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By Pauline Masson –
Fascination with rocks, minerals and fossils makes rockhounds and hoarders of an eclectic group of collectors. Some impulse picker-uppers set the souvenir rock on a table or night stand with no realization of why they like it, or, even what it is.
Resident Geologist Jo Schaper and her scientist friends say they can help.
On April 13, from noon to 3:00 p.m., Jo, and her associate Alfred (Fred) Schovanez and a fellow who goes by the Facebook handle Asa Asa will ID rocks, minerals and fossils at the Scenic Regional Library Pacific Branch, 111 Lamar Parkway.
“Fred can run rings around me on fossil ID,” Jo said. “He can go down to genus and species sometimes.”
Jo and Fred Schovanez will be give short presentations around 1:00 p.m. to help people learn to ID pebbles and pretty rocks on their own.
“You really do need more than a photo to ID the content,” Jo said. “You have to test other characteristics also, like hardness, or chemical reactivity. But you don’t need a master’s degree in geology or paleontology to learn how to do it.”
“We are limiting people to three rocks or fossils, per person, so we can help the most people,” she said.
Jo’s husband Eugene Vale once gave her a t-shirt printed: I CLIMB ROCKS AND I KNOW THINGS. And boy does she ever.
Jo began collecting rocks when she was five, and the family moved to High Ridge during summer break. Her subdivision was being built, and there were no children but her brother to play with. Rocks were everywhere.
She was allowed to stroll along a dry creek bed near the house, a tributary to Saline Creek, which was a repository of tiny clumps of crystal quartz and fossils. Jo knows that now, but when picked up her first tiny pebble there at age five she was captivated by the tiny nuggets just because they were shiny.
You might be surprised at the number of scientists, rock lovers and one-of-a-kind jewelry makers that scour creek beds to pick up shiny pebbles.
Jo recalls that she really caught the attraction when her dad purchased a load of chat gravel for the driveway from nearby Eureka. Along with the limestone the pile contained calcite and quartz crystals, and golden bits of pyrite–aka “fool’s gold.”
By the time she was six, she had collected three plastic containers of them. Her mother threw them in the ditch and forbade her from picking them back up.
Her dad told her if she studied and labeled them, they were her science collection and she could keep them.
And a Geologist, with a capital G was born. Jo earned a bachelor’s degree in Geology from Mizzou and a degree in writing from Southwest Missouri State.
For 30 years she volunteered with the Missouri Park Service where she led visitors on interpretive hikes and cave tours. She assisted the Park Service with Cave restoration.
When Harold Selby bought a house here – during his previous stint as city administrator – and was clearing the steep bluff above the Meramec on his property he discovered a cave opening halfway down the bluff. He called Jo and Eugene to come and examine the little cave.
“It’s not very decorated. It was pretty clean inside and about sixty feet long,” Jo said. “It’s also not very accessible because it’s in the face of the steep bluff. But we went through the whole length and after the visit we registered it with the Missouri Speleological Survey as Selby’s Cave.”
The little dry creek that ran through Jo’s subdivision contained several kinds of geodes — crystal filled hollow rocks. “These are different than those in Northeast Missouri, or Keokuk, Iowa,” Jo said. She took several to one of the local rock shows before someone identified them as geodes
A red clay hill where contractors dug out for a house basement consisted of about 25% crinoid stem and other fossil pieces.
Jo would collect pretty rocks for the rest of her life and now has a basement full of them – all of which she can identify. She is not alone.
You might be surprised at the number of scientists, rockhounds and one-of-a-kind jewelry makers scour creek beds to pick up shiny pebbles.
Jo and Fred timed their Rock ID program for this month because on May 18-19, the Pacific Eagles will once again host the Rocks Rule Gem Show–which includes rocks, minerals, fossils, meteorites and, semi-precious stones.
“Displayer are, of course, wanting to sell their specimens, but they do this because they love it, and want to share their enthusiasm with others – rockhounds, pebble pups and even geologists,” Jo said. “Hauling cases of rocks is hard, heavy work. No one will do this unless they are really committed, and most are happy to share what they know.”
There is no charge to attend the April 13 program at the Library, or for specimen ID service. _______________________________________________________________________________________
This is really neat. I have some minerals I would love some help identifying, so I’m hoping to make it to the event.
Glad to hear that cave was surveyed. We always played there when I was a kid, when the O’Dells lived in that house. Always wondered if there was any more history to be found in it with proper excavation. 🙂