I started following you a few weeks ago. Because of you, my daughter (7y.o) and I started collecting rocks (small ones) from each lakes our family visits. I’m starting something fun and for memories. Thank you.
Completely impressed that the “lightening stone” took a polish. The polishing tool that you have is absolutely amazing. I also really like the shots of the rocks that are polished as you go along discovering.
I'd guess the colorful stuff is mostly quartz, perhaps quartzite grains? The reds, garnet, I assume. I'd sure like to find bigger rocks with those colors.
@@jonathanyoung7785 I think you're probably right. I have thought about sorting black sand by color with a toothpick or something. I'm not sure what the point would be, but it seems like it would be a challenging activity.
Old Disabled House Bound Dusty Rusty Rockhound here: This was a great video! Loved the magnified photos of the black sand! Also loved that fossil soup stone!!
Your videos are causing me to want to go look for cool rocks in Wisconsin, oh & visit family too 😂 Today’s Michigan Rocks Show gets 5 stars ⭐️ even though I didn’t see a single “stripee”
There was actually a rock with stripes in two directions, but my camera didn't focus on it very well so I cut it. So there were no tears from me over not finding at least one good stripey one.
We found several the next day, but nothing really great. I'm used to hunting them in northern Lake Huron and Lake Michigan where I can find a lot and be really picky about which ones I take home.
Hi again! 😊 So, yes, those are banded iron formation (BIF), both rocks you found that you weren’t sure about. They are just lake tumbled so they look like that. Some are better than others but we definitely have them down here in SW Lake Michigan! Also, you guys were right about all of your slag identifications. Lots of that down here, but my favorites are the blue/greens 😊. Lastly, the matrix of lightning stones is ironstone. Obviously you know the cracks fill with calcite. However, when the ironstone is filled with fossils, we called that Fossiliferous Ironstone. When it doesn’t have calcite cracks, or fossils, they’re just basically Ironstone Concretions (which can be cool too!). Greta video guys! - Janessa
Thanks for all the great info, Janessa. It's nice to hear from a local who knows stuff. I find lots of lake tumbled BIFs in Lake Superior, but they usually have more clearly defined bands. That's what was throwing us off, although we both thought they were basically the same thing. It's nice to have confirmation.
I love VBSP. Especially in the fall and early winter. I tumble the red ones, I think they are a type of jaspilite. If they aren't porous, they polish to a great gloss with a metallic sheen. Lots of slag there, too.
I think you're right about them being a type of jaspelite. That one Jonathan polished on his cab machine turned out great. I have tumbled lots of other similar rocks from Lake Superior with success too.
@@MichiganRocks I was staying in Holland. I just went to places south of there due to scheduling conflicts….i REALLY wanted to go north though 😔but couldn’t. It was probably my only trip up there so whatever I have, I’ll have to cherish. There won’t be any more coming home with me 😭😭😭😭
You can use a tiny amount of Dawn, laundry detergent or basically any soap to replace the Jet Dry. Even bar soap would work. You just need a surfactant to break the surface tension of the water. There's no difference between using Jet Dry and any other surfactant other than the Jet Dry probably has less of a chance of creating suds if you happen to use too much of it. Thanks for sharing, I first learned about pudding stones on your channel, I'm looking forward to finding some!
nice hunt. very cool finds imo. love that you took some of the black sands and processed it. absolutely love the lightning stones. especially the first one you polished. good one Rob.
Rob, I admire your prowess on locating those four gold flakes. In another life I'm sure I was a hopeful prospector. I am decent at panning, but I really love those who go prospecting as a career (not for everyone, for sure). I'm currently addicted to the folks dredging the Bearing Sea and have many of their vials on display. Emily Riedel has a fun YT channel. Imagine living in Nome AK and doing that full-time, sounds like a challenging life to me.
I'm actually really thankful that we don't have significant amounts of gold in Michigan. I think I could get really obsessed with it. I get a kick out of finding an almost microscopic amount of gold, just think if I could fill a vial.
The gold will float because of it's shape. That is one of the reasons to use jet dry, because it prevents air bubbles from forming on the flat surfaces. Thanks for the video.
You two had a fantastic rocck hunt on that beach. Jonathan did a great jb polishinng especially on the slag. Your lightning stone turned out amazing. I was recently sent some in the mail from one of your viewers named Deb. Thanks again Deb if you see this! Hopefully someday Ican get a cab machine to polish those amazingly cool stones.
That's great that viewers are helping each other out. I get a lot of requests to send people rocks but I just can't do that for everyone. Nice of Deb to step up and help out.
I was just down there yesterday and you really can't turn your head without seeing another fossil soup full of crinoids. Any handful of gravel will have at least 1 small one, and the larger ones are hard to find either.
I have a question/suggestion. Is it possible you could do a local get together with your fans, maybe bring your geologist friends and anyone else from your video's who would like to be there, so we can bring our favorite rocks to show off and get them identified properly? It would make a great episode, you could even have tickets/donations with the proceeds going to charity or maybe your church. Anyway, thanks for all the great videos.
