Continuation of Crystal claims

[Gilaoro 318]

A few years later my wife and I were on our way back from Alaska heading to  Deming,NM. It was very hot so we decided to detour over to Luna ,NM and spent some time in the high country where its cool most days and  all nights. We camped nearby our old crystal claim 3 miles from the AZ border and 8990 ft high. I walked about a mile to our old claim that we had sold to Glen Carlson and found the shaft he had dug caved in and the  claim papers posted  had expired. Meanwhile my wife had walked just across the county road we were parked just off of. The country was very changed and there were signs of a big forest fire recently clearing out everything but the biggest tree's . About 50 feet off the roar she found an elk trail  worn in to the dirt and sticking out of it was amethyst crystals , this was exposed by erosion after the fire along the edge of the canyon  that was about  800 feet  to the creek at the bottom. Well we could find no claim markers , no sign of digging. So we got up the next  am and dug some nice clusters and took them over to  a small lake and washed them. Needing some supply's I took the back road to Alpine , AZ . I had about 30 clusters wrapped in toilet paper nests. At the grocery store they remembered me from before. I didn't even get a chance to ask before they  said we missed your crystal too sell .  I said yes I could be but the crystals have gone up . Well let me see some and we will make a deal on groceries, gas , beer what ever you need. So I showed them the 30 I had all washed and shining  and said how about 2 dollars each ? He never blinked an eye and said  I will take 30 every week and you now have $60  credit with the  gas station and the store. I asked him if he thought it would hurt his sales if I took some over to Springerville .  He said no I have an interest over there too and you can bring 30 a week over there too , I had told him we needed the laundry mat in Springerville  so he told me where too deliver them too for cash.  Well $120 a week w can make it good until it is too cold on this Mt and in Deming we would just be setting inside running the AC. I had a couple of rock hound friends in Deming and had to make a quick trip down there any way so I  went and looked them up and asked if they wanted to file a claim with me on the new ground but I had the exclusive selling in the High country!  They both were power plant engineers and I told them to gather up  stakes (PVC PIPE)  and come upon some vacation time and we would set stakes, do the paper work  and have some fun ! I had warned them about the Black Bears since then would be tent camping and all the precautions and that it would take them a couple of  days to get used to the altitude and lay off the beer for a while, ( They were both flat landers ,  young and bullet proof.  Hard workers but well just young! See the pictures. After having the usual altitude sickness they settled down and produced the crystals and developed their own market and eventually dug the largest thunder egg ever found at rock hound state park, I left them the claim when I moved to Yuma and they eventually let it lapse. I had no problem selling the flats and stocked up before I moved to Yuma where I got 4 times as much for them, paid for our trip to Alaska.