12 Comments
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Enid's avatar

You are so so refreshing, thank you so much.

Leigh Drake's avatar

David B. Williams, this analysis is priceless!😂

Roger Lippman's avatar

Good story, except for the excursion into representing the earth as having the shape of a cookie sheet. "Across the globe" might feel appropriate in Kansas, but not in our beloved territory. When I complain, my brother says, "Oh, that's Roger's shtick." But please see my quantitative analysis at https://roger.lippnet.us/AcrossTheWorld.pdf .

Peter H's avatar

My Dad would've loved this column, David. A geotec/soils engineer, the basement was filled with "specimen". I'm disappointed opal didn't make the cut as I spent several months underground, pick and shovel in hand, at Lightening Ridge in the late 60's. A good stone with the right color brought a sterling return.

David B. Williams's avatar

Yes, opal seems a worthy level of status!

mlk's avatar

Thanks for investing status and value for me. There are many versions of a folktale in which the upshot is everyone learns that salt is the most valuable mineral. When the marketers create new tiers, maybe they will call one salt.

David B. Williams's avatar

Yes, or how about salsa and peanut butter, neither are elements but both are elemental and essential.

Rick Madden's avatar

Well David your imagination was fun today!

Susan J Tweit's avatar

Thanks for the chuckle, and the education in mineral abundance and values. Plus, now I want to know where the Devil's Hole Pegmatite is!

David B. Williams's avatar

Susan. Google Devil's Hole Pegmatite and USGS and go to the USGS report. The info is a bit dated but it's near some of your haunting grounds. Devils Hole beryl mine · (31), is in the SE1/4 NW1/4sec. 20, T. 18 S., R.. 73 W., sixth principal meridian, Fremont County, 6.1 miles by mine road north of Texas Creek, the nearest shipping point on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. The pegmatite is 19 miles by air line west-northwest from Canon City and 22 miles east-southeast from Salida. It is reached from these cities by U. S. Highway 50 to Texas Creek and then by a steep mine road which ends at a semipermanent mine camp.

Susan J Tweit's avatar

I know that road! I didn't know there was a pegmatite mine at the head of it. (There are endemic plant species reachable from the lower part of the road, which is how I know it.) Thanks.