Customer Reviews

Minerals, Fossils, and Fluorescents of Arizona: A Field Guide for Collectors

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a valuable resource for the amateur rock and mineral collector. It is an important update to the author's earlier book, Minerals of Arizona. The topo maps are clear and extremely valuable, and the GPS info should be of help to those who rely on modern technology. The question of access to sites on private land is addressed, although only minimally, especially in this age of increased interest in small-scale mining. Road and trail access to many of the sites is very difficult, and prospectors need to be very well prepared to visit many of them.

I have the older 1999 edition of this book, and even so, it is much better than Gem Trails of Arizona by Mitchell and FAR superior to Rockhounding Arizona by Blair.

It not only provides information about sites that one can actually collect at (unlike Blair, which describes many sites closed to the public), the maps are fantastic, the directions superb, and the difficulty in reaching, finding and collecting at each site is given in any easy to understand format. This is definitely my "go to" book when I want to get down and dirty with Arizona's minerals.

At some point, I'll have to get the updated version though, because some of the sites I've been to, while nice, appeared well picked over.

A very handy reference for Arizona rockhounds. There are plenty of worthwhile sites with good background info and good written directions to the sites.

The only (small) problem is with the GPS coordinates. Many of them are wrong - so don't just plug them into your GPS as waypoints and expect to get there! If you are planning on using your GPS, do a sanity check BEFORE going out, check your maps and verify the GPS position is correct first.

On the other hand, you really don't need a GPS at all - the written directions to the collecting areas are very good.

We have this book as well as his earlier book "Minerals of Arizona". These two books are by far the best field guides we have found for any state. We have used them for numerous sites. This book does not include the sites from his earlier book, so I would strongly suggest that you purchase both books if possible. The topo maps are so much better than a cartoon drawing if you actually want to find the site.

This book is exactly what we was looking for. All the locations has GPS settings which takes you right to the location.

I just got back from AZ looking for rock. This book was my guide. I was supposed to be gone a month, but came home after a week. Moswt of the places I attempted to go to are either not there or the roads do not exist any more. This info is now grossly outdated. As a matter of fact, in one place, I was standing at the GPS coordinates and the place was not there. I found much more material by accident than by using the book.

The book itself was everything I expected. The content was valuable for me, an amature rock hunter. Unfortunately within a week, before I ever got it out in the field, the color pages in the middle started falling out. I did not see any other reviews that metioned this problem, so it may be an isolated problem.

Good guide for rock hounds, covers a wide range of minerals, fossils, etc......haven't actually used this field guide, but from what I can tell it seems a lot more accurate/recent than some of the other field guides out there.