“Ya Never Know” – The Fluorite that Called His Name

Ya Never Know

One of my collecting partners, Dave Maclean, and I often exclaim when we approach a site where we have collected minerals before – “ya never know”. This is an acknowledgment, that although the chances are slim of finding any good specimens when you return to that locality, there’s always a chance that you might— ya never know”.  And indeed, it has often been the case that we revisit a spot and find… “WOW”… yet another decent specimen….. Ya never know. (Rule #1: Never assume a locality has been cleaned out)

That phrase came into my head recently when I was visiting good friends, Marcia and Vince, who live in Ottawa not far from us. Marcia is a childhood friend of my wife Jane, and I performed the marriage ceremony for Marcia and Vince back when I was a minister. We have been to their home many times. One evening not long ago I made a discovery in their living room which prompted me to utter that phrase yet again. Let me explain.

Rocks in a Jar

Marcia’s father, Fred George, was a gold miner (he did the blasting) at the Hard Rock Mine ( now the Greenstone Gold Mine) near Geraldton, Ontario. Fred apparently had quite a collection of rocks but Marcia’s brother got it, leaving Marcia with just a few crystals she has displayed on window sills and ledges in the house. One evening, relaxing in their living room, I spotted a jar that I had never noticed before, sitting in a dark curio cabinet. I thought I saw a polished stone sitting on top of what I assumed were other rocks. I took out my iPhone and used the flashlight to confirm my suspicions. Opening the cabinet and grasping the container I called out to our hosts making dinner in the kitchen- “hey, are these rocks in the jar?… can I have a look?” (Rule #2: Always get permission to collect on private property)

I had already started picking out small rocks and polished stones when I got the “OK”.  It took a few minutes to go through the unmarked assortment not finding anything I was interested in. But when I got to the bottom of the pile, my eyes bugged out so that you could have knocked them off with a stick!

Rare Fluorite Crystal

There, sitting at the bottom of the jar was a specimen that I knew to be extremely rare.  It was a fluorite crystal.  But more than that,  I immediately knew the exact location where it came from and the exact roadcut near Old Chelsea Quebec where it was recovered. I knew the pocket in the roadcut from which it was chiselled and the date it was collected (1974). Most importantly, I was about to learn the name of the person who collected it! (Rule#3: Always label your finds, adding as much info as possible ie. catalogue your collection!)

How did I know all this? It helped that I volunteer at the National Mineral Collection of the Canadian Museum of Nature, under the oversight of Curator Inna Lykova and Assistant Curator Michael Bainbridge. The Collection contains samples of these very fluorites, which as you will see, have unique qualities that make them easily distinguishable from other fluorites. It was during my volunteer work that I first came upon these fascinating crystals.

 It also helped that fluorites were my latest passion after coming off a 3-year love affair with sceptres. I had immersed myself in familiarizing myself with fluorite crystals, not only from Canada, but around the world. (Rule #4: Know your stuff).

Lost and Found

Upon hearing my gasps and exclamations… WHAAAAT… NOOOO!…  my hosts came into the room asking what was the matter. Holding up the specimen I stammered, “Where on earth did you get this — your dad, Marcia?”. Vince approached, and grasping the specimen said, “I haven’t seen that in a long time, I thought it was lost”. It turns out that Vince had received this fluorite specimen decades ago as a gift from a friend of his, one John Hall. John died tragically at an early age and Vince had tucked the fluorite away as a keepsake. After several moves it had got lost in the shuffle.

When I made the discovery in the jar, the specimen was unwrapped and unlabelled. How it survived in that container under a bunch of rocks without sustaining any visible damage I figure was an act of god! It should have by all accounts been thoroughly smashed or at least mortally wounded… but no, it had survived. (fluorite is a 4 on the Mohs scale of hardness meaning it is a soft, easily broken mineral.  (Rule #5: Always wrap your specimens well after collecting them or when putting them in storage)

Discovering the Pocket near Old Chelsea

Vince remembers the story of his friend’s fluorite. He recounted to me that John Hall was a nature lover. He loved the outdoors and collected rocks as a part of this love of nature. In the summer of 1974, John went rock hounding one day on his bicycle, making the trip from Ottawa to the road construction that he heard was taking place on Hwy.105 (later renamed Highway 5) near Old Chelsea, Quebec.

