A Personal Interest

As a mineral collector of some 80 years, my main interest has always been crystallized specimens with only a modest interest in lapidary specimens. That interest was stimulated a couple of decades ago when my good friend and mineral dealer, Benny Fenn, brought out quantities of banded jasper from a new locality in the mountains of western Mexico. The deposit was found by gold prospectors working high in the Sierra Madre Occidental. The deposit was so remote there were no roads and the jasper had to be brought out on the backs of mules. The e ort was worth it as the jasper is beautifully patterned and colorful.