Crystals

Salt (left) and sugar (right) crystals compared to a 3/8-inch-wide quartz crystal.

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My first experience with a crystal reads like a gangster movie. At 19, I was not contemplating marriage, but I realized that it was a possibility. I heard about “this guy” who sold diamonds for wholesale and I could save a lot of money. If I didn’t marry, it would be a good investment. So, I looked up the address in Salt Lake City and headed to town. I pulled up to a somewhat dingy electronics repair store with $300 in my pocket and stepped inside. At the counter I felt a little foolish when I asked to see some diamonds, but the counterman just pointed to a closed door and said, “In there.” I knocked lightly on the door and a gruff voice told me to enter. I walked into the cramped space, and the guy behind the messy desk just looked at me. “I’m here to see some diamonds,” I stammered, thinking about my back to the guy at the counter and the money in my pocket. Without a word, he reached under the desk—was he going for a gun?—and came up with a small black bag and a black cloth upon which he emptied the contents of the bag. Dozens of diamonds sparkled in the light. We made a deal and I was glad to get out of there, wondering if I would actually be allowed to leave with the diamond.

Diamonds are some of the most sought-after gemstone crystals, but they certainly aren’t the only crystalline structures in the world. While the words gemstone and crystal are often used synonymously, they are not the same thing. There are many gemstones that are crystals—rubies, sapphires and emeralds are all crystals—but there are many gemstones that are not crystals. For example, the gemstone, amber, is fossilized tree sap.

In a few words, crystals are solids whose atoms, molecules or ions are in highly ordered and repeating structures. The lattices that they create repeat in all directions until they eventually grow to a macroscopic level. Symmetry is achieved because the unit cells (the initial group of atoms, molecules or ions) must stack perfectly, without gaps. There are many ways this can happen and most crystallographers (scientists who study crystals) agree that there are 219 possible crystal symmetries with seven groupings called systems that describe their shapes: Triclinic, Monoclinic, Orthorhombic, Tetragonal, Trigonal, Hexagonal, and Cubic.

Lately when I think of crystals, I am thinking of the quartz crystals that we found in Crystal Park. However, crystal formations are much more common in our daily lives than we might imagine. For instance, salt forms rectangular shapes called Cubic crystals. Sugar also forms crystals that are Monoclinic: six-sided and look like an oval with the corners angled instead of rounded. When water temperature drops far enough, water turns to ice crystals. Ice is a bit different from many crystals in that it can take multiple forms. Mostly they are six-sided and include, pyramids, columns, bullets, flat hexagons and stars. Between salt, sugar, and ice, I have covered my biggest food groups, and they are all crystals.

Once ice begins to accumulate in thickness, it becomes what is called a polycrystal. Polycrystals are aggregates of single crystal grains. As they coalesce, the are randomly oriented, unlike the crystals themselves which maintain their highly ordered structure. Polycrystalline materials usually result when something solidifies rapidly. Crystallization starts in many locations at once and grow into each other. This changes the properties of the base crystalline units because the order of the single units is not maintained. Most metals, rocks and ceramics are polycrystals.

One of the most interesting things about crystals is the fact that science has learned how to create them in the laboratory. In fact, the first synthetic gemstone crystal was a ruby of faceting quality created in the late 1800’s. Cubic zirconium is a synthetic form of diamond crystal and sapphires, emeralds and different quartz crystals have also been synthesized. Stiff penalties keep producers from trying to pawn off these laboratory creations as natural, but so long as you know what you are buying, they can be fine specimens.

Well, for three years my diamond sat hidden in a box. Finally, I had the chance to use it to woo my wife and for 40 years it was safely on her finger, until the setting came loose and it was lost in the hospital trash while she worked, but that is another story.

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Help Idaho Wildlife

When we traveled across the state in October 2017, most of the vehicles we saw using the wildlife management areas did not have wildlife plates. Buying wildlife plates is a great way for non-hunters and hunters alike to support wildlife-based recreation like birding.

C'mon folks, let's help Idaho's wildlife by proudly buying and displaying a wildlife license plate on each of our vehicles! 

See below for information on Idaho plates. Most states have wildlife plates so if you live outside Idaho, check with your state's wildlife department or vehicle licensing division for availability of state wildlife plates where you live. 

And tell them that you heard about it from Nature-track.com!

Wildlife License Plates

Great news! as of 2024, there are three NEW designs for license plates. They still are bluebird, cutthroat trout and elk, but they are beautiful.

Idaho Wildlife license plates provide essential funding that benefits the great diversity of native plants and wildlife that are not hunted, fished or trapped—over 10,000 species or 98% of Idaho’s species diversity. Game species that share the same habitats (such as elk, deer, antelope, sage-grouse, salmon, trout) also benefit from these specialty plates.

No state tax dollars are provided for wildlife diversity, conservation education and recreation programs. Neither are any revenues from the sale of hunting or fishing licenses spent on nongame species. Instead, these species depend on direct donations, federal grants, fundraising initiatives—and the Idaho Wildlife license plates.

Both my vehicles have Bluebird Plates. I prefer the bluebird because the nongame program gets 70 percent of the money from bluebird plates, but only 60 percent of the money from elk and trout plates - 10 percent of the money from elk plates supports wildlife disease monitoring and testing programs (to benefit the livestock industry) and 10 percent from cutthroat plates supports non-motorized boat access.

Incidentally, in 2014, the Idaho Legislature denied the Department of Fish and Game the ability to add new plates or even to change the name of the elk and cutthroat plates (very specific) to wildlife and fish plates, a move that would have allowed for changing images occasionally and generating more revenue. It would seem that they believe that we Idahoans don't want a well funded wildlife program.

I think it is time we let the Legislature know that Idahoan support wildlife funding and that we would like to see these generic plates come to fruition.