My rock hounding and Fossil Gathering began when I was 7 years old til about 15, after the divorce of my parents, when my father had us for a good portion of the summer he would drag us 10 hours up north in Michigan to spend 2 weeks near copper harbor. It was a huge drag as a kid because of the heat and no TV. My father would take us all over the Keewanaw stopping first to purchase a mine map from the same rock shop each year for 2$. From there we would spend from the break of dawn to the sun setting going through mine pits trying to find copper as well as a few other precious minerals. Now that I am older I have grown to appreciate these trips more and have recently sparked my interested in complete rock-hounding outside of gathering fossils wherever I go. Since we have snow every month but Late April Through Early September I utilize those months to collect as many minerals and fossils as i can and use the majority of the winter months tumbling/polishing/identifying. I have found their are not very many resources for beach stones/fossils for Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. I Have downloaded every guide, have bought every specific region for mineral books, and have tried to use my internet skills to get answers, even from some other blogging sites. Most of what I find is that they will post or document pictures of minerals/crystals in their top of the line polished pristine value, which is nice but if your looking for those minerals it is NOT going to look like that outside. Besides the polished specimens they have beach worn specimens that are either top notch or very limited. I have also come across most sources on the internet, the rock hounders do not know what the specimen is. I want to help out and post my findings both beach worn/dry, beach worn wet, polished and tumbled specimens to help other amateur rock hounders locate the ‘diamonds in the rough’. In no way am I ‘dogging’ on the rock hounders out there but there is a group of rock hounders that is primarily only looking for rough specimens in their area or folks who just want to know what they found on their beach this morning.
crazyfossillady 