| Gem Trails of Texas
By Brad L. Cross
Gem Guides Book Co., Baldwin Park, CA
Softcover, color, 6" x 9", 167 pages, $12.95.
Reviewed by June Culp Zeitner
 Good
News. There are still great places to collect fine minerals, gem materials, and
fossils in Texas. Brad Cross, native Texan and a collector since childhood, now
a geologist, tells us where and how. Brad was even a friend of the first Texas
Gem Trails book author, Bessie Simpson.
The book is divided into six regions: Trans-Pecos, Central, Panhandle, North,
Southeast, and Southwest. Each section has accurate, full-page maps and numerous
black-and-white pictures. There is also a color section with 15 pictures of interesting
and vivid Texas specimens.
Since I know Texas quite well, I’ll only comment on a few of my favorite
areas, which Brad has described exceptionally well, and which I hope all serious
collectors will make time to visit. The first is Balmorhea blue. The most beautiful
blue agate I ever saw was from the Lake Balmorhea area, a site I visited years
ago. Brad says there is a fee area there now and tells about aesthetic variations
of these agates. He also tells of the State Park campground which he rightly names
an “oasis.”
The second outstanding area is the tremendous agate country near Alpine and
Marfa, and south to the Mexican border. Brad describes the destinctive pom pom
and thistle agates of Needle Peak as well as the historic Woodward plume.
Another fabulous Texas collecting area is for the State Gem, blue topaz, which
occurs in several sites in the hill country near Mason. Brad maps and lists the
fee basis ranches which have a variety of pegmatite minerals.
The petrified wood found in most of southeast Texas is often elegant, agatized
palm. Probably the rarest of Texas treasures, according to the author, is the
occurrence of the mysterious space objects, tektites. Hard to find, but most Texas
collectors are not satisfied until they find at least one.
A region with surprising agate is along the Rio Grande in extreme south Texas.
Many kinds of agate from distant spots along the river, being harder than most
gravels, have found their way toward the delta of this once mighty river. Water-worn
and caliche-covered, they are sometimes difficult to identify — so there
are plenty just waiting to be found on ranches (with permission, of course) and
along the roads.
The author includes lists of Texas clubs, museums, sources of information,
and a glossary which includes some original Texas-style names. This is a comprehensive
book about the largest of our contiguous states, and one of the most productive
for collectors interested in gems, minerals, and fossils. Brad Cross is also author
of The Agates of Northern Mexico.
June Culp Zeitner, who has been writing for the Lapidary Journal since 1956 and
joined the editorial staff in 1967, is the author of nine gem and mineral books,
and helped start the National Rockhound and Lapidary Hall of Fame.
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