I've also thought that something like that would be fun, but I always forget to mention it to Rob when I talk to him. (Everyone could bring their favorite Michigan rock for a little show and tell, followed by a rock hunting competition, or some such thing.) If you ever want to brainstorm something like this, Rob, I'd be happy to share my ideas.
@smithdog4770 @jonathanyoung7785 I have thought about this, but I can't imagine it working well. Meeting somewhere to compare rocks would be okay, but hunting rocks on a beach with a lot of people doesn't seem like it would work well. I'm not sure where we would meet, either. I know the Michigan Rockhounds Facebook group has met at Rockport, but there was a large fee to do that. Jonathan, let's discuss it sometime. Maybe you can convince me that it's a better idea than I think it is.
17:30 that yellow one is hard to identify from just the video, but it may just be tumbled brick. We have all kinds of that down here, in all colors. The yellow usually were glazed bricks but sometimes the glazing tumbles completely off of it.
My wife and I took our kids 8 hours to Petoskey Mich to try to find some Petoskey stones my wife loves them but we couldn't find any really good ones!!! We went to a few different beaches and towns and only found a few little ones!!!
I was just at Petoskey State Park camping for a couple days. That's not a great spot for Petoskey stones since everyone is looking for them. The key is to get away from the crowds. Walking for miles is how I usually do that.
Great lightning stone haul! Like you said, it's not something we find around Lake Huron, although we do have other Septarian stones. I found one once that I thought for sure was a lightning stone until it dried off, rather than brown it was more red, I'm guessing it's maybe Septarian Rhyolite? I also have one large one that's a little bigger than a softball that at first glance really looks like lightning stone but again, it's more reddish than brown, it seems heavier than Rhyrolite though, so I'm not sure if that's what it is. Also watching this has inspired me to break down and buy a gold pan, I ran across some great looking black sand recently that I'm going to try. Even if all I ever find is a couple pieces like yours, I'll be happy too, since I've never found any around here. I did get to find some in Alaska, well "find" is a bit of stretch, a friend's parents own a gold mine and I got to run a cat line (dredger) for day, just to see (not keep) what came out, it wasn't much for the amount of effort, I have no idea how some of them make any money at it.
I haven't found any septarians in Lake Huron that I know of. I'll have to keep my eyes open for one. Your parents own a gold mine? That probably sounds better than it actually is, but how cool! I felt like I got my money's worth out of my gold pan after I found the very first fleck. What a thrill to find it completely on your own.
@@MichiganRocks A buddy of mine has parents who own one and I got to play around there for a day and he enjoys panning more than working the actual mine.
DANG!!!! Rob u find some of the kewlest rocks out there!! Its gotta be awesome living so close to that lake :) Would be so deadly bringing a TRX4 with a trailer to carry em all., do 2 hobbies at once :)
Those deep maroon and metallic are definitely BIF. I have found some in Lake Erie also, and I will post a vidi of them soon. It's so exciting to find them all the way down here, considering how far they came, just with lake water, because the glaciers didn't travel in that direction. They are super hard to find and rare in Erie, and usually highly weathered with differential weathering, the metallic goes faster than the jasper. I never get anything bigger than palm-sized, but that's because I don't snorkel/dive. I'm sure they're down there!
I live on Lake Erie (near Monroe / Sterling State Park) and I've never found much of anything other the typical glacial gravel that is spread around this area. So I'm also curious.
@@MichiganRocks I've only hunted Lake Erie on Pennsylvania shores, they have many of the same things you find, except no Petosky, no pudding stones, no large fortification agates or extremely rare in agate, maybe moss agate occasionally. No septarians. I'm sure I'll forget something. But we have unakite and epidote, pink K feldspar with adulariance, or schiller (moonstones?), labradorite, garnet in gneiss, and granitoids or gneiss with amethyst as the quartz component. I've been told we have yooperlites but I haven't found any (yet?) There's a lot of very metamorphosed and very old stones in the glacial till. The Eastern half of the lake is filled with glacial till. The bedrock is Girard shale which is blue-green. We have more tourists and population here than the places you are hunting, and as soon as the weather gets warm or hot (sometimes in May!) the algae starts to grow. 🤢We have deer flies and all the other fun stuff. 😆
@@RU3YJB That sounds like some pretty great stuff. I'd rather hunt the part in Michigan so it's not such a drive, but someday maybe I'll make the trip.
@@MichiganRocks I don't know what you'll find over by Detroit, (Fordite? 😀) but it could be similar to Huron beaches. I have a saying... "Any day on the Lake is a good day."
That was a really nice pudding stone minus the Jasper. I don’t know what the rock was at 16:40 but they’re pretty common in Lake Machine. I’ve found really nice Unikite in the Manistee area. I don’t know if you heard or not but there was an earthquake in the center of Lake Michigan about 9:19 this morning !
I did not hear about the earthquake. Was there a tidal wave that took out Manistee? Seriously, was it something anyone could feel, or was it just something picked up on sensitive instruments?
