Discussion: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade

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retiredoldfogee	Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 11 2009, 2:27 AM EDT This weekend I decided to head back to an area near Darrington in the hopes of locating the Oso, Deer Creek Jade source. I am still spinning from my weekend discoveries. A major lawsonite source, and a major Jade, and Grossular Garnet source. I stumbled on an area that was more rich in minerals then I have ever seen in my life. I even found what appears to be Eclogite, or blue schist. I saw large translucent apple green jade boulders, small rocks medium rocks, and Jade in cliff faces. I am revealing my theory of at least how some of the Jade ended up in the North Fork of the Stillaguamish, Oso - Deer Creek, Pilchuck Creek, Bear Creek, and other local creeks possibly including Finney Creek. As of this evening I believe we can thank the lumber companies for this. They mined Jade, and top loaded to make mountain roads rather then digging out roads. They filled creeks with Jade boulders, and then put smaller rocks on the top followed by Jade gravel, and then soil, in essence building French drains. This made extremely sturdy roads, that were very tough, and stable for logging the old growth forests. Over time the roads would lose rocks and they would top fill the deeper areas with larger Jade boulders, and follow the same pattern smaller rocks on top, and gravel on the top followed by a thin layer of soil. The old growth lumber companies of the years past spread the Apple Green Jade far and wide in order to build roads to harvest old growth, This is my theory, I am a bit perplexed as to why I've never heard anybody share this, however, I'm betting its a high probability from what I've seen over this weekend. Thanks, Aaron Post reply Do you find this valuable? Keyword tags: None
rockcandyguy	1. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 11 2009, 11:50 AM EDT \| Post edited: May 11 2009, 11:51 AM EDT Interesting theory, Aaron, but I'm doubtful. The time it takes to round boulders of jade would mean those loggers must have started a very long time ago! Road building crews like angular rock, for its cohesive settling properties, over round rock, so they'd be unlikely to use pre-rounded rock (such as from a glacial deposit) ... if a jade-rich glacial deposit existed on the scale of a borrow pit. The entire Darrington area is heavily glaciated, so your ridge may be the source for the jade, but I think glacial action is a more likely distributor. Guess you could test your theory by digging up an old no longer used logging road ... plenty of those about. Great photos and prospecting! Bob Post reply Do you find this valuable?
Rockhound5555	2. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 11 2009, 3:17 PM EDT Hi Arron, Sounds great would love to make plans to go there and check it out. How about you leading a trip soon? We love the Jade and would like to find some Washington Jade as we have only Wyoming Jade from our old mine. Lets see what we can do if you are interested. I'm sure that there are a bunch of us willing to go!!! Tim and Sharon Post reply Do you find this valuable?
gamaliel114	3. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 11 2009, 8:49 PM EDT The area North of Darrington is almost entirly made up of green and blue schist from oceanic crust. The trick is finding where, exactly, a piece of that crust went deep(?) enough to undergo serpentinization giving us the actinolite from which we get the nephrite. There is no mention, from my searches, of jadeitite around Darrington, so I would assume there's only Nephrite/actinolite there. Actinolite is mentioned in the description of some of the schists, which is as close to them saying jade as they ever get. Looking on fault lines is a good stratagy as serpentinite is prone to slipage. This is the case on Deer Creek. the source on deer Creek is located just north of the county line where the creek crosses several faults and further north where it runs parallel on serpentinite. The faults are "lubricated" by serpentinite and in the middle of it all is a large "vien" of rodingite with hydrogrossular garnet. There are several other exposed areas up the creek and some areas that tributaries go through, but this is the main zone. The maps I have of the Darrington area don't have the same degree of detail as the one I have for Deer Creek, but I would Imagine you would want to look for simular features. Or it could be that the entire area produces nephrite in small sporatic pockets amongst the schists. That is probably what you ran across. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
gamaliel114	4. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 11 2009, 8:53 PM EDT Where exactly were the photos taken? I would like to match the area against the maps. ~Zeke Post reply Do you find this valuable?
