Topaz on Rhyolite (ex Willard Wulff Collection)

Item Description

A classic Topaz from the well known locality at Ruby Mountain in Colorado. This piece features a handful of sharp, lustrous, pale sherry colored (nearly colorless), thin, prismatic crystals of Topaz measuring up to 4 mm on beige Rhydolite matrix. According to mindat.org "Ruby Mountain is a topaz rhyolite emplacement located about one mile northeast of Nathrop Colorado. The site containing the most minerals is the west slope. At one time this site was accessible to collectors for a small fee, however, the site has been sold and the new owner now prohits collecting. Some garnet crystals can still be found on the slopes in the publicly accessible areas and perhaps with some work an area containing topaz and the other minerals can be found". A nice representation of this hard to find classic material. This piece comes from the collection of Willard W. Wulff (1904-1998) of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a prominent figure and collector of Colorado minerals. Wulff was one of the founding members of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society in 1936. You can read Willard's bio on the Mineralogical Record website here ( http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=1528 ). Wulff collected this piece personally, as you can see from the label.