Post by blarneystone on Apr 23, 2013 15:01:12 GMT -5
The recent trip to West Tx turned out to be a blast. It had been many years since I'd seen Stoner, DesertDweller and Condor. Was great to see them again and do some hunting as well. Really enjoyed meeting BeefJello and his wife Christa too. It was also very nice to meet Jeri's friend Deb and very cool to hang out with Spike and Jeri!
One of the stops on the trip was to Stillwell Ranch. I had never been to Stillwell before and was sad to learn that it has been sold. I was impressed by the various kinds of stone to be found there.... pet wood, agates, fossils, minerals, etc... Quite different from Woodward Ranch where only agates are found.
The type of agates found at Stillwell are quite different from WWR as well. While you can find banded and fortification agates at WWR, the banded and fort agates at Stillwell have much more color than the ones found at WWR.
Here's one that I picked up on the first day:
The fortification ran all the way through the rock and produced several nice little slabs. Here's a cab I cut from it:
I also found a little nice little agate with a vug surrounded by fortification bands and it displays a little bit of water line bands at the bottom. The two fractures allowed for sand to seep into the vug and I haven't quite coaxed all of it out yet. Cabbing it was not an option because of the fractures so I just polished the face.
One of the more surprising finds was this little Jasper nodule. It was already broken in half which made spotting it on the ground that much easier. Again, the fractures prevented me from cabbing it so I just polished the face.
And last... a very familiar type of agate that you might think came from Woodward.... but it was found at Stillwell. One of the things I noticed about Stillwell rocks is that most are covered with desert varnish or desert patina where most WWR rocks are not.
Those are just a few of the finds. Might post pics of the others later
Thanks for looking.
Dan
One of the stops on the trip was to Stillwell Ranch. I had never been to Stillwell before and was sad to learn that it has been sold. I was impressed by the various kinds of stone to be found there.... pet wood, agates, fossils, minerals, etc... Quite different from Woodward Ranch where only agates are found.
The type of agates found at Stillwell are quite different from WWR as well. While you can find banded and fortification agates at WWR, the banded and fort agates at Stillwell have much more color than the ones found at WWR.
Here's one that I picked up on the first day:
The fortification ran all the way through the rock and produced several nice little slabs. Here's a cab I cut from it:
I also found a little nice little agate with a vug surrounded by fortification bands and it displays a little bit of water line bands at the bottom. The two fractures allowed for sand to seep into the vug and I haven't quite coaxed all of it out yet. Cabbing it was not an option because of the fractures so I just polished the face.
One of the more surprising finds was this little Jasper nodule. It was already broken in half which made spotting it on the ground that much easier. Again, the fractures prevented me from cabbing it so I just polished the face.
And last... a very familiar type of agate that you might think came from Woodward.... but it was found at Stillwell. One of the things I noticed about Stillwell rocks is that most are covered with desert varnish or desert patina where most WWR rocks are not.
Those are just a few of the finds. Might post pics of the others later
Thanks for looking.
Dan
