My apologies to everyone for not emailing you sooner concerning rockhunts this fall and winter. I’ve been working on several projects, which are, of course, proceeding more slowly than I had planned. For the last few months I’ve been waiting for an appointment that will finally happen at the end of this month. After that there will need to be more appointments, each with a number of variables which can go wrong, thus pushing back schedules even farther.
I was going to wait to send this email until I had something solid to tell you about my rockhunt schedule, and what I have is a lot of conjecture and an inability to plan a schedule for fall and winter.
So the only thing ‘solid’ in my schedule is that I won’t be leading rockhunts this fall, and probably not this winter, either. Unless things change materially, however, I will be leading rockhunts next March and April.
Aaron Thomas and Jean Larremore are leading hunts in the Big Bend region this Fall and winter. You can get ahold of them through the Facebook group “Texas Rockhounds” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/775245782823113). You can PM them on Facebook and get an answer fairly quickly. I recommend them highly. You’ll have a great time and find great rocks whenever you go with them.
I miss seeing y’all back there, and I hope to see a lot of you when I’m there in the Spring. As I’ve done in the past few years, I’ll be holding my hunts Thursdays, Fridays, and Mondays, which are usually the days when neither Aaron nor Jean has another hunt. That way you can have a longer set of hunts and not have to choose between two ranches on any given day.
I’ll still be leading hunts to the Ritchie Ranch, the South Larremore Ranch, and East Needle Peak.
I’ll also have buckets of agate for sale. I’ve got about 400 buckets left, so there ought to be something you’d like to have in that selection. Since I’m not in Texas, I don’t have access to the buckets right now to show you photos or sell you something. I can, however, update my online inventory, and I hope to do that in the next week or so.
Be safe, y’all and have a great holiday season! I’ll let you know pretty soon what my schedule for the spring will be (probably as soon as I know Aaron’s & Jean’s schedules for the spring).
Hi y’all! It’s Fall, and with the cooler weather comes opportunities to hunt for agate and other collectible rocks in the Big Bend Region.
In a “normal” year I’d be attaching a schedule of my field trips to this email. But 2021 is not a normal year. COVID is still with us, and it’s still killing people. And we have no clue to what the long-term aftereffects of even a mild case may be.
I came out to California in May. Here in California there’s a mask mandate, and the rate of COVID infection is 25 people per 100k. In Texas, it’s 56 people per 100k. Since my #1 goal this year is not getting COVID, it makes sense for me to stay where the infection rate is much lower. So as of now I’ll stay out here. I’ll check in the middle of October whether the rate in Texas has gone down, and then decide if I’m coming back for November.
So while I may get back to Texas in time to lead field trips in November, it’s also possible that I won’t come back this Fall and Winter at all.
By the way, the photo above is from Patrick’s Point State Park in California, where they encourage you to pick up the agate and jade you find on the beach and take it with you. But you have to hike back up a cliff with it, so you end up being quite selective.
Until then, please consider Aaron Thomas’ field trips to the 06 Ranch, the Larremore Ranch, and Needle Peak. They are wonderful. I’ve attached his schedule to the bottom of this email and will put it on my website.
I’ll also be selling rocks when I get back there. I have 400 or so buckets yet to sell or sort through to pick out the best material to sell. I hope to make several more sorted Singleton buckets and Walker Ranch buckets out of the things I have left. Then I’ll sort and sell some smaller lots of things and perhaps special individual rocks, and the equipment I decide not to take with me to California.
I hope all of you are healthy and doing well in this unsettled year. I’ve done some rock hunting in California, and had fun, but a lot of the places I’ve wanted to go have been closed due to the wildfires or the concern that new wildfires could break out and there would be no firefighters left to put them out. The largest fire, the Dixie fire, is almost a million acres, and has been burning for over two months.
I miss seeing a lot of you and keeping up on what’s going on in your lives, going out with y’all to the beautiful ranches, and getting to see the lovely things you find. But when COVID recedes and we can gather in groups again without concern, the rocks will still be out there, waiting to be discovered. I look forward to that day.
