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Field CollectingCentral Texas Rockhounding
9th Feb 2007 16:26 UTCRachel
Also, someone posted on another thread about strontianite on Mt. Bonnell. How would I go about finding that? I've been to Mt. Bonnell severals times, so that'd be a good place to start hunting.
Can anyone help me?
Unfortunately, I can't meet up with anyone since my dad is over-protective.. So I'll need either directions or a good description of the area please :)
9th Feb 2007 16:29 UTCRachel
9th Feb 2007 17:14 UTCAlan Plante
Perhaps if you did some research on mineral clubs down your way you could ask your father to take you to meetings and on field trips? Joining a club is the best way to find out where the good collecting spots are - since the club will probably hold trips to them, or members will be planning trips and inviting other members to go. And so long as your father accompanies you, there's no worry about meeting the "wrong sort of person." (BTW: He is absolutely right to be protective when it comes to meeting people you don't know, and there is no way you can really get to know people on-line - all you learn about them is what they want you to learn. Predators are often very good at comming across like good people - which they most certainly aren't... - I'll stop preachin' at ya now! :~} )
There is a web site called "Bob's Rock Shop", the URL is "rockhounds.com", where there is a link to a list of mineral clubs across the country in the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies. Scroll down the Table of Contents page at Bob's until you find it, then click in to the list. There are several clubs in your general area - maybe one of them close enough for you and your father to join. (A good friend of mine is a member of the big club in the Houston area, and if you are anywhere near there she would be a great person for you to meet - as would the rest of that gang. It is a highly repsected, very active, club.)
As to your question about pegmatite, it is basically a very coarse type of granite that forms very late in the development of granitic igneous rock bodies and ends up carrying all the highly volitle components that remain in flux until the very end of the crystallization process. These volitiles form a bunch of neat late-stage crystalline minerals that interest collectors - things such as Tourmaline Group species, topaz, beryl (including the aquamarine variety), Apatite Group species, spodumene, and others. Collectors flock to pegmatites to collect the way birds flock to bird feeders in the dead of winter to eat... :~}
Regards
Alan Plante
9th Feb 2007 18:14 UTCDr. Paul Bordovsky
The Austin Geological Society is sponsoring a field trip to south Texas
next weekend, Feb. 17th. Field collecting at several uranium mines will be
done, and visiting the sites of the old mills is planned. A chartered bus will
make the trip, and a field guide and CD will be provided. You can see photos of
a preliminary trip to the location in the collecting forum.
The Austin Gem and Mineral Society meets the fourth Thursday of each month. We try
to have one field trip a month. www.austingemandmineral.org has a map to our
clubhouse and some information. The website is undergoing a complete makeover,
but the basic information is still there.
If you like, I can email the latest AGMS newsletter.
Paul Bordovsky
Austin, TX
9th Feb 2007 18:38 UTCRachel
Thank you Paul, I will definately have to take a look at that site! That really sounds like an interesting trip.
Another question about pegmatite -- is it out in the open, or do you have to dig for it or break stone open?
10th Feb 2007 04:27 UTCAlan Plante
Pegmatite typically forms as dikes or sills in fractures or along planes in bedrock deep beneath the surface. Erosion and uplift bring them to the surface, where they become exposed, found, and mined for a variety of minerals (including gem stock and specimens of crystals.) Rockhounds basically visit the mines and pick through the tailing piles - or "mine dumps" - in search of specimens. Or, in some cases, they might work an unmined outcrop that has been exposed - or work the faces of old, abandoned, open pit mines.
Any type of rock that is "mineral rich" (from a colletor's perspective) might be visited by collectors in search of specimens, whether the rock has been mined or not. It's just that when mining has broken up the rock into more managable sized chunks it is easier for collectors to get specimens out of them: "Ledge work" is generally pretty tough to tackle.
"Loose deposits" (stuff that has been eroded out of the bedrock and deposited in one way or another) are also worked by collectors; such as screening gravels that contain certain minerals, or working scree piles at the bottoms of ledges. Panning for gold falls into this category of collecting.
KOR!
Alan
12th Feb 2007 22:40 UTCFranklin Roberts
If you want to see some of the pegmatites in the Llano and Burnet County area, I'm usually out there every weekend collecting. I make the one hour drive to my collecting sites from home in southwest Austin.