@@MichiganRocks some of the local people said they felt it. I’m about 20 miles inland and didn’t feel a thing. I wondered if it might have generated a larger than normal wave but I haven’t heard anyone mention it.
Thank you. This will be our first rock hunt ever. We’ve been watching your videos and decided we’re going to give it a try. We’ll probably be in the grand Rapids,Holland area . do you have any beginner tips or perhaps a suggestion of an area? We are looking for coral,lightning stones and of course petoskey stone. Thanks in advance.
Rob, I know I could Google this but I really enjoy your videos and I love that you respond to people…so here’s my question: Is it called a lightning stone because it’s been hit by lightning? Would those also be “septarian” stones?
No, they were not struck by lightning. Yes, they are septarian nodules. When lightning hits sand, it fuses it together into a tube-like glass thing called a fulgurite.
Hey, Rob! Loving your videos, your guests and you! Question: I'm headed to the UP from the Manistee area and I'm in a 26' RV with only a bicycle as another mode of transportation. Now the question. Where are good places to rockhound that I can get to without having a car? I have to be able to get close enough with my RV so that I can pedal or walk to the rocks. Thanks!
In the Keweenaw, McLain State Park. In the eastern U.P., Lake Superior State Forest Campground, Muskallonge Lake State Park, maybe the Mouth of the Two Hearted River, and Whitefish Point.
No, I think it would be even worse. Part of black sand is magnetite, which is only 5-6 on the Mohs hardness scale. That's lower than quartz, which is seven on the Mohs scale.
I didn’t even think of that. I did seem sort of brick like now that you mention it. I don’t think I’ve seen many yellow bricks other than on the Wizard of Oz. If it had been red, I probably would have recognized it.
I just started to rock hound with my wife unfortunately I live in ironwood all the great places seem to be below the bridge. Little Girls Park is nice I'm still trying to find places that are not as popular as LGP so many people there. Any ideas where Lake Superior has walking or driving in access up here? I'll drive to the eastern side of the UP I just don't just prefer to stay on this side of the bridge.
The Keweenaw has some good spots. Try Gratiot River Park, Great Sand Bay, Calumet Waterworks Park, or McLane State Park. Any beach between Grand Marais, MI and Whitefish Point is usually good.
Another fun video, don’t eat the stones 😂! As mentioned below I really enjoy the mix of finding and then showing polished examples. Some real beauties, really impressed with the fossils and large lighting stone. The gold was an unexpected bonus, very cool. How much time do you get to spend out weekly just having fun looking compared to editing etc?
You see almost every one of my videos on RUclips. I spend a ton of time editing and responding to comments. It's not as glamorous as you might imagine. I'm having fun, but sometimes I wish I had more time to just work in my shop without getting video of everything.
I will add to Rob's answer by saying that, when he is on the beach, he's not a slave to taking video. 95% of the time he's just looking for rocks and chatting with me or whoever is with him that day. When he finds something interesting, he grabs the camera. And he spends a very few minutes taking B roll (waves / pretty beach scenes / etc). I know that editing and responding to comments is very time consuming, but when he's out on the beach, the joy of rock hunting is not at all diminished by the fact that he's taking a little video along the way. It feels like any other day rock hunting, and not like we are there for the purpose of recording video.
@@jonathanyoung7785 That’s perfect then, and good to know. Getting out and just looking for nice stones is such pleasant way to spend the day. Nice he has some good friends to join him!
@@robinmayenfels9675 Finding rocks with Rob is especially fun since its great to share the experience (and the rocks) with so many other people. I probably wouldn't have polished up the few rocks that Rob showed in the video but for the fact that I knew he would include them in the video. Knowing that other people would get to see how they polished up, however, made it super fun for me as well. My normal audience is just my wife. She is a good sport, but less enthusiastic about polished rocks than many people who watch Rob's videos.
I skipped Van Buren when I was just up there since my ankles were killing me after a couple other Beaches a little further north. If I go up there next time, how long is the walk from the parking lot to the shoreline? I saw a bunch of smaller lightning stone, but nothing that I brought home. Some nice finds that you had that day.
@@MichiganRocks Thanks. I have bad, arthritic ankles, so knowing it is close will help when I go up there the next time. I'm in central IL, so not so much for rocks where I am.
@@jonathanyoung7785 Thanks. Yeah, I think most of the beaches between there and north there a bit have been very picked over. Need a few good storms or get up there earlier in the year.
@@MichiganRocks i believe it's because of the people owning properties around the beach were getting upset about it. I brought a friend this summer and it was unlike the other 3+ years I started collecting, hopefully there's a change soon
@@MichiganRocks I've been a fan of you for a longtime, thank you for helping me and my friends find amazing Michigan rocks😄 you've been a hero to me in tough times in my life, and I can't thank you enough with this hobby
We saw some concrete columns that had fallen onto the beach. We walked down to where there was a big hill with huge limestone boulders to prevent erosion.
I also just read about Non-Newtonian fluids on wikipedia. Variable viscosity dependent on stress is a good description of how that stuff behaved in my hand. It was viscous when agitated, but solid when not. Sort of like ketchup!
