The Geology of Rushmore

Well it just would not be right to go to Mount Rushmore without some geology pictures and discussion. Picture 1 shows a close up of the pegmatitic veins and pockets that can be found within the granite that makes up Mount Rushmore. I have a picture of Lincoln with a pegmatic vein around his head and one that cuts across his face just above the left eye, it resembles a scare such as Andrew Jackson. You can see gray quartz in the center of the picture and to the left. The quartz is surrounded by large mega crystals of potasium feldspar (oligoclase) with perthitic texture. I brought some samples home in case you want to see it. The crystals are large 4-6 inches. Not a very pretty color but the crystal shape is mostly complete and it is a good specimen. There are also books of muscovite mica that are also in the picture. I need to play with the photo on photoshop to enhance the picture so you can see all of these minerals clearly.

Picture #2 shows the relationship of the granite intrusion to the Precambrian mica schist. The intrusion when it intruded the schist deformed it as you can see in the photo (again, I need to enhance this picture). You can see the curved bed of the schist and the granite surrounding it. The schist looks like a tree root, but it isn't. Also you can see where groundwater has flowed along a fracture in the granite and altered the feldspars to clay. I have another fine picture if you would like to see it. Just ask me and I will email it to you.

Picture #3 shows the actual granite that the presidents are carved in. I believe it is anyway. These polished slabs of granite line the walk way that leads toward the view of the carvings. In the walk way are 15-20 posts that are also tiles with the granite. Each post has four state flags one flag on each side of the post, and below each state flag is a granite slab with the name of the state carved into and the year it became a state. I took pictures of each of the states and their respective flags that are important to our family: Wisconsin, Colorado, and Utah. Nobody lives in California yet so I didn't take a picture of it. If anybody is sad about that I can go get a picture of it another day. The granite may not be actual granite from the mountain but it is very nice and it looks like it came from the rubble on the talus slope. You will notice the biotite and pink feldspars and gray quartz.

Mount Rushmore (part II)

This will be a short blog, just a note describing the feeling I had walking around. It was really very patriotic walking around. I found myself humming "God Bless America" and thinking about the greatness of this country. I think there is something special about this country. It is the only country where the church could be restored in this time and really the only country where the headquarters could exist. Looking at the figures of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln were inspiring. When you read about the lives of these men, you know they were inspired. They were also very religious.

Mount Rushmore (in the light)

Ladies, now you know what Mount Rushmore looks like (during the day time). I had some extra time today girls and Lorie, since the hole was completed this morning (they don't need me for hole completion). Time off, oh what shall I do? I am only 60 minutes from Mount Rushmore. Never been there. Oh, wait a minute, I was there once and there is a very funny story. Should I tease you? Oh, I guess will just spill the story for those of you who don't know it. I suppose MSJNRH and their beautiful mother are already rolling around their desk. Well the story goes like this.

Once when Meagan was a Freshman at BYU, we decided to spend Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Stoehr's house. As per our usual travel itinerary it was to be a trip straight through to Shawano, WI, spend a few days visiting friends and family, enjoying a nice turkey dinner, then traveling back home by way of Provo to drop Meagan off ready for classes on Monday morning. This all takes place in the space of five days starting on Wednesday and arriving late Sunday night. Kind of a mystical, magical tour in whirlwind fashion. It is better than a trip during the 60's. Anyway, on the way home we thought about stopping at Mount Rushmore, if there was time. We traveled west along I90 and wouldn't you know it, we got to Rapid City, SD about 10:00 pm and looked at our trusty United States Atlas and "oh, we are only 60 minutes away from Mount Rushmore, let's go see it. We will do a drive by and stop and look at the carver granite heads Dear. I also think at night they have lights, so we can see them from the road and we won't have to stop; we can get driving again and still get Meagan home in time for class on Monday". I don't remember who said that; it was probably, me the party animal. An hour and a half later we are at the gates looking for the lights and the heads. Hey, wake up girls, were here. There weren't any lights. No body was at the gate to take money. Where were the lights? I know I heard something about lights and how spectacular the view was at night. Where were the lights? Dad, we're going back to sleep. So, we went to Mount Rushmore and never saw the four presidents. In U.S. history when my girls are asked, "Have you been to Mount Rushmore", they say "yea, but we didn't see anything". Well here it is in its full glory. Oh, and by the way, the park does light the mountain for two hours every night for two hours after dusk. Just thought you would like to know what it looks like. By the way, it wasn't the same with out you girls or Lorie Darling, but I did chuckle the whole time I was there. You were all missed very much. (Part two later)

