austin G&M Club -Exhibitors & JudgesSeminar form………... ..6

Mascot of the Arlington Gemand Mineral Club

is an affiliate of

South Central Federationof Mineral Societies

American Federationof Mineralogical Societies

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

December— Bob Boyd

Louis Jacobs—Antarctica

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Still Rocking(A Rockhounds Christmas Letter)

By Karol D Cawthon3rd Place AFMS Adult Poetry

From: “Grindings” 12-06

Our Summer was fun, with trips galore,From deserts and mountains to shining seashore,

Fossils an dshells, agates and wood,We hunted, gathered, and hiked when we could.

We shoveled down deep, fro smoky quartz,George in his jeans, and I in my shorts!Out in the desert, new friends we found,All hunting treasures scattered around.

Crystals and fossils, jasper and quartz,Eggs full of opal, covered with warts!Rainbow obsidian, such a great find,

Hues so brilliant, they boggled the mind!

Cold weather is here, hunting is done.Winter has ended our summer fun.

Write up our notes, put pictures away,Make plans for spring, and more fun play.

May your hearts be filled, with joy and cheer.May gladness reign, throughout the new year.May His presence bring, peace from above,to friends far and near. We send our love.

Merry Christmas from George Karol, and Ky© November 24, 2006 by Karol D. Cawthon

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Just a Thought from your President for Decemberby Rick Litsinger, President AGMC

My fellow Rockhounds,

It has been a pleasure to have served as your president for the past two years. In December the membership will

be voting for club members to serve on the executive board for 2008. There will be eight of eleven board positions

to be voted on. The president appoints the show chairperson and the newsletter editor and the past president sits

on the board as the donations chairperson.

2007 like 2006 has been a very good year for A. G. M. C. We had a successful show, an increase in membership

and Nancy Leary chaired a wonderful party to celebrate the clubs 50th birthday. And, just as a reminder our

Christmas party headed up by Robin Litsinger, will be on December 8 at six o’clock and the New Year’s Day

party, headed up by Joyce Speed, will tentatively start around 5 PM.

So, this being my last “Just a Thought” as your president, I want to thank the current board for their help and the

club members who stepped up to volunteer to teach classes, care for the grounds and our wonderful facility, pro-

vided food and raffle prizes for the monthly meetings, worked at the shows and all the other parties, swaps, meet-

ings and gatherings.

Your new board will take office the 1st of January and I encourage each club member to give them your full

support and volunteer when asked.

“How will you ever know if you can paint that picture, run that business, sell that vacuum

cleaner, earn that degree, hold that office, make that speech, win that game, marry that girl,

write that book, bake that souffle, build that house - unless you try it!” Richard M. DeVos

Just a Thought

Rick Litsinger

President (outgoing) AGMC

AGMCDecember Class Schedule

By Pat Vaughan

Cab Class1st Saturday, December 1, 1-4 PMInstructor: Dale Miller

ChainmakingNo chain making classes this month.Instructor: Mary Owren

FacetingWednesdays, 7-9 PMInstructor: Frank Krystinik/Mike Knuth

Glass Fusing & Enameling CLOSEDNo Glass Fusing this monthInstructor: Becky Downey

SilversmithingInstructors: Sam Howeth/Rick Litsinger

Level 103 CLOSEDMondays 7-10 PM

Level 301 OPENFridays 7-10 PMOpen to those that have completed 202

Silversmithing Lab OPEN3rd Saturday, November 17, 8 AM – Noon

Wax Carving LabThursdays 7-9 PM


December 2007AGMC Classes and Meeting Schedule

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday1

** Lab Open9am-Noon

~

Cabbing classOpen 1 p – 4p

2 3Silversmithing

103 FULL7 - 10 pm

4 5Faceting Open

7-9 pm~

Metal PlatingCLOSED7 -10 pm

6** LabOpen

~Wax

Carving LabOpen

7pm – 9pm

7Silversmithing

301 Open7 - 10 pm

8** Lab Open9am-Noon

~

CHRISTMAS PARTY

6:00PM

9 10Silversmithing

103 FULL7 - 10 pm

11Free Tuesday

7-9pfor Members

12Faceting Open

7-9 pm~

Metal PlatingCLOSED7 -10 pm

13** LabOpen

~Wax

Carving LabOpen

7pm – 9pm

14Silversmithing

301 Open7 - 10 pm

15Silversmithing Lab

Open8a – Noon

~

** Lab Open9am-Noon

16 17Silversmithing

103 FULL7 - 10 pm

18 19Faceting Open

7-9 pm

20** LabOpen

~Wax

Carving LabOpen

7pm – 9pm

21Silversmithing

301 Open7 - 10 pm

22** Lab Open9am-Noon

23 25 26Faceting Open

7-9 pm

27** LabOpen

~Wax

Carving LabOpen

7pm – 9pm

28Silversmithing

301 Open7 - 10 pm

~**DEADLINE

FOR JANUARYNEWSLETTER

29** Lab Open

9am-Noon

30 31 JANUARY 1

NEWYEARS

DAYPARTY5:00pm

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AGMC Hound’s Tale Advertising Rates

