Great show on Mt. Antero. HOwever, it was to bad that neither your producers nor the gentleman who found the impressive aquamarine crystals that are displayed at the Muesum of Natural History in Denver failed to divulge that the crystals in the display are not in their natural state. The crystals all have been cleaned and glued in place , they were not found as a nearly flat slab that is depicted as the natural face of a vug. It is nearly criminal that the public is decieved every time that taxpayer money is used to perpetuate this sham. I have to ask you, in retrospect, did you see anything on Mt. Antero that vaguly resembled that fake display in the museum, I think not....It then becomes questionable if the large broken crystals of Smoky Quartz were not planted...

Bruce Sales

Bruce,
Duuuuude...
You don't really think that the mine owners bought some smoky quartz crystals, lugged 'em up to 14,000 feet, dug an adit, affixed 'em to the rock face in such a way that they would have to be chiseled out, buried 'em w/ gravel, then flooded the mine, do you? I mean, I'm into conspiracies & all, but that's a stretch for me.
Museums clean things all the time. Do you want to look at a dirty rock? They even hand polish them at times to better show the features. Glue is used all the time in museum pieces, too. All those dinosaurs you see in museums are not only glued but wired together and most are cast replicas not actual fossils. And none of them are in their natural state (at least I don't know of any that walked in under their own power and climbed into a display case).
I don't know if the "gluing" was restorative or enhancing in this case, or even if full disclosure was made. Don't forget, when you edit three to five days of filming to a 23 minute feature 98% goes on the cutting room floor. No matter what is cut, someone won't like it. And, yes, a lot of good info IS lost. Nature of the beast and it's a shame.
Who knows? They may have found aquas in the snow covered mine on the other side of the peak had they not been hailed out.
I hope they return mid-summer for another try.
Happy digging, hope you find the best that's out there.
-Rocky.

Back in the old days, when I was like 8 years old, Mt. Antero was a really special place to go. We'd take the entire family in our CJ7 and go on rock hunts up there every summer until us kids grew up and left home. Now, I'm saddended to hear that pretty much the entire mountain is claimed, and that people do go to such lengths to guard their treasures. I'd love to go back, but I'd like to know if anyone has some practical information on where I'd go to maybe join a fee hunt on a claim, or maybe to volunteer my time. I don't care to find my fortune, just partake in the thrill of the hunt and maybe learn something. Thought the show was a great episode, and I'd love to do that, it's really not a place someone can go willy-nilly to find pretty rocks.