Note: For details about attending one of these incredible hunts, see the note at the end of this post.
The hunt at the 06 was amazing. We drove north of Alpine on 118 for a ways, out onto the flat valley. We turned right into a dirt road, and drove east on dirt roads for about half an hour. We stopped at a huge valley with a pipe-and-wire corral in the middle of a lovely set of mountains. This was a new place Aaron and James had only hunted once before. The hills were similar in height to the bluffs at the Walker Ranch, and of course steeper in some places than others. There were outcroppings of basalt here and there.
There were 9 or so rockhunters on the trip (I believe 10 is the limit) and we were pointed to a hillside about half a mile long. We could fan out enough that we would have not been able to see each another. Aaron & James handed each of us a walkie-talkie to use, and since it’s deer season, we were loaned bright fluorescent vests to wear.
At the bottom of the hills, there was a field of rocks about grapefruit to football size. There were agate and quartz crystal pieces in those fields, partly buried in many cases. As you went up the hills, they got rockier, and in some places there was grass stubble between the rocks. Now and then you’d find a patch that had several good sized agates on the surface, and more partially buried. In between those patches were smaller sized agate and quartz crystal pieces and some small nodules that were interestingly colored and otherwise marked on the outside. There were lots of worked pieces and evidence of a native American campsite. We had been advised to go around the campsites when we found them, and although the one I saw was full of broken agate and jasper pieces, there was enough good stuff all over the hills to make it easy to bypass the camp sites.
Some of the agate and jasper there looked
like material from the Ritchie. The dominant agate was
yellow/gold/brown moss in a background of cream, white, or blue
chalcedony.
The moss patterns varied from filaments of gold in lacy patterns, to
larger patches and islands of moss, to patterns as dense as the flower
garden moss from the Walker Ranch. There was enough of it on the surface
of the part of that hillside where I was hunting to fill up the beds
of several pickups. And the gold moss was ubiquitous: you would go
into and out of areas with other types of agate, but you never got far
away from the moss agate.
Along
with the gold moss on that hillside there was red moss, black plume in
cream and blue backgrounds, occasional pieces of red and gold moss, and
some really neat stuff that they call “crayola”. It looks like the
opalized agate that we found on the Ritchie, with much smaller opalized
bits in a chalcedony background, often in a regular pattern. There were
small and big pieces of that, some partly buried and a lot on the
surface. Many had surface pits that were in a regular pattern, as if
there had been filaments of aragonite or another material in the cavity
as the agate formed. Some of the prettiest colors were lavender, maroon
and mauve. I didn’t seen any ‘rind’ on any of the pieces, so they
probably came from a large seam somewhere up the mountain.
We had 3 hours there and I probably picked up 100 lbs of what I thought
was good material. Aaron wandered around collecting full bags and
buckets, which he carried back down to the cars for us. Since I don’t
carry a rock hammer, he helped me get a couple of large pieces of the
‘crayola’ agate out of the ground, then carried them down for me. On
the way back down to the cars, I followed Aaron to another part of the
hill, which was covered with beautiful quartz crystal specimens. I
picked up some individual crystals that were at least 3” long, by far
the biggest I’ve found on any of the ranches. There were lovely crystal
on agate specimens sticking out of the ground everywhere! This was one
place where I didn’t mind picking up gold moss agate!
I didn’t get to see what everyone else found, so I have no idea what was
on the rest of the hill. We got back to the car a bit late, with Aaron
carrying all sorts of nice things for me. Everyone else on the trip
were people I had taken on fieldtrips, and everyone was excited by what
they had found. Some of them were making their second special trip to
Alpine from Houston, Schertz and San Antonio to hunt for one exciting
day.
Then we drove back the way we’d come for a
while, and took a different branch of one of the roads. In about 20
minutes we were at an area that was the other side of the mountain we
had hunted before. The valley we were in now was not very wide, and
there was supposed to be good agate basically everywhere.
