Mason Tx - Topaz specific question on streambeds -Commanche creek

Hi Lance,

We will be staying at the Mountain Manor at Lindsay Ranch, arriving Saturday morning.
Perhaps we'll run into each other looking for topaz. This is our first hunt and we're really excited.
Looks like we may get some rain Friday and Saturday morning. Should be good for the hunt.

This thread is just what I needed to read.

Hope to see you there,

Steve

we will be arriving tuesday ( 27th) and will be staying thru the 31st ( sat)

I am also going over to the seaquist ranch on wed the 28th ..I want to see what the differences are rock wise etc...

How long are you staying ?

Ah shoot, we're leaving Monday the 26th so we won't cross.

I'll try and post here on Monday night of the 26th with any info I can about our hunting over the weekend.
Maybe leave you some notes in the cabin or with the Lindsays.

I'm planning on hitting seaquist some on Sunday as well.
I also want to go search the areas around Mason Mountain back by the cabin where there's been runoff as see what I find.

ya you all will be staying at the cabin kinda out in the boonies lol...we will be staying at the one thats down to the right after u come in...

basicly if you go straight back and up over the 1700 foot mountain you will find commanche creek....they will also ( the lindseys) give you a small little map of the property and they have a path marked with flags that will lead you back to the streambed.

I have a handheld gps ...which makes it a bit easier...but the creek is pretty long on the property.

Id be very curious if you can post monday night how and what you found on the seaquist property as I ahve never been.

be wary if you have small children also...as there are parts of the commanche creek if you go up out of the crrekbed there are good 30-40 foot drops down
sometimes sheer cliff faces so be careful if not follwing the paths down to the creekbeds.

Also a tip..

the cows...at night..well...they like to block the road when you come back on to the ranch lol...so you sometimes have to have someone get out and "move them along "

yeah, we're staying way at the back...about 2 miles from the road.

Thanks for the tips, I'll take my GPS just incase I need to point you somewhere specific.

I'll try to post what I can Monday, looks like it's going to be a good time.


I guess cow tipping would not be the right thing to do....lol

thanks...

I plan on giving my garmin 60csx a bit more of a workout this time

Well looks like you guys found some topaz!! ( I saw the two pieces)

( Ms Lindsey emailed me the pictures of you and your sons( I assume lol).

we will; be leaving early am tuesday to head out there...

were u sifting when you found them or did you just find them in the bed by walking wtc?

Any basic info on the area where you found?

Looks like though they may be transformable into something if you get them cut!


Ill check this forum late tonight before we go to bed on the off chance you reply...

I am curous also if you dont mind my asking Stephen...whereabouts do you all live? We are in Leanders ( about 90 miles due east of mason)

Yes we did find some, the largest is an 1.5 inches long an inch wide and tall at its peak. The second in almost 1.25 inches long and is .5 wide.
We were digging and sifting by hand on the down stream side of larger rocks and formations and watching from different angles.
We found both pieces in the same area, needless to say we never left the ranch after that.

Here are the coordinates from the GPS -

N 30 48.520
W 099 16.228

This place was at the front part of the creek that is accessed by a road behind the main house. There are two picnic tables setup and this is near the furtherest one.

Oh, we are in North Richland Hills which is North East of Fort Worth. It's about 4 hours, 242 miles for us.

Good luck

Mr. Steve,

My family and some friends have recently starting hounding and have made the Mason trip a few times now. We have found plenty of quartz and/or calcite all over, but have not had any luck on Topaz (that we can tell). I was wondering what a rough piece might look like from that area and how one would tell the difference in the field between calcite/quartz/topaz. I have seen many a picture of raw topaz, but none from the Mason area. Is it much different in appearance?

We didnt find any when we were there last week...but part of that was it was just too hot..( we have 2 small children) and so we were limited in the time we actually spent when there this time.

I did spend almost a whole day on the seaquist ranch...covered lots of ground...but again heat def a factor.

I actually have some pictures of the topaz that Steve found that Ms Lindsey sent me...I will try and see if I can upload them here.

basicly topaz from the creek beds will lok a bit like frosted glass....one thing you def will notice is that a peice of topaz vs a piece of quartz...the topaz will feel "much" heavier.

Also if you ever do go to the Lindsey ranch they have some samples of topaz that you can touch and see...also there is a jewelers shop right off the main square of Mason that can show you samples and will also test anythign you find for free.

