New Mexico Mineral Symposium — Abstracts

New Mexico is in my blood. I started collecting in New Mexico at the tender age of 3, the product of being the son of an outstanding and dedicated field collector, Jerry Simmons. Even at a young age I remember the awe of looking at mesmerizing crystals in my dad’s display case at home and longing for the next adventure in search of these hidden treasures.

I don’t remember too much from my early collecting years apart from the fact that I was my father’s “gopher.” By this, I mean that if there were parts of a pocket my dad could not reach, I was dutifully employed to wiggle back into the cramped confines and root out the treasures only a small boy could reach. I didn’t mind because it gave me the opportunity to hold these beautiful crystals in my hands before passing them out for wrapping and safekeeping. In fact, I distinctly remember being upset that I couldn’t collect the wonderful smoky quartz crystals from Sierra Blanca until my dad agreed to take me just before my seventh birthday! Looking back, I am surprised my dad took me collecting there at such an early age, considering the strenuous hike and precipitous nature of the collecting area.

My dad was a teacher for most of my early life, and as such we had summers to travel to mines and mountains throughout New Mexico. Early memories consist of collecting at Sierra Blanca, Blanchard, the Harding Mine, the San Pedro mine, the Judith Lynn claim, Hondo Canyon, the Juanita mine, and the Gila Fluorspar mines as well as many other localities. My most memorable moments include experiencing bouncing lightning and hail while collecting “porcupine” quartz at Sierra Blanca, sleeping on the cold, hard floor of the San Pedro mine after collecting chalcopyrite and calcite clusters with my dad, Ray DeMark and Mike Sanders, hiking many miles back into the Gila wilderness in search of zeolites, digging azurite and allophane in the dumps of the Juanita mine as a thick blanket of snow accumulated on the ground and collecting azurite “balls” from the Nacimiento mine that my dad had originally discovered.

My teenage years were spent collecting all over the state, and at this point I had started to refine my collecting skills and had realized that mineral collecting would always be a major part of my life. In these years I continued to learn from my dad the importance of perseverance and how to spot telltale signs of pockets not yet exposed, along with learning to recognize surface float and following it to its uphill source. I progressed from using a two pound sledge hammer to a four pound sledge hammer or twelve pound sledge hammer where space allowed. Gone were my “gopher” days, replaced by the ability to read rock and open up pockets in a way to extract specimens with as little damage as possible. My interest in geology increased, and I started contemplating a mining-related career. My dad and I continued to collect frequently, resulting in memorable finds of amethyst scepters at the San Pedro mine, sky-blue fluorite at the Sunshine #1 mine, pyrite “logs” along Bosque Draw, bluish-green fluorite from the Frustration mine and amethystine scepters near Mule Creek.

Following my teenage years, I honed my field collecting acumen and really started to apply a scientific understanding to mineral formation. I graduated with degrees in Mining Engineering and Geology from New Mexico Tech and started taking trips with other collectors when my dad moved to Kansas. My trips now involved great field collectors such as Chris Cowan, Mike Sanders, Pat Haynes, Ray DeMark, Fred Ortega, etc. I continue to learn much from these wonderful people. It has been during this period that many notable finds have been uncovered: blue halite, aphthitalite and langbeinite from Carlsbad, fluorite from Cookes Peak, vanadinite (endlichite) from the Macy mine, fluorite from the Nakaye mine, smoky quartz twins from Mina Tiro Estrella, amethyst from near Las Cruces and a whole slew of minerals from the Magdalena district.

Throughout my entire time field collecting in New Mexico, I have realized that I love two things most of all about this great hobby: the thrill of opening a pocket nobody has ever seen before and the wonderful camaraderie of the many people with which I have had the pleasure of collecting. Being able to share these experiences with the whole spectrum of mineral collectors is something I will always treasure. Ultimately, my experiences and discoveries have led me to start up a mineral collecting business called Enchanted Minerals in which I hope to continue educating worldwide mineral collectors about the “diamond in the rough” that is New Mexico.