Shuswap Ardour by Jim Coooperman

Ever because the early Nineteen Seventies, there was an lively membership of rockhounds within the Shuswap, who meet to share their information and their finds, share a workshop for chopping and sharpening rocks, maintain rock and gem reveals and have outings to probe for semi-precious stones.

The Shuswap Rock membership can also be a part of the British Columbia Lapidary Society that features 29 golf equipment and over 1,200 individuals who acquire rocks, minerals, crystals and fossils. The society is, in flip, a member of the Gem and Mineral Federation of Canada.

Through the spring and summer time, membership members take part in upwards of 10 rockhounding discipline journeys the place they acquire stones and fossils. Through the winter they use their workshop for rock chopping and sharpening to provide gems for jewellery and different ornamental objects. At their first Sunday of the month conferences held on the Sorrento Drop-In Society constructing subsequent to the Memorial Corridor (at 1 p.m.), plans are made for present and sale occasions, rocks are traded and there’s a silent public sale after the assembly.

I’ve all the time loved amassing rocks and introduced a few of my favorite ones to the assembly in September, the place one of many members was in a position to determine a few of my assortment. I traded one of many pumice rocks I discovered in Mexico for a pattern for a cultured slice of serpentine and was in a position to buy a chunk of petrified wooden and another polished rocks. Now as a member of the membership, I’m eager to take part in a number of the discipline journeys to achieve extra information about our area’s geography and geology.

On condition that many of the Shuswap geology is metamorphic, there are few areas the place one can discover minerals and semi-precious stones. One key space is Squilax Mountain, the place the Shuswap Rock Membership and different close by golf equipment, typically take discipline journeys to gather agates and crystal geodes. The one entry to Squilax Mountain is thru personal land and, thankfully, the rock golf equipment have an settlement with the landowners to permit them to discover the realm.

Monte Lake is the opposite main sizzling spot within the Shuswap for rock amassing. For a few years till he handed away, Howard Pearson operated a rock store there that was a favorite for rockhounds and vacationers searching for a memento. He additionally self-published a hand-crafted, mimeographed guide about all of the close by areas good for collectors with maps, instructions and different particulars in regards to the sorts of rocks that may very well be discovered. South of Monte Lake is a novel space stuffed with petrified wooden, a few of which include agate.

Different areas within the Shuswap the place semi-precious stones may be discovered embody Adams Lake, the Enderby Cliffs and Mt. Ida. There was a quarry above McGillivray Lake that was truly mined throughout the First World Conflict to offer crystals for radios, however many of the materials was eliminated extra just lately for landscaping tasks.

The complete record of semi-precious stones discovered within the Shuswap and close by areas consists of serpentine, agate, widespread opals, jasper, geodes, quartz crystals, fluorite and carnelian. When rock membership members lower and polish their finds, they typically produce cabochons or cabs, which might be typically polished and rounded, ellipse formed stones with a flat reverse aspect. These are used for making jewellery and different ornamental gadgets. Considered one of their former members from Chase as soon as constructed a tool to make polished spheres, however he offered it.

The membership’s vice-president, Pat Boden, first grew to become concerned almost 25 years in the past and over that point he and his spouse Gail have participated in upwards of 150 discipline journeys to rock hounding websites from Cache Creek to Barriere and down into the Okanagan. He defined how the spotlight of the 12 months is the annual weekend Rendezvous for the B.C. Lapidary Society in Could, that features discipline journeys, conferences, and demonstrations, plus a banquet and public sale. The Shuswap Membership has hosted two of those occasions in Chase, with attendees coming from all through the province.

Shuswap

Shuswap Rock Membership members seek for semi-precious stones on a discipline journey. (Jim Cooperman picture)