Dwarves' Earth Treasures Online
Museum:
Datolites from Star Mine
Star Mine, Copper Harbor,
Keweenaw
CO., Michigan
Field-collecting
Status: Forestry Management and licensed for
lumbering.
OK to Collect but at one's own risk.
Like Clark and other nearby mines, the Star Mine
did not
produce sufficient copper supply to continue mining so it was
a short-lived
operation during the 1860s. What remained of the Star Mine are Office
and Powder
houses that are becoming overgrown with trees and plant that I almost
missed
them while exploring around looking for the mine piles of Star Mine.
It
had been reported that they penetrated a greenish "mudrock" enriched
in
datolites when they sunk the shafts there. That inspired the legends
of many datolites hidden within the mine dumps waiting to be found
and the people were excited when the local club finally bulldozed
one mine pile recently (2010). But to their disappointment, few Star
datolites were found. The datolites are mostly white with opaque
green hues
and few had been found with red, yellow and green hues.
You can click on
the pictures to see larger pictures.
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Star mine Powder House
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Bulldozed Mine Pile |
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