Page 11 - Winter 2014 magazine
P. 11
This month’s book talk is about three books. Tur- Girls Who
quoise Unearthed by Joe Dan and Joe P. Lowry tells Looked Under
you everything you ever wanted to know about tur- Rocks is about
quoise, the gem of the southwest. Girls Who Looked six women natu-
Under Rocks by Jeannine Atkins features six stories ralists who were
about women whose talents and passion have helped not afraid to ex-
preserve nature. Nature’s Yucky! 2 by Lee Ann plore bugs and
Landstrom and Karen I. Schragg describes some of animals to deter-
the yuckiest creatures found in the desert. mine how each creature fits into our environment.
Their inspirational stories begin in 1647 when na-
The authors of Turquoise Unearthed operate the Tur-
ture artist Maria Sibylla Merian
quoise Museum in Albuquerque, New Mex-
was born in Germany.
ico. Called “sky stone” by the native culture
of the American Southwest, turquoise repre-
The final chapter is about Jane
sents health and happiness. Classified as a
Goodall who, like the other
semi-precious gemstone, it is made of cop-
five women in the book, re-
per and aluminum phosphate; the amount of
ceived support from her family
copper in the stone and the host rock deter-
enabling her to do work not
mine its color, from deep blue to light green.
usually done by a female. In
There are several turquoise mines in Neva- between we read about Anna
da. Closest to us are Lone Mountain Mine Botsford Comstock who be-
(not OUR Lone Mountain) and Pilot Moun- came the first woman professor
tain Mine, both in Esmeralda County. Tur- at Cornell University in 1895,
quoise was rumored to have been found in twentieth century biologist
the Red Rock Canyon National Conserva- Frances Hamerstrom, entomol-
tion Area, but the green rocks that were found ogist Miriam Rothschild and Rachel Carson who
around Oliver Ranch contained some copper ore but published Silent Spring in 1962 describing the
were not turquoise. harmful effects of pesticides. (Continued on page 14)
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