JAPAN LAW TWINS WASHINGTON CAMP
IN 2016..
Starting 2016 I started working my way into the good graces of a wonderful couple who owned land in the Washington camp/ Duquesne district of Southern Arizona.
Long ago this had been a classic location for Japan law twins. Japan law twins are rare Crystal formation where two crystals have formed as one on the c-axis at a specific 84.33° with two of the prismatic edges of the crystal growing at parallels.
This is a beautiful area, an old mining Ghost Town that overlooks the Mexican border. The mountains were mined for gold and silver. The outcroppings of crystals form in the same zones, the gold and silver formed in. Massive Green Garnet skarn intrusions form veins across beds of limestone in this area. These veins are filled with the minerals the miners were in search of and later the rock hounds were in search of.
PRIVATE LAND
This is all private land now and not available for digs without special permission. My first successful dig in this region was ocean's pocket. We were digging on the side of a large ledge when I removed an iron bound quartz filled mass to see a hole expose itself behind it. I had to get up on a rock on my toes to peek into the hole with my headlamp and saw down through the hole endless crystal points coming from all sides as far as I could see. At the time I thought we didn't have a chance of getting any crystals out of this hole.
After several weeks work we ended up with over 300 tessin habit crystals with interesting combinations of secondary amethyst growth, calcite growth, Garnet and some green chlorite inclusions. It was a great dig and much enjoyed, but we never saw a single Japan lot twin in this pocket. Walking through the mines that are all over these properties you could see the Japan law twin habit trying to form in many quartz combinations throughout. Finding a pocket of these was another matter.
Earlier I had found some small plates of crystals that were coated in hematite that showed a few small twins.
Later my searching brought me back to this spot, a small prospect on one of the skarn veins that made up several mines up and down the ridge.
A friend had come out to dig with me that day and as I dug a large trench he was frustrated and asked me where all the twins were. At this point, I'd probably only found less than 10 good Japan law twins. I told him "anywhere it could be that quartz vein right behind you". I continued to dig my trench around this large scarn Boulder.
WORKING THE AREA
He sat talking to me and started to scratch on the quartz that I pointed out in the wall. Sure enough. About 10 minutes later he saw a twin and then another and then another. This guy started to pull out numerous twins and open up a pocket right in front of me as I dug my ditch around the boulder of my torment.
Over the next couple of years we worked this hole with other people I brought in and a machine and my family and yet other people and it continued to produce medium sized hazy but sometimes super unique Japan law twins. Sometimes we pulled large clusters although underground movement had kept them from usually being perfect. Some of the clusters had 20 or more twins on one plate.
One of my searches throughout my life has been to find an amethyst Japan law twin, which is a super rare find. I had high hopes for this location because there was so much secondary amethyst.
We found some with secondary amethyst but never primary.
WORTH IT
Although this location probably cost me more in paying the owners of the property and machine rental and camping etc. Than it ever really paid off. It was one of the more enjoyable digs of my life so far. I've always felt lucky to have been able to dig this location.
There are still many pockets of twins hidden in those mountains and maybe someday I'll get back to them.
Remember FYI this is private land. There is some public land in the vicinity but its location next to the border in a drug trafficking area makes it a little difficult. So beware.