"Hi Bill,
Several years ago I tried to get the Sloan 1 and 2 kimberlites in Colorado with a partner. We wanted to open it as a tourist mine for diamonds and collectables for museums - I thought it would be a riot. We made a deal for surface ownership and all of the necessary permits and then the guy with the mineral rights decided he had a mountain of diamonds and would not even discuss this venture without putting $10 million in his pocket to start with. As a result, the property still sits there and is good for grazing a couple of sheep.
Dan"

"One of the few family mines that have made a lot of money is the Coleman family Crystal Mines. They made their money not so much on the tourist but by selling some of the finest quartz crystal specimens in the world. They have a room called the million dollar room. Back when Japan was on top they were buying up large quantities of mineral specimens including quartz. A Japanese buyer walked into their cleaning and packing shed and asked "What do you want for every thing in this room." Ron said off handed "O a million dollars." The buyer pulled out his checkbook and wrote a check for one million dollars without blinking an eye. The mine is a must stop for people visiting Hot Springs, AR. By the way Dan- Did you find pipes when you were fighting spiders in the Arkansas out back?
Bill "

""On the way home I felt something crawl across my neck, I looked in the back seat and it was alive with Recluses."

Eeeeeewwwwwwwwww! I don't think I would have ever gotten back in that car!"

"I don't like those brown recluses. I was bit by one in my sleep on my elbow. It swelled up over a 3 week period of time, and it was nasty. That was about 1 1/2 year ago and I still have a red bump about the size of a pea on my elbow skin. should have the doctor cut that nasty thing out now. We get two spiders here that are fairly large and almost identical, The European house spider, and the brown recluse (or brown fiddleback), they get confused, and the big way to tell the difference from these two nasties is the brown recluse has huge fangs. Practically, every house I have lived in has a fair share of them, except the one I live in now, I haven't seen one here in 2 1/2 years. That gives me shivers to think about simply turning on the lights and seeing them run across the room during mating season.

Thanks,

Aaron"

"I remember walking into an old abandoned mine in southern New Mexico. I looked up at the mine back (roof) and it was crawling with spiders. So many that there must have been 4 or 5 layers thick. I have no idea what was in the mine - it could have been the richest mine in the world, but I didn't care, I left it to the spiders. I have three phobias: (1) spiders, (2) heights and (3) politicians, and not necessarily in that order.
Dan"