If the word “prospector” conjures up the image of some grizzled old dude with a pick-ax and mule, guess again. The rockhound who discovered the largest aquamarine specimen ever found in North America bears more than a passing resemblance to actor George Clooney – and cleans up real nice.
It was the summer of 2004 when Steve Brancato, who’d chucked the corporate life in favor of living out a dream, was working a claim known as Diane’s Pocket near the summit of Mount Antero in the Sawatch Range of central Colorado. It wasn’t long before he hit the Mother Lode.
“I had a pretty good idea of what I’d found,” Brancato said at Museum After Dark, the gala held to celebrate the gift of this treasure to Denver Museum of Nature & Science. “So I started loading it up (the specimen includes 100-plus aquamarine crystals, plus dozens of pieces of feldspar, mica, garnets and black quartz) and hauling it down the mountain.”
Brancato’s destination: Collector’s Edge Minerals in Golden, where owner Bryan Lees and his staff of geologists and gemologists painstakingly re-created what this slice of Diane’s Pocket might have looked like when it was formed 35 million years ago. The six-month effort, overseen by the museum’s chief curator, Kirk Johnson, involved cleaning, sorting and numbering each piece of rock and crystal, then reassembling the pieces using “scientific knowledge and a little artistic license.”
“Everybody is thanking me,” Brancato said as the 700 guests admired his find, “but I thank the museum for giving it such a good home.”
Museum trustee Bruce Oreck of Boulder, an avid mineral collector and member of the Oreck vacuum cleaner family, and his wife, Cody, purchased the specimen and gifted it to the museum. They also stood beside Mayor John Hickenlooper, who was a geologist before opening the popular Wynkoop Brewing Co., as he unveiled the acquisition just before dinner.
Bryan Lees and his wife, Kathryn, were at the event chaired by Peter and Cathy Dea, along with Collector’s Edge staffers Jon Volter, who led the restoration effort, and geologist/sales executive Steve Behling.
Others staying on for dance music by Flash Cadillac were museum president George Sparks and his wife, Karen; chairman of the board Wayne and Joyce Hutchens; oil giant Bill and Louise Barrett with daughter Cathy Lee and her son, Chris, a student at Colorado School of Mines; Chuck and Luanne Hazelrigg; Brown and Mardi Cannon; John and Ginny Freyer; Gordon and Sally Rippey; Joe and Jean Hodges; Bob and Barbara Danos; Jim and Carole McCotter; Jack and Gail Klapper; and Bill and JoAnne Sinclaire.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com.
For an expanded version of this story, see denverpostbloghouse.com/ davidson.