To answer one of your questions, no, as far as I know all of the collecting sites in central Texas, including the pegmatites, are on private property and not open to casual collecting. About half of the effort I put into collecting from these sites is spent dealing with ranchers and landowners in order to secure permission to collect. In some cases, my access is on a lease basis.
If you would like to visit one or two of these pegmatites and collect some great specimens, have your father call my cell phone at (512) 848-8309. He can also reach me at KLRU-TV in Austin, where I'm the transmitter engineer. If you prefer, you can send me a private message on this site and tell me how to contact your dad. You mentioned visiting Mt. Bonnell several times, so I assume you live in Austin. If that's the case, you and your dad can meet me in Burnet, or we can caravan from Austin.
Frank
P.S. Your dad isn't being over-protective, he's just doing what dads are supposed to do. Look it up, it's in his job description.
13th Feb 2007 00:52 UTCJeremy Zolan
13th Feb 2007 07:20 UTCFranklin Roberts
Yes, I invited David and his dad to collect from a couple of my more "showy" pegmatites, Badu Hill and Petrick. Although they're only four miles apart, their mineralogy couldn't be more different. Badu Hill is a predominantly late-stage hydrothermally altered pegmatite while Petrick is more magmatic. Petrick is only a little over a mile south of the now inundated site of Baringer Hill, the most fabulous of them all.
Because the Badu Hill Pegmatite was highly altered by mineral-laden superheated water after it formed, the variety of minerals found there is just amazing. You can pick up a 1kg chunk of REM conglomerate there and identify up to 25-30 different minerals in it. It's not unusual to find fluorite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, titanite, hematite, magnetite, bornite, covellite, gadolinite, fergusonite, anatase, uraninite and about a dozen others, including gold and silver, in the same radioactive specimen. I'll try to post some site photos in my gallery within the next few days.
There is one sad note to report however, the current owner of the Badu Hill Pegmatite has informed me that he intends to fill in the excavation at Badu Hill. So far, there has been no date announced, but he did say that if I wanted to get anything from the pit that I ought to do it as soon as I can. I've offered to buy the 10 acres that encompass the pegmatite, but he refused to sell at any price. I think he intends to offer the entire 120+ acre site for sale to developers and the presence of a quarry on the property would sour the deal.
I wish that I could impress upon him just how unique and special a place he owns, but so far, he's not having any of it. I suppose I shouldn't complain though. He has granted me exclusive unrestricted access to the property since he bought the place a couple of years ago and refused to accept payment for it. I just hate to see the place become somebody's strip shopping center. As you can see, if you plan on accepting my invitation to do a little Texas peggin', you'd better think about doing it sooner than later.
Frank
Frank
19th Feb 2007 22:18 UTCScott and Angela Crumley
20th Feb 2007 04:17 UTCFranklin Roberts
Frank
27th Feb 2007 23:54 UTCBill Baker Barr
Are you sure it was sky blue selenite? I've seen blue celestine (aka celestite) from Austin, pretty nice crystals with darker blue terminations.
Speaking of Central Texas, I'm thinking of moving south and/or west to find a full-time teaching job after 3 years of subbing in Michigan. College Station is a possibility, although I'm also considering New Mexico, North Carolina and northern Florida. I got all discouraged about Texas when I realized it's over 500 miles from College Station to the Big Bend agate diggings. If I want to drive that far up here, I can go from Ann Arbor to the Keweenaw Peninsula! Is there hope for mineral collecting in Aggie country?
Bill
28th Feb 2007 00:00 UTCDavid Von Bargen Manager
15th Mar 2007 01:26 UTCChris Kaufman
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you are interested in mineral collecting around
> College Station, Arkansas is fairly close (at
> least as far as drivers in Texas are concerned).
> There are a number of areas for petrified wood in
> east Texas.
Hi David,
My wife and I have the opportunity to be in Austin this coming week and we love to rockhound (especially with the kids) every chance we get. I did some snooping on the net and found some threads that said Turkey Creek and Whites Creek in College Station are prime areas to find petrified wood. True? Are there any specific areas along the creeks that are best? What else could we find between Austin and College Station? Any tips/details would be very much appreciated. Thanks
Chris
18th Mar 2007 00:48 UTCBill Morgenstern Expert
Bill Morgenstern from Fort Frances, Ontario - CANADA
18th Mar 2007 23:27 UTCFranklin Roberts
Has a cat got climbing gear? Reply sent via PM.
