20141115 160455There are multiple reasons the find you brought home may not be on the official species list for Morefield mine.

 

  1. There have been Native American artifacts found on the property. This was fairly important to Silas Morefield, who collected points and eventually gave his collection to William and Mary. Also, we have a grinding stone that came from the area.
  2. Both Bill & Joan Baltzley and Sam & Sharon Dunaway have lived on the property. Therefore, some of their collections, from multiple other sites and mines, and even from other states, are on the property. Example 1: there is a very large pair of trunks of petrified wood (as shown in the above photo) in front of the mine store/office. Bill Baltzley acquired these from the Appamattox Sand & Gravel Company out by Petersburg, VA (personal conversation, Wayne Gilmore, Dec. 17, 2017). Example 2: Gilmore (personal conversation, 2017) was also under the impression that the 2 quartz boulders (Alexa and Ashton are standing on the larger one, above) were found on the prospect on Deck Boyle's property.
  3. More than one owner of the property has traded Morefield minerals for interesting rocks and minerals at other properties, especially other Virginia mines and properties. These can be found in multiple places above ground, and this practice has brought a significant amount of fun for children. The term "salting" is sometimes used for this circumstance. However, Morefield mine has not had an intent to represent that these specimens have actually come from the mine.
  4. The mineral or rock you have represents a specimen of the so-called "country rock," which in this case does not represent the co-opting of the country music 🎵 genre in the 1980s and 90s. In geological terms, country rock describes rocks and mineral that, while they may have been found in the mine, can also have be found commonly in that vicinity. Key examples of this include the following: Chlorite, Ferrohornblende, Ilmenite, Sphene, Titanite, etc.