Welcome to Our Club Website
We are a small hobby club for people around Vermont who like rocks, fossils, gravel pit stories, and the occasional cold Saturday field trip. This website is mostly here for meeting notes, trip reminders, and some simple identification help. It is not fancy, but it does the job.
Recent Finds
Banded agate from a roadside gravel pull near Barre.
Tiny trilobite fragment traded in at the February swap table.
Layered mica and quartz plate found during a rainy weekend trip.
Rock Identification Tips
- Use the Mohs scale when you can, even just a rough scratch test.
- Check streak color before relying on outside color in daylight.
- Look at fracture, grain, and any crystal faces with a hand lens.
- Bring a magnet, a streak plate, and a notebook if you are serious.
- Try a simple Mohs hardness check before guessing by color alone.
- A streak plate can be more helpful than surface shine on weathered samples.
- If it fizzes with weak acid, write that down before washing the specimen.
- Label the location as soon as you bag a find. We keep forgetting otherwise.
Club News
Our April meeting will be held in the meeting room at Aldrich Public Library, 6 Washington Street in Barre, at 6:30 PM.
A few members are planning a Saturday stop at the Perkins Museum of Geology in Burlington before the May meeting, mainly to look through the Vermont collection.
If you borrowed a field guide from the club box over winter, please bring it back before the June visit to Fisk Quarry Preserve on Isle La Motte.