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Marfa Agates South of Marfa, Presido Co., Texas |
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The Marfa agates have
been found along the roadcuts south of Marfa, Texas for several decades
and they still can be found today due to erosion. Those agates tend to
be colorless to white "Waterline" types, and they appear to have been weathered
out of the basalt beds atop the white ash layers. Since grassy Big Bend
of Texas is prime for cattling, much of the land beyond the fences are
private cattle ranches where better agates can be found. But anyone are
strongly discouraged to cross the fences into the private lands due to
the safety concerns for the cattle (expensive to manage!) and there are
some armed ranchers willing to use you as "target practices".
Even the agates from Marfa were known for several decades, the agates with strong blue to black colors have recently emerged from the private lands, and I can't recall any other agates outside the Big Bend of Texas coming with such strong color combation of black, white and blue. The only way I can obtain those agates was to trade with Paul Graybeard of Moonlight Gemstones who was given a special permission to collect on the private ranches in exchange for producing lapidary jewelry out of them for the ranch owners. What makes those agates even more special is that some agates contain what may be most colorful plume structures in any agates around the world. The plumes in the agates are typically black, but the pink, red, orange, yellow, green and even blue plumes have been found. Some plume agates can contain the combo of different colors, earning their nickname: "Marfa Banquet" Agate. |
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| This is a typical "WaterLine" Agate found
along the roadcuts south of Marfa. |
This one is theonly blue agate I have found
along the roadcuts so far. |
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Typical bluish Marfa agate |
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| Classic Black and Blue Color Combo | Typical bluish Marfa agate | |
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| Classic Black and White Color Combo | ||
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| Bluish agate with brownish plume structures. |
Click on to See the Gallery of Marfa Plume Agates
You can see some Marfa Agates for Sale at the Online Agate & Thunderegg Shop