Kidwellite, et al. (ex Kidwell Collection!)

Item Description

This is a wonderful association specimen from the famous Three Oaks Gap locality featuring beautiful olive green colored aggregates of Kidwellite, a rare hydrated sodium iron phosphate named for Albert Lewis Kidwell (January 1, 1919 - August 16, 2008). Al was a well-known mineral collector and research geologist with Carter Oil Company and later Exxon Oil Company in Houston, Texas. The phosphate species Kidwellite was named in his honor in 1974. I love the fact that we have a piece of Kidwellite from Kidwell's collection. For those who don't know, it's rare to have a specimen featuring a mineral species from the collection of the individual for whom the species was named.
Sitting atop the Kidwell are a few small lilac colored radiating crystal groups of the phosphate Strengite. The association is rare from the locality, and notably eye-catching. Originally, the brown phosphate species from this locality was always labeled as Beraunite, but it turns out that nobody can find a confirmed piece of Beraunite from Three Oaks Gap, so the species is most likely Dufrenite and /or maybe Goethite according to what I can find in the literature (which matches Al's label). If you collect phosphates or minerals of Arkansas, do not let this fantastic old timer pass you by. For reference, nothing has come out of this locality for decades as according to mindat.org it was "Restarted from earlier workings in 1956 & closed in 1959. Restarted 1972 and again in 1986 for specimens".