Gems Just A Stone’s Throw Away : Hunting Hard Rocks, Golden Opportunities

For proof that fun and education are not oxymoronic, look at your feet. Better yet, go outside and look at your feet.

There’s a good chance you will be standing on some sort of mineral, a mineral that can tell you a lot about the planet on which you live, a mineral that may even be able to make you a little extra money.

San Diego’s North County is a gold mine of minerals. Even after more than 100 years of commercial mining and the development booms that have left little land available for prospecting or rock hounding, there is still plenty to see and collect. In the process you may learn a lot about San Diego history and science.

Let’s go back a ways. A few hundred million years ago California was undergoing some changes that made it the treasure trove it is today. Back when the earth’s plates began sliding past each other, the state was literally part of Mexico, sunning itself down around Sonora. As the state moved north, it took along rocks that had been left by streams originating in inland Mexico. It also took with it a 300-mile-long ridge of coarse granite now known as the Southern California Batholith.

Large deposits of pegmatite are found along this ridge. As the crust of the earth changed, minerals were dissolved and then precipitated back out of the water and gasses. They formed crystals. Depending on the mineral involved, those crystals became tourmaline, garnet and a host of other crystal forms. Most of these crystals are found near pegmatite.

Gold was also deposited throughout California. San Diego received a good deal of the deposits, enough to spawn a few minor gold rushes.

If all this seems a bit much for the average person who doesn’t know if breccia is a pasta or a rock (it’s a rock), don’t panic. You don’t need to know much about rocks in order to enjoy looking for them.

ROCK HOUNDING

It’s no longer easy to find a good rock in San Diego County, says Frank Knechtel. The 74-year-old Knechtel is a member of the San Diego Mineral and Gem Society and something of a historian on local rock hounding.

“You go back to where you used to collect 20 years ago and there’s a house on it,” said Knechtel. “I gave up field collecting around here because there’s not anything left.”

Collecting isn’t exactly a thing of the past, though.

According to Will Estavillo, curator of minerals for the San Diego Natural History Museum, development has greatly diminished the number of places for good rock hunting, but there are still a few left.

The easiest spot to look for rocks is the beach. That’s the bright spot in the increasing rockiness of our shores. Because inland streams have been dammed, and because the drought further restricts the flow of water toward the coast, beach sand is not replenished and the sand already on the beaches is swept south by wave action.

But although your feet may curse the stones that stay on the beach, your eyes can be treated to a tremendous variety of interesting, and sometimes semi-precious, rocks. According to Estavillo, these are the stones brought to the county from Mexico so long ago. Some, like 1.5 billion-year-old quartzite, are among the oldest rocks on the continent. Others are young. Granite is a newcomer at 60 million years old.

Estavillo used to make a living collecting beach rocks. He carved them up into jewelry and sold them at art fairs. Even now, watching him pick over rocks at the beach is like watching a baseball card collector in a room full of Mickey Mantle rookie cards.

The beaches contain at least half a dozen semi-precious forms of rock like jasper, agate, moonstone, quartz, gold (a metal), and garnet. Sometimes it is possible to find tiny diamonds among the sparkles.

Because the rocks will have been naturally tumbled in streams and by the waves, they will appear dull on the outside. Try looking for them at the water’s edge. Wet rocks seem more lustrous and the good ones are easier to see. When you have found a few nice specimens, you can take them home and slice them open with a diamond saw to reveal the real treasure. A little spray lacquer will keep the rocks looking wet.

Lapidary classes such as those given by the San Diego Mineral and Gem Society will teach you how to make jewelry from your new finds.

Any beach that has become cobbled is a good hunting ground. Estavillo likes the beach about a mile south of the Encina Power Plant at Carlsbad. Other cobbled beaches include Beacon’s at the foot of Leucadia Boulevard.

Rock hounding inland is only slightly more complex. You’ll need a magnifying glass, a geologist’s pick, a spray bottle of water (to make potential finds shiny), and lunch.

While much of North County is now off-limits, Estavillo thinks the weekend hunter has at least a few options.

The first is road cuts, those spots where a hill has been gouged to make way for pavement. These areas allow you to see a good cross-section of the hill. Just pull well off the road and start looking.

Large construction sites are often rich, but like all private property, you’ll need permission first.