There was a dry creek in the bottom of the valley, and since I was
looking for the ladies’ room, I wandered into the brush in the
creekbed. There were a lot of large pieces of blue chalcedony, some
quite vivid, with gold moss or plume in them. There were different
colors of blue and grey in fortification patterns or bands, and one had a
red coating inside, all over the botryoidal surface, but only on the
surface. I found several nice pieces of tube agate: one was blue with
blue quartz crystals on the outside of the tubes, another was blue with
black and grey fortification lines at the ends of tubes and then around
several tubes. That one had gold moss that looked like it was in the
middle of the tubes on one side that was broken obliquely to the
pattern. There were also several small pieces that were spectacular!
Although there was supposed to be agate up on both hillsides of the
little valley, I never got very far up the hills. I stayed in the creek
bed for a while, then ventured only a little ways up each hillside. On
one hillside I found several large nodules (the size of one of Johnny’s
croissant sandwiches) that were orange or yellow chalcedony throughout
and really big compared to the ones I found at the Ritchie and the
Walker. I also found some pieces off a large seam agate that had a
dense pattern that included red, blue, black grey and gold, and appears
to have some plume in it.
It was there that I came across the only annoyance of the day, in the
form of an individual bee that wanted me to turn around and leave. The
bee hovered around my face and hands for several minutes until I got the
hint. Since I’m really allergic to bee stings, I took his advice and
wandered away from there. Full grown human: 0, Bee: 1.
The other hillside had some blue botryoidal pieces with crystals, a
couple of nice red moss pieces, and my trip rock: a long, narrow nodule
of tube agate with the edges broken off in several places. The
chalcedony at the outer edge of the nodule was stained yellow and
orange., and only part of the nodule was filled in around the tubes. In
the lower part of the nodule, which was solid, there were filaments of
pink that went to maroon and gold. The other end of the nodule was
quartz crystal covered tubes.
We hunted there for another 3 hours, got back to the cars at 5 p.m., and
the rocks were weighed up. I had 153 lbs., which included a very large
piece of gold moss that was covered on one side with quartz crystals.
If it weren’t for the help of Aaron and James in carrying my rocks back
to the vehicle, I wouldn’t have gotten a third as much.
Today as I was washing the rocks and sorting them, I’ve found about 10
lbs. that, in retrospect, I should have left there. But first thing in
the morning you don’t know what you’ll find later, and when you’re
finding good stuff and having it carried back to the car for you, you
don’t take much time to high grade.
My total adventure cost $213: $60 entrance fee and $153 for rocks. Was
it worth it? Oh yes! It was exhilarating, hunting on ground that had
not been hunted much before. It will be years before that particular
hill runs out of large pieces, and there are hundreds and hundreds of
hills on that ranch. Aaron and James and the other guys that were there
to help dig and carry were helpful and nice. Aaron explained a bit of
the geology to us before we started in the morning, and told us where we
should find better material. I’ll admit I didn’t understand much of
the geological information he was telling us, but his advice on where to
find the good stuff was similar to what we had been practicing on the
Walker, Singleton and other ranches. And the good stuff was indeed
there. I’ve been on a lot of field trips (over 1000 when I quit
counting), and this is one I’ll remember for many years. I’m going back
again in 2 weeks.
Regards,
Teri
Note: The rockhunts on the 06 Ranch are being led by Aaron Thomas and
James Winn VI. They begin at the Tri-La-Bite food trucks in Alpine.