Frank
19th Mar 2007 01:22 UTCHarold (Hal) Prior Expert
Other Celestite locales are Convict Hill just West of Austin, and several locales on Bull Creek, and highway 1&183 interchange. Be advised that collecting any minerals in Austin are now covered by a City Ordinance that forbids it and is considering a felony "Stealing City Property". I know of at least one case of a person collecting on private property with permission that was arrested and charged with stealing city property. Highway 1&183 was a great locale for a few months until and individual that I had warned 3 days earlier was badly injured by a several ton boulder requiring city rescue team to get him out. Very dangerous blast zone, in which I as and experienced collector was extremly cautious/nervous with overhangs. People would bring small children out and let them crawl around on the ledges. As a geologist i was able to get the construction foreman to take me on the site later, however , most of the Celestite areas were quickly covered. It produced and abundance of blue to with xls. many with associated golden calcite. (someday I will be able to post some pictures). Most were coated with a powdery white residue (strontium?), and many were partially resorbed/etched and many had small clusters of cream colored strontianite on them. I have lots of this stuff just as locale pieces since it is now permanently covered by concrete/steel and grass, plus heavy high speed traffic.
More on Bull Creek and Convict Hill in next messages I need to sign off for now. Every new roadcut in NW and E travis county is a potential bonanza. ......Harold Hal) Prior
19th Mar 2007 01:39 UTCHarold (Hal) Prior Expert
19th Mar 2007 01:48 UTCHarold (Hal) Prior Expert
19th Mar 2007 12:47 UTCHarold (Hal) Prior Expert
19th Mar 2007 15:59 UTCFranklin Roberts
It really puts a burr under my blanket when I think about the audacity of the Austin City Council in enacting a comprehensive ban on the collection of minerals within the city limits. Is this a joke? mineral collecting, even on your own land or on another's with permission, is considered theft of city property? WTF? I'm sorry to rant about this, but if everything on or below my land already belongs to the city, just what the hell am I paying property taxes on it for?
There is already ample precident including, I believe, a Supreme Court decision, that states that any act by a government entity that prevents a private landowner from enjoying the full use of his property, either through restrictive covenant or outright seizure, without fair compensation, shall be deemed unconstitunal. In other words, Mr. Mayor, if you aren't going to allow me to dig up that blue-capped celestine that keeps dinging my lawnmower, come see me, and bring your checkbook. This silly ordinance is open to attack from so many angles that it makes the Alamo look like Fort Knox.
The Travis County Commission has recently jumped on the land-grab bandwagon by passing a resolution to ban the use of metal detectors on all public property within the county. Outraged detector enthusiasts organized to put up such a stink that the Commission agreed to rubber stamp a motion to repeal the ban...That is, until the Texas Antiquities Commission jumped into the fray and obtained an emergency court injunction to leave the ban in force. Just to make sure that nobody on the County Commission entertained any notions of siding with their constituency, the TAC followed up on the injunction with a healthy dose of lawyerage, and the threat of mass sueage. The state Attorney General's office threatened to sue the beejezus out of Travis County should they go against the TAC by rescinding the ordinance.
So much for our "representative democracy". The people spoke, in a loud clear voice, and five faceless apointees that nobody elected, in an obscure office deep in the bowels of the state bureaucracy, decided that the people could go screw themselves. Well, at least the County Commision had enough sense to limit the scope of the ordinance to public property. They don't call this the People's Republic of Austin for nothing.
I can see the bumper stickers now, "I'll give up my rock hammer when they pry my cold dead fingers from the handle" or "As for me, give me micro acicular sprays of selenite on marcasite nodules, or give me death". I think I'm going to go dig up some chert in my backyard for a little flint knapping and dare the APD SWAT team to do something about it.
Frank
SIR! PUT DOWN THE CHISEL AND STEP AWAY FROM THE HOLE...DO IT NOW!
19th Mar 2007 17:13 UTCHarold (Hal) Prior Expert
I'm sure you have heard of the case in Lincoln national forest, New Mexico a few years ago where a group backbacked with tools back 4-5 hours into the mountains to collect smokies. After collecting for a period of time were suddenly surrounded by federal agents with automatic weapons (forget the nearby meth labs, stills, drug runners, and illegals - get those Smoky Quartz thieves for stealing federal property). The government took all the smokies (which they said would be taken back to the locale and dumped) and I believe later dropped or reduced the charges.
