The semi-precious gemstone is Merikanite Obsidian. Obsidians are nature's glass which forms in conchoidal shapes (convex exterior but fractures concave) and the nodules are found in sizes as small as peas to the size of softballs. Walking along the sandy bottom of a dry wash we were able to easily find the stones by the scores. They're so numerous that you soon get picky about what you will bend over to pick up. The stones called Apache Tears are found only near Superior, AZ. - when they are polished and held up to light, they are semi-transparent with a smoky brown hue. The local stones are the only obsidian nodules that should be called Apache Tears.

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After leaving US 60 the dirt road may require a four wheel drive to ford Queen Creek and to continue up to the top of the ridge. It is a short, easy up-hill walk to continue on if you don't have a vehicle that can ford the creek. From the top of the ridge, near the blocked mining road, you will make your way approximately 1/4 mile down to a dry wash which runs more or less East and West towards Arnett Creek. Our group worked our way south down through and beside a wash from the road to reach the lower East/West wash. This wash collects the run-off from the surrounding hills and as a result it is loaded with the Obsidian nodules known as Apache Tears.

Obsidian is a volcanic glass consisting mostly of Silicates but it has a variable mixture of elements, which makes it a rock rather than a mineral. The rock it is a mixture of cryptocrystalline grains of Silica minerals in a glass-like suspension, which results when magma becomes super cooled. So Obsidian is formed at the end stages of basaltic eruptions, when the primarily Silicates are ejected and are rapidly chilled at surface temperatures.

But why are they called Apache Tears? Well, around the 1870s, the US Calvary chased down about 75 Apaches on a mountain top overlooking what is now Superior, Arizona. Rather than face defeat, the outnumbered Apache warriors turned and rode their horses off the mountain cliff. According to the legend, when the families of the warriors learned of the tragedy, their grieving tears were turned into the translucent stones upon hitting the ground.

Upon reaching the lower East/West wash you can look up the side of the hills to the East and see the Gray colored mine tailings of a private Obsidian mine. From the mine you will see a narrow gray colored formation in the sides of the hills which is the layer containing the Obsidian and from which it has been washed down to collect in the dry wash. From the area marked on the topo map, you can work your way either East toward the mine tailings or West towards Arnett Creek - you should find numerous Apache Tears deposited on, and in, the sandy areas of the bottom of the dry wash.

External Links

• Wikipedia Apache Tears Entry
• Native American Legends