Thanks! I feel like that number is sort of fake. I got about 130k just from one Short. It's still fun to see such a huge number though. I never thought I'd get to this point when I first started.
Love how you do breaks to polish segments, to show rocks as you go along!
Thanks. That seems to be pretty popular, so I do it when I can.
@@MichiganRocks Agree. It is nice to see picked to polished on your channel.
I started following you a few weeks ago. Because of you, my daughter (7y.o) and I started collecting rocks (small ones) from each lakes our family visits. I’m starting something fun and for memories. Thank you.
That's great! Maybe you can get a family rock tumbler for Christmas so you can do something with those rocks during the winter.
Completely impressed that the “lightening stone” took a polish. The polishing tool that you have is absolutely amazing. I also really like the shots of the rocks that are polished as you go along discovering.
It was great that Jonathan had time to polish so many. I'm lucky to get one or two done for a video.
Incredible finds, as always. Sure wish I lived near the beach! ENVIOUS! I love that you polish them on the same video. ROCK ON!! 😁👍🏻🪨⛏️
The magnified black sand is crazy gorgeous.
Isn't that fun? I love that under magnification.
I'd guess the colorful stuff is mostly quartz, perhaps quartzite grains? The reds, garnet, I assume. I'd sure like to find bigger rocks with those colors.
@@jonathanyoung7785 I think you're probably right. I have thought about sorting black sand by color with a toothpick or something. I'm not sure what the point would be, but it seems like it would be a challenging activity.
What product do you use to magnify? It’s awesome!! ❤
@@janessarae9320 It's a digital microscope.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Beautiful finds! ❤️
Wow who would have thought all those colours in the black sand. Thanks for the panning experience.
I have looked at black sand closely before so I wasn't too surprised. I'm still impressed every time though.
I really enjoyed seeing the black sand under magnification. The lightning stone you polished is gorgeous! Thank you!
Those lightning stones sure do polish up nicely and black sand under a digital microscope is lots of fun.
Old Disabled House Bound Dusty Rusty Rockhound here: This was a great video! Loved the magnified photos of the black sand! Also loved that fossil soup stone!!
I polished the fossil soup stone because my wife asked me to do so. I'm glad she did. Turned out pretty good.
Awesome Video! Love the scenery, and the sounds of nature! Thank you!
You're welcome, Butch.
Your videos are causing me to want to go look for cool rocks in Wisconsin, oh & visit family too 😂
Today’s Michigan Rocks Show gets 5 stars ⭐️ even though I didn’t see a single “stripee”
There was actually a rock with stripes in two directions, but my camera didn't focus on it very well so I cut it. So there were no tears from me over not finding at least one good stripey one.
Wow! That magnified black sand is beautiful!
Yes, it is. You can spend a long time scanning over that with a digital microscope.
Love the close up of the black sand, very cool. Lightning stones are pretty too, nice few days out, thanks for sharing
I was so surprised at the black sand the first time I looked at it under magnification. Very fun to just scan around looking for interesting colors.
Some of the nicest Petosky stones I have found were from Saugatuck south.
We found several the next day, but nothing really great. I'm used to hunting them in northern Lake Huron and Lake Michigan where I can find a lot and be really picky about which ones I take home.
16:45 that is Dentritic Limestone! The black on it is dentrite plumes that form in the limestone. Sometimes they’re cool inside when you slab them! 😊😊
That's a new one to me. I didn't know limestone could have dendrites.
@@MichiganRocks yup! The dendrites are manganese oxide, and dentritic limestone is considered a pseudofossil in Michigan 😊
Hi again! 😊 So, yes, those are banded iron formation (BIF), both rocks you found that you weren’t sure about. They are just lake tumbled so they look like that. Some are better than others but we definitely have them down here in SW Lake Michigan!
Also, you guys were right about all of your slag identifications. Lots of that down here, but my favorites are the blue/greens 😊.
Lastly, the matrix of lightning stones is ironstone. Obviously you know the cracks fill with calcite. However, when the ironstone is filled with fossils, we called that Fossiliferous Ironstone. When it doesn’t have calcite cracks, or fossils, they’re just basically Ironstone Concretions (which can be cool too!).
Greta video guys! - Janessa
Thanks for all the great info, Janessa. It's nice to hear from a local who knows stuff. I find lots of lake tumbled BIFs in Lake Superior, but they usually have more clearly defined bands. That's what was throwing us off, although we both thought they were basically the same thing. It's nice to have confirmation.
@@MichiganRocks no problem! Happy to help with local ID’s when you need it 😊 Keep up the fun videos Rob! Thanks!
That magnified black sand was gorgeous
I love that stuff.
Thank You for very nice show.
Nice rocks, great waves today.
Thanks for the marvelous walk!
I love VBSP. Especially in the fall and early winter. I tumble the red ones, I think they are a type of jaspilite. If they aren't porous, they polish to a great gloss with a metallic sheen. Lots of slag there, too.
I think you're right about them being a type of jaspelite. That one Jonathan polished on his cab machine turned out great. I have tumbled lots of other similar rocks from Lake Superior with success too.