In his ramblings among the rocks, he came upon a site that must have dazzled him. John discovered a “pocket” (opening in the rock) 100 cm long, 30 cm high and 50 cm deep lined with beautiful fluorite crystals of a vibrant sea green colour with intriguing purple-violet colour zoning in the centre of tetrahexahedral crystals, growing on the vertices of octahedral crystals. White calcite crystals often grew around them.

  Here are some photos of fluorite crystals found in the pocket:

 One can only imagine what that pocket must have looked like and the impression it must have made on John when he first happened upon it! Sadly, no photos exist of that initial discovery.

John collected some specimens and decided some time later to take them to the Museum in Ottawa in the hopes he could sell some of them.

Museum of Nature Gets Involved

In 1974 there were only three employees in the mineralogy section of the museum located on McLeod Street —  Louis Moyd, Curator, Robert Gault, Researcher and a secretary. All the collections and labs were in the basement of the museum, with an office for Lou on the third floor and field-collected material stored in the sub-basement. Bob Gault remembered that, yes indeed, the Museum did buy some interesting Chelsea fluorite specimens from a young man but no one appeared to remember his name. It was the first time the museum had seen these fluorites. (personal correspondence with Robert Gault, Feb.2025).

John agreed to show Lou and Bob where he collected them.

 It is uncertain how John Hall was able to access the pocket when he first found it, as it was about 30 feet (9m.) above ground level. John apparently only drove a bicycle which would make it difficult for him to bring a ladder to the site. We will never know for sure, but one possible answer (suggested by Bob Gault) is that John was there shortly after the blasting of the roadcut and before the debris was cleaned-up, allowing him to scramble over the large rocks and eventually come across the open pocket.

When Lou and Bob arrived at the locality with John, they surveyed the situation and immediately determined a 30 foot ladder was a must. They came back the next day with the ladder and found that the pocket was exposed just above a narrow ledge that afforded a resting place to collect. Lou did most of the collecting and Bob wrapped the specimens. They only collected at the site that one day (Bob Gault, personal correspondence).

Years later (1981), Joel Grice, one of the researchers at the Museum, wrote the only published article on this fluorite find (Grice, J.D., Hexoctahedral Fluorite Crystals from Old Chelsea, Quebéc. The Mineralogical Record, 12(2) 103-104).  Unfortunately, John Hall’s name was not mentioned as the one who discovered them, likely because by 1981 nobody could remember his identify or name. John was not part of the mineral community in Ottawa.

Bob Gault took the following photos during that day of collecting in 1974. It was Bob who told me about the existence of these photos and that they were housed at the museum. ( I received permission to upload them on not for profit sites [Mindat] giving copyright to the Museum.) When Bob told me this (2024,) he did not know (or could not remember) the name of the young man in the photo. We now know, thanks to my “you never know” discovery in Vince and Marcia’s home, that young man in the photo was John Hall.

                   Photos BY Bob Gault, 1974 
Copyright Canadian Museum of Nature

 John Hall kneeling beside the pocket he discovered:

Lou Moyd at pocket:

 Collecting at the pocket 30 ft up:

50 Years Later

It was exactly 50 years after John Hall’s find in 1974 that I happened upon that single fluorite specimen in the jar at Marcia and Vince’s home. It was only then that Vince told me that it was his friend — John Hall —  who was the one who found that fluorite; and it was John who enabled Lou Moyd and Bob Gault to find more samples of these most interesting fluorite specimens that are now part of the national mineral collection.

Was it fate?… coincidence?…or perhaps the energy emanating from the crystal itself that drew me to that jar in the curio cabinet ?…Ya never know… but we do know— that single fluorite crystal called John Hall’s name making it known after 50 years of silence.

           Photos of the fluorite specimen found by John Hall  which I found in the jar.  Photos by JR Montgomery

Here is John with his mother circa 1980s (photo Vince Halfhide). John was born in Atlanta Georgia. He came to Canada during the Vietnam war.

Prologue

PS. A very happy ending for me: Vince and Marcia gifted me on my birthday with the fluorite specimen that was given to Vince by his friend John —  now catalogue #906 in my Collection. (Rule #6: Always look on the bright side of life)