Fluorescent Sodalite joins the distinctive fossils, agates, rocks, and other beach treasures found on Leelanau shores!
It was discovered on the southern shores of Lake Superior by Eric Rintamaki. The mineral is found in a variety of igneous rocks which the glaciers brought down from billion year old source rocks in Canada tens of thousands of years ago. The glacial load was deposited on the floor and southern shores of Lake Superior, the central and eastern Upper Peninsula, and the floor and shores of Lake Michigan. Fluorescent Sodalite rocks have been found on the shores of the Leelanau peninsula and even as far south as southern Lake Michigan!
Normal black lights (395 nm) are inadequate for seeing the fluorescence. One must use a 365 nanometer UV light source which should be utilized with eye protection to prevent retinal damage from reflected UV light. Enerdyne stocks 3 varieties of 365 nm flashlights. Searchers can walk the beaches and gravel pits at night and discover sodalites over 10 feet away with the two best lights. Crawling the beach is required with the value priced light.
Enerdyne also stocks sodalites from Lake Superior and Leelanau County:
Please click on the image below, then on the icon to check out some of our Sodalites.
Agate hunters on Leelanau shores
can be rewarded with beautiful fingernail to quarter sized agates. Agate hunters at Enerdyne can be rewarded with fist sized Lake Superior Agates which rival those found on the shores of Lake Superior!
Please click on the image below, then on the icon to check out some of our Lake Superior Agates.
The Michigan Mineral Treasure Trove
The economic value of minerals derived from Michigan far exceeds the more famous mineral resources in California. Mineral resources from Michigan facilitated the industrialization of America. Michigan iron ore spawned the Pittsburg, Detroit, and Chicago Steel Mills and built the USA railroad infrastructure, and Michigan copper electrified the USA in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Iron ore from Ishpeming and Negaunee was shipped from the port in Marquette to newly built steel mills in the midwest along with limestone from vast Michigan deposits in the northern lower peninsula and southern upper peninsula. Native Copper found in the Keweenaw peninsula was mined by indigenous people for thousands of years and traded throughout North America. When financiers from Boston were informed about the vast deposits in Northern Michigan In the last part of the 19th century, they funded a wild copper rush accomplished by northern European immigrants. Over a century ago, the ties between Boston and the Keweenaw ran wide and deep. Native copper needed no smelting, wire and other copper electrical components could be produced directly from the copper direct from the mineshafts to the factories, giving the USA a huge advantage over other countries in building its electrical devices and infrastructure. In industry and larger cities, Michigan copper fueled a transition which occurred almost overnight.
Please check below for some of our Michigan Native copper and associated minerals and our Michigan Iron ore minerals.
