Fluorescent Ontario 

Collecting Trip To Ontario, Canada, August, 1993

I signed on to be a collecting assistant for Arizona geologist George Polman on his 1993 trip to Ontario, Canada. George provided the airfare but warned me it was going to be a strenuous trip: we had to hit the ground running, collect everything on his list with barely any time to eat or sleep. I would be there to help drive, collect and for safety's sake out in the wilds. George agreed to pay for my services in fluorescent minerals. I was allowed to keep a good number of the best specimens that I found. By the end of the trip, which included stops at Balmat, New York and Franklin - Sterling Hill, New Jersey, George and I had gathered up about 800 pounds of fluorescent minerals. And I'd had the collecting trip of a lifetime!

 

So, there we were....two regional Vice-Presidents of the Fluorescent Mineral Society landing in Detroit, Michigan and driving into eastern Canada. First stop:

The fluoborite location!

 

 
Arizona geologist George Polman getting down to business on the first day, collecting fluoborite  

Fluoborite specimens under UV light.

 

Hackmanite collecting hike near Bancroft, Ontario

 

That's me getting ready to hit the forest trail in search of a world-famous fluorescent hackmanite location. At top right is a computer reconstruction showing how the site looked at night. Hackmanite has an orange glow that the pictures don't quite capture but it's pretty close. Click on any of the images for the story.

 

Collecting at the Long Lake Zinc Mine, Parham, Ontario

Click on the images for the story.

 

 

 

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