They currently happen only on Sundays, and are limited to 10 rockhounds
per hunt. As of publication time, all hunts scheduled through 1/31/21
are full, and a new schedule for the Spring will be published in
February. Once that schedule is published, I will try to schedule my
rockhunts to other ranches (if indeed I am leading any) around the 06
hunts so you can come out to the Big Bend and go on hunts ion 4
different ranches in 4 days. If you have any questions about the hunts,
you can reach Aaron Thomas at noraathomas@msn.com or
roadcutgeology@yahoo.com
Hi y’all! I’m back in Alpine, Texas, in time to start field trips next week. Before the fieldtrips start, there are a couple of things I’d like to tell y’all about.First, I’ve added a new hunt on Sunday, 11/15 to East Needle Peak. Starts at 8 a.m. at Tri-la-Bite, and is $40 per person. Email me if you wish to attend.Second, for all hunts, COVID protocols will be in place: wear a mask when people are gathered, or when you are carpooling with someone you don’t live with. Wash hands with hand sanitizer (bring your own), and social distance at least 6 feet. I’m afraid that means no hugs! Mask wearing is required for the fieldtrips: you must wear a mask or you don’t go on the field trip. I’m in a high-risk group (age 65, moderate emphysema), and I really want to live through all this so I can have another 35 years or so to rockhunt. Aaron’s a bit younger than I am, so he will have another 60 years of rockhunting ahead of him, which y’all don’t want to miss!
The remaining rockhunts for March and April, 2020, have been
cancelled because of the public health directives issued by the Brewster County
Judge.
The County Judge in Brewster County, TX (location of all
three ranches that I lead field trips on) has expanded the recent Disaster
Declaration to include the closure of restaurants, bars, hotels, motels, RV
Parks and campgrounds. Since these
necessary services for rockhounds won’t be available, it seemed prudent to
cancel the remaining rockhunts for the season at this point. I had hoped we could avoid this, and if the
restrictions are lifted in time, we can reinstate whatever rockhunts are remaining.
I will keep you posted about changes to the existing
Declarations. In the meantime I’m still
selling rock buckets. An inventory of
the buckets for sale can be found at http://terismithrockhunts.com/rocks-for-sale/.
For those of you who have at least one bucket of rock reserved
in your name, I’m still looking for the least expensive method of shipping the
buckets to you. Will let you know when I
find it!
Regards,
Teri Smith
P.S. If you have a
hotel reservation here, you’ve probably heard from your hotel already. If not, I’d consider calling them.
I’ve finally got a rockhunt schedule for the rest of
November and December, and there are some very exciting developments for y’all!
I’m now working with Aaron Thomas, who is a degreed mineralogist
and geologist, and a full time Alpine resident.
He and his wife Katrina run a food truck
business in Alpine called Tri-la-Bite, so he’s only free to lead field
trips on Saturdays and Sundays. He has been
rockhunting in the Big Bend for most of his life, and has several ranches
available for field trips on an occasional basis and a couple he can go to all
the time. Aaron’s very enthusiastic as
well as knowledgeable, has more stamina than all of us put together, and is lots
of fun to be around.
Because of Aaron’s schedule, I’ll be moving my field trips
to the weekdays before and after the weekends when Aaron can lead trips. This will give y’all the longest possible
time for rockhunting on your trip out to the Big Bend, and you can pick and
choose which days you’d like to hunt.
You can sign up for Aaron’s field trips the same way you sign up for
mine: send me an email with the days you
wish to attend, and make sure to include the phone number for a cell phone you’ll
have with you. Both Aaron and I will be
leading trips to the South Larremore Ranch.
All of Aaron’s field trips will
be limited to 12 people, and there’s still no limit to the number than can
attend my field trips.
For this set of rockhunts, the new ranch Aaron has available
each weekend is the Needle Peak property owned by Jan Woodward. This is the traditional Needle Peak site
which has produced great pompom and moss agates and for the past 60 or so
years. It’s west of the East Needle Peak property we’ve been hunting on for
years, and if you wish to climb up to where the agate is coming out of the
mountain, it’s rather steep. But there
is plenty of agate to be found on the flat area below the mountains and above
the creekbed. I was there last weekend
and there are spectacular things to be found!
And Jan Woodward is donating all proceeds from the hunts to the local animal
shelter in the name of her late husband Trey Woodward.
All field trips this year will begin at Tri-la-Bite, which
is at the corner of Holland Avenue and Garnett Street in Alpine. It’s on the left side of the street, across
from the Sonic Drive-In.