gamaliel114	5. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 12 2009, 4:51 PM EDT I'll take something back. The geologic maps don't mention jadeitite, but they don't mention a lot of things. There are "authorative" reports (or rumors) of jadeite north and south of Darrington, and the general geology would support that. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
Redrummd	6. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 15 2009, 2:47 AM EDT I just "found" this site tonight and found a lot of comments about Washington State Jade, Grossular Garnet and Acinolite/Serpentine all of which I use for my art work so I will need to spend some time here. I have a lot of very top end pieces of these stones from local sources I trade with or who I buy from. The jade handled knife picture I have as a photo is jade from Deer Creek. I believe that the jade was dropped by glaciers as there are so many colors and types found withing just a few square miles and some from the Eastern side of the mountains is basically the same. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
gamaliel114	7. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 15 2009, 3:54 AM EDT Welcome to the wiki Redrummd.. It's mostly just the two of us (Retiredoldfogee and myself) looking for the green stuff around here. We've both been doing it for only about a year or so. That is we are still learning, but rather quickly. It often seems that those who know how to find the good jade keep it to themselves! It's hard to find even a good picture of the local stuff to judge your own finds by. I really hope you stick around. I know we all would love to see your pieces. Both of us are planning on getting started on carving soon. I'm about to buy my first machine this month. Do you do any rockhounding yourself? Post reply Do you find this valuable?
Redrummd	8. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 15 2009, 11:08 AM EDT I am still tryig to figure out how to navigate through this web site. I don't find it to be overly user friendly! Anyway, I have a very extensive lapidary shop at my home on Fox Island, WA. I have access to good, better and WOW quaility WA state jade, grossier garnet and Serpentine. I have a website: redrummdknives.blademakers.com that has a tour of my shop and an email link directly to me. I am usually only on the web in the evenings but since I just found this site and had a compliment and message from a member here I thought I would drop in this morning before I head out to my shop. Before you buy any machinery I suggest you email me as I have a great deal of knowledge about what works best and how to get the best price. I also would be willing to let you test the equipment I have if you come out to my shop.... Post reply Do you find this valuable?
Redrummd	9. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 15 2009, 11:14 AM EDT If you intend to carve I suggest you locate some of the high iron content actinolite serpentine from the Oso/Deer Creek area. It is "almost" jade at about 5 on the MOHS scale but takes a brilliant polish very easily. I will be listing a knife on Ebay made from a slab of this material later tonight at a ridiculously low buy it now price as it was a test knife I made that is on a low cost Remington frame. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
pvjjh	10. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 17 2009, 2:43 PM EDT "If you intend to carve I suggest you locate some of the high iron content actinolite serpentine from the Oso/Deer Creek area. It is "almost" jade at about 5 on the MOHS scale but takes a brilliant polish very easily. I will be listing a knife on Ebay made from a slab of this material later tonight at a ridiculously low buy it now price as it was a test knife I made that is on a low cost Remington frame." Welcome redrummd to the wiki. Yeah there are several WA jade types here. They are probably out rockin' as I type . lol You all should get together and go rockin'. I would really like to see some of your carvings if you get a chance to post some pics. Paul Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ccturtlebabe	11. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 20 2009, 3:50 PM EDT Yes, My dad had the mine there in the late 60's, we'd park the jeep down below Deer creek in Oso and ride our horses up the path to the source of the jadeite and grosielier ite (sp) garnet. He had hauled a giant saw up there and was cutting out jade and we'd haul it back down to Arlington. Great times till someone tried to hygrade our mine by dynamiting the hell out of it. Dad had leased from land management for about 170.00 a year It's great to hear there is still jadeite there, When dad brought it to Olympia they said it was the first jadeite ever found in our state. Now , after a few decades I am taking up rockhounding again, hmmm go figure lol, it's in my blood Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ccturtlebabe	12. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 21 2009, 10:58 AM EDT It's funny, in the late 60's, I remember Deer Creek and seeing that emerald green boulder lite up by the sun, Dad and I scrambled over to it thinking we had found the mother lode, but to our surprise it was a thin layer of soap stone. (see thread below) Memeorial weekend we are going to do some gold panning and I will be looking for the grossielerite garnet, I thought I saw some beginnings of it at Grandy Creek below Baker lake. I would like to take a look at Walker Valley, but am not keen on all the quad traffic I've heard about from friends. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
gamaliel114	13. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade May 21 2009, 1:55 PM EDT I don't think you'll find the grossular on Grandy Creek, at least not like you'd find on Deer. Most of that stuff on the Grandy is Garnierite, though some grossular may be included. It does seem like there should be hydrogrossular garnet there with all the rodingite, but I haven't found any that looks like Deer Creek's stuff. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
Redrummd	14. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade Jun 5 2009, 8:08 PM EDT \| Post edited: Jun 5 2009, 11:07 PM EDT I got another small (10 pound) boulder from Deer Creek today. It sure looks like jade but I wounb't know for sure until I grind, sand and polish it to see how hard it is. I have never seen anything like it and the jade dealer hasn't either. It is somewhat chatoyant and I really mean chatoyant as in sections of it have a play very like a green tiger eye and a lot like green Pietersite. Have any of you seen any jade that has that unusual look to it? Once I get the piece slabbed and a couple of knives scaled with It I will post pictures. I may try to get a picture of the chatoyant play tomorrow - Problem is I don't know how to post pictures here.... Post reply Do you find this valuable?