All ads are subject to approval by the AGMC executive board. Layout of the ad is included in price as long as all adcontent is included with the initial request. Digital artwork must be included with the initial request or the ad will becreated as text only. Ad requests must be received by the 2nd Thursday of each month for the following month’snewsletter by email at: [email protected]. Make payable to Arlington Gem & Mineral Club. Send paymentsto:Arlington Gem & Mineral ClubP.O. Box 986Arlington, TX 76004

For any questions regarding layout, please contact Paula Truitt at: [email protected] any questions regarding appropriate content, please contact Rick Litsinger at: [email protected].

DimensionsMembers Non-members

6 months 1 month 6 months 1 month

Full page 9.5” x 7.75” $120 $25 $240 $50

Half page (v) 9.5” x 3.75” $72 $15 $144 $30

Half page (h) 4.625” x 7.75” $72 $15 $144 $30

Qtr page (v) 4.625” x 3.75” $48 $10 $96 $20

Qtr page (h) 2.375” x 7.75” $48 $10 $96 $20

Biz Card (v) 2” x 3.5” $30 $6.25 $60 $12.50

Biz Card (h) 3.5” x 2” $30 $6.25 $60 $12.50

Size

Jewett Mine Report:Sent in by Norm Stemple

The club sponsored trip to the Jewett Mine on Friday, November 16 was attended by 9 participants, somefrom our club and some from the Lockheed Club. The weather was perfect and all of us were interested andalmost intrigued with the information the two tour guides supplied to us. Eileen Hertel, their geologistand David Edgerly of their management team accompanied us the whole time in the company van. The tourstarted with an orientation talk and video and then we went off to see the mine and its environs. That was fol-lowed by a good amount of time way down at the edge of the active pit hunting for petrified wood and somelignite sample. (A special and unusual treat) Then we were off again for some more sightseeing. Our twohour tour lasted four hours and our hosts were hoping to show us one more thing. Since I was field trip chair-man and had a concert to attend that evening I decided we would miss the last item and get all of us back toour cars. I have been on two previous trips and this was by far the most complete and enjoyable.

Below is a brief description of the mine.

The Jewett Mine supplies almost 7 million tons a year of lignite to the adjacent electrical generating sta-tion. The NRG power plant uses the "pulverized coal" method of combustion to burn the lignite and generateelectricity. Daily shipments of 20,000 tons of lignite across the belt means moving daily over 200,000 yards ofoverburden first. It takes big equipment to do that, and the Jewett mine boasts of four draglines and a fleet oftrucks and shovels to accomplish this. There are 4 seams of flat lying coal, ranging from 2' to 10' thick, andanywhere from 20' to 80' of overburden or dirt in-between. Total pit depths range from 20 to 200 feet. Petri-fied wood is sometimes found at the coal seam layer.


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Club Notesby Dale Miller, member

DecemberThe December program will be our own Bob Boyd. He will have a florescent light and several minerals toshow. You can also bring your rocks to check for florescence.

December 8 at 6:00pm is the AGMC Christmas Party. Be sure to come to the meeting Tuesday, and sign upto bring something and join us for this fun time.

January ProgramThe Jan. 8, 2008 program will be presented by Louis Jacobs, President of the Institute For the Study ofEarth and Man located at Southern Methodist University. He will have just returned from the Antarctic andwill have a lot to tell us.

The Barnett Shale is calling.by Buddy Oriville

Twenty-Seven years ago I was standing on the eastern portion of the Barnett Shale and the deal was sealed witha hand shake. I had purchased land from a friend of mine who told me, as he pointed around, there is gas and oil underhere. I don’t know when they are going to drill for it, but it will happen. They will lease it and drill it, and we will get theroyalties. Being 21 and clueless I thought “duh, okay”.

Well here it is, being a lot later, and the whole thing has gone boom. I now have three leases signed and I’mstill not really sure what is going on and what the Barnett Shale is except everyone wants a piece of it. Well after goingto various resources and thinking back to my classes in natural science, shale is mostly a composition of particles of clayand quartz that are very fine and have settled with a lot of pressure becoming a sedimentary rock. Shale as I know it isalways flat with layers, huh made sense to me. But they also skipped real well down at the stock tank and could flythrough a window with deadly accuracy. So this is where the term “leave or right” came from, as I heard it throughclenched teeth and being emphasized with a belt. (Almost every rock I picked up was from that group).