So here’s the schedule.
Be sure to look at the start time for your field trip because they vary depending
upon the ranch. I love y’all, but I’m tired of getting emails and calls for questions
that are answered in this email, and available on my website.
Date
Location
Leader
Cost
Start Time
Requirements
Thurs. 11/14
Ritchie Ranch
Teri
$10 entrance + $1/lb
9:00
Cash or check
Fri. 11/15
East Needle Peak
Teri
$40
8:00
Cash or check
Sat. 11/16
South Larremore
Aaron
$50
8:00
Limit of 12 people.
Cash or check
Sun. 11/17
Needle Peak
Aaron
$50
6:30
Limit of 12 people
Cash only
Mon. 11/18
South Larremore
Teri
$50
8:00
Cash or check
Thurs. 11/28
South Larremore
Teri
$50
8:00
Cash or check
Fri. 11/29
Ritchie Ranch
Teri
$10 entrance + $1/lb
9:00
Cash or check
Sat. 11/30
East Needle Peak
Teri
$40
8:00
Cash or check
Sun. 12/1
South Larremore
Teri
$50
8:00
Cash or check
Mon 12/2
East Needle Peak
Teri
$40
8:00
Cash or check
Sat. 12/7
Needle Peak
Aaron
$50
6:30
Limit of 12 people
Cash only
Sun 12/8
South Larremore
Aaron
$50
8:00
Limit of 12 people
Cash or check
Sat 12/14
South Larremore
Aaron
$50
8:00
Limit of 12 people
Cash or check
Sun 12/15
Needle Peak
Aaron
$50
6:30
Limit of 12 people
Cash only
Sat 12/21
Needle Peak
Aaron
$50
6:30
Limit of 12 people
Cash only
Sun 12/22
South Larremore
Aaron
$50
8:00
Limit of 12 people
Cash or check
Rollin’ Rock Club membership is still required for my field
trips. Cost is $10 single and $16 for a
dual membership. Membership will run
through the year 2020.
Those of you who are friends of mine on Facebook have
probably heard the sad news, but for those that haven’t, my husband and best
friend passed away on August 1, 2019, in Hollister, CA, where we were spending
the summer. While Smith had been ill for many years, his death was
unexpected. Emotionally, I have been
supported by our four children and four grandchildren, who came from Texas,
Ohio, Virginia and England to be here with me.
I’m learning to understand what the word “widow” means in practical
terms, and what the future is likely to look like for me. I’m just hoping that I don’t have to get a
real “job”, since that would mean that I couldn’t lead rockhunts on the days
when I work.
I intend to come back to Texas in the middle of October and
lead rockhunts through the end of November.
However, the Fall schedule is still up in the air because there’s the
possibility of a new ranch being available in South Brewster County, near the
Stillwell Ranch. I won’t be able to tell
you how good it is until I get there to look around, and that won’t be until
October.
So… I can either wait til then to publish the actual
schedule, or I can publish it right now with the caveat that the locations may
change if this ranch proves to be as spectacular as I believe it will. What I can tell you for sure is that I will
be available to lead fieldtrips on the following dates:
Friday, 10/25 through Sunday, 10/27
Friday, 11/1 through Sunday, 11/3
Friday, 11/15 through Sunday, 11/17
Friday, 11/29 through Sunday, 12/1
If the new ranch proves to be good, I’ll probably add either
Thursdays of Mondays to the schedule and go to each of the ranches on one day
of the four-day weekend. Let me know by return email whether you’d like me to
post a schedule that may change or wait til October to post the names of the
ranches I’ll be hunting at each day.
The prices for each ranch is the same as in previous years:
Ritchie Ranch: $10
admission fee and $1 per lb of cutting agate or good specimens.
South Larremore Ranch:
$50 per person per day.
East Needle Peak: $40
per person per day.
