Anyone Know What Minerals And Fossils Abound In New Mexico?

[fossiljunkie]

hey everyone,

i may have the ability in the future to have access to surface minerals and fossils in new mexico during vacations. i was wondering if anyone knew about the possibilities for fossils and minerals in these particular counties and areas.

any input would be greatly appreciated and i thank everyone in advance.also if anyone knows if these counties may be a former native american area please let me know. just wondering if there might be chances of finding native artifacts also.

these are the areas i would have access to:

80 acres in the caballo mountains in sierra county

80 acres in the peloncillo mountains in hidalgo county

Edited October 19, 2010 by fossiljunkie

[fossiladdict]

Let me check with my dad...we just met a guy that had some awesome quartzlike material (it wasn't quartz tho) and he said you could pick it up by the ton in New Mexico. Very pretty stuff. I can't remember where he said it was located in N. Mexico tho....let me check.

[fossiljunkie]

Let me check with my dad...we just met a guy that had some awesome quartzlike material (it wasn't quartz tho) and he said you could pick it up by the ton in New Mexico. Very pretty stuff. I can't remember where he said it was located in N. Mexico tho....let me check.

thank you very much.

[fossiljunkie]

Remember, of course, that without a special permit one must not collect archeological specimens ("native artifacts") from public (administered by the Bureau of Land Management--BLM), state or federal lands--for example, a few of the more obvious places off-limits to unauthorized archeological artifact collecting include: state parks, indian reservations, national forests, wilderness areas, areas of critical environmental concern, national monuments and national parks. See the BLM link over at http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/CRM/paleontology/fossil_collecting.html for all the legal details.

Before visiting potential fossil-bearing areas, be sure to obtain from the BLM their latest state maps; such documents will clearly delineate the boundaries of public lands, within which one is allowed to collect and keep "reasonable amounts" of common invertebrate and plant remains (leaves, seeds, cones, twigs and petrified wood, for example)--but, you must not sell, trade, or barter any such paleontological remains collected on public lands.

Paleontological specimens that lie within national forests potentially present a special challenge to collectors; often, specific districts allow fossil gathering without a permit--others do not. Probably it's best to check with the district ranger in charge of the national forest one wishes to investigate--obviously, a special permit might be required to collect there. Also, be aware that New Mexico includes several Indian Reservations, where any kind of collecting is strictly forbidden without special approval from the individual tribal councils.

http://inyo2.110mb.com/sf/sailorflat.html

My web site, "Paleobotanical Field Trip To The Sailor Flat Hydraulic Gold Mine, California." It's a page I created to detail a field trip I attended with the Far West Geoscience Foundation to a classic fossil plant locality in the Middle Eocene aurifierous gravels (gold bearing--usually considered proximal deposits--nearest the original source of the gravels--of the Middle Eocene Ione Formation) exposed at a long-abandoned hydraulic gold mine in the western foothills of California's Sierra Nevada. The abundant fossil leaves, seeds, fruiting and flowering structures occur in so-called "chocolate shales"--that is, shales which weather to shades of chocolate--exposed by hydraulic miners in the mid to late 1800s. Additionally, common to abundant petrified wood weathers out of the pebble-cobble-rich auriferous gravels, proper.

hello thanks, there wouldn't be any areas of state park or state forest just blm land that i would have obtained permission to look. thanks again.