While camped at Giant City State Park near Carbondale, IL we decided to take a trip to the border of Kentucky and Illinois to the town of Roeselare, IL in Harden Country. In this little town of about 400 you will find the American Fluorite Museum. The building is not very big but there are some huge Fluorite specimens and exhibits of the mining of Fluorite. The mines are all closed now but you can get a feel of what it must have been like back in the day when it was a busy place.
Two elderly ladies who volunteer at the museum gave us a very nice tour of the place. What made this tour special it that both ladies husbands worked the mine for over 40 years. They told us how each miner was allowed to big enough Fluorite home each day in their lunch bucket to do with what they pleased. Many of these pieces that were brought home were cut into diamond shapes of various sizes and then sold to tourist.
If you want to dig for Fluorite there is a small tailings pile at the gate entrance. Of course we wanted to see what we could fine so the ladies gave us one small lunch sized paper bag and said there was not much now in the tailings but for one dollar a pound we could have all we wanted. So off we went to find our hidden treasures. When I showed Sandee the little bag she said "OOOOOO no that little bag is not big enough, get the kitty litter bucks."
After about two hours of picking the tailings pile and 88 pounds of rock later the ladies were amazed at what we found. Of course I always carry my short-wave UV light and I found some beautiful barite that are museum quality. The ladies did not think much of our finds but we beg to differ. So we paid for our rocks and off into the sunset we went with smiles on our faces and the truck 88 pounds heavier with our finds.
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