Other spots are more remote. Estavillo likes Tule Mountain on the east side of McCain Reservoir near Jacumba. There are several gem mines in the area, and the granite belt runs along the east edge of the mountains. Some mine owners will allow weekend hunters to have a look around. Some will not, so be sure to ask.

Dumortierite, a blue mineral used to make spark plug ceramics can be found south of Alpine. Deposits of garnets are located near the Barona Indian Reservation near the old McFall Mine. This area also has some black tourmaline and quartz.

The old Calaveras Quarry near Palomar Airport Road off Highway 78 is another spot to find interesting minerals and crystals of several kinds.

GEMS

Tourmaline is the most famous of the gems found in North County. At one time the Empress of China bought almost every tourmaline local miners could uncover. Tiffany used local tourmaline as did the creators of fine Craftsman furniture.

According to Alice Keller, editor of the Gemological Institute of America’s professional journal, San Diego County tourmaline is known around the world for its fine pink and watermelon coloring.

There are still several working mines in the Pala area. The most famous are the Stewart Mine and the Himalaya Mine. The Stewart Mine is run by Blue Sheppard and Joanne Hilliard, who also operate the Gems of Pala mineral store. The Himalaya is owned by Bill Larson, who also oversees The Collector mineral and jewelry stores in La Jolla and Fallbrook, which display some of the best local mineral oddities.

Unfortunately, the mines and the tourmaline are off-limits to wandering rock hounds. But Gems of Pala does sell buckets of mine tailings that give would-be miners a feel for the excitement of uncovering a valuable gem.

The buckets vary in price from $10 to $50 depending on size and the location in the tunnels where they originated. There is no guarantee of finding anything, but on one recent Saturday, each of the half dozen people hunched over wooden tables sifting though the tailings had found at least one crystal of pink, black or watermelon tourmaline.

“This is one place where you can play in the dirt and nobody will yell at you,” said Bob Coulter of San Diego.

According to Sheppard, Gems of Pala offers the buckets for two reasons. First, the mine needs cleaning. Selling the buckets allows Sheppard to make some money off what would normally be wasted. Second, he said, novice rock hounds “often get sparked off in geological interest” by sifting through the buckets.

Ten-year-old Andrea Rogoff was sparked. She came to look through the tailings with two friends as part of her birthday celebration. Now she wants to be a geologist.

GOLD

If looking for tourmaline in a bucket is a gamble, prospecting for gold is an act of faith. California is still the Golden State, with more than 800,000 ounces produced last year, but not many of those ounces came from San Diego County, whose mines were largely played out long ago. Still there is gold to be found in North County. Just don’t expect to make money doing it.

For most amateur prospectors, hunting for gold is a hobby, an excuse to take the family camping. Few even bother to sell what they find. This does not seem to have diminished the popularity of prospecting. The Southwestern Prospectors and Miners Assn. has more than 200 members, and it is just one of several clubs in the area.

Panning for gold is the easiest and cheapest way to start. A pan will cost about $8, and a small sluice will cost about $40. The hang-up is you can’t pan or use a sluice without streams, and at the moment, San Diego County has few running streams.

The next option is dry washing. This requires a machine costing from $200 to $600 that uses forced air to help separate heavy materials from worthless dust.

Gold can be found in several areas of North County, including Julian and Banner Grade; Ramona, from Whale Mountain to Slaughterhouse Canyon; Boulder Creek; and Harmony Grove, Kit Carson Park and Cloverdale Road near Escondido. The intersection of the San Diego River and Coleman Creek, and Mesa Grande on the slope of Angel Mountain are two other gold spots. Although they are outside the county, the San Bernardino Mountains are still thought to be prime panning territory.

If you decide to look for your own golden dream, watch for established mining claims. There are hundreds in the county, usually marked with a wooden stake or PVC pipe. There have been disputes involving claims. Two years ago, two Julian men were slain in just such a dispute.

The best way to start your gold search may be to join a club. These groups often have their own mining claims open to members.

For a glimpse into North County’s gold mining past, the old Eagle Mine in Julian offers tours of the Eagle and nearby High Peak mines. The tour takes about 90 minutes and costs $6 for adults, $3 for children. For information call 765-0036.