Monthly Newsletter of the Sunsites Gem & Mineral Club
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“Finding and Grinding Rocks in Cochise County, Arizona since 1965”
JANUARY 2014
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HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014
The next GENERAL MEETING of the Sunsites Gem & Mineral Club is on Monday January 13, 2014 at 7:00 pm in the Sunsites Community Center. The PROGRAM for this meeting will be presented by Dr. John Ware, Executive Director of the Amerind Museum. The program begins at 7 PM with break, raffle and business meeting following. The public has been invited to attend.
SOUTHWEST OR NORTHWEST?
The term ‘US Southwest’ is a parochialism that goes back only to 1847 when the US annexed more than half of Mexico in what we call the Mexican War and they call the War of US Intervention. Dr. John Ware will explain that prior to US annexation, the region we call the ‘Southwest’ was really the northwestern frontier of Mexico.
For thousands of years, all of the major historical and cultural influences in the ‘Southwest’ came from the south, from the spread of corn, beans, squash, and cotton agriculture from Mexico into Arizona and New Mexico in the first and second millennium BC to the expansion of the Spanish Empire into New Mexico 400 years ago. Ceramic containers came from the south, along with irrigation agriculture, several architectural forms, and other technologies. The religion, world views, and important elements of social and political organization of ‘Southwestern’ Native peoples have southern origins as well, as do Uto-Aztecan languages, the dominant Native American language family of the ‘Southwest.’ Even the dominant ecosystems of southern Arizona and New Mexico, the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, expanded north from Mexico into Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas at the end of the last ice age. To understand the deep history of the ‘Southwest,’ we need to position ourselves deep within Mexico, and look north.
A fourth-generation Arizonan, John Ware is an anthropologist and archaeologist whose research and teaching focus on the prehistory and ethnohistory of the northern Southwest, where he has worked for nearly 40 years. Ware earned his PhD in anthropology from the University of Colorado in 1983 and has taught anthropology at Southern Illinois University, the College of Santa Fe, and Colgate University in New York. In addition to teaching, Ware has held research positions at the Museum of Northern Arizona, Arizona State Museum, and the School of American Research, and he was director of the Laboratory of Anthropology in
Santa Fe. Since 2001, Ware has served as executive director of the Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, Arizona
CLUB DUES are due for 2014. Dues are $15 for individuals and $25 for a family. Walter Sigel will be collecting them at the meeting or you can mailnyour check to Sunsites Gem & Mineral Club,
PO Box 87 Pearce AZ 85625.
“Each year around the time we pay our club dues, we ask ourselves am I getting my money’s worth for membership? Most of the RMFMS* clubs offer a great deal for the small dues they request. Our club pays a small Federation dues for each of its members, age 12 and above.
So,—are you getting your money’s worth?
Googles definition of dues: ‘to earn respect because you worked hard to develop a skill; to pay a fee required to belong to an organization.’ Okay, we attend the meetings, smile and greet one another, show off our latest found treasures, listen to the speaker during the presentation, enjoy the refreshments, and then go home. Is that all there is? NO! There’s a whole lot more to belonging to a rock club. Have you volunteered for one of the offices? Do you lead field trips? Do you bring the refreshments? Have you submitted a story or idea to your newsletter editor? You could even offer to assist one of your club chairs in their duties (a good way to “learn the ropes”). It is a wonderful feeling to know that your efforts, no matter how big or small, make a difference in the success of the endeavor. That’s all it takes. You can start out small if you like, but once you catch the bug, you’ll want to go for the big jobs like an officer or newsletter editor. SSG & M Club will reap the rewards and everyone benefits. There is pride in ownership.”
Reprinted (edited for SSG & M Club) from
Jan 2014 RMFMS
*(Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies, Inc.)
OFFICERS 2014
President: Jack Light 520-824-4774 Vice President: Elliott Hendricks 520-471-8820
Secretary: Nadine Wirshing 520-507-3865
Treasurer: Walter Sigel 520-826-1009
Del. At Large: Carl Schnabel 520-826-0100
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Hospitality Coordinator:
Cheryl McLaughlin 520-507-1750
Speaker Coordinator:
Don Hammer 520-384-3105
Field Trip Coordinator:
Henri Van den Bos 520-384-0288
Newsletter:
Zoe Schnabel 520-826-0100
Regional Events:
Tyson Wells (Quartzite) Jan 3-Jan 26
Info: tysonwells.com Free admission
Kino Gem/Mineral Show (formerly TEP)
Feb 1-16 at: Kino Sports Complex Free admission
Feb 1-15 Arizona Mineral & Fossil Show
Info: mzexpos.com $
Tucson Gem & Mineral Society
Feb 13-16 Tucson Convention Center $
Info: tgms.org
Complete Tucson Gem Show Schedule:
Presidents Report 1/1/14
http://www.tucsongemshows.net/coming.html
Well, here we are starting a brand new year. We have some new officers and some (I just can't bring myself to say “old”). Nadine Wirshing is our secretary and Elliott Hendricks is our vice president. Walter has consented to continue as treasurer and I'm still president. Many thanks to Glenn, Bette and Zoe. Zoe will continue as editor of the newsletter.
If you have a question or comment about the Cochise County Rock, you may contact the editor at:
We've purchased a shed (the one mentioned in the November newsletter), and now we have to move it to the Community Center and get it wired. I'll probably put out a call to the membership for help.
ssgmeditor@gmail.com
We have a couple of interesting field trips planned and, hopefully, will get the lapidary lab going. Looking forward to a great year.
Wishing you all the best of new years!
Jack
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January Field Trip
On Saturday Jan 25 we will meet at “The Thing”
( Johnson Rd & Rte 10) at 9:00 a.m. for a caravan to Johnson Camp, a.k.a. Johnson Mine. Bring along light digging tools. A few years ago one of our members found a beautiful chunk of grossular garnet and two other members found parts of an old spur. Be on the lookout for surprises!
NOTE: This date is tenative! Come to the meeting to sign up and for final date. Advance sign up is required. “Space” is limited as per Johnson Mine. Members only, no children.
A short history of Johnson Mine:
Located 65 miles east of Tucson on the eastern slopes of the Little Dragoon Mountains, the Johnson Camp Mine is a working copper mine in Cochise County.
Substantial mining operations didn't start there until the early 1880s upon the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad through the nearby town of Dragoon, seven miles south of the mine.
The property has been the site for underground mining, open-pit mining and mineral processing. Early smelting operations began with the erection in 1882 of a 30-ton smelter that had an output of 4 tons of copper bullion a day. The ore during that time contained as much as 7.4 percent copper.
After World War I copper prices plummeted, causing a decline in mining. However, selective flotation during the 1940s and 1950s enabled companies to separate zinc from copper concentrates. Zinc became the profitable metal at Johnson, exceeding copper, until the low profitability of the ore caused the mines to close in 1957.
Active mining resumed at Johnson in the mid-1970s with the establishment of two open pits (the Burro and Copper Chief) and a production facility.
Today, the Johnson Camp property is in the care of Nord Resources Corp., which conducts solvent extraction and electrowinning at the site. It also sells landscape rock from the site's stock-piles. A recent study concluded that reserves at Johnson Camp exceed 70 million tons of ore.
For Approval at the Jan 2014 Gen’l Membership Meeting
NOTE:
Although the November General Meeting minutes was published in December, it is being re-published to “jog” our memory since it needs approval from the membership.
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