Brief Book Reviews by Dan Zellner

The Frugal Collector, Bob Jones

Written by Carnegie Award winning author Bob Jones. Bob has written for Rocks and Minerals magazine since 1959 with over 600 freelance articles in various publications to his name. The book focuses on giving an overview of occurrences of collector quality minerals organized by species/class along with interesting stories relating to historical events in the mineral collecting world. Well written and easy to read, this book features hundreds of color photographs of minerals throughout. If you have never read a book about mineral collecting before this would be my #1 recommendation of a place to start.

Natures Garden of Crystals, Vandall T. King

Written by a group of some of the best known contemporary mineral dealers. This books features a plethora of stunning full page color plates of “fine minerals”. The book gives a brief overview of collecting philosophy based primarily on aesthetics with minor concessions to rarity. The book does an excellent job visually illustrating what “quality” mineral specimens look like. Overall very heavy on visual illustrations and a little light on text which makes it quite an easy read.

Silverton Gold, Allan Bird

Written by Alan Bird, the general manager of the Sunnyside Mine from 1971-1977, this book tells the fascinating chronicle of one of the largest underground gold mines in the state of Colorado. The writing style is easy to read, the historical research is very thorough in its depth, and there are a good number of fascinating black and white historical photographs from across a wide span of the mines life. The narrative covers everything from the initial discovery of gold in 1860 by the Baker Party though the end of the mine life in 1991. With over 100 miles of tunnel driven, 7 million tonnes of ore produced, and 1 tillion dollars of gold production in 1991 prices this mine truly is a marvel of geology and engineering. If you have any interest in gold mining, Colorado, or mining history I would highly recommend this book.