The "Starry Night Crystal Pocket"

IAMZIM

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Apr 23, 2011
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Butte City, Montana
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I was out this spring between snow and rainstorms, (been a crazy spring for weather here in Montana..) looking for arrow points and such in a particular spot I go, thinking the rain/snow would uncover something new for me. Not finding anything...I was pretty tired after hiking and searching for about 3-4 miles and hiked over this hill and decided I needed a rest, so I found a tree that the wind had downed, and sat down to eat an apple and drink a brisk tea. While I was sitting there, I was looking at the roots and could see little bits of what looked like broken crystals, and I thought: "Hey, while I'm here I might as well digg a-little and see what might be here, and about a foot down, I found a nice BIG black smokey quartz, that had some little inclusions in it that made it look (to me) like little stars in a dark night! Kept digging and found everything you see here! (after I found the first big crystal I went back to my car to get the shovle and other digging tools). I plan on going back to see if there is anymore pockets of crystals when I get time!! thanks for looking!!! 2014-05-03 15.39.08.jpg 2014-05-03 15.39.21.jpg 2014-05-03 15.48.32.jpg 2014-05-03 15.48.38.jpg 2014-05-03 19.17.03.jpg 2014-05-03 19.17.22.jpg 2014-05-03 19.17.32.jpg
 

Upvote 28

pat-tekker-cat

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Feb 23, 2011
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Oh that's beautiful! Great find! Thanks for sharing!
It will be nice to see all cleaned up, with some light behind it, illuminating those starry stars.
Can you see through it, at all?
 

david680

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Jun 4, 2014
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There are always those interesting things you find, if you're just out there, even if its not what you're looking for. Beautiful finds!
 

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IAMZIM

IAMZIM

Bronze Member
Apr 23, 2011
1,567
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Butte City, Montana
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Oh that's beautiful! Great find! Thanks for sharing!
It will be nice to see all cleaned up, with some light behind it, illuminating those starry stars.
Can you see through it, at all?
Can't see through them.....they are PITCH BLACK! I shined a really powerfull flashlight behind them and can barely see any light coming through, they are soooo black!!
 

Msbeepbeep

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Jun 24, 2012
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What beautiful crystals! Treasure is where you find it! Hope you find more really unusual ones! GL. HH!
 

N.J.THer

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Nov 16, 2006
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Very cool...what value do you put on large crystals like that?

NJ
 

dirtlooter

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Jun 5, 2014
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love em! totally awesome find
 

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IAMZIM

IAMZIM

Bronze Member
Apr 23, 2011
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Butte City, Montana
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Very cool...what value do you put on large crystals like that?

NJ
To be honest...I don't really know what kind of value they would have? But they deffinatly made my day! lol!
 

unclemac

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Oct 12, 2011
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amazing and a real plus to see something new on the net!
 

PikesPeakCharlie

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Congrats !!!!!! you hit a sweet pocket . I have a couple of vugs that I am going to try to get into this summer,wish me luck ,I'm hoping for some that big.
 

jaypop06

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Feb 19, 2014
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Honest question... How do you know where to dig to find such things. I'm kinda ignorant when it comes to things like this, but I also like to know what to look for when I'm out in the field detecting. It would be awesome to find something like this. Do these crystals only come from certain parts of the country? What type of areas should I look for to find them?

Great find and thanks for the help in advance....
 

CoinandRelicMan

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Apr 3, 2011
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Awesome crystals there! Let us know what else you find out about them!
 

DeepseekerADS

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That crystal is an awesome find. Who knows about the value - doesn't really matter. It is a keeper, and an item to display!
 

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IAMZIM

IAMZIM

Bronze Member
Apr 23, 2011
1,567
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Butte City, Montana
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ace 250/garret pinpointer, garret AT Gold
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Honest question... How do you know where to dig to find such things. I'm kinda ignorant when it comes to things like this, but I also like to know what to look for when I'm out in the field detecting. It would be awesome to find something like this. Do these crystals only come from certain parts of the country? What type of areas should I look for to find them?

Great find and thanks for the help in advance....
Well, to start, what really started me out in treasure hunting was collecting rock, specifically, fossils. I would find them litterally in my back yard as I was growing up in northwestern Montana close to where several dinosaurs such as duck-billed dinos and T-rex's were found. So, taking an interest in rocks, I have read alot about geology and related subjects. For here, with the crystals, the area I live in is part of a large batholith called : the "Boulder Batholith". Basicly, a huge area where a crack in the earths crust resulted in magma solidifying into granite over a huge area in southwest Montana. In this "batholith", the granite, which is actually a "crystaline" type of rock, there can be found "vugs" which are like voids or "holes" where superheated water gathered and as the magma cooled formed crystals. Keep this in mind: I am not a geologist, and there fore not an expert on the actual processes how this takes place. When I was looking at the roots of this tree, I saw what is called "graphic granite", which is granite that has peices of quartz and other minerals incorperated into it. I could also see peices of feldspar, which is another kind of rock. ( the whitish pink kind of rock attatched to the crystals in the picture is feldspar.) It was just kind of a clue that there could be something there, I really didnt know for sure untill I actually started digging. There are alot of books you could read about the geology of your area, or the areas where you might want to try to look for quartz crystals, or you could go talk to a geologist yourself! Here in Butte we have a mineral museum, and some of the curators are geologysts, and they are very helpfull sometimes explaining what to look for. Also... the internet has TONS of info on where to look and what to look for. I hope this helps you!
 

unclemac

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very good insight and explanation!
 

niffler

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Smokey quartz is black because of radiation...you had better send me all of those, just to be safe. If you find anymore, send me those too, because radiation is dangerous!:tongue3:
 

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