A superb example of this very rare witherite find, from the mid-1970s. This rich specimen chock-covered in bladed crystals is among the best for the locality and frankly, many people think these rare Arkansas Witherites to be the best of species as they are much more sharply crystallized than most Illinois or English examples, and just as hard if not harder to obtain. It is a remarkable large specimen, probably 50 or 60 years out of the ground. It is complete but for only two broken crystals in the lower-center part of the piece as shown, and that does not really detract much especially given the size and significance.
Comment from Rob Lavinsky on this locality:
INTERESTING NOTE FROM A FRIEND: The deposit operated by National Lead's Baroid division was only worked for about a year before the area was reclaimed. It occurs with
Barite and
acicular barytocalcite but they seldom occur in the same specimen. I saw the whole lot of specimens collected by the mining engineer (probably only about 30 specimens) and got the best for the Houston Museum. I wrote the occurrence up in Lapidary Journal and can send you a copy if you wish. Art Smith.
