Quartz

specimen number:
2062938

location:
Crystal Hill Mine, Saguache Co., Colorado, USA

description:
A grouping of colorless gemmy prismatic quartz crystals with little attached matrix. In great condition. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

Crystal Hill, located in Saguache County, Colorado, sits within a rugged volcanic setting characterized by Tertiary-age ash-flow tuffs and a prominent quartz latite intrusive stock. The geology features hydrothermal alteration zones and breccia pipes that host cavities containing quartz, smoky quartz, and occasional amethyst. Mining history in the district began around 1881 with prospector Mark Biedell, sparking a small rush that led to the establishment of the nearby camp of Biedell and various underground workings targeting precious metals. While early efforts focused primarily on underground veins for gold and silver, later operations shifted toward open-pit and heap-leach methods, particularly during mid-century pulses and a larger modern phase of extraction in the 1980s. In recent decades, federal land reclamation efforts have secured the historic workings while allowing recreational rockhounding for mineral specimens.

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