I should have brought more slag back with me. It didn't look like much at the time, but the pieces I polished are pretty nice.
Always enjoy your channel and rock hounding adventures. I have had some good results with tumbling lighting stones. They Polish quite nicely.
I haven't tried tumbling them yet, but I have enough for a batch now. Someone sent me some last year and I picked up a few more on my trip.
I’ll be in that area in two weeks. Thank you for the heads up. Keep up the good work.
Good luck!
That first ightning stone took a really nice polish.
Great day and finds❤beautiful scenery as allways 💕👋🇫🇮
That lightning stone with the "eye" was so cool!
Oh my gosh!!! I found so many of those same rocks!!! I have never been to MI before so I am totally excited to see “your” rocks in “my” tub!!!!!
If we're hunting in the same area, we're bound to pick up some of the same rocks.
@@MichiganRocks I was staying in Holland. I just went to places south of there due to scheduling conflicts….i REALLY wanted to go north though 😔but couldn’t. It was probably my only trip up there so whatever I have, I’ll have to cherish. There won’t be any more coming home with me 😭😭😭😭
Need to get up that way. Great video. Such a beautiful place.
It was a very nice beach and a beatiful day.
Great adventure.
Thank you for reminding me to bring my gold pan with me this weekend.
You're welcome!
I was there last August, from TN-my first visit to the Great Lakes! I was in that exact spot. I think I took home 25 pounds of rocks!
Nice haul!
If you took 26 pounds Rob and I aren't telling...
@@jonathanyoung7785 😆🤫
You can use a tiny amount of Dawn, laundry detergent or basically any soap to replace the Jet Dry. Even bar soap would work. You just need a surfactant to break the surface tension of the water. There's no difference between using Jet Dry and any other surfactant other than the Jet Dry probably has less of a chance of creating suds if you happen to use too much of it.
Thanks for sharing, I first learned about pudding stones on your channel, I'm looking forward to finding some!
I thought about using a little dish detergent, but was worried about suds. Next time I'll give it a try.
The cab @ six minutes was great. Beautiful. Thanks.
I agree, it's really great. It's not a cab though, just a rock with one side polished.
nice hunt. very cool finds imo. love that you took some of the black sands and processed it. absolutely love the lightning stones. especially the first one you polished. good one Rob.
Lots of fun stuff on that beach. I love that lightning stone too, they turn out so shiny.
Rob, I admire your prowess on locating those four gold flakes. In another life I'm sure I was a hopeful prospector. I am decent at panning, but I really love those who go prospecting as a career (not for everyone, for sure). I'm currently addicted to the folks dredging the Bearing Sea and have many of their vials on display. Emily Riedel has a fun YT channel. Imagine living in Nome AK and doing that full-time, sounds like a challenging life to me.
I'm actually really thankful that we don't have significant amounts of gold in Michigan. I think I could get really obsessed with it. I get a kick out of finding an almost microscopic amount of gold, just think if I could fill a vial.
The gold will float because of it's shape. That is one of the reasons to use jet dry, because it prevents air bubbles from forming on the flat surfaces. Thanks for the video.
Yep, I know better, but the cost of Jet Dry was way more than the potential value of my tiny little gold specks.
If you're still in the area, pilgrim haven is another good spot
Nope, not there anymore, but I was to Pilgrim Haven a few years ago. I agree that was a good spot.
You two had a fantastic rocck hunt on that beach. Jonathan did a great jb polishinng especially on the slag. Your lightning stone turned out amazing. I was recently sent some in the mail from one of your viewers named Deb. Thanks again Deb if you see this! Hopefully someday Ican get a cab machine to polish those amazingly cool stones.
That's great that viewers are helping each other out. I get a lot of requests to send people rocks but I just can't do that for everyone. Nice of Deb to step up and help out.
Glad you liked the slag. 😀. It polished up real fast, like obsidian but even a little faster.
Has some pretty rocks there.
Thin Mint--the last skipping stone you found. I really like lightning stones!! The last one looked like a deflated football.
I would never think of skipping a Thin Mint Girl Scout cookie though. Those are delicious.
@@MichiganRocks Did you know they now make thin mint bites? Same flavor, but marble shaped.
@@jonathanyoung7785 Nope. I've only had the flat ones.
I was just down there yesterday and you really can't turn your head without seeing another fossil soup full of crinoids. Any handful of gravel will have at least 1 small one, and the larger ones are hard to find either.
Lake HUron and Lake Michigan are great like that. Fossils galore.
hi guys, I need a trip to Michigan
Come on up! (or down?). Michigan is a nice place.
Very interesting beach and I loved that gold-sequence where you actually found gold, funny!!
I don’t think I’ll be making a living at it though.
@@MichiganRocks
My wife is now pressuring me to find gold in the black sand I brought home. But I don't have the fancy table like Rob.
Nice lightning stone!
Love your videos!! We collect also in Missouri but hope to make it up to Michigan someday to hunt.
Now my gold fever has come back. Thanks!
