A Special Thanks

Monday afternoon I made my weekly journey to Maryland from Pennsylvania.  I have been enjoying the drive as I imagine the different times I am travelling through as I cross the countryside.  The road cuts along route 70 are fascinating!  You can see so many interesting layers of rock in such a short drive.  I found myself deviating from my normal path and got off the highway to take MD 17 across the mountains.  I passed through Burkittsville and headed toward Brunswick.  I came to the intersection (Traffic Circle) of 17 and 180 and turned toward Frederick.  I had seen a field of interest the week before and wanted to see if I could find the owner.  Jake Slagle had posted on Mineral Bliss that he had found a nice quartz crystal in the area.  I decided to hit another field nearby. 

Barleywood Farm - Est. 1793

Barleywood Farm lies right on MD 180 just north of Brunswick.  The original farm was very large and spanned an area of several thousand acres.  340, 180, and 17 all dissect the original lot.  The current owner is a very nice man, but he sub-lets the land to local farmers to cultivate.

Recently Tilled Corn Field

The farm lot across  from the farmhouse was recently tilled.  It is a large parcel sandwiched between 340 and 180.  I asked permission to roam the lot and search for samples.  The owner was very nice and told me to have a good time.  He has had previous visitors ask permission, but they were all searching for Civil War items.  He seemed generally pleased with the idea of someone looking for minerals.

Showing the perspective

After getting the owners blessing for my outing, I drove to the lot and grabbed my bag and rock hammer.  This shot does a good job showing how large the parcel is.  The Silo in the background is just on the other side of route 340 and this land extends over the hill to that road as well.  I mainly searched the dips in the field shown in the center here.  This area had the least amount of plow damage and lots of quartz samples.

Search the tree lines when possible

I also made it a point to search the treeline between the lot and 180.  There are several large piles of quartz rocks moved to the side over the years.  Given the age of the farm, many large boulders have been taken from the fields.  Some have been removed, others dot the local yards, some are now part of the driveway, but a few remain in the shade of the trees.  There were three main varieties of quartz in the field:  Milky, Rosey, and Smokey.




  I must admit that I am jealous of Jake's find.  I must also admit that his post inspired me to contact a local land owner and get permission to walk the field.  I had a lovely conversation, met a very interesting person, and had a great, relaxing stroll through a tilled field looking for samples.  I managed to get some interesting massive samples, but found no real crystal formations.  All in All, a good time was had.  There is definitely something to be said for searching the fields!