Bees, Bees, Bees

James (Shawna’s man) has had a hankering to become a bee keeper. Kelly sent him a magazine and Shawna got him a subscription to the Utah bee keeps society or something like that. He bought a colony of bees and have waited patiently for them to come. I wanted the bees to pollinate the fruit trees in our orchard. Now I will have an abundance of fruit if the frost doesn’t nip the blossoms. Finally the bees arrived. James and Shawna put the bees in the garage and we began to look for a place to put the hive. We found a place and made a protection from the wind out of plywood. Then we boiled three gallons of water and put twenty pounds of sugar into it to make food for the hive, until they could find flowers and food for themselves.
It was fun to watch James care for the bees, he was gentle and careful with each one, he did not want to hurt even one. We watched him spray the comb hangers, grab the queen and pull the cork out so that the worker bees could free her, and then dump the bees from the container into the hive. No one got stung except James and that was at the very end after we had closed up the hive and were leaving. We plan to have lots of fruit and honey for our bread.

Archery is Finished

Nikki, Rachel, and Hailee finished the archery league they were members of and received many prizes for basically being there. I think they have enjoyed the experience and learned a lot about archery equipment and marksmanship.
Nikki actually shot a balloon containing a piece of paper that would get her another prize. As she walked up to shoot the arrow, the person in charge told her to use the second sight on her bow. She didn’t want to and worried that the arrow would hit the floor due to her experience of aiming and shooting this winter. She how ever did what she was advised and as she knew the arrow flew low, but the arrow did not hit the floor, instead it popped the balloon just above the floor. I was proud of all three girls because they were timid – not sure of themselves among experts who understood the equipment they didn’t. They did very well and with practice will be better.

Brooklyn Visits

Meagan and Derek had to get their car registered so that they could drive it to California. This is a car that David (Derek’s brother) so kindly gave them as he has no need for it now. They brought Brooklyn and left her while they went and did their business. Lorie and I took her out to see her favorite animal (Duchess). She loves to look at her but is not sure of her safety. Since Duchess is so active and energetic, we leave her in her pen hoping that soon they will learn to get along together. Lorie then took her to the trampoline and sat her on the tramp. Brooklyn jumped and ran around and had a grand ole time. I told her to show me her somersault and she turned toward the edge and started to roll. I could see her going off the edge and ran quickly to the side she was rolling toward, but she was unable to roll over and didn’t go off the edge. She didn’t cry very much while her parents were away and it was great to see her play and enjoy life. I can’t wait till there are more.

Fire at Hunter Power Plant Farm

On Wednesday the 26 of March, my firefighting skills were put to use . A couple of twin brothers who farm south of Castle Dale decided to burn the grass on their farm land. The wind was blowing at about 25 mph and there were gust of about 35-40 mph. It burned from about 10:00 until we were able to get the fire under control and put out. During the first part of the fire and until about 4:00 pm we were fighting small grass fires that would spread easily with the wind. Coals and sparks would blow from the center of hot spots that were previously thought to be under control, would burst out into flame and then the wind would whip it into a frenzy of flames and smoke. I smelled like a grass and leaf bar-b-Que smoke house. It took us about four hours to get it under control. We had two trucks from Ferron, Orangeville, Huntington along with two from Castle Dale. One Firefighter from Ferron went down and an ambulance was called to assist him. He was transported after some time to the a health facility and was later released being healthy.