Oops, sorry if I started something bad.
🙋♀️❤️. Yep. Thumbs up!
Been to that beach many times. The last time I was on that beach there were tons of ticks all over the sand. Didn't stay long that day.
We didn't see any ticks. I don't think I've ever seen a tick in the sand. I've seen lots of them in the woods, though.
Great hunt
The property of the black sand that you found so cool is called dilatency and is due to the presence of fine silt sized particles
Thanks! That’s a term I had never heard before.
Could be. I am the one who was playing with it in the video, and it certainly didn't behave like normal sand.
Very cool finds Rob the brown lightning stone kind of looks like a football
I thought the same thing when I was editing.
@@MichiganRocks be cool to use as a magnet for your fridge and to add the Michigan football initials
I have a question/suggestion. Is it possible you could do a local get together with your fans, maybe bring your geologist friends and anyone else from your video's who would like to be there, so we can bring our favorite rocks to show off and get them identified properly? It would make a great episode, you could even have tickets/donations with the proceeds going to charity or maybe your church. Anyway, thanks for all the great videos.
I've also thought that something like that would be fun, but I always forget to mention it to Rob when I talk to him. (Everyone could bring their favorite Michigan rock for a little show and tell, followed by a rock hunting competition, or some such thing.) If you ever want to brainstorm something like this, Rob, I'd be happy to share my ideas.
@smithdog4770 @jonathanyoung7785 I have thought about this, but I can't imagine it working well. Meeting somewhere to compare rocks would be okay, but hunting rocks on a beach with a lot of people doesn't seem like it would work well. I'm not sure where we would meet, either. I know the Michigan Rockhounds Facebook group has met at Rockport, but there was a large fee to do that. Jonathan, let's discuss it sometime. Maybe you can convince me that it's a better idea than I think it is.
Nice!!!
17:30 that yellow one is hard to identify from just the video, but it may just be tumbled brick. We have all kinds of that down here, in all colors. The yellow usually were glazed bricks but sometimes the glazing tumbles completely off of it.
Somebody else said the same thing. I haven't seen many yellow bricks, so I didn't even thing about that. It did seem sort of brick like though.
My wife and I took our kids 8 hours to Petoskey Mich to try to find some Petoskey stones my wife loves them but we couldn't find any really good ones!!! We went to a few different beaches and towns and only found a few little ones!!!
I was just at Petoskey State Park camping for a couple days. That's not a great spot for Petoskey stones since everyone is looking for them. The key is to get away from the crowds. Walking for miles is how I usually do that.
What beginner rock tumbler do you recommend?
I like the Lortone 3A or 33B. Lortone was recently sold, but the new owner hopes to start production this month.
Great lightning stone haul! Like you said, it's not something we find around Lake Huron, although we do have other Septarian stones. I found one once that I thought for sure was a lightning stone until it dried off, rather than brown it was more red, I'm guessing it's maybe Septarian Rhyolite? I also have one large one that's a little bigger than a softball that at first glance really looks like lightning stone but again, it's more reddish than brown, it seems heavier than Rhyrolite though, so I'm not sure if that's what it is.
Also watching this has inspired me to break down and buy a gold pan, I ran across some great looking black sand recently that I'm going to try. Even if all I ever find is a couple pieces like yours, I'll be happy too, since I've never found any around here. I did get to find some in Alaska, well "find" is a bit of stretch, a friend's parents own a gold mine and I got to run a cat line (dredger) for day, just to see (not keep) what came out, it wasn't much for the amount of effort, I have no idea how some of them make any money at it.
I haven't found any septarians in Lake Huron that I know of. I'll have to keep my eyes open for one.
Your parents own a gold mine? That probably sounds better than it actually is, but how cool! I felt like I got my money's worth out of my gold pan after I found the very first fleck. What a thrill to find it completely on your own.
@@MichiganRocks A buddy of mine has parents who own one and I got to play around there for a day and he enjoys panning more than working the actual mine.
DANG!!!! Rob u find some of the kewlest rocks out there!!
Its gotta be awesome living so close to that lake :)
Would be so deadly bringing a TRX4 with a trailer to carry em all., do 2 hobbies at once :)
I live very close to Lake Huron, but I'm about five hours from where this video was recorded.
Bring your pan back there!
I brought the sand to my pan.
Those deep maroon and metallic are definitely BIF. I have found some in Lake Erie also, and I will post a vidi of them soon. It's so exciting to find them all the way down here, considering how far they came, just with lake water, because the glaciers didn't travel in that direction. They are super hard to find and rare in Erie, and usually highly weathered with differential weathering, the metallic goes faster than the jasper. I never get anything bigger than palm-sized, but that's because I don't snorkel/dive. I'm sure they're down there!
I have never hunted Lake Erie or heard great things about the rocks there. I’d like to do a hunt or two there someday. Can you suggest a good beach?
I live on Lake Erie (near Monroe / Sterling State Park) and I've never found much of anything other the typical glacial gravel that is spread around this area. So I'm also curious.
