howlite Ca2B5SiO9(OH)5
Howlite was first described by H. How in 1868 as silicoborocalcite. Later it was identified as calcium silicoborate by James Dwight Dana and named after How. It is often found as nodules resembling gray cauliflower.
Howlite was initially discovered in Nova Scotia, occurring as nodules embedded in anhydrite and gypsum. At Tick Canyon, in Los Angeles County, howlite was embedded in colemanite. The deposit was worked as the Sterling Borax Mine from 1908-1923 and was the second largest borax producer worldwide after the mines in Death Valley.
In August of 1907, prospectors Henry C. Shepard and Lewis Ebinger were working a gold mine in the upper reaches of Tick Canyon about 12 miles northeast of Newhall, California, north of Lang Station on the Southern Pacific. Below the mine (to the south), they found some white crystals and sent samples to chemist Henry Blumenberg (American Borax Company), to Wash Cahill (Pacific Coast Borax Company), and to the Stauffer Chemical Company (a refiner of borax and owner of the Frazier Mountain colemanite deposits). Due to the number of worthless samples being sent by miners, the samples were ignored by all three. It took Blumenberg four days before he decided to look at his sample, the first of the three. He immediately recognized the best colemanite (a calcium borate mineral and ore of borax named after William Coleman owner of the Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley) he had ever seen.
Blumenberg jumped on the next train to Los Angeles in hopes of beating out the others. At the station, he met "Wash" Cahill who had not yet looked at his sample and was actually traveling with his family. Panicking, and missing the train to Lang, Blumenberg found a driver to take him in a wild midnight dash directly to the claim by "high speed" car. In 1907!
Blumenberg arrived at the site of the prospect at sunrise, met a surprised Henry Shepard, and successfully negotiated for the mining rights. In the Los Angeles Evening Express of September 9, 1907, Blumenberg said that "such good prospects for a practically unlimited deposit of borax have been uncovered by his people that the price of the price of that commodity must inevitable go down. Only forty-two miles from Los Angeles, and only five miles from the Southern Pacific railroad we have surface out-croppings traceable for more than 5,000 feet, and already development work has been begun."
Howlite's silica content made it useless as a source of boron, and for years it was common in the Tick Canyon mine dumps. These specimens are from Tick Canyon.
Typically, howlite nodules have a gray or black surface and a "cauliflower" appearance. When broken or cut open, they exhibit a white interior, occasionally veined with gray.
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