Quartz

specimen number:
2133310

location:
Thompson Peak, Plumas Co., California, USA

description:
Neat naturally etched smoky quartz crystal. Double terminated with no points of attached; in great condition. Collected by Chuck Trantham in 1987. Attractive when back lit as seen in the photo and at the end of the video.

Thompson Peak, straddling the border of Plumas and Lassen counties in the Diamond Mountains of California, features a unique and complex geological setting. The peak itself forms part of the northern Sierra Nevada batholith, composed primarily of Mesozoic granodiorite and quartz monzonite plutons that intrude older Paleozoic metamorphic sequences, all capped by the mid-Miocene Lovejoy flood basalt which erupted from a major local fissure system around 15.4 million years ago. Hydrothermal mineralization along regional structural faults produced complex polymetallic quartz veins rich in copper and gold, alongside notable pegmatitic veins on the northeast face containing well-crystallized smoky quartz, schorl tourmaline, and epidote. While indigenous peoples and early 1850s Gold Rush pioneers first explored the region, formal mining and quarrying operations intensified in the late 19th century as part of the broader Plumas Copper Belt. Underground extraction and surface prospecting at various claims focused heavily on copper and associated silver or gold ores, peaking intermittently during the early 20th century before all commercial ore production in the immediate vicinity ceased by the late 1920s.

Charles C. Trantham was a prominent California mineral collector, field collector, and geologist whose active field exploration spanned the mid-to-late 20th century. Professionally trained as an engineering geologist, he combined his formal scientific background with a deep passion for field mineralogy, leading him to explore and document numerous remote localities throughout California, Nevada, and the Pacific Northwest. He was widely recognized within the mineralogical community for his methodical approach to collecting, keeping meticulous records of his field discoveries, and assembling an extensive, highly regarded private collection of Western North American minerals. Trantham frequently contributed to the field by discovering or providing rare research material to academic mineralogists, and his legacy is preserved today through the high-quality specimens bearing his original handwritten labels that reside in major private collections and museum archives.

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