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Five Gem and MineralField Trips in theBarstow Area By CHARLES SILVERNAIL

In the "early days of rockhound-ing"—a decade ago—Desert Maga-zine's field trip stories and NortonAllen maps led countless hobbyistsinto new gem-mineral fields. After10 seasons of "overgrazing," many

of these fields are depleted—somewill never be. Here is a current re-port on five of these gem fields onthe Mojave Desert—four of whichare still productive and well worthyour visit.

(1) CALICO MOUNTAINS — Thesecolorful hills were one of the first Mo-jave Desert collecting areas to becomepopular with rockhounds, and todaythey yield just as much material asever, though you will have to workharder for it now.

Plan to spend no less than a weekend on this trip, first described byHarold O. Weight in Desert's January,1948, issue. In addition to your rockhunting you will want to see Calico,

Odessa Canyon, Phillips Drive andother scenic places. The area has sev-eral good campsites where you maytake a trailer. No firewood or water.Supplies may be obtained at Yermo.

From Barstow follow Highway 91east 11.4 miles, to just past the MarineCorps installation. Turn north on agraded road which makes a completeloop through Mule Canyon, returningto Highway 91 a couple of miles eastof Yermo. A trailer may be pulled

F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 6 0 39

••\.4f\

34 OBSIDIANNODULES

through the canyon — or you mayleave the trailer at one of the camp-sites while you prospect.

You can have an hour's profitablefun digging in the old Marion town-site smelter dumps. You will beamazed at the beauty of some of thepieces of slag you will find (and youcan cut the stuff). Don't neglect thesmaller pieces. Fine bits of costumejewelry can be made by cleaning andapplying fingernail polish to thesespecimens.

Two miles farther up the road isCathedral Rock (the old mule campof Borate days)—an excellent camp-site. The road makes a "Y" at thispoint—take the right fork through thecanyon. A little over two miles upthe canyon a poor road leads to thedumps of the old borate mines on thehillside. These dumps still yield crys-tals of colemanite and selenite.

A short distance farther on is TinCan Alley—a famous rockhound lo-cale with an infamous name. At AgateHill agate with some sagenite can bedug up—but it takes a lot of hardwork. Today, the best material isfound in the west-end of the valley.These specimens are in veins runningalong the ridge that forms the valley'swest wall, and in the hill directlynorth. Again much hard climbing anddigging is necessary to get out themoss agate, sagenite and blue agatethat "grows" here.

A mile east of Tin Can Alley is the"old palm diggings." This area ispretty well depleted, but an occasionalnice piece of palm root comes from

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here. The main palm wood diggingstoday are a mile east of the old loca-tion. Here a road leads south arounda fenced area guarding an old mineshaft. The palm is mixed with chertand it takes hard digging to remove it,but it's there.

(2) BAGDAD OBSIDIAN — "GrayJewels of Bagdad," Harold Weightcalled these beautiful little obsidianiteswhen he first reported their presencenear, Bagdad in the November, 1949,issue of Desert. And gray jewels theyare—and smoky and black, too. Afteryears of being picked over by rock-hounds there appears to be just asmany of the nodules today as ever,though the best collecting area nowseems to be closer to the lava hills thanindicated by Weight.

On the day I visited this field it waspretty rough going the last couple ofmiles, as a recent flash flood hadwiped out all evidence of any trails orroad up the bajada. By now, how-ever, new trails probably have beenmade—but those last miles are bestcovered by jeep or afoot.

To reach the area, travel a half-mileeast on 66 from Bagdad. A fair desertroad angles off north across the rail-road. Just past the tracks the roadforks. Take the left branch to thepoleline and gas-pipe line. Here turnsharp left and follow this trail for .6of a mile. Turn right under the poleline. A few yards north will bringyou to the faint trace of the old mineroad running northeast. A jeep cannegotiate this road for a mile or so,but if you are in a standard car, lookfor signs of trail leading north towardthe lava hills. A good driver, avoidingthe soft washes and bigger boulders,can make it up the bajada. The hillsto the north and west hold some niceopalite.

(3) SOUTHERN CADY MOUNTAINS—

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This area has long been a favorite withrockhounds. Today, just as much ma-terial (perhaps more) is being foundas when Harold Weight first told Des-ert readers about the Southern Cadysin December, 1948. Agate of all kinds—fortification, moss, jasp-agate, chal-cedony in all grades from excellent tobad, quartz crystals; celestite and flu-

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orescent calcite — is found here inabundance.

Leaving Highway 66 at Ludlow, gonorth on the Crucero Road to the edgeof the dry lake bed. Follow the westside of the lake to where a coffee cannailed to a stake indicates the turnoffto the left leading to the collectingarea.

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from here on for about five miles thetrail is winding and rough in places,although any standard car can makeit. The trail is easy to follow.

The road branch at the 10.5 milemark is no longer visible. Anothercoffee can marks the road branch at11.8 miles, but it is advisable to leaveyour car at this point and do yourprospecting on foot. The whole areafor several miles is excellent rockcountry.

(4) PISGAH JASPER—This easy-to-reach area, described in the January,1946, Desert by John Hilton in a storytitled "Jasper Enough for Everybody"appears today very much the same asit did 14 years ago. One would thinkthat rockhounds had never heard ofthe place—but they have.

Leaving Highway 66 a few feet eastof milepost 114, a good desert roadleads south right to the collecting field.The best collecting is done on the lowhills to the east and west of the roada short distance south of the new gas-pipe line. Jasper, in all its beautifuldesert colors, some agate and chalced-ony can be picked up as float. Theonly advice to be given here is to"high-grade" the stuff. There is still"jasper enough for everybody."

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This area, described by Harold Weightfor Desert readers in the November,1954, issue, is not recommended asthe object of a field trip today. Naturehas not been able to turn, out polishedstones as fast as the rockhounds havepicked them up. An hour's searchmay or may not produce a few stones.The area described by Weight is di-rectly opposite Pisgah Crater rightalong Highway 66. The road into thearea mentioned in the 1954 article,is not found today, so you will haveto park along the highway and walkinto the field.

Another area producing the sametype of material—and in just aboutthe same amounts—is a few miles weston the highway, at milepost 110 wherethe lava appears to be flowing acrossthe road. Here small pieces of thelava have become semi-polished. Thesebits of rock make novel pieces of jew-elry when coated with nailpolish.—END

Note: Maps accompanying this articleappeared with the original Desert Mag-azine field trip reports on these areas.Road conditions have changed in somecases. Consult text—and always makelocal inquiry before driving the desertback roads.

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F E B R U A R Y , 1 9 6 0 41