@@MichiganRocks I've only hunted Lake Erie on Pennsylvania shores, they have many of the same things you find, except no Petosky, no pudding stones, no large fortification agates or extremely rare in agate, maybe moss agate occasionally. No septarians. I'm sure I'll forget something. But we have unakite and epidote, pink K feldspar with adulariance, or schiller (moonstones?), labradorite, garnet in gneiss, and granitoids or gneiss with amethyst as the quartz component. I've been told we have yooperlites but I haven't found any (yet?) There's a lot of very metamorphosed and very old stones in the glacial till. The Eastern half of the lake is filled with glacial till. The bedrock is Girard shale which is blue-green. We have more tourists and population here than the places you are hunting, and as soon as the weather gets warm or hot (sometimes in May!) the algae starts to grow. 🤢We have deer flies and all the other fun stuff. 😆
@@RU3YJB That sounds like some pretty great stuff. I'd rather hunt the part in Michigan so it's not such a drive, but someday maybe I'll make the trip.
@@MichiganRocks I don't know what you'll find over by Detroit, (Fordite? 😀) but it could be similar to Huron beaches. I have a saying... "Any day on the Lake is a good day."
That was a really nice pudding stone minus the Jasper. I don’t know what the rock was at 16:40 but they’re pretty common in Lake Machine. I’ve found really nice Unikite in the Manistee area. I don’t know if you heard or not but there was an earthquake in the center of Lake Michigan about 9:19 this morning !
I did not hear about the earthquake. Was there a tidal wave that took out Manistee? Seriously, was it something anyone could feel, or was it just something picked up on sensitive instruments?
@@MichiganRocks some of the local people said they felt it. I’m about 20 miles inland and didn’t feel a thing. I wondered if it might have generated a larger than normal wave but I haven’t heard anyone mention it.
@@davidhile5363 I can remember a few times in the past where earthquakes were reported in Michigan. I have never felt one though.
Thank you. This will be our first rock hunt ever. We’ve been watching your videos and decided we’re going to give it a try. We’ll probably be in the grand Rapids,Holland area . do you have any beginner tips or perhaps a suggestion of an area? We are looking for coral,lightning stones and of course petoskey stone. Thanks in advance.
I don’t have tons of experience in this area. I’d just suggest that you go have fun. Don’t stress over it.
Urbanite!
I don't love urbanite.
Rob, I know I could Google this but I really enjoy your videos and I love that you respond to people…so here’s my question: Is it called a lightning stone because it’s been hit by lightning? Would those also be “septarian” stones?
No, they were not struck by lightning. Yes, they are septarian nodules. When lightning hits sand, it fuses it together into a tube-like glass thing called a fulgurite.
Hey, Rob! Loving your videos, your guests and you!
Question: I'm headed to the UP from the Manistee area and I'm in a 26' RV with only a bicycle as another mode of transportation. Now the question. Where are good places to rockhound that I can get to without having a car? I have to be able to get close enough with my RV so that I can pedal or walk to the rocks. Thanks!
In the Keweenaw, McLain State Park. In the eastern U.P., Lake Superior State Forest Campground, Muskallonge Lake State Park, maybe the Mouth of the Two Hearted River, and Whitefish Point.
You love me, too? Thanks. 🥰
( 17:30 ) that's a PIKACHU stone!!!!!! .. ... :-D . ... YOU CAUGHT IT !!!!!! .. .. Now you HAVe to catch them ALL ? ... :-O ... :-D
only like two THOUSAND card left you have to represent in with different types of stones? to find? hahahahha
Hi friends
Hello.
would black sand work better as a grinding media than regular sand?
No, I think it would be even worse. Part of black sand is magnetite, which is only 5-6 on the Mohs hardness scale. That's lower than quartz, which is seven on the Mohs scale.
Sand is a waste of time and energy. It gives very poor results.
The yellow one you didn’t recognize is a piece of brick. Lots of random bricks tumbled down there. Yellow, red, etc. “Brickite”. (17:20)
I didn’t even think of that. I did seem sort of brick like now that you mention it. I don’t think I’ve seen many yellow bricks other than on the Wizard of Oz. If it had been red, I probably would have recognized it.
Mr Michigan rocks I have found Omar as far south as Northern Indiana beaches. Odd how far the lake carries erratic stones.
That's cool. I didn't know how far they went. I'm Rob by the way.
Hey Rob, I could not believe it at first, but I had it verified by a geologist.
@@kevinreynolds7068 That's good evidence then!
I just started to rock hound with my wife unfortunately I live in ironwood all the great places seem to be below the bridge. Little Girls Park is nice I'm still trying to find places that are not as popular as LGP so many people there. Any ideas where Lake Superior has walking or driving in access up here? I'll drive to the eastern side of the UP I just don't just prefer to stay on this side of the bridge.
The Keweenaw has some good spots. Try Gratiot River Park, Great Sand Bay, Calumet Waterworks Park, or McLane State Park.
Any beach between Grand Marais, MI and Whitefish Point is usually good.
