by: Daniel and David Joyce
We have been to an area near Patagonia, Arizona several times searching for quartz crystals. We've found many quartz crystals, most of which are not all that exciting or interesting. What IS interesting, though are quartz epimorphs after fluorite (we think) that we have found and collected in one particular area.
Originally, the first time that I went to Gringo Gulch, I found a few specimens of hollow octahedral epimorphs of quartz after, what I believe to be, fluorite. The original specimens were laying loose on the surface of the ground in one particular area, near the, now closed, landfill site. We dug holes in the area in an attempt to find the source of the epimorphs but were unsuccessful. Each time we dug, we encountered boring vesicular basalt 1-1.5 feet down.
One important day, we had a friend, Claira Safi, digging with us. She is a very hard worker and amazingly intuitive. She dug a hole, where she thought the source of the epimorphs might be but came up with basalt, as we had, in the past. Her second hole, though, hit a seam of epimorphs. Not octahedral, though, but dodecahedral. Still could be epimorphs of quartz after fluorite! We all worked together in the hole and produced a number of specimens. some of the specimens seemed to be loose, while some seemed to be actually in a broken up vein or seam. We were not entirely sure what we had, at first. Unlike the ones that I had found on the surface that has been washed by rain for many years, the new pieces ones we dug out were covered by thick brown clay and dirt.
We found that by soaking the clay covered specimens in water, hitting them gently with a water gun and then soaking them a couple of times in Super Iron Out, we could get them reasonably clean.
Here are more photos of some of the better or interesting epimorph specimens.
So, we'll keep going back to see what else we can turn up in this interesting area.
