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July 4th Agates Fourth of July Butte including "Chimney Beds" West of Arlington, Maricopa Co., Arizona |
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The white agates scattered over the area
of Fourth of July butte are in form of irregular/geometric nodules
(filling in fissures/veins) and rarely amygadoloid forms and "Chimney Beds"
is one of few productive locations. The "Chimney Beds" refers to
the chimney ruins on the eastern side of the butte, and the diggings are
around the buttes where the agates can be found by just patiently
walking around or digging to find any irregular shaped (and sometimes amygdaloidal)
nodules. The agates are almost always white to gray, but some came
with the hues of lavendar, red, purple and blue. The shadowing effect is
usually strong in the well-banded agates, and some agates contain reddish
plume structures and pseudomorphs. The agates are found along the layer
of rocky debris just below the surface and above the clay layer (in basin)
or heavily weathered greenish basalt bedrock (on the sides of the hills).
I did not find anything in the clay layer and there are some agate veins
in the weathered basalt bedrock. It will take a great deal of shallow digging
to find some. I have heard of grayish agates with "snow spots" from "Chimney
Beds" but I did not seem to find any at where I was digging.
NOTE: I returned to the site on December 2008 and have discovered that the site has been recently filed as a private mining claim, so it's no longer open to any collecting ("NO TREAPASSING" signs all over). So the agates will not be available for sale until the claim has been abandoned. |
YOU CAN CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR LARGER PICTURES
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With extremely rare purple color,
only one I have found so far, December 2007 |
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| Outstanding shadowing effect! December 2007 | Rare red rims, December 2007 |
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| Ivory colored, with pseudomorph after calcite at the bottom,
December 2006 |
Ivory colored, with pseudomorph after calcite at the bottom,
December 2006 |
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| With reddish-purple plumes and black calcite crystals
December 2006 |
With "Morel Mushroom" plumes
December 2006 |
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| Sagenite-type, December 2007 | With Chloride coated plumes, December 2007 |
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| April 2005 | Gray colored, December 2007 |
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| With calcite crystal between the bands,
a clue to how the agates have formed. December 2006 |
From the foot of the July 4th Peak itself
December 2007 |
You can see the July 4th Agates for Sale at the Online Agate & Thunderegg Shop