Shuswap Ardour by Jim Coooperman

Ever for the reason that 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 slicing and sprucing rocks, maintain rock and gem reveals and have outings to probe for semi-precious stones.

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

In the course of the spring and summer season, membership members take part in upwards of 10 rockhounding area journeys the place they accumulate stones and fossils. In the course of the winter they use their workshop for rock slicing and sprucing to supply 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 at all times loved accumulating rocks and introduced a few of my favorite ones to the assembly in September, the place one of many members was capable of establish 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 capable of buy a bit 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 area journeys to realize extra information about our area’s geography and geology.

On condition that a lot 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 area journeys to gather agates and crystal geodes. The one entry to Squilax Mountain is thru non-public land and, thankfully, the rock golf equipment have an settlement with the landowners to permit them to discover the world.

Monte Lake is the opposite main sizzling spot within the Shuswap for rock accumulating. 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 ebook about all of the close by areas good for collectors with maps, instructions and different particulars concerning the kinds of rocks that might be discovered. South of Monte Lake is a singular space crammed 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 really mined in the course of the First World Battle to supply crystals for radios, however a lot of the materials was eliminated extra just lately for landscaping initiatives.

The complete record of semi-precious stones discovered within the Shuswap and close by areas consists of serpentine, agate, frequent opals, jasper, geodes, quartz crystals, fluorite and carnelian. When rock membership members reduce 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 objects. One in every 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 area journeys to rock hounding websites from Cache Creek to Barriere and down into the Okanagan. He defined how the spotlight of the yr is the annual weekend Rendezvous for the B.C. Lapidary Society in Might, that features area 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 area journey. (Jim Cooperman photograph)