A location’s listing here is not a guarantee of accuracy. Though there are many locations listed here, this list is far from exhaustive. Specimens may become depleted from other collectors, the location may have been built on or altered, locality information in literature may be inaccurate, and property ownership may have changed hands. Please remember that rock collecting locations are constantly changing. For additional reading, I’d highly recommend these books you can find on Amazon: These are mostly comprised of beaches, old mining prospects, streams, and historically known rock and mineral collecting sites. Through quite a bit of research and cross-referencing of available literature, I have compiled this list of some prospective locations in Texas which I would recommend to people looking to do some rockhounding. If you’ve already found a rock or mineral and you’re not sure what it is, I’d highly recommend that you go take a look at my rock identification guide and my mineral identification guide which are filled with useful information and tools. The agates of West Texas and South Texas are notable for their ‘pompom’ and ‘bouquet’ varieties. Blue topaz can be sparingly found in central Texas. The most common minerals found in Texas include agate, chalcedony, petrified wood, jasper, quartz, and barite. Given the enormous size of the state, Texas is surprisingly lacking in its variety of minerals. North Texas and the panhandle are relatively devoid of good rockhounding sites. The best rockhounding locations in Texas are the gravel beds of the Rio Grande, the area around Big Bend, Mason County in central Texas, and a wide stretch of land stretching from south Texas to the Louisiana border. Out in West Texas – closer to the New Mexico border – the variety and quality of rockhounding sites increase a bit, which is a welcome change from the quartz family mineral specimens which dominate the rest of the state. Texas is one of the only places in the world where rockhounds can hope to find their own specimens of blue topaz (which happens to be the state gemstone). Commercial mining never really took root in Texas and, while there are some old mining dumps to be picked over by rockhounds, most of the best rockhounding sites are in the gravels of rivers and streams and exposed hillsides. Texas is not especially well known for its rockhounding but, despite its lackluster reputation in this area, there are still hundreds of prospective rockhounding locations to be explored.