And Rollin’ Rock Club membership is required. I’ll hold the memberships and not submit them
until December, so they will apply for 2020 as well. Cost is $10 for a single membership and $16
for a dual membership for the year.
Hope to see you this Fall!
If not, I’ll be back in March and April for what may be my last set of
rockhunts.
The last of the old-time rockhunting ranches has been closed. The wonderful Stillwell Ranch has been divided and much of it has been sold. Included in the sale is the old primitive campground and the hills in which we used to find marvelous agate. The black tank area to the north of the big wash has been sold as well.
The Stillwell Ranch is still open as a place to stay, with RV hookups, primitive camping, and the store. There is another ranch in the area that has expressed an interest in hosting rockhunters, and I intend to talk to them soon. I’ll let you know as things progress.
As for me, I’m in California for a while, but I may be coming back to Texas to lead field trips in Fall 2019 as well as in Spring 2020. Some of that depends on y’all. Please let me know if you’d be interested in Fall field trips, and when you’d like them. I don’t know yet if I’ll be able to do Fall trips, but if I do, I’d like to do them when as many as possible can attend. So send me an email that indicates when you’d consider coming out for hunts, and how many people would be in your group. I realize that this is all incredibly iffy, but the more I know about when y’all would come out if every thing falls together, the better I can plan.
My husband John is not doing all that well right now, but I believe the doctors are getting a handle on it and he’ll be feeling better soon. The lower elevation seems to be helping him breathe better, and his medicines need to be tweaked to what his current condition is.
Since I don’t think that I’ll be able to reopen my museum soon, I am offering for sale some of the exhibit material, including the plume agate ‘windows”. The windows are $2500.00 each, or $4500 for both. I also have two other panels that have never been displayed, one of which is composed of mostly local material, and the other of which is mostly Brazilian.
I’ve also still got agate buckets for the Walker and Singleton ranches, and Stillwell, Ritchie, Larremore, East Needle Peak and other material as well. Nothing will happen on that until I’m back in Texas, but the more I know about what you want to purchase, the better I can accommodate you.
I hope y’all are having a wonderful summer! If you’re rockhunting, or cutting previous finds, I’d love to see photos of your rocks!
Well, spring is coming, and it’s time for me to start selling my agate
collection. I have not even gotten halfway through a detailed inventory
of the whole collection, but I know enough of what’s there to begin
selling what I would consider to be some of the most desirable agates in
the collection: those from the ranches now closed to rockhunting.
This means cutting material and specimens from the Walker and Singleton
Ranches.
In the Fall, I sent out an email asking those on my
email list how they would like to purchase the agates, and almost half
of those who responded said they would like to purchase the agate in
5-gallon buckets, unsearched since the time I filled them. So that’s
what I’m going to start with.
Full 5-gallon buckets of Walker Ranch or Singleton Ranch agate will be $250.00 each. These buckets will contain a mix of cutting material and specimens, but most of the material will be for cabbing or tumbling. When I filled the buckets, I packed them, so most of them will weigh about 50 lbs., and have a mix of larger and smaller pieces. If you only want larger pieces that you can slab, these buckets are not for you, since I filled in the spaces left between bigger pieces with tiny ones. My philosophy is that if you can make a nice cab or tumbled stone out of it, it’s a keeper. The Walker buckets can also contain a few Native American artifacts or reduction chips, including scrapers of various sizes and materials.
Many of these rocks were collected quite a while ago, while others came from the most recent years when the Singleton and Walker Ranches were open. Most of the buckets are not marked as to date collected and packed, but some are. In general, those collected earlier may have bigger pieces in them, since there were more big pieces easily available in the first seasons the ranches were open. But agates collected later may be of a generally better quality since I learned as I went along and only picked up the best things I found every time I collected. If you have a desire for material collected early or late, let me know and I’ll try to get you buckets from the time frame you wish. I can generally tell when things were collected by their location in my yard, even if they don’t have dates on them.