gamaliel114	15. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade Jun 5 2009, 10:24 PM EDT To post pictures just go to the photos tab. To the right you will see an option to add photos and/or create an album. I've heard of that type of jade being around here but have never seen it...or have I? I do have some unusual pieces of jade that might fit that description from Deer Creek, but with out polishing I don't know for sure. I was just thinking about chatoyant jade today. Funny. I can't wait to see the pics. I didn't have a chance to stop by your shop when I was up there last weekend...I have a question though. What kind of blade do you use on your modified tile cutter? ~Zeke Post reply Do you find this valuable?
Redrummd	16. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade Jun 5 2009, 11:26 PM EDT I googled chatoyant jade and yes it does exist and is rare. The bigger apple green boulder has a bit of catoyance that is looks more like "pearl" in a paint job. I am doing a lot of custom knives for these small one of a kind small boulders/large cobbles but I may never again get this type of an opportunity. I also got a another piece of a larger boulder from the Tenaway from the dealer that has a bluish translucent green jade in sections running through the more typical olive green. I bought a 8 inch blade for the 7 inch tile saw from a dealer on Ebay. Here is the item number of the one I use from a current auction - 350174669384. The seller is BUTW Post reply Do you find this valuable?
retiredoldfogee	17. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade Jun 5 2009, 11:27 PM EDT "I got another small (10 pound) boulder from Deer Creek today. It sure looks like jade but I wounb't know for sure until I grind, sand and polish it to see how hard it is. I have never seen anything like it and the jade dealer hasn't either. It is somewhat chatoyant and I really mean chatoyant as in sections of it have a play very like a green tiger eye and a lot like green Pietersite. Have any of you seen any jade that has that unusual look to it? Once I get the piece slabbed and a couple of knives scaled with It I will post pictures. I may try to get a picture of the chatoyant play tomorrow - Problem is I don't know how to post pictures here...." Yes, I've seen it at Deer Creek, and cut some pieces up. There is a spot at Deer Creek, that it seems every time I visit I find similar stones in the same area. Pretty Jade. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
Redrummd	18. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade Jun 6 2009, 12:39 AM EDT \| Post edited: Jun 6 2009, 12:44 AM EDT I spent about an hour creating a picture album of Jade, Jasper and Grossier Garnet from Washington State rivers. I don't know how to link it yet so if any of you know how please feel free to link it to this thread. http://cash-and-treasures-wiki.travelchannel.com/photos/album/113146/Washington+Rivers+-+Jade%2C+Jasper%2C+Agate%2C+Grossier+Garnet Post reply Do you find this valuable?
retiredoldfogee	19. RE: Johny Appleseed - A tremendous source of Washington Jade Jun 6 2009, 1:06 AM EDT \| Post edited: Jun 6 2009, 1:06 AM EDT "I spent about an hour creating a picture album of Jade, Jasper and Grossier Garnet from Washington State rivers. I don't know how to link it yet so if any of you know how please feel free to link it to this thread. http://cash-and-treasures-wiki.travelchannel.com/photos/album/113146/Washington+Rivers+-+Jade%2C+Jasper%2C+Agate%2C+Grossier+Garnet " That is a nice collection there. I especially liked that flower jasper with the yellow daisy looking flower on it. That was classy. Thanks for sharing:) Aaron Post reply Do you find this valuable?

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