Finding Apache Tears (Obsidian) in a Perlite Cave! Arizona Rockhounding
Finding Apache Tears (Obsidian) in a Perlite Cave! Arizona Rockhounding
There is a legend of Apache Warriors that lends its name to beautiful round obsidian found in and around an old Perlite mine in Arizona. Come along as I hike to the Apache Tears Mine, a now publicly-accessible Perlite Mine, via Perlite Road in search of these beautiful pieces of volcanic glass.
Love the editing my friend. You are showing AZ’s beauty like a boss.
HAHA REAGSTERS ALMOST GOT SHOT
They copied the obsidian from Minecraft
New subscriber, live the channel! Live in Marana, west of Tucson and we’ve been to saddle mtn for fire agate, such fun, bt thinking about the geode trip. Just watched the apache tears video and was concerned about any destruction of the cave. Thanks for the information on how it was formed, made me feel better. I’m all for picking up stuff that’s laying out, just a little queasy about destroying nature. Love the channel, going through some previous ones now 🙂. Stay safe and be careful it there!
Nice job oh yeah yeah oh yeah yeah oh yeah yeah
Love the vidio
This was filmed just outside of Superior, AZ. my hometown. The perlite mine that he is exploring is on private land and was closed off to the public around 2001-2006 when I was little my dad would take me out there and we would hunt down our own tears.
The story behind the Apache Tears is that the local Apache men that were running from the Cavalry and were cornered up at Apache Leap, just east of town. Instead of giving up and surrendering the Apache men leapt to their deaths and the women and children wept for years, those tears solidified blessed by the mountain they formed Apache tears.
In truth, the volcanic glass was formed from the remains of volcanic tuffs, the largest of which is now known as Picket Post Mountain. Huge deposits of obsidian and perlite are still at these locations, along with Copper, Silver and Gold. I have panned for gold near that area and found a decent amount which I suspect came from further up the Arnett creek wash where other Volcanic intrusions brought the minerals to the surface.
where was this located in arizona?
I believe that bubbly rock is viscous Rhyolite? Some of those have crystals in them… 922.223 carats is the biggest tear I’ve found. The worlds smallest museum in Superior claims to have the worlds largest Apache Tear at 1600 carats…
Another wonderful Arizona treasure area you’ve highlighted here. The shots and bullet flying close by is a bit concerning…😕. We will definitely check it out soon. Thanks so much for your time and work in putting this out. Great job!!
That cave is so cool.
Regan, that was a wonderful video documenting the Apache tear mine. The Obsidian formed in the Perlite looked amazing, I’m guessing Perlite is the host rock for Obsidian. The black against white makes for a beautiful contrast. Location wise, the spot could have made for a film set for StarWars, I could just see Luke Skywalker growing up in a place like that. Anyway, thank you for yet another brilliant & professional production highlighting the natural gift of nature that seemingly keeps on giving. 👍 Rog.
Such a amazing place. Great video, so enjoyed watching !