by Anna Robertson

About a week and a half ago on July 21st, a friend and I went to her rock club meeting up in Angels Camp, Calaveras County California. I’m originally from Southern California and belong to two clubs, the Southbay Lapidary & Mineral Society and the Long Beach Mineral & Gem Society. I’m Anna and I live in Lomita, (southern CA) and my friend Tammi lives up in Turlock, CA about halfway up the Central Valley. As a result of the distance between us, we’ve had some fun and interesting trips and I thought I’d write about this one. On this particular Sunday, we went to her club meeting the Calaveras Gem and Mineral Society in Angels Camp, California for a potluck and club meeting. They have a potluck every month before their meeting and yes, I’m a bit jealous. The contrast between gem societies in the city and in the country is interesting. Instead of congested roads and freeways, we drove down country roads and then finally dirt roads to get to their clubhouse. Their clubhouse is a work in progress, they have their meeting hall and workshop, etc. and now they are building a craft pavilion and have volunteer workdays to work on it along with their other goings on that happen each month. At the silent auction just before the potluck, I won a piece of art glass for $6. I also enjoyed sitting in on their meeting, and of course the potluck.

After the meeting, we had a whole afternoon ahead of us to explore the area. We drove into Angels Camp and parked before walking over to one of Tammi’s favorite places since childhood, The Earth Science Emporium, Stories In Stones on Highway 49, (named After the Gold Rush of 1949).

Russ and Pam Shoemaker established Fossil Art Creations in 1974 after purchasing 257 acres of the marine Miocene fossil deposit in Kern County, Ca. The first retail store was opened in Carlsbad, Ca where they started many educational earth science programs. In March of 1981 the store was moved to Murphys, California and Stories in Stones was created. In 2001 a second storefront opened in Angels Camp, California which became a wholesale, and retail location. From August 2000 to December 2001 Pam and Russ retired and toured the states in their motor home to travel. After their “retirement” it was decided the Angels Camp location would reopen and it remains that way to this day. https://storiesinstones.us/

I took some pictures of the store and of Pam, the owner, and as you can see it is not only a store but also a museum. It is one amazing place to visit. If you go up Highway 49, don’t forget to stop at Stories In Stone in Angels camp. It’s right after Murphy’s, which is also a fun town to visit. I ended up buying this Amber and Garnet set in silver for about $59.

Our next two stops were out in the mountainous countryside… Pam told us where we could go find some soapstone so we plotted our course in Google Maps and headed out in that direction. As we were driving, we saw the entrance to an old mine and of course, we stopped to check it out. Tammi walked up to the entrance and decided it wasn’t for her. I on the other hand, looked in there and decided I at least needed to check out the beginning of the mine. It was around 100° outside and as soon as I walked into the mine, it was much cooler. I could walk in about 15 feet and then looked over a big pile of rocks and decided I wouldn’t go any further. It was too dark and besides animals tend to live in those places too so, in this case, not worth exploring further at this time. I sat down on the pile of rocks and just enjoyed the experience of being in a mine dug out by miners in the last 100 years or so. I should look it up on Google and see if there is any information on it.

After we were done with the mine we got back to finding Soapstone. The roads here are really nice and nothing like the steep dirt road we had to take over by Yosemite in Briceburg to find soapstone. That road was crazy, steep, dirt and on a cliffside over the Merced River far below. We finally saw some signs of potential soapstone so we stopped the car and Tammi got out to go explore. She decided to go down the side off of the road and found some soapstone and pushed a very large piece up the hill. As she was pushing the last bit up, her foot slipped and she fell straight down through a large bush about 10 to 15 feet getting some scrapes and bruises along the way. We finally did get that stuff up into the car. About two weeks later, she started breaking out in rashes and it turns out that rather large bush was poison oak. Thankfully, Benadryl makes an antihistamine cream that works pretty well but the blisters are pretty nasty looking and very uncomfortable. Getting out in nature is a bit of a risk sometimes but it fills us with curiosity and a feeling of adventure. Having a hobby like rock collecting, mining, soapstone carving and jewelry and cabbing carvings gives us a reason to get out in nature and appease our need for curiosity. Because after all curiosity can lead us to explore and discover so many amazing things.

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