@@MichiganRocks thanks 👍
Another fun video, don’t eat the stones 😂! As mentioned below I really enjoy the mix of finding and then showing polished examples. Some real beauties, really impressed with the fossils and large lighting stone. The gold was an unexpected bonus, very cool. How much time do you get to spend out weekly just having fun looking compared to editing etc?
You see almost every one of my videos on RUclips. I spend a ton of time editing and responding to comments. It's not as glamorous as you might imagine. I'm having fun, but sometimes I wish I had more time to just work in my shop without getting video of everything.
@@MichiganRocks Must be a tough balance, but you make some great down to earth honest content, keep up the good work!
I will add to Rob's answer by saying that, when he is on the beach, he's not a slave to taking video. 95% of the time he's just looking for rocks and chatting with me or whoever is with him that day. When he finds something interesting, he grabs the camera. And he spends a very few minutes taking B roll (waves / pretty beach scenes / etc). I know that editing and responding to comments is very time consuming, but when he's out on the beach, the joy of rock hunting is not at all diminished by the fact that he's taking a little video along the way. It feels like any other day rock hunting, and not like we are there for the purpose of recording video.
@@jonathanyoung7785 That’s perfect then, and good to know. Getting out and just looking for nice stones is such pleasant way to spend the day. Nice he has some good friends to join him!
@@robinmayenfels9675 Finding rocks with Rob is especially fun since its great to share the experience (and the rocks) with so many other people. I probably wouldn't have polished up the few rocks that Rob showed in the video but for the fact that I knew he would include them in the video. Knowing that other people would get to see how they polished up, however, made it super fun for me as well. My normal audience is just my wife. She is a good sport, but less enthusiastic about polished rocks than many people who watch Rob's videos.
Just north near Glenn are tons of Septarian…..
Thanks. We went to Glenn at night in another video from that trip.
One of the tiny specs was up and to the right in the video
I knew they were hiding somewhere!
@@MichiganRocks they are super tiny
@@joevano They sure are.
Nice, taking stuff from a park 😂
That's completely legal. In fact, I discussed my plans with a DNR officer who was there just before I went out.
The waves eventually turn them all into sand anyways. I like to think we rescued a few from that fate.
I skipped Van Buren when I was just up there since my ankles were killing me after a couple other Beaches a little further north. If I go up there next time, how long is the walk from the parking lot to the shoreline? I saw a bunch of smaller lightning stone, but nothing that I brought home. Some nice finds that you had that day.
It's maybe a few hundred feet on a paved sidewalk. It's an easy walk.
Super close, but the rocks were rather picked over. They got better the further north we walked.
@@MichiganRocks Thanks. I have bad, arthritic ankles, so knowing it is close will help when I go up there the next time. I'm in central IL, so not so much for rocks where I am.
@@jonathanyoung7785 Thanks. Yeah, I think most of the beaches between there and north there a bit have been very picked over. Need a few good storms or get up there earlier in the year.
❤
Rob, is the rock at 3:50 pottery?
I don't think so. We find pottery sometimes, but that wasn't a uniform thickness like pottery usually is.
They drove huge vehicles and moved the rocks and sand on the beach😅you find a lot less cool rocks then you used too
That's a shame.
@@MichiganRocks i believe it's because of the people owning properties around the beach were getting upset about it. I brought a friend this summer and it was unlike the other 3+ years I started collecting, hopefully there's a change soon
@@MichiganRocks I've been a fan of you for a longtime, thank you for helping me and my friends find amazing Michigan rocks😄 you've been a hero to me in tough times in my life, and I can't thank you enough with this hobby
It's my fault. I scare all the good rocks away.
@@connorwithak5204 I'm glad I could help!
Did you walk far enough to see any of the concrete columns? I usually hunt Van Buren State park but instead you were here and I was in Alpena, lol
We saw some concrete columns that had fallen onto the beach. We walked down to where there was a big hill with huge limestone boulders to prevent erosion.
We also made it to Pilgrim Haven Natural Area -- in other words, we walked until the beach ended. Maybe about 2 miles north?
You’ve gotten Plankton from SpongeBob or Mike Wizowski from monsters inc at 17:08 lol.. cute
Non-Newtonian fluid like black sands
Your comment resulted in me spending ten minutes reading about non-Newtonian fluids. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Newtonian_fluid
@@MichiganRocks lol sorry. But it technically is
@@MichiganRocks You learn something new every day. Never heard of it either !
I also just read about Non-Newtonian fluids on wikipedia. Variable viscosity dependent on stress is a good description of how that stuff behaved in my hand. It was viscous when agitated, but solid when not. Sort of like ketchup!
@@MichiganRocks I'm surprised you could Decipher my hieroglyphics a.k.a. poor spelling I fixed it sorry.
First comment 😊❤
*lightning
Why do you call them lightening stones when they are actually called Septarians.
That's just a Michigan nickname for them.
Wow congrats on 350k subs. Was here at about 5 lk. You inspire many Rob.
Thanks! I feel like that number is sort of fake. I got about 130k just from one Short. It's still fun to see such a huge number though. I never thought I'd get to this point when I first started.