Right now I probably have 30 – 40 buckets from each ranch ready for pickup, out of a total of over 150 buckets from each ranch. And I still have over 150 buckets where the identifying paint has faded and I’ll have to open them in order to determine what they are.
I also have buckets available of specimen material from the Walker and Singleton Ranches. These buckets can contain quartz and calcite crystals, in small and medium pieces, or geodes, saginite and calcite pseudomorphs, tube agates, botryoidal pieces, and pieces of plume or bouquet agate where the background has not yet filled in. Walker Ranch buckets can also include pieces of a flint-like material that is often pastel and can have very interesting shapes, and perhaps a bit of amethyst. Singleton Ranch buckets may also contain brecciated opal pieces that can be spectacular, and an occasional piece of basalt with tiny bits of moonstone in it. Specimen buckets are $150.00 each.
I have one huge specimen lot that came from Telephone Hill on the Singleton Ranch. It’s a huge botryoidal geode in at least ten major pieces and more than 4 5-gallon buckets of minor ones. After you put it back together, it will be spectacular! I’ve figured out how seven of the major pieces go together, basically, and it will have a curved bottom and a diameter of probably 3 to 4 feet. The colors are blues, grey and white. The whole thing would make a great display either as separate pieces or put together. All of it is for sale together for $750.00.
I have also had many requests for geodes, and I have probably 30 5-gallon buckets full of Mexican geodes that I purchased over the years. They are in sizes ranging from a chicken egg to bigger than an emu egg. I’m willing to offer these by the pound as well as by the bucket, since not everyone wants a whole bucket of geodes. But the general consensus was that grandkids loved geodes, so it’s good to always have some around. I’ll sell any quantity of a pound or more at $3 per lb., no matter what size they are. Buckets will generally weigh light, because geodes leave a lot of air space, so I’ll just weigh the full buckets and sell the whole bucket at $2.75 per lb.
I’ve got lots of other categories of agate and other materials in my collection, but I needed to start somewhere. While the rest of my collection will be available once I have finished my inventory, some other things can perhaps be made available this spring if you let me know in advance so I have time to locate and pack them for sale. These other things include: agate from all the ranches I currently lead field trips on, and miscellaneous U.S. agate for $200.00 per 5 gallon bucket; agate from Mexico either organized by what it is or where I got it at anywhere from $200 to $600 for a 5-gallon bucket; and large agate and petrified wood pieces (from about 10 lbs to over 400 lbs) at $2 per lb.
And there’s also over a ton of beautiful slag glass in all colors at $6/lb for up to 20 lbs, $5/lb for 21-100 lbs, and $4/lb for 101 lbs and more. The sooner you let me know what you want, the more likely you are to get it this spring. Send me an email stating your name, cell number, what you want, and when you are going to come to get it. I’ll reply letting you know the agate is being saved for you. You can either pay in advance or when you pick it up. I’ll accept both cash and checks.
Now, as for delivery: right now I’m hoping that y’all will come out for rockhunts this spring and pick up your purchases then. If you can’t do that, please still let me know what you want to purchase, and I’ll put it aside for you. Perhaps we can make some arrangements for delivery. My son lives in Kerrville, and he could probably take a bucket or two home with him when he comes to visit, so that might be an option if you live near the Hill Country. I’m not able to lift a 50-lb bucket, so if y’all need help with moving them, perhaps we can split them into more than one container to lift.
If you have any questions or comments, please email me.
Below is the list of spring 2019 Rockhunts, including those in January which have already been published.
Date
Time
Trip Location
Price
Thursday, 1/24/19
8:00 a.m.
Stillwell Ranch
50 cents per lb. of rock you take
Friday, 1/25/19
9:00 a.m.
Ritchie Ranch
$10 entrance fee plus $1/lb
Saturday, 1/26/19
8:00 a.m.
East Needle Peak
$40 per person
Sunday, 1/27/19
8:00 a.m.
South Larremore Ranch
$50 per person
Thursday, 2/7/19
8:00 a.m.
South Larremore Ranch
$50 per person
Friday, 2/8/19
8:00 a.m.
