This is Throwback Thursday #299. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks!   email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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This post is a follow up to last week’s Throwback Thursday, where we mentioned the mineral species Macfallite. It was named for Russell P. MacFall (1903-1983). MacFall was an editor for the Chicago Tribune newspaper and, earlier, for other newspapers.

He was an amateur mineralogist interested in systematic mineralogy and an author of six books on popular mineralogy, paleontology, and geology.

Russell did presentations for ESCONI on a few occasions including a talk about the Field Museum’s Halls of Jade, Gems, and Meteorites in January 1976.

GENERAL MEETING
JANUARY

January 9, 1976 Friday 8:00P.M.
Highland School Downers Grove, Ill.

Slides and program by Mr. MacFall

On the Halls of Gems, Jade and Meteorites in the Field Museum of Natural History

Mr. MacFall has been a rockhound for more than 50 years with an interest in many phases of the hobby–lapidary, fossils, minerals, and micromounting. He also has written several books in the field, including Gem Hunter’s Guide, Minerals, Gems and Fossils, Fossils for Amateurs with Jay Wollin, and a new book: Minerals and Gems.

Mr. MacFall was a former president of the, Midwest Federation of Mineralogical and Geological Societies, former editor of the American Federation Newsletter, contributor, to the Lapidary Journal and Earth Science magazines, and a judge at federation shows. He is retired from the Chicago Tribune.

The slide program will consist of views made by him and a professional photographer of the Hall of Gems, the Hall of Jade, and the Hall of Meteorites in the Field Museum of Natural History.

He was honored this year by having a newly discovered mineral named macfallite. It is a complex manganese and calcium silicate from the Keweenaw penninsula of Michigan.

Otto Ensminger
Program Chairman

The October 1975 edition of the ESCONI newsletter had a small announcement about macfallite. It didn’t become official until 1979.

A NEW MINERAL
MAC FALLITE

Russell Mac Foll is well known to many of the members of ESCONI and has been a speaker at our general meetings. He has done a lot of collecting and research with minerals from the copper country of Upper Michigan. He now has the honor of having a new mineral from this area named after him, The mineral, Mac Fallite, has fine red-brown needles, visible to the human eye, but quite small. more information should be available later.

From the Mafallite page at mindat.org. Macfallite was first discovered at the in 1974 at the Manganese Mine in Copper Harbor, Michigan. MacFall was an expert in the minerals found around Copper Harbor, Michigan.

Named in 1979 by Paul (Paulus) Brian Moore, Jun Ito, and Ian M. Steele in honor of Russell Patterson MacFall [1 September 1903 Indianapolis, Indiana, USA – 6 September 1983 Coronado, California, USA] editor for Chicago Tribune newspaper and, earlier, for other newspapers. Russ was an amateur mineralogist interested in systematic mineralogy and an author of six books on popular mineralogy, paleontology, and geology. Russ was also a specialist in the minerals of the region where macfallite was first discovered.

Photos from mindat.org.