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Orange Star Thundereggs
Orange Star Site, Hermanas, Luna County, New Mexico
     After noticing a white spot on Earth Google, I approached it and almost immediately, I noticed an "orange star" over there along a weathered bulldozer tracks. It turned out that the "orange star" is a weathered thunderegg core showing orange to red Laguna-like banding and the name stuck. I asked Paul "GeodeKid" Calburn about that site and he said that I may have re-discovered one of Pete Ghitney's several lost agate prospect sites.
    I was able to collect some colorful agates usually in large thundereggs with dark to light "mushroom" patterns. The agates are typically colorless rimmed with reddish orange primary bands and a few thundereggs contain colorful banded agates comparable to Laguna Agates. It's really weird to see how the Orange Star agates are so different from the Baker Eggs even the site is a "hop" to the Northwest from Baker Egg Mine and the site is marked with piles of white soil and a wide branching ocotillo.  I thought about filing a claim there, but when I returned to it with a friend who was to help me get a GPS coordination, the site was already dug out. After few test digs, we haven't been able to find more so don't expect to find any more from there. At least, I was able to recognize and purchase some Orange Star roughs from the Spanish Stirrup shop once owned by Ghitney (now owned by Colemans) and made them available to the collectors.

Site Status: As of Jan 2022, it's on BLM and the source is already exhausted
Map of Hermanas Area

YOU CAN CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE LARGER PICTURES
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Orange rimmed,
December 2008
That's how the site is called "orange Star
  March 2008
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double-chambered
December 2008
Mushroom-like feature
December 2008
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December 2008
Shadowing effect
December 2008
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They were broken & separated by bulldozing so it's
funny that I found those two in two different places.
Largest solid agate, March 2008
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March 2008 March 2008


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