I lived many years with in sight of San Jacinto monument where Santa Anna met his demise at the hands of the "Yellow Rose of Texas" and a few loyal Texans. .....Hal P
19th Mar 2007 17:59 UTCDavid Von Bargen Manager
http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/santaanna.htm
19th Mar 2007 20:16 UTCAlan Plante
Alan
22nd Mar 2007 19:53 UTCBill Morgenstern Expert
Bill
16th Jun 2007 20:10 UTCheather smith
16th Jun 2007 23:15 UTCHarold (Hal) Prior Expert
17th Jun 2007 00:30 UTCDavid Aldridge
Regards,
David
18th Jun 2007 01:14 UTCFranklin Roberts
Call me at (512) 848-8309. I can escort you onto several private collecting areas where you and your sons can have a great time collecting minerals.
David, if you had told me you were going to be in town, I could have taken you to Badu Hill with me yesterday.
Frank
3rd Jan 2008 03:15 UTCsilvetta ann
and my granddaughter.
Please.
I'm stump'd......
I found one eighth to one half inch thick running layers of super clear glass-like sheets in a bluff around Aspermont, TX. They aren't totally flat like a pane of glass, they seemed to conform to the pressure of the rock pressing them above and below. It was so weird to see, I was stunned and mystifried, and that's note worthy. I dug out several pieces but most were in such HUGE heavy sheets I couldn't get them out. The land belongs to my daughter-in-law's family. They said the "stuff" is broken up in most creek beds and they don't think of it as anything special (anymore than sand). PLEASE tell me what you think it is. Could it the bastard offspring of an incandescent merging of diamonds and selenite? A glass company's 3 million year old dumpsite? WhaTha?
And...
is there any place that would be interesting, as far as minerals (or hidden diamonds) in the Abilene area we could go seek and find? We spend way too much time where the James crosses the Llano around Mason. I have a granddaughter that is growing into my rockhound shoes and I'm running out of places to take her.
I’m taking her to the Great Salt Plains Lake out side of Jet, Oklahoma this year, I wish I could find something like that close to Abilene. Lake Abilene just doesn't cut it when it comes to possible jewelry making stones, albeit there is some freaky-deekie rocks around that lake.
We are members of the rock club that's here in Abilene and we’re both learning how to slice and dice stones. She is only nine years old and this is the very first passion in her life, and I want to find more places that will keep her off the streets and digging in the dirt for several years. Thanks so much for taking anytime to respond. And, if it's too much to type to explain, call me 325.660.0659
Silvetta Ann,
Oklahoma born,
Texas raised....perfect.
4th Jan 2008 19:50 UTCBill Baker Barr
It's not exactly close to Abilene (except maybe by Texas definition of "close"?), but you should definitely take your young rockhound down to the Big Bend area. You can collect high quality agates, great for polishing, at the Woodward Ranch south of Alpine and the Stilwell Ranch south of Marathon. The Davis Mountains between Alpine and I-10 are beautiful volcanic terrain. Ask the nice lady at the Blue Agate Rock Shop in Fort Davis about local collecting, including down around Terlingua (and buy some beautiful Balmorhea agate). The Moonlight Gemstones shop in Marfa also has great local agates and other stuff, and may be able to advise on local collecting. That is just gorgeous country around there!
Happy hunting!
Bill Barr
27th Jan 2008 22:39 UTCTed Tower
I live in Dripping Spring,and have alot of marine fossils on my small piece of property.Thanks for any help you can give.
Ted Tower
30th Jan 2008 05:32 UTCBill Baker Barr
According to the Bob's Rock Shop website, there's a club in Waco: WACO GEM & MINERAL CLUB,
 PO Box 8811 (76714-8811),
 Meetings: 1st Monday, 7:30 pm, Richfield Christian Church 
Fellowship Hall, 4201 Cobb Dr.
