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On Locality Descriptions
You are here: MineralCollecting.org >> Posted Articles >> Article 19

by Tom Tucker (Tom Tucker is a well known and enthusiastic collector, dealer, geologist and MNCA member who lives in Silver Gate, Montana)
This article appeared in the November 1999 issue of the Mineral Mite, the newsletter of the Micromounters of the National Capital Area in Washington, D. C.

ON LOCALITY DESCRIPTIONS.

Last year, after finding some unusual pyrite-marcasite crystals in Montana, I presented a little paper about therm at the Rochester Symposium, and a couple of good folks including Pete Richards and Bob Morgan directed me to some early literature on similar crystals found in Missouri. The 1957 article in American Mineralogist describes very similar crystals from King's Butte, Green County, Missouri, and so on my latest journey from west to east I managed a half day stop to look for crystals at King's Butte. I spent seven years going to college in Missouri, and have good friends living about twenty miles from the Green County site, so I felt confident that it would be a successful expedition. The locality is described thusly: "King's Butte is a small but conspicuous turret like formation crowning a rounded hill, situated one and a quarter miles south of North Dry Sac Creek and three quarters of a mile east of the Prestley Hill cut on State Highway No. 13. It lies three miles south of Brighton, and 14 miles north of Springfield, Missouri." With this precise description I was not going to have any trouble at all locating some new crystals. The description goes on to describe the stratigraphic section in detail, from the top of the hill down through the Mississippian section to the "gently rounded hill below the butte (which) is composed of dolomitic limestone of lower Ordovician age. This is overlain by a thin sandstone of lower Mississippian age, which in turn is overlain by several feet of white to buff-colored Compton limestone" which is supposed to contain the crystals. I arrived in the area mid-morning Saturday, December 5, and scouted the area. There was no obvious "butte". Along highway 13, which is now divided four lanes, there are roadcuts, but none that are outstanding, and none that anyone knew of as "Prestley Hill cut". The older portion of the road is obviously the northbound lanes, so "three-fourths of a mile east" of the highway is not hard to discern. The North Dry Sac Creek runs in a northwest to southeast direction, so "1 1/4 miles south" of the creek is somewhat open to interpretation.

I started to knock on doors seeking directions. At the first home near the North Sac Creek I found no one home, and was greeted only by a gaggle of geese and ducks, and a very tick infested part-hound dog. The road beyond the home was closed due to construction of a new bridge across the Creek, so I wandered over to investigate the nice new road cut. Limestones and shales, quite muddy from yesterday's rain, but nothing of mineralogical interest. The next house up the road was much newer, so I didn't hold out much hope of getting information from an old-timer. True enough, the resident who was home was younger than the article I was using as a guide, knew nothing of King's Butte, or of rocks. But he did direct me toward an older gentleman who might be of help. About a mile away at the house I'd been directed to I found four cars in the driveway, but no one at home. Back down the road a half-mile I tried an older looking home. Several knocks failed to get a response, but as I walked away out rushed two large friendly Golden Retrievers. Now you must surely realize that a friendly Golden Retriever is Really Really friendly. These guys were all over me, and being a dog lover, my three were in my truck, I was greeting them equally. Then the gentleman of the house appeared, early twenties, shirtless, several small tattoos on various exposed areas, silver rings through the nose, and an eyebrow, and in one ear a small pin that states give out to promote their tourism. Like, this may have been from Florida, but I wasn't that close to be sure. You knew he was going to be a lot of help. No, he wasn't. So back to the west I stopped at a pair of older homes. At the first there was the grandma and a grandson, and a passel of various dogs. They didn't know of what I searched, but directed me to grandpa, who was chainsawing a downed tree off in the woodlot. Finally, an informant who was at least as old as the article I was following. Sure enough he was a native of the area, and had moved to this house when he came back from the war. THE WAR, in 1946. The name King's Butte meant nothing, but he did recall that the King family had owned the farm land off to the southeast a mile or so, and that there was a strange hillock at the top of a rise, just off of the road. The Kings had both died while he was away in the service.

A check of the topo map indeed showed a tiny round hill about 40 feet above the surrounding terrain, which did fit the distance criteria in the article I was following. I drove down the road, and parked on the shoulder right by the hill. It wasn't more than 100 feet off of the read. Near by a very new home was the obvious place to inquire about land ownership and collecting permission. A young lady was home and was most helpful. Their home had been there just a year or so, the yard was still largely mud and new grass. And oh, yes, there were a couple of dogs to greet me. No, she hadn't heard of King's Butte, or the King family. But the strange little hill just a hundred feet or so south of the house was of special interest. Someone had said that it was the second highest point in Missouri. So I showed her on the topo map that it had no such claim to fame. Much of the surrounding countryside was at least as high. She said that because of the interesting hill, they had made a special effort to buy the acreage that included the hill, so it could be protected from development, what with the suburban sprawl of Springfield, which had been 13 miles away, but these days was very much closer.

The lady knew nothing of rocks or minerals or fossils. But the hill had a story. Folks in the area had spoken of Spanish treasure being buried there. And it was known to be an Indian burial mound. It was certainly not natural. In order to investigate these possibilities someone had dug a hole at the very top, through the capping one or two foot thick siltstone. The hole, perhaps four to six feet square and two feet deep is there to see. But no treasure. Undaunted, I was told, the previous owner had hired some excavating equipment, and had had them excavate the side of the hill, attempting to reach the treasure known to be at its center. The contractor dug until the overhanging caprock became too dangerous. Still no Indian artifacts or Spanish treasure. She said that only one or two folks had been out in the last year, to look for rocks, or see the very ordinary view from crest of this little hill.

I searched the hill and surrounding area for over an hour and found nothing of interest. There are goethite-replaced fossil fragments, and the article I was following does mention a "profusion of limonite fossils". I found no pyrite-marcasite pseudomorphs at all. And no Spanish treasure either.

I guess that the point of all of this is that we should be especially careful when describing a locality. Forty years from now the geography may be different. What was 13 miles from town might then be a new subdivision. The highway may be relocated. The landowner may well be dead and long forgotten. A colloquial geographic name, that never makes it onto a map is equally forgotten. A stratigraphic description which starts at the top and then starts again at the bottom, but never ties the two together, potentially leaves out a lot. My reference article could have given a legal location, as section, township, range, etc., or latitude and longitude, and we would be sure of where King's Butte is.

I think I did find King's Butte, but we can't be certain. I suspect that the washed slopes that yielded the crystals back in 1957 are now lawn-covered.

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