St Peters Dome Fluorite

by davealex

I have been wanting to visit the St. Peter’s Dome fluorite locale for a while as I heard the fluorite was beautiful and plentiful.  Friends Matt, David and I visited the location and it didn’t disappoint.

The location is accessible by a normal vehicle along the Old Stage Road where it meets Gold Camp Road coming out of Colorado Springs.  If one is unsure of the last road to the mine, they can park at the St. Peter’s Dome parking area and walk the 200 yards to the mine dumps.

View of St. Peter’s Dome, Colorado Springs and the Palmer Divide from the mine.
Fluorite is everywhere.
Purple, green and white fluorite litter the ground.

There is a bunch of fluorite laying everywhere, mostly in small chunks.  You can take a sledge and chisel and work some of the larger pieces if you so chose, but I just walked around and picked up a dozen or two smaller stones that looked like they had interesting color or marbling.

I have a flat lap so I took these stones and polished with a 150 lap.  They look really nice all polished up (wet in this case), so I will continue to shape and then polish the stones.

17 Comments

  1. These should polish up pretty well as I believe they have some silica in them. The fluorite from this location should be thermolumescent so try heating up some of them up in the fire and watch them glow in the dark! Unfortunately they do not appear to be fluorescent in lw or sw.

    While the fluorite here is massive, supposedly you can find crystallized faces with a bit of luck. You can see that in your last photo with the triangle pattern locked inside the massive material.

    Too bad you didn’t get the chance to explore Eureka Tunnel which is far down the slope from the main parking area. Nice small gemmy zircon and some rare minerals can be found inside.

    The first time I tried to find the tunnel, I collected at that fluorite slope and went the wrong direction down a side road. Did find some mine shaft dumps but there was still a bit of snow on the ground. Did collect some large crude quartz crystals in a talus slope next to the side road. Also some cleaved fluorite crystals were found in that slope. The second time I went with someone who knew where the tunnel was. The tunnel is very hard to see until you are almost on top of it.

    1. Hi James. Nice to know there are other places in that area to prospect. It isn’t too far from home and I plan to take another trip up there hopefully later this summer. I’m really excited about the polishing potential; I just need to learn more about making cool cab shapes; that aren’t your normal ovals and such. Hope you are having luck this year at your Topaz and Amazonite claims!

  2. Dave,
    Your blog is an extraordinary resource to rockhounds here in the Springs. I just moved from Grand Junction where I collected gorgeous Barites and lots of Dino bone from a friends property. Went to Devils Head today (from road close to Topaz Point Picnic Area) and bombed. Found a few small smokies. Last time I found a Smoky/fluorite/microcline piece that shows great. Next time my wife and I will head back to St Peters Dome to find some of that awesome fluorite. What direction Is the mine from the parking lot?
    Again thanks for the awesome blog!
    Derek

    1. Hi Derek. Glad you are having fun in our awesome mountains! The site is following the road from the lot, a little ways south.

      1. We just got back from the fluorite mine and found some great pieces. We explored the St Peters Dome Trail parking area and my wife found 4 terminated Smokies in a pocket just to the east of the parking area. Very awesome! One day I will find some Anazonite. Hopefully!

    2. I recently collected some fluorite samples from there, and I am wondering what I would need to shine em up and what grit sandpaper to use to get those edges down. Or anything you would recommend really. I do not have access to power or power tools and not a whole lot of money.

      1. I’ll need some help answering your questions as I don’t do much lapidary work. The way I’ve seen these polished is with a flat lap or lapidary polishing tool using multiple diamond-based lap wheels through various grits. These are not cheap, however.

  4. Hello Dave. Nice finds. Im just getting into prospecting with my son and would love to hunt them ourselfs. I was wondering if you can prospect st Peter’s Dome without a claim or permit and if you have any other spots that you can prospect with no claim or permit?

    1. Yes, you can prospect on forest service or blm land, just ensure you are not encroaching on someone else’s claim or private property. Claims have to be posted with 4 corner posts and 2 center posts.

  5. Glad to see others are enjoying this area to I took my boys and there friends to get some flourite last weekend… We are relatively new at rock hounding but we want to check out eurekA tunnel but this weekend we want to find some amozite so we are going to hike Barr Trailhead hopefully we get lucky.

  6. Hey Dave. Hope you have been out digging and finding good stuff. I just got back from Topaz Point and found some pockets in boulders. It would take a jackhammer to get them dig out sadly. Still found a lot of float tho including topaz float. Going to go back in a few weeks to dig if the temp allows.

  7. if possible could you draw a map of where to go from the st peters dome parking area.

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