There are also clubs fairly near to you (by Texas standards): in Austin, visit http://www.austingemandmineral.org/ and in Arlington, visit http://agemclub.org/
Texas is full of sedimentary rocks with fossils. For minerals, you're fortunate to live near the Llano Uplift, a great region for collectors, especially those interested in pegmatite occurrences - check out this thread for details and contacts. If you become interested in lapidary work, southern Texas has lots of petrified wood, and the Big Bend area is one of the premier agate-producing regions in the country.
Good luck, and welcome to our world, where being old enough to retire doesn't mean you have to stop acting like a kid!
Bill Barr
7th Feb 2008 20:56 UTCTed Tower
Thank you for the information. Got permission to go on a place just north of Lexington,Tx. Found some nice size pieces of petrified wood. Now I'll be looking for a place out near Big Bend.
Ted Tower
20th Feb 2008 03:29 UTCBill Morgenstern Expert
Bill
20th Feb 2008 21:40 UTCsparth sparth
i'm a 36 years old father of two kiddos, 8 and 4. french, living in Dallas. it's pretty difficult finding spots to go rockhounding with my older one. i'm still searching. mineral clubs are great but their goal is not really to give you GPS coordinates. :D
David Aldridge, your site is great: and it's exciting to see what you've found around the metroplex.
anyway if any of you guys know where to legally prospect, i'll be delighted to gather any infos:D
nicolas
21st Feb 2008 00:23 UTCFranklin Roberts
I will be otherwise occupied for the next couple of weeks, but will probably be open to taking collectors out to the uplift after then. I've had some problems with a couple of collectors returning to trespass after being allowed to collect at two of my sites recently. In at least one instance, this has put my access in jeopardy with the land owner. I will be installing new signs and fencing as well as other security measures because of this. Once these expensive improvements are in place, I will again be open to sharing my collecting sites with my fellow rockhounds on a probational basis. Should the problem continue, I'll be forced to reconsider my position on sharing my sites with other collectors. You know the saying, "No good deed goes unpunished".
Frank
21st Feb 2008 16:24 UTCsparth sparth
i think i'd freak out to the simple fact of being one someone else's property without any consent.
my only goal is to be able to bring my kiddo see what the whole thing is all about. he is amazingly passionate about rockhounding, i've never seen him being so fascinated about anything. and as a result, i'm slowly becoming as much addicted as he is. :D
we have the woodward ranch in mind, and we want to go as soon as we can, but unlike llano, it's a long drive from the metroplex. on the other hand there seems to be no public land at all in llano.
such a dilema!
nicolas - sparth
21st Sep 2009 03:03 UTCPaul Broyles
1) Convict Hill - significant non-crystallized white Strontianite in vugs with mud. One nice flower of crystals on ground at base. Verified with microscope. Several marine fossils, fwiiw.
2) Mt Bonnell - a little clear calcite in rock, a few nice grey heavy hunks of celestite loose on side of hill, one small nodule inside limestone near path, a couple of pieces of flint/chert, and a fair amount of crystalized strontianite in vugs which I left in place. Verified a small piece that was on ground below vug under microscope.
3) Mt Barker - uh, there is only a few feet of mountain left visible. Wouldn't waste my time. I did look one spot and see a vug filled with small greenish transparent crystals of some sort (unidentified). I assume the green is from the mineral, but I don't know.
On the way up from Houston I found some nice palm wood in a creek under a highway and some nice other opalized and silicified wood! Not sayin' where! Palm Wood is too hard for me to find, and this is about the only thing within reasonble driving distance from me here.
Since Frank graciously took my daughter and myself out several years ago, I've developed quite a passion for rockhounding. Hi Frank! I prefer to avoid central Texas because it is so developed (almost all private property) and so far from here. I've taken multiple trips to California, Colorado, and Arizona this year. In fact, tomorrow, I'll be working the Stifle Claims near Sacremento, CA tommow looking for green and purple Vesuvianite xls.
Hint: I've found four tools indespensible in this order: GPS, Stereo Microscope, UV lamp, and (to a lesser extent) geiger counter.
I ignore California serpentine, but I'd love to find some Texas serpentine and talc... Colorado and Arizona are great with all that BLM land and abandoned mines!
One other ?: Lake Buchanan is low. Is it low enough to find Baringer Hill or anything good out there. I found some graphic granite and some weird red orbs on quartz where the water is supposed to be, but nothing exciting...
Thanks,
Paul
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Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2024, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: April 23, 2024 16:10:24