The Barnett Shale stretches over 16 to 21 North Texas counties and is still being actively discovered. It is a6000 square mile reservoir, is the second largest producing on shore natural gas field in the United States and yeah baby,it is here in TEXAS.

It is hard to believe that Texas was once a shallow ocean that stretched up the central plains and carried up toCanada. The first 100 ft. of ocean is considered Photo Eukaric Zone since light can penetrate the first 100 ft. With lightand heat being a factor in this shallow body of water we can guess that these oceans had a huge phytoplankton and zoo-plankton population and with these two together, massive coral beds were formed. If you make the trip to Mason countyTexas and stand on the lifts there and look out over the whole area, it will be very easy to see that Texas was coveredwith lots of water. It is a breath taking sight when you understand what it is you are looking at.

A lot closer to home is a part of Arlington that is called Crystal Canyon. It has a part of the Trinity River run-ning through it and as kids, me and my brother and friends would go down to the canyon and pick up the crystal andshale. This area of Arlington was Grand Mother Baird’s farm. She did live there and baked bread in the house as well. Itis no longer there, but the location of where it was is about 1 mile north of Six Flags Amusement Park.

If anyone ever buys the house in Grand Prairie that I grew up in they are going to be puzzled as to where all theslate, shale and fossils came from. Not only did I bring home loads of fossils and rocks, my son did as well. I showedhim the fossils that my mom and dad got tired of being in the storage building and put in the flower beds, and he hadsome fossils from the same places I had found mine.

So as you can tell, the shale was always calling out all along, but some heard the call louder than others. I willhave more about this and the developing Barnett Shale story in the next few months.


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The AUSTIN GEM & MINERAL SOCIETY 2008 EXHIBITORS AND JUDGES SEMINAR tentativeschedule is below.Information can be found at our website http://www.austingemandmineral.org/. Or you can call (512)458 9546

Tentative schedule for the 2008 EXHIBITORS AND JUDGES SEMINAR:

Saturday, March 8th, 20087:30 8:30 am Check-in. Coffee, doughnuts, fruit will be provided.8:30 8:45 Welcome and Orientation9:00 9:45 Begin discussion of Uniform Rules.

General rules that apply to all displays10:00 11:30 Discussion of the various divisions of exhibits11:30 1:00 LUNCH Provided by AGMS for small donation1:00 4:15 Divide into groups and discuss the rules that apply to individual

groupsMineralsLapidaryFossilsPetrified WoodEtc

4:30 5:00 Debrief as a group. Briefly summarize what we have discussed5:15 DINNER Can go as a group, can order in, can do own thing

Dinner is NOT covered by the seminar fee or AGMS.

Sunday, March 9th, 20087:30 8:30 am Morning Social Hour. Coffee, doughnuts, fruit will be provided.8:30 11:30 Practice judging cases in the various divisions11:30 1:00 LUNCH Provided by AGMS for small donation1:00 2:45 Finish evaluating cases

Review evaluations as a group2:45 4:00 Gather for final review session

Present certificates of attendanceAnswer any last minute questions

4:00 Seminar Over – Everyone goes home

This schedule is not fixed and is subject to change.


Club Mission:The objectives of the Arlington Gem and Min-eral Club shall be to educate the public in thestudy of the earth sciences, lapidary arts, de-signer jewelry and all related fields.

Yearly Enrollmentrecommended donation:Initial Adult Enrollment $35.00

(includes $5.00 badge)Adult Renewals $30.00 per calendar

yearJunior Members $3.50 per calendar

year

Activities take place at:Arlington Gem and Mineral Club

1408 Gibbins Road, Arlington, TX 76011Phone 817-277-2286

Mailing Address:P.O. Box 986

Arlington, TX 76004

E-mail Address:[email protected] or

[email protected]

World Wide Web Home Page:http://www.agemclub.com

Business Meeting on 1st Tuesday at 7:30 PMBoard Meeting on the last Tuesday of eachmonth at 7 PM.

The Hound’s TalePublished monthly by the Arlington Gemand Mineral Club.Permission To ReprintPermission is granted for non-commercialreproduction provided the articles remainessentially intact and credit is given to theauthor and source.Ads and ArticlesLapidary-related ads and articles fromMembers of AGMC are welcomed. Theywill be placed on a space-available basis,first in first out. Any articles may be editedfor space and content. Non-enrolleés adsare accepted after student ads. You mustinclude your name and contact information.

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Arlington Gem and Mineral Club(formerly Texas School of Earth Sciences)P.O. Box 986Arlington, TX 76004Newsletter is available on our Website at

www.agemclub.com

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

inside this issue - arlington gem and mineral clubfossils an dshells, agates and wood, we hunted,...

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