The departure point of the Villa Capri Motor Hotel may be gone, but the geologic information within Guidebook Number 3 remains relevant to this day:  "The four stops of this field trip are in the Upper Eocene (Jackson) and Oligocene volcanic ash and bentonite beds, which crop out about

In recent years, exploration and mining of uranium have become a significant part of the Texas mineral scene, with Texas emerging as a leading uranium-producing state. At the end of 1970, Texas ranked third in reserves among the states, with ore reserves of 6.6 million tons.

Five main depositional systems of the Jackson Group in Texas are delineated through regional outcrop and subsurface investigation.

Uranium minerals have been found at several localities in west Texas. In the King Mountain area in southwestern Upton County carnotite forms coatings along joint planes and in borings in marineCretaceous limestone.

Uranium was discovered near Tordilla Hill in Karnes County, south-central Texas, in the fall of 1954, in the upper part of the Jackson formation of late Eocene age.

The Catahoula Formation of the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain consists of two depositional systems--the Gueydan bedload fluvial system of the Rio Grande embayment and the Chita-Corrigan mixed load fluvial system of the Houston embayment.

The Catahoula Formation is composed of ancient fluvial sediments that controlled a wide range of water/sediment interactions responsible for uranium mobilization, transportation, and concentration.

The environmentally sensitive trace elements molybdenum, arsenic, and selenium are concentrated with uranium in ore deposits in South Texas. Cattle grazing in some pastures in mining areas have contracted molybdenosis, a cattle disease resulting from an imbalance of molybdenum and copper.