CompuServe Messages

You flatter me, Russ. Now I have to go into my notes and photographs taken around 1939, with a year or so on either side. I know I do have a photo of old Herman's place, rather good considering I was just discovering photography in those days. And one in Last Chance Canyon that has actually entered my 'canon', made in 1939. But I seriously doubt I photographed the more or less nothing scenery around the opal digs. Will see. Meanwhile, I remember accessing the area from Last Chance Canyon rather than from the highway, and it was a bit of a walk. Herman took a friend and me out there to his claim one afternoon and we dug around awhile, and then I revisited the spot at least once more. The opals are indeed beautiful. I never found anything more than about 1 cm, but its a nice gem. Herman was a real old desert rat, drunk whenever he could afford to be, and around his 'shop' he had a lot of good petrified wood, agates, and so on. Oh yes, I got some beautiful moss agate out there, white transluscent background with green (moss colored!) moss. And something I got to calling 'fossil head cheese', which was a sort of loose conglomerate of reddish rhyolite held together with blue agate.. very nice stuff. And, of course, lots of petrified wood, some very choice… palm mostly. I still have all this stuff..been hauling it around for 55 (sic!) years. So you have now prompted me to try to visit there again. I am planning some kind of desert trip within a few days or weeks. Will have to include the opal location. Meanwhile, I'll make a print of Herman's shop for you, if you'd like.. e-mail your address. Bill