Dustdevil sunstone mine in Oregon |
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 A 01 Driving along the Warner Mountains |
 A 02 in northern California we get a first glimps of Oregon |
 A 03 looking over the Goose Lake. |
 A 04 North of Lakeview and Plush, the first sign pointing to the Sunstone area. | ||
 A 05 Behind the Rabbit Hills we finally reach the Mining area. |
 A 06 On this side of the road is the public collecting ground about 4 square miles large. |
 A 07 Cars home in from different sides on the dirt roads |
 A 08 to the annual artists dig, organised by the Dust Devil Mining company. | ||
 A 09 We have a look around the terrain |
 A 10 before we park our car in the large circle. |
 A 11 The land is very dry. As we learn later this summer, Oregon will be easy prey for devastating bushfires. |
 A 12 A first walk trough the mine before sunset. The first sunstones are discovered with excitement. | ||
 A 13 The next morning everybody is at work early. |
 A 14 We try our luck with shovel and sieve. |
 A 15 We prospect around with good success, but all to soon hit hard rock. |
 A 16 Our neigbours are very helpful, with hints and operating instructions. | ||
 A 17 Not before long we dig sucessfully and operate like pros. |
 A 18 Many miners bring their own constructions, to make sieving easier. |
 A 19 The first halve day of work, yields this treasure of oregon sunstones. |
 A 20 Our neighbours found an exciting spot and invite us to join in. | ||
 A 21 The sunstone is found between multiple layers of basalt and clay. |
 A 22 Sunstone is the red shillering variety of the feldspar family. The plain yellow is called orthoklas. |
 A 23 Heavy equipment is used to move the mine dump, to break trough the hard rocklayers and |
 A 24 to securise the overhanging cliffs dug by the miners. | ||
 A 25 Katerina always dreamt of driving a farmers tractor, |
 A 26 so she was offered a special treat and was instructed how to operate the loader. |
 A 27 As the caterpillar runs over the larger boulders, breaking them, sunstones are popping out. |
 A 28 An attentif look when walking trough the mine along the tracks of the caterpillar may pay off nicely. | ||
 A 29 Salmon, crabs and grilled oysters for Saturday 5th of july. |
 A 30 In the late after noon a feast is organised. Flyers have been seen as far as 100 miles from the mine. |
 A 31 A good 120 miners and farmers from the surrounding area join the mining lapidary artists. |
 A 32 After a hard days work a shared dinner is the high point of every day. | ||
 A 33 Little Jim |
 A 34 on the job |
 A 35 sorting out the |
 A 36 sunstones. | ||
 A 37 Not only sunburned skin and blisters on the hands, Katerinas shoes also needed repair. |
 A 38 Getting aquainted with the various artists, miners and caracters is even more interesting than the mining. |
 A 39 Some will not tell stories, they may just pull out a stone or |
 A 40 a californian gold nugget. | ||
 A 41 Tonny & Steve operate a mine in oregon where they recently found, |
 A 42 crystalised platinum of exceptional beauty and rarity. |
 A 43 Rough sunstones |
 A 44 Rough sunstones | ||
 A 45 Oregon sunstone 18.73 ct / CHF 475.- "Sunbird" |
 A 46 Oregon sunstone 14.89 ct / CHF 475.- "Neptuns horn" |
 A 47 Oregon sunstone 28.72 ct / CHF 2870.- "flowing" |
 A 48 "Neptuns horn" | ||
 A 49 Oregon sunstone 29.91 ct / CHF 2990.- "Star" |
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| Hubert Heldner July 2003 | |||||