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Fourteen Years of the Pasty Cam ^{Printed on Recycled Internet}

Which State Highway runs through Eagle Harbor?

M26 does. And I must say how very much I love Eagle Harbor!!

Good morning!

M26

State Highway 26.

Good Morning from Austin, TX....

M26, the best road in the State, don't cha know.

AMEN,Alex!! That is my absolute favorite place to take a drive anywhere!!! Can't get enough of it!

For those of you that don't know, I am a frequent contributor to an international science website called the Mineralogy Database, or Mindat for short. Anyway one of the features on the front page is the "Photo of the Day" where contributors get a photo of a mineral, locations, etc... posted on the front page for one day. Appearently, June 14, 2011 is my lucky day as one of my photos was deemed good enough to receive this honour; needless to say I am very excited!! J

For a closer view of the specimen, you can also point your mouse over here to get a better image and a little more info about the specimen. It's amazing to think that a little ole' rock from the Copper Country will now get viewed by thousands all over the world......

Way ta Go Capt!

What an honor Cap't! Beautiful image! I can see how your profession is so interesting. My oldest son, now 53, has collected "rocks" even as a little boy. I used to say that if he removed all his rocks that our house would buckle up. So sad he couldn't follow thru as an adult. Life choices.

Is that ever cool. Way to go Capt. Paul (*_~)

Aye, "I should have remembered the rocks."
(Braveheart)

Capt. Paul, what an interesting specimen!! Awesome!

Lots of Flag pics, today. All great photos.

Capt. Paul--I sure enjoyed looking at that little ol' rock. Congrats
and thanks for telling us about it.

Excellent shot Capt Paul!

Now we all want to know the circumstances and detailed info on how this forms, etc!

Honestly, I'm not 100% sure why they form in wires as opposed to other forms. I'm also not sure why it seems that the Osceola produced so many more than other mines in the area. I'm going to guess that it has something to do with when they formed in the paragenetic sequence of mineralisation on the Keweenaw as they are almost always found with prehnite and calcite; however, I have never really took an in-depth look as to why. Maybe I should take some time and research this further.....

Thanks to everyone for the compliments; you would be surprised at just how tricky those little things are to photograph. While the wires are very nice (and rare, I might add), sometimes you do find the unexpected, like the photo below:

OK, follow-up question........

You say you were pounding on a boulder. How does something which looks as delicate as these wires survive being pounded on?

And in your photo above ~ is that a crystal which formed on the wire? Or what are we looking at here?

Fascinating stuff!

If you read the caption on mindat, it states, “This specimen was discovered in 2003 after pounding a large boulder with a sledgehammer for a few hours.” What The Captain neglected to mention was WHO was wielding that hammer.

I always thought it was always a great stress reliever... whacking rocks with a big hammer. And every now and then we would find something good like those wires.

I think the wires form because copper is part of the cubic (or isometric) crystal system and the wires are basically elongate cubes-- one side of the cube grows faster than the others. But as to exactly why that happens... I don’t know. I think I’ll pour myself another mug of mead and ponder that a while. Skål!

Love the "wire" photos. Well, I loved all the photos!