Stillwell Ranch
50 cents per lb. of rock you take
Saturday, 2/9/19
9:00 a.m.
Ritchie Ranch
$10 entrance fee plus $1/lb
Sunday, 2/10/19
8:00 a.m.
East Needle Peak
$40 per person
Monday, 2/11/19
8:00 a.m.
Stillwell Ranch
50 cents per lb. of rock you take
Thursday, 2/21/19
9:00 a.m.
Ritchie Ranch
$10 entrance fee plus $1/lb
Friday, 2/22/19
8:00 a.m.
South Larremore Ranch
$50 per person
Saturday, 2/23/19
8:00 a.m.
Stillwell Ranch
50 cents per lb. of rock you take
Sunday, 2/24/19
8:00 a.m.
East Needle Peak
$40 per person
Wednesday, 2/27/19
8:00 a.m.
South Larremore Ranch
$50 per person
Thursday, 2/28/19
8:00 a.m.
Stillwell Ranch
50 cents per lb. of rock you take
Saturday, 3/9/19
8:00 a.m.
South Larremore Ranch
$50 per person
Sunday, 3/10/19
8:00 a.m.
Stillwell Ranch
50 cents per lb. of rock you take
Thursday, 3/14/19
9:00 a.m.
Ritchie Ranch
$10 entrance fee plus $1/lb
Friday, 3/15/19
8:00 a.m.
East Needle Peak
$40 per person
Saturday, 3/16/19
8:00 a.m.
South Larremore Ranch
$50 per person
Sunday, 3/17/19
8:00 a.m.
Stillwell Ranch
50 cents per lb. of rock you take
Thursday, 3/21/19
8:00 a.m.
Stillwell Ranch
50 cents per lb. of rock you take
Friday, 3/22/19
9:00 a.m.
Ritchie Ranch
$10 entrance fee plus $1/lb
Saturday, 3/23/19
8:00 a.m.
East Needle Peak
$40 per person
Sunday, 3/24/19
8:00 a.m.
South Larremore Ranch
$50 per person
Thursday, 4/11/19
8:00 a.m.
South Larremore Ranch
$50 per person
Friday, 4/12/19
8:00 a.m.
Stillwell Ranch
50 cents per lb. of rock you take
Saturday, 4/13/19
9:00 a.m.
Ritchie Ranch
$10 entrance fee plus $1/lb
Sunday, 4/14/19
8:00 a.m.
East Needle Peak
$40 per person
Thursday, 4/18/19
8:00 a.m.
East Needle Peak
$40 per person
Friday, 4/19/19
9:00 a.m.
Ritchie Ranch
$10 entrance fee plus $1/lb
Saturday, 4/20/19
8:00 a.m.
South Larremore Ranch
$50 per person
Sunday, 4/21/19
8:00 a.m.
Stillwell Ranch
50 cents per lb. of rock you take
Monday, 4/22/19
8:00 a.m.
Stillwell Ranch
50 cents per lb. of rock you take
As usual, all trips start in front of the Antelope Lodge, 2310 W. Highway 90, Alpine. To reserve your place on a trip, email me at agatehunter@sbcglobal.net. Payment for the trip is not due until the morning of the trip. All the ranches accept cash or check, and the Stillwell also accepts credit cards. At least one person in your group needs to be a member of the Rollin’ Rock Club to go on the trips. Cost is $10 per year for a single membership and $16 for a dual membership, purchasable at the time of the trip.
I’ll be out of town until the 18th, so, while I’ll be accepting reservations via email immediately, I may not send you a detailed response until at least the 19th. Answers to most questions concerning rockhunts are available on my website (really, they are there!).
If no one is signed up for a trip 48 hours before it starts it will be cancelled. Once cancelled, it can’t be “un-cancelled”. So be sure to sign up!
Since the Antelope Lodge has changed ownership, the prices have gone up somewhat, and the amenities are different. But the reservation website name is the same, www.antelopelodge.com.