Pruning Time

Trees, trees, trees, it is spring time and pruning has to be done. Shawna helped me prune some of the trees and learned what a tough job it is when you know what you are doing but have not the experience to actually make the cuts. It has taken me 8-10 years to think I am an expert and every year when I begin the task I have to think how the tree will look in the future, how the fruit will affect the tree, how this years growth will affect the tree for the next several years, the shape, and the height. Thanks to Shawna we were able to get all of the trees pruned except for the Wolf River and the Transparent apple trees.
Hailee took over when Shawna left to go back to BYU. She pruned peach, apple, and pear trees at my side and we spent one whole Saturday on the back orchard. Hailee and Lorie helped me prune the apricot tree in the front yard. They did a wonderful job.
For those that care and hope you all do, we are going to plant five more hopefully ten more trees. Brad has ordered five Cameo trees for me and Shawna is going to help me graft five Jonathan trees. These will help us to make the best apple juice ever made.

Ticaboo

I am working south of Hanksville doing a spring and seep survey for a Uranium mining company. They are gearing up to mine again and need to comply with permitting regulations. The landscape is beautiful. It is dry and in some places very barren. To me a geologist, it is very awesome to see the Creators hand in the formation of mountains, plateaus, plains, and the other multiple land forms seen and encountered. I think of all of the many possibilities that exist and the God has given us to use and discover in this world and I think it is a wrong to hide it awaynot to be used as many individuals would have us believe. I don't believe there is any such thing as raping the land or destroying the land. The earth will out live us all and change faces many times as it has done so in the past (so much for my soap box).

It is fun traveling the outlaw trails going from spring to spring I wonder if Butch Cassidy ate lunch along the same path. He was an outlaw and I don’t like to glorify, but for some reason it is fun to think about this country that he roamed and the wildness of the land almost invites the mind to travel the same paths. Here are some pictures that so the land and what I am looking for. These pictures are of the south side of Mount Hiller.

Cabinets Come

Thursday – I went to work in Ticaboo chasing springs and seeps for a Uranium mining company hoping that when I arrived home, I would get to look at the cabinets that were installed. Well, I came home to a disappointed wife who related to me that the cabinets installers were not able to come and install cabinets until tomorrow morning on Friday. I was home trying to work in the office with the installers installing cabinets. I couldn’t work without bothering them and asking them numerous questions while gawking at their work. They worked hard and fast and by 8:30 that night were finally finished. It was fun to see Lorie go through the kitchen and open doors to her cabinets. There was only one problem and it was with the appliance garage. There is an electrical receptacle that needs to be moved before the garage can be installed, so it just sits on the lazy susan waiting for the receptacle to be moved. We have since brought in the refrigerator and the cook top. I was going to bring in the ovens but did not get time to move it in yet. Soon as the counter tops will be installed along with appliances and I will be able to be fed good food again. Oh, I miss the food Lorie cooks.

Kitchen/Diningroom

After replacing some of the plywood sub-floor in the kitchen, Lorie and I began laying the floor in the diningroom. We laid out a baseline and then started in the bay window. The first piece is the most difficult because if it is not parallel to the baseline, which also should be parallel to the wall, then when you get to the opposite wall, the lines will not be attractive and your wife will rightly complain and make you take up the floor. I don’t want the floor to look like some idiot laid the floor who didn’t know a board from a nail. This comes from drywall experience and could we tell you stories about that. Not knowing or having much experience with a wood floor, I do not know what to expect in the next few years. It is beautiful, and it is wonderful to hear Lorie ooh and aaah about her new floor. Teak wood is different to work with I have found out and I have learned a few hints about this type of wood. I hope it will look this good in years to come. It is always fun working with Lorie.