Calcite on Siderite (ex Dave Bergman Collection)

Item Description

This locality is a bit obscure, but is known to Colorado collectors as it has produced some of the most interesting and easily identifiable Calcites from anywhere. In the early 1980s, Dave Bergman collected several superb specimens from this locality, which he referred to as "Windy Ridge", but the correct name for the locality is Billy Creek. The piece hosts excellent, sharp, gemmy/translucent, well-formed, classic, colorless, rhombohedral crystals of Calcite with a satiny interior. The crystals are sitting on a layer of tan/pink botryoidal Siderite on matrix. The largest Calcite crystal measures 1.1 cm across. A very attractive and hard to find display specimen that would make a great addition to a Calcite suite or a collection of Colorado minerals. This piece was mined by and came from the personal collection of Dave Bergman. Dave is a Colorado miner (the foreman and primary person in charge of recovering specimens at the famous Sweet Home Mine near Alma, Colorado during the late 1970s) and the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. See Dave's photo mining at the Sweet Home on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".