Becky Wivagg

Woodward Ranch

N30.08’  W103.35’

Elevation:  4782 feet

 

Woodward Ranch, 16 miles south of Alpine, Texas, was established in 1883 as a cattle ranch.  Today the property is open for rock and mineral collecting with permission.  Even though there have been several separately identified volcanic extrusions in the southern Davis mountains area of west Texas, there is only one formation which is the true source of the famous Woodward Ranch Red Plume agates.  This formation consists of seven separately identified lava flows.  Geologically, the overall area consists of a series of lava flows which, over an extended period of time, deposited several layers of lava and ash material throughout the Davis mountains area in the Tran-Pecos region of west Texas. Some of these lava flows (from about 35 million years ago) contained gases which generated the gas pockets in which downward-moving silica-bearing, low-temperature ground water deposited agates as a silica gel.  This gel in each cavity, or gas pocket, when reacting with the particular chemicals and minerals in the cavity lava walls touching it, upon solidification, determined which of the varieties of agate would develop in that cavity.

 

Riding into Woodward Ranch we saw hills surrounding sandy soil supporting low scrub, and small rocks everywhere.  Seeing a few cows scattered across the land, I asked Trey Woodward how many acres it took on his ranch to sustain one cow.  He answered that he had 120 cows at this time, including longhorns, on the 3000 acres because each cow needs 18 acres.  And what about horses?  He has only one ranch horse, a palomino, to handle the herd.  But we came to look for agates (a hard, semi-precious variety of chalcedony having various tints in the same specimen).  A rock hound’s paradise is the best name for the area stretching from Alpine to the Rio Grande .  As the 3 vans emptied, we went into the rock shop and explored, gathered buckets, and headed out in the vans again with Trey as a guide.  I wonder if we are going to find some of those beautiful agates like the ones in the rock shop?  He led us to an area a few miles away on his ranch that was flat, rocky, sandy and surrounded by hills which once carried volcanic lava flows. Since the lava flows occurred during different time periods, the agates were of different colors.  A partial list of what we are going to be looking for are all colors of plume, flower garden, moss, banded, iris and picture agate.  Geodes, opal, amethyst, labradorite, chalcedony, and fluorescent calcite can also be found.  We scattered out with our buckets and everyone had developed their own technique in finding them.  Trey, Keith and Diane Brownlee helped each of us locate specimens.  Trey showed us how to find the “little brown biscuits” that held the Red plume not found anywhere else in the world, and the beautiful, clearish yellow, labradorite .  I was so excited to find both samples!  Some educators sought the “perfect” specimens, while others loaded up their buckets leaving no rock behind!  Another educator picked specific specimens in groups of 4 for her classroom pods.  I was so excited that I crawled around on the ground, sorting special quartz crystals, agates of different colors into different pant’s pockets, along with the 8 lbs. of rocks in my bucket.  We couldn’t wait to get back to the Rock Shop and see if any of our calcite glowed different colors (peach or green) under the fluorescent light (it did!).  The lava that produced these gemstones are up to 750 feet thick here at Woodward Ranch.  Trey said you see a new batch of rocks after every rain.  I can’t wait to bring my grandchildren to this place…is it raining yet?