EricTheCat
Sr. Member
Hello,
I moved last October. I have been seeing what I can find on my new property.
It is a ~3.5 acre lot in Southern Minnesota with a long gravel driveway, landscaping river rock around the house and the usual (and unusual) boulders you might find on a typical country lot.
Here are some of the things I have found so far.
Agates! 3 lake superior agates and 2 Montana moss agates* (more on this later)
Lake superior agates.
Montana moss agates. Love those dendrites!
This I found interesting. The Montana moss agates both were found in my driveway gravel which is mostly crushed limestone but some other stuff in the mix as you can see here. I sometimes have found these types of dendritic moss agates while collecting lake superior agates and assumed that they were a variety of lake superior agate. I've been researching this and have found references to Montana moss agates being found in SW Minnesota. Turns out I was probably wrong and Montana moss agates can be found all the way over here. I've found them in South Dakota but didn't realize they made it this far East.
I mentioned boulders. There is one particularly interesting one that looks just like the garnet in mica schist material I have found in South Dakota accept the "garnets" (if that's what they are) are significantly larger (up to 3/4 inch). This will be fun to investigate further. I haven't found any references to indicate that garnets are ever found in this area. Hard to say if someone hauled it from somewhere else or if these were sometimes in the glacial mix.
I hope you enjoyed seeing some treasures and are having good luck finding some of your own.
Happy hunting,
Eric
I moved last October. I have been seeing what I can find on my new property.
It is a ~3.5 acre lot in Southern Minnesota with a long gravel driveway, landscaping river rock around the house and the usual (and unusual) boulders you might find on a typical country lot.
Here are some of the things I have found so far.
Agates! 3 lake superior agates and 2 Montana moss agates* (more on this later)
Lake superior agates.
Montana moss agates. Love those dendrites!
This I found interesting. The Montana moss agates both were found in my driveway gravel which is mostly crushed limestone but some other stuff in the mix as you can see here. I sometimes have found these types of dendritic moss agates while collecting lake superior agates and assumed that they were a variety of lake superior agate. I've been researching this and have found references to Montana moss agates being found in SW Minnesota. Turns out I was probably wrong and Montana moss agates can be found all the way over here. I've found them in South Dakota but didn't realize they made it this far East.
I mentioned boulders. There is one particularly interesting one that looks just like the garnet in mica schist material I have found in South Dakota accept the "garnets" (if that's what they are) are significantly larger (up to 3/4 inch). This will be fun to investigate further. I haven't found any references to indicate that garnets are ever found in this area. Hard to say if someone hauled it from somewhere else or if these were sometimes in the glacial mix.
I hope you enjoyed seeing some treasures and are having good luck finding some of your own.
Happy hunting,
Eric
