The Virgin Valley in Nevada produces some of the most beautiful opal in the world.\u00a0 It is a fossil opal replacing trees.\u00a0\u00a0 The opal itself is black and clear at the same time with a lot of contra luz opal but some very strong regular play of color opal.\u00a0 Unfortunately most of it is cracky that is it crazes when removed from the clay it forms in.\u00a0 There are two mines where people can mine for a fee, the Rainbow Ridge Mine and the Bonanza Mine.\u00a0 People seem to have better luck at the Bonanza although when I went there I went to the Rainbow Ridge Mine because it was owned by an acquaintance of mine, Keith Hodson.\u00a0 He had owned both mines but sold the Bonanza in the 70s.\u00a0 Keith inherited the mines from his father who was mining them back in the 30s.\u00a0 Kieth was an old man when I knew him so I imagine he has retired and I do not know who owns them now.<\/p>\n
The opal there forms in a clay and I am not sure what type it is but if you have read my other blog on opal formation you will know that clay is the essential ingredient in opal formation.\u00a0 Here in the Virgin Valley it replaces pine trees so you can find fossilized pine cones as well as pieces of branches.\u00a0 Kieth Hodson had the record with a 6 pound chunk of totally precious opal until a woman found a log almost 5 feet long in about 6 sections the biggest of which was 2 feet long and several others more than a foot long.\u00a0 Not only was it huge but it was stable.\u00a0 Kieth had his in a jar like a huge test tube upside down filled with water I think they’re called Bell Jars.\u00a0 The woman found that opal at the working face of the Bonanza Mine.\u00a0 If you ever go there it is worth the extra money to search the working face rather than yesterday’s tailings.\u00a0 There is also a neat hot spring to camp at a few miles up the road from the mines.\u00a0 There is space for RVs and for tent camping and a free hot spring (clothes are not optional).<\/p>\n
I have read where a Mr David Lippmann has developed a method for stabilizing this opal.\u00a0 It supposedly works about 75% or 85% of the time.\u00a0 I don’t know for sure that it works but it sure would be a great thing ’cause this opal is real fine.\u00a0 It rivals the best Lightning Ridge can put out.\u00a0 He apparently guarantees the opal he sells against further cracking or crazing.\u00a0 Next up is Spencer, Idaho.http:\/\/www.rockawayopals<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Virgin Valley in Nevada produces some of the most beautiful opal in the world.\u00a0 It is a fossil opal replacing trees.\u00a0\u00a0 The opal itself is black and clear at the same time with a lot of contra luz opal but some very strong regular play of color opal.\u00a0 Unfortunately most of it is cracky […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/richardcarew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/richardcarew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/richardcarew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/richardcarew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/richardcarew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/richardcarew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/richardcarew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/28"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/richardcarew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/richardcarew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/richardcarew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}