New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

The Palm Park mine is located approximately 6 mi northeast of Hatch, New Mexico. It is located on the Upham quadrangle in sections 10, 11, 14, 15, T. 18 S., R. 3 W. The mine can be reached by taking the Hatch exit south from Interstate 25, immediately turning east across the Interstate, and following a dirt road north paralleling the Interstate. This road eventually turns east to end on the west side of the Caballo Mountains. A white zig-zag on the mountain side can be seen from the highway and marks the location of the mine. The claims were originally located in 1925 by J. P. Pinkerton of Hatch and are currently under lease to Barite of America at Deming, New Mexico; the claims are currently inactive.

The principal minerals are barite and fluorite. These occur as replacements and open-space filling in the Fusselman Dolomite. The local structure is a horst in the core of a northwest-trending antiform that plunges to the southeast. Mineral specimens of interest are: quartz with bright to dark red, yellow, orange, brown, and black phantoms; amethyst; barite crystals varying in size to 10 cm; and yellow to yellow-green fluorite crystals.