Barite

specimen number:
2062943

location:
Hartsel, Park Co., Colorado, USA

description:
A cluster of lustrous slightly translucent tabular pale bluish green barite crystals. This is in good condition all around. Collected in 1978. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

Situated within the high-altitude basin of South Park in Park County, Colorado, the geology around Hartsel consists largely of sedimentary deposits, valley fill, and volcanic-derived materials influenced by ancient tectonic activity and extensive faulting. The region is widely celebrated by mineral collectors and historians for its exceptional barite occurrences. The barite found near Hartsel typically forms attractive, distinct tabular or prismatic crystals embedded within clay and weathered regional soils. A unique characteristic of these specimens is their photosensitivity: crystals often emerge in pale or greenish-gray shades, but prolonged exposure to natural sunlight causes them to gradually darken into deep, steel-like blue hues. While the area was never a massive commercial metal mining district on the scale of other Colorado mountain camps, it has long attracted amateur rockhounds, prospectors, and mineral enthusiasts searching the local gulches and weathered outcrops for high-quality blue crystal clusters.

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