Hello all!
I am new on the boards, from San Anto. I poke around the Southwest for most everything. Maybe I can help with a question about getting off the creeks and into the rocks. This is where you will find the gem quality Texas topaz! (River roughed simply WON'T do!) I had gone to the area TEN TIMES before I wised up and spent most of the day with a hammer and chisel. This takes experience in training your eye for the vugs. When you break rock, you go where no one has gone before... it was on the Sequist. CLIMB but be careful! Use a flashlight, needlenose pliers, hammer, chisel, EYE PROTECTION, water, gloves. I can't remember where it was in the ranch more than it was near the tops of the hills there. You will find a lot of picked out vugs with some very nice quartz tailings left over. Finding your own vug is up to you; find a new vug and you are a genius. I picked out a FLAWLESS (non-blue) 2 ct piece (sinks in bromoforme). Take care in how you chisel, I lost about half of this one. I must say, after my "new policy" of climbing and combing actually worked, I was quite happy. The owner was, I would say, extremely surprised, and did not seem to like the idea of chiseling though! (but he jokes around a lot - I wasn't sure). I just joked back about next time bringing dynamite to loosen things up, and sluicing through a downpour heheheh!
BTW, did anyone catch the ebay auction for the Mason topaz (shooter marble sized) that only went for $150 ?!?!?! Thats insanity! Even a river-rough piece that size should do $600-800. I missed my chance to bid. HOWEVER... It looked more like Brazilian, because it was TOO BLUE. What you are looking for is BARELY blue, and NEVER more even a medium blue. If it is picked out of a vug and flawless its ten times the value (@ $150 / ct) of most creek specimens. Anyway, I've had college geology courses I & II, but have delved more seriously into the prospecting and gem/economic aspect lately. This will not make you rich. Meteorites will! Have fun everyone.

Where can i get bromoform from?

My wife and I just spent three days in the cabin on Comanche Creek on the Lindsay Ranch. Being an avid pegmatite hunter, I spent the first day just getting the lay of the land, mapping the obvious pegmatite cores. I use a sensitive scintillation detector to detect the elevated gamma background that usually denotes a nicely zoned pegmatite as those seem to contain the goodies. At one spot near a cluster of quartz cores above the east branch of the creek, I picked up a particularly localized hot spot. After digging down for less than a foot, I uncovered an oblong 50 x 30 cm vuggy mass of reddened granite that was studded with hundreds of shiny euhedral black magnetite crystals.

Since the granite was vuggy, it was no great chore to chisel off a few chunks to look at when I got home to Austin. After getting them cleaned off, I pulled out a nearly perfect 1 cm monazite crystal from a vug in one piece, which explained the high radiation reading. On another smaller piece, I noticed that the magnetite crystals had clumped around what appeared to be a quartz crystal in the granite. Closer inspection revealed that the magnetite was nucleating around the crystal in a miarolytic cavity that my chisel had neatly split open. I then noticed that the "quartz" had a familiar pale blue cast to it. Sure enough, the central crystal was a topaz. I wonder, is magnetite commonly associated with topaz in the host matrix? If so, maybe a metal detector would be a good tool to use to indirectly detect in-situ topaz.

Frank

Frank,

Do you have any pictures?

Regards,

Ryan

Hi Ryan,

I have pictures of the excavation but haven't taken any of the pieces removed from it just yet. I plan on doing that over the weekend. I'd be happy to post them when they're done. In the meantime, you might want to see some of my other photos from central Texas pegmatites at my gallery.

[www.mindat.org]

Frank

My wife and I are going to Mason next and was looking to go look for Topaz at one of the ranches.
What condition are the roads on the ranches, I don't want to get stuck. We will be driving a
2007 Saturn Vue.

Thanks for any advice
Dennis

hi everyone! i found it quite interesting how many people talked about Mason on this message. I am actually the granddaughter of Mike Seaquist (Seaquist Topaz Ranch). I would LOVE to hear more feedback on what y'all think of the ranch. It has SO much history and there are plenty of people out there willing to share a bit of our history with any of you. Not only is the ranch a great place to Topaz hunt, it has so many beautiful locations within to explore. GREAT place to take your kids. I grew up on that ranch and never lost interest. I hope all of you love it as much as I do. =)

OH and Dennis. As long as the weather is staying pretty dry there, you should be perfectly fine in your car. We've taken countless cars down there and the only main thing is just stay ON the trails. that grass can get ya!

When my son and I visited Lindsey Creek Ranch (Aug-2009), we got there kind of late and didn't have much daylight left. We panned in the creekbed for a while and just before we left found some pegmatic granite on the bank of the creek and took a chunk with us. After we returned home and looked at it in the light, we saw some crystals. I'm still not sure what they are...I tried freeing them using the "simulated weathering" strategy for a long time - but, realized it just won't work. It took volcanic activity to meld those particles together - it might require the same to release the captive crystals (unless I want to play around with acid...but, I'm not there yet). Regardless, I've grown to appreciate the look of the crystal/matrix as I found it. I've attached a picture of it along with one of the creekbed for those that haven't gone to Lindsey Creek Ranch yet. It's a nice place to visit - the owner was very friendly and helpful. I haven't yet been to the other ranches in Mason County - key word is YET! I can't wait to go back. 5 hours one way wouldn't be so bad...but,a 5 hour drive in rockhounding time can take all day. So, I'm waiting for a long weekend (when the weather is not hot).

Kind of looking like quartz.