I was wondering if anyone might have contact information for the current owners of the Sweet Home Mine near Alma. I'd like to see if I could get permission from anyone to pick through any of the dumps there. Thanks!

from my understanding it has been completely reclaimed(land has been reverted back to pre-sweet home)

The Sweet Home mine was a silver mine in the 1800's and early 1900's. Reopened under lease in 2000 by Brian Lees and an investment group to mine the rhodochrosite crystals. Miners in the old days often traded the crystals they found for drinks at the local saloon.
The mine closed again in 2004 after several years of very successful crystal mining, unfortunately they felt the rhodocrosite had been played out of the "hot zones".

The old tailings/dumps from the old silver operations have been cleaned up but there are still a couple buildings and the tunnels/drifts in exsistence.......These are all private land and posted "no tresspassing or mineral collecting" all over the road. I wouldn't suggest collecting without permission. Sorry I don't have any contact information but I'm guessing the owners do not want anyone collecting.
As I remember it from the movie "Rhodochrosite, Red Treasure of the Rockies", todays owner is a descendant of one of the old mines secrataries.
Excellent documentary movie about modern mining techniques for crystal specimens....I highly recommend watching that one if you haven't seen it. Also some excellent historical information contained as well.......You will enjoy it!

CP

Thanks for the information! I did contact Bryan Lees, and unfortunately he did confirm that the dumps have all been reclaimed. I hiked Mount Democrat yesterday, and really would have liked to poke around the Sweet Home dumps some. From a glance, it looks that there are certainly still dumps/tailings still that haven't been grown over or reclaimed, but I can certainly respect the wishes of the property owner to leave them alone whatever his reasons, be it liability or reclamation. I did take a walk along the road through the property, since the road is a public thru-way at least, in hopes that I might at least spot a chip or two of rhodo, but no luck. I did, however find a nice piece of what I believe is silver ore, some nice veins running though a piece of quartz. I also picked up some nice pyrite specimens in the old mine dumps around Kite Lake, so all in all still a pretty good day!

What exactly was the purpose of closing one of the best mines in North America? "oh it was played out"..or.." the good areas were done with"...that is a load of phooey...I guarantee that there is more material there..must be some underlying reasons..anybody know? "they felt the material was played out"..yea right...lets just drive up the price of the specimens we already pulled out

3 words ; county tax assessor

they will have the land owners contact info

My family happens to own two claims slightly downstream and across the creek from the Sweethome. We also have Rhodo and a variety of other minerals. Back when the Sweethome had its heyday we spoke with Bryan Lees about developing our claim but he felt that the cost and legalities were prohibitive. However, my father did pull out some nice specimens of Rhodo before the existing drifts collapsed. Other than that, I know random folks have picked through( ahhhem) the dump-ite finding some badly oxidized rhodo, etc

I actually joined this site recently in hopes of finding folks who had knowledge of the area or were interested in learning more and possibly collecting on our land (with our approval)

MikeyBrew, I will send you a private message with more info.

Hey DoubleTerm... If you are offering a chance to collect some rhodo (possibly flourite and apatite as well) I'd love the opportunity... I've always had a fascination with it... I've done some research and found this:

Geologic section and gravity profile across the Climax and Alma districts:
The Sweet Home mineralization is posed to be related to magmatic activity that formed the inner Alma dome at about 24 - 28 million years ago (Bookstrom et al. 1988; Bookstrom 1989). We assume that a hidden molybdenum porphyry deposit in a satellite intrusion of the Alma Batholith is below the Sweet Home
system, similar to the currently exposed Climax molybdenum deposit.

Two distinct mineralization stages are present in the mine; an early assemblage containing quartz-molybdenite-pyrite-topaz-muscovite-fluorite, and a later assemblage containing galena-sphalerite-tetrahedrite-bornite and other sulfides/sulfosalts, and fluorite-rhodochrosite. Calcite, barite, and apatite were the last minerals to form. Tungsten mineralization, in the form of hübnerite, and early black sphalerite are common. It is not clear whether these minerals are associated with the early mineralization stage or are transitional between the two main stages. Secondary copper minerals locally replace tetrahedrite.

The article also says the gem quality rhond comes from magmatic hydrothermal alteration and the lighter colored "washed out" rhond was formed by diluted by minor amounts of meteoric ("groundwater") water towards the end of the mineralization.

I've added a couple of images from the article: a geological interpretation of the subsurface and a mine map for anyone who's interested.

The web URL for the article: http://edoc.gfz-potsdam.de/gfz/get/12489/0...b9f0a/12489.pdf

I'd love to go hunting for some Rhodo, especially if it hasn't been extensively hunted yet!

Good afternoon,
I read your post about possiblyletting people prospect dig/pick through some tailings on your land and look for some rhodo. I know it's been a couple of years since your post, but I was looking for a place to take my twin boys and mom to find some "fun" flashy rocks and it's been very frustrating trying to find anything that's open to the public and not absolutely picked clean. We don't require big paydays, we're just looking to teach the boys about the cool stuff the earth makes, to respect the land in general, and have a fun day and picnic outside. Is this something that you guys are allowing on your property?
If so, I'd love to get in contact with you about when would be convenient. We're trying to do it in the next couple of weeks before they have to go back to school.
Thanks so much for your time,
Coury Langley

DoubleTerm, does your offer to learn more and possibly some collecting still stand? My wife and I are young geologists (and rockhounds) and would love the opportunity to visit this summer if possible.

Kinda interested in that myself after reading the post. Aside from wife, and/or young geologists.

DoubleTerm, we'd be interested in digging near there for some Rhody, too, if the offer's still open. It would be just myself, hubbie, and our son. ;)

DoubleTerm posted that over 3 years ago as you can see by the date on his post. You might have better luck doing a bit of proper research around the area of interest, and see what you could come up with that's open to prospecting. Good luck out there and stay safe.

Denise

Hi mikeybrew, I realize this post is from a while back, but it's worth a shot anyway! I am a young prospector looking to go on some hunts around Colorado and then hopefully the country and the world someday. I am looking for any contact info for the sweet home mine area. I would willing to put in some work for the property owners for a chance to look around. Again I am still young and somewhat new to crystal hunting so any help or advice would be appreciated greatly.
PeaceNathaniel

Just a thought: I was looking for a phone book listing for the sweet home mine (a long shot) and I noticed a piece of rhodo going for $15,000. Considering that specimines from the mine are highly valued and the fame of the mine I HIGHLY doubt the current owners will let folks poke around out there. Again, just a thought.

Hi Mikey
My name is Eric and I just saw your post. Im a
Colorado native turned Oregonian. Ill be out visiting family early September and I would love the chance to dig or surface collect on your property.
Kindly,
Eric Novack

Eric,

The posts in this thread are 8 years old and the members who posted are no longer active.

Cp/Mrs CP, suggest locking this thread to prevent further responses. :)

Yep agreed Crusty good call and done! Eric Novack will see this update post I hope too.