Trap set

The Traps Set.

Linc found he was just in time for breakfast.
They had no more than just got done eating, when Linc got a phone call
from a small local mine. Seems that had run into a band of some
mineral they were not able to identify, and needed some help. Could
he come up and maybe give them an idea what it was. Linc was a bit
surprised they even knew he was in the area but figured the mine that
had offered him the job had been contacted to see if their geologist
could help them, and they referred Linc to them. Linc told them he
would run on over their way and take a look at what they found.
He told Lucas, where he was going and was about to go to the truck
when he went back in and got his back pack. He added a few power
bars, a roll of duct tape, and another first aide kit to replace the
ones he had used. He put the pack into the truck and went to the
mine.
On the way, he remembered his Father telling him about a distant
relative his Grandfather told him about. The man was a mineralogist.
He knew a lot about minerals. His name was Henry G. Hanks. His
Father told him this.

Henry Garber Hanks was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 12, 1826. His
father Jarvis Frary Hanks was a local portrait painter; his mother was
Charlotte Garber Hanks.

Around the age of 16, Hanks left Ohio for Boston, taking work as a
seaman. In 1842, his ship sailed to Calcutta in British India, where
he worked and traveled for about a year. He then served as a seaman
on another ship returning to New York. He then traveled around the
continental United States while conducting scientific studies before
returning to Cleveland to work as a house and sign painter. Around
the age of 25, Hanks left Ohio to join the Gold Rush in California.
Between 1852 and 1856, he worked as a miner and businessman around
Sacramento. By 1860, he was mostly occupied with selling paint in San
Francisco.

In 1866, he established Pacific Chemical Works, an assaying company.
The next year, he married Ellen Francis Barker. They eventually raised
five children, one of whom—Abbott—joined his father's company as an
assayer. Henry was also a founding member of the Microscopical
Society of San Francisco (founded 1872) and its first president.

He represented California as its mineral commissioner and the United
States as its mineral superintendent at the 1878 Paris Exposition.
Following the State Geological Society's reorganization as part of the
State Mining Bureau on 16 April 1880 Henry was chosen by Governor
Perkins on 15 May to head the new organization as California's first
state mineralogist. Based in San Francisco, he was responsible for
inspecting and classifying geological specimens submitted to the
bureau, as well as providing studies, annual reports, and various
special publications. Taking charge of the old geological society's
collection and other property, he established a public museum and
library. He served until 1886 at a salary of $3000 per year. He was
responsible for the mineral exhibits of California and the United
States at the 1884 New Orleans and 1893 Chicago World's Fairs.



Henry Garber Hanks was an American mineralogist. He was the first
state mineralogist of California.
was a founder of the Microscopical Society of San Francisco and was
considered to have the finest collection of mineral specimens in that
city. He is credited with many important geological and chemical
investigations for the U.S. Government. The mineral hanksite (from
Searles Lake, California) was named in his honor by William E. Hidden
in 1885.
Hanks died on June 19, 1907 in Alameda County, California.

Linc was proud to think that he was related to some very famous Hanks.
He remembered there were some very talented Hanks among the first
Hanks to arrive in the America.

Arriving at the mine, he went inside the office and introduced himself.
He was taken to their assay office where they showed him pieces of the
material they ran into. They had contacted the other mine all right
and found they couldn't help them. Linc picked up a piece of the ore.
Wow! It was heavy for its size. It was the color of aluminum, but not
shiny, but not real dull either. Looked almost like a chunk of melted
aluminum that had been broken into chunks. Real strange. A magnet
touched to it did budge it a bit, so it was not real magnetic. He
rubbed it with his fingers then rubbed his fingers together. It felt
slick, almost like talc does. They said the specific gravity was high
and it was soft on the hardness scale. Talc was a bit like that, but
this stuff was not talc by any means. Linc was at a loss as to what
the darn stuff was. He had never encountered anything like it before.
He asked if he could have a sample to send to his geology teacher who
was a mineralogist, as well as a teacher of geology. They gave him a
bag of samples and asked him to let them know if he found out any
thing. In the meantime they were going to bypass that area of the
mine.

Linc was going down off the mountain and just after he crossed over a
little creek, something upstream caught his eye. He was sure he saw a
cave or maybe an old tunnel up there. There was a wide pull-off here
so he pulled off the road and got out. Got his pack and started up the
creek. A hundred feet or so, he saw that there was the beginning of an
old mine shaft. Not a lot of tailings, nothing in the tailings as to
what made them start a shaft either. He turned to leave when a blue
glow grew in the small shaft. Ok! Ok! He thought, and stepped into
the portal. ….

To be continued.