Moonlight Gemstones

Information may not be reliable

By Paul Graybeal
West Texas is famous for its wide variety of unique and beautiful agates and jaspers. Some types are highly prized by collectors world wide.
35 million years ago, volcanic activity in the Big Bend produced the environment for our beautiful gemstones. Quartz crystallizing as nodules
inside gas pockets, or in cracks to form vein type agate, delicate plumes, bands, moss or bouquet patterns of different colors are actually
crystals of impurities such as iron oxide, other oxides, hematite, etc. Agate and chalcedony is widespread throughout this region, but only a
small amount is of lapidary interest. Agate has been found south of Sierra Blanca, all the way down the Rio Grande, past Del Rio. I would
expect many unique varieties to be found throughout the Big Bend region in isolated pockets, as well as all the agate that was carried down
the Rio Grande to form fluvial deposits. Texas has no public lands to collect on, so there is still a lot to explore if permission can be obtained.
Red plume agate has been made famous by the Woodward Ranch, (432) 364-2271 as they offer agate collecting for a fee south of Alpine,
TX. Terri Smith in Alpine also offers field trips to the Walker ranch for a fee. She can be reached at (432) 837-3881 at the Antelope Lodge.
There are several types of agate besides red plume to be found on the Woodward Ranch, as well on other ranches close by. Black and
brown plume being the most common lapidary grade. Banded agate is fairly common in West Texas, near Alpine it is usually white, nearly
clear, but can be shades of red, purple or pink, often surrounding a plume. Yellow plume can be found, typically with much sugar,
(euhedral quartz) sometimes making it difficult to cut. There is orbicular agate found south of Alpine called peanut agate which can be quite
beautiful. Mostly of it a solid orange color inside the orbs, but peanut agate can also be formed of independent orbs of different colored
bands and small plumes in other orbs in the same stone. This type is difficult to cut as not all the orbs are always cemented together, or
some orbs may contain small geodes.
Most of the lapidary grade agate found south of Alpine is found in biscuit shaped nodules with a dark red skin. All most all types of agate
found in this lava flow can be found in these biscuits. About 10% will have a gemstone quality to them, or only 10% of the stone will have
something worth the labour to cut. It is rare a stone is full of a red/black plume, gem grade orbicular or colored bands. Many of the biscuits
did not fill the entire gas pocket, and had space to crystallize in a shape with bubbles, or botryoidal crystal. Most agate with this type of form
has plume inside the bubbles. Most true biscuits shaped agates have some euhedral quartz inside them, and some open up to become true
geodes. Flower garden agate is formed in cracks in the host rock, making it a vein type formation. Usually orange and red, made up of small
dense microscopic plumes is found in isolated pockets. This type should be considered as jasper as you cannot see through it, and I have
seen other locations such as in Mexico and Arizona that have similar deposits of flower garden.
Marfa Texas has some of the most beautiful agate in the world, In my opinion, though it does not seem that the best quality is very common in the agate beds I have been allowed to collect in. Made famous by Andy Burgard in the 1940s, pastel colors in "bouquet" patterns are the
most sought after by collectors. Marfa is host to huge agate fields, all around us are beds of large white and clear agates, (chalcedony) but
few agate beds seem to contain much of the colored material known as "bouquet". Most common in lapidary grade is a black plume or black
and yellow plume agate. It can be in a vary clear agate, or in a white fortification agate, often times calcite is included. Bouquet pattern can
be found with black plume in both white skin and black skin agate,as well as with all other types of agate found in this geological formation.
Most of the bouquet is a tan, orange or yellow color, red and purple colors are quite rare for Marfa. White skin is usually clear background,
black skin nodules can be dark or white banding background. The bouquet pattern is usually on the bottom, but can form on the entire
surface and point towards the center in small clusters. A lot of this agate is egg shell, thin coating of agate lining the gas pocket, often with
the botryoidal crystals. This usually is a good sign of quality plumes or bouquet. Black skin egg shell typically is black or blue and white
banding. In one location the black skin type is a tubes type agate, looking like stalactites inside some of the eggshell nodules.
Another famous location of agate in the Big Bend is needle peak, south of Terlingua. The Woodward ranch conducts tours there for green
moss and pompom agate. Beautiful pseudomorphs have been found here. Again there are many grades of agate, and some nice agate
replacement in wood and bone in the area.
Balmorhea is famous for their blue agate, banded often with black plumes. The skin is usually black with a white patina on the surface. It
appears to be fairly wide spread in isolated pockets northwest of the Davis Mountains. The Blue Agate Rock and Gift shop in Fort Davis has
a nice collection she is selling. Donna Trammell can be reached at (432) 426-2924. The Davis mountains has little agate I'm aware of, but
does have a lot of chalcedony roses. To the East of the Davis Mountains are deposits of agate, though not much of interest to serious
collectors that I'm aware of. I have seen pretty flower garden from the Sierra Blanca area.
There are many theories about agate formation. Some suggest a silicon gel, or silicon dissolved as a colloidal solution which saturates the
host rock. Quartz is water soluble at high temperatures, so as it cools It forms inside veins, gas pockets, or can replace other minerals as
pseudo morph, or fossils such as wood, bone and coral. No one theory explains all types of agate, and some like our "peanut agate" has no
theory at all that I have read about.

Custom hand made sterling silver jewelry
by Paul Graybeal of Marfa, Texas.

In 1989. He mainly creates
hand made custom silver jewelry for people who
come in to his shop (that 's

other type of jewelry . He
has also been collecting agates in west Texas since
1985, which he uses in his

Specializing in West Texas Agates and other rare gemstones