2006/01 Southwest USA trip (MN-TX) - Woodward Ranch |
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We made it to the ranch just before dark. This is the Woodward Ranch, famous to rockhounds for its red plume
agates, labradorite, fire opal, and many other types of rock. We passed a group of mule deer on the way in, and a very large and a bad-tempered bull. Trey Woodward was very hospitable though and showed us around his rock shop and his collection. He’s the fifth generation of Woodwards on the ranch and he is trying to make a living by a combination of cattle ranching, deer hunting, selling rocks, and running a campsite. His campsite is a bit rough and ready but it has electricity, and we’d need it with a weather forecast in the 20s.
Wednesday January 18th
We were up early to start our day of rock hunting. It was cold and blustery when we walked up the hill behind 
the ranch. I’ve included a picture of the ranch just in case you might confuse it with the Bush Ranch, just north of here in Midland, Texas. The Woodwards’ big stone barn lost its roof in a storm 15 years ago and they haven’t had the money to replace it. Other than that it fits the image of the Texan ranch: lots of acres of brown grass with beef cattle, cactus,and a big sky. The difference for this ranch is that it includes the remnant of a volcano on the edge of the property. Most of the ranch is on the volcano’s lava outflow. Air bubbles in the lava were then filled with hot mineral water over millions of years, 
crystallizing out as minerals such as agate, opal, and labradorite.
So we were out there for a few hours collecting agates from the bare patches on the range, sharing it with cactus, burrs, and cow dung. Luckily it was cold enough that the snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas were still in their burrows. We found about 30 pounds of good looking rock, and Jan, Trey’s wife, confirmed that nearly all of it was either moss agate or 
the golden and red-plumed agate that can only be found here. I’ve included some pictures of rocks the Woodwards have collected, cut and, polished. 
These were a couple of the agates we found. The one on the left has the bubbles that are characteristic ofplume agates. The one on the right is just a good looking agate.
In the afternoon we drove a couple of miles to Agate Hill on another part of the ranch. We were actually looking for clear crystals of labradorite but it turned into another agate feeding frenzy and we 
soon had two buckets full of really colorful agates. By now it was quite warm and sunny, ideal weather for spotting gems of any kind. We were also pretty much worn-out from walking hunched and stooping all day. We realized later that we’d been sharing the hill with this longhorn bull, but luckily he seemed more interested in his harem of Herefords than us.
We had a spectacular sunset, so I wandered up the hill to take some more pictures.
Thursday January 19th
It was a warmer night, but still cold enough to freeze the puddles from Trey’s attempts to keep his lawn alive. We checked the previous afternoon’s collection with Trey and it turned to be mainly red “flower garden” and plume agate, with some calcite and blue agate. So, we packed about 60 pounds of rock around Sandie’s seat. She now has a pretty solid footstool.
Trey and Jan showed us the inside of their house. They have a wall and fireplace built entirely out of rock and bones. It is impressive, but a good warning of what can happen if you spend too much time around agates!
If we stayed any longer the truck would never be able to move, so we headed off back south down to Study Butte to use the post office, buy some food, and sample the local restaurant: cheese tortillas with salsa and refried beans, not a great diet but OK once in a while.