Tri-Federation Rockhoun1d- Rendezvous and Field Trip
May 22 - 25, 2003
Texas Springs, Nevada

By Richard Pankey, CFMS

     Over 200 rockhounds from the western United States convened near Texas Springs, NV for the first (annual?) Tri-Federation Rockhound Rendezvous for 6 days over the 2003 Memorial Day Weekend. . Texas Springs Canyon is located approximately 25 miles southeast of Jackpot in the northeast comer of Nevada. Dean Richardson from the Rocky Mountain Federation has been collecting in this area for over 20 years and was our guide to the major collecting sites. The Texas Springs area is well known for spectacular pink agate limb casts, as well as, other agate and petrified wood. Although this area has been popular with rockhounds for many years, prized material can still be found for those who are willing to dig for it. And many were successful!

     We started planning this trip about 18 months ago when Dee Holland and Shirley Leeson asked me what I thought of the idea and would I like to help. Dean, Dee, Shirley and I held our only real planning meeting at the AFMS/NFMS show at Port Townsend, WA last summer and set our rendezvous date. A two page flier was published in the November issue of each of the three Federation Newsletters with all of the details about the Rendezvous. Signups started immediately. In April, I contacted the BLM about camping for a large group. With the help of the Outdoor Recreation Planner JuLee Lindsay, we got our Special Use Permit and arranged to camp along Trout Creek, about 6 miles in from the highway. JuLee also helped arrange two speakers and a special dinner.

Our Camp

     My wife, Betty, and I arrived in the area Tuesday morning. Two and a half miles south of Jackpot I turned east on to the California National Historic Trail and posted large orange signs to mark the turn for all the rockhounds that would soon be arriving. I marked the turns on the bumpy, dusty road to camp with orange paper plates with black arrows. About 6 miles in from the highway, we found the spot we were looking for. This is cattle country with occasional grassy areas among the sagebrush. I found an area that was flat, big enough for our group and with an open area big enough to accommodate our campfire and other activities. I parked our trailer near the road and posted the "TrL-Fed. Camp" sign. Some early bird campers soon arrived and our camp began to grow. At the peak we had a total of over 65 "camping units": trailers, motorhomes, tents, and pick-up campers. Quite a number of people took advantage of the two full hook-up RV parks or the casino/motels in Jackpot. Our camp sprawled over several acres and was an unexpected sight in this uninhabited area. Betty helped out a lot welcoming people and directing them to good campsites while I was out scouting or leading collecting trips.

     When camping on BLM land, we practice the Leave No Trace principles. That means we "pack-outwhat-we-pack-in". We leave the area cleaner than we found it. This should be our practice no matter where we camp. I walked around our camp on Monday evening after most of our group had departed and I am proud to say that there was no trash or garbage left anywhere. We did tear up some sagebrush and left some tracks in the dirt, but they will grow back and wash away with the next few rains. As part of our Rendezvous activities we conducted a litter collection along the roads and at the collecting sites. Along with several bags of bottles and cans, were old tires, an old muffler/tailpipe, torn rug, rusty barrel, old metal buckets and a watering can In total we had a pickup truck full for our 6 days of collecting. We picked it up and the BLM will haul it off.

Collecting Trips

     On Memorial Day 2002, Betty and I met the Richardson's at Texas Springs to get a preview of the area. Dean showed us a number of possible sites and we selected five within 4 miles of Texas Springs. Late Wednesday morning Dean and I took off for a scouting trip of the five planned collecting sites around Texas Springs. The sites were 15 to 22 miles from camp. We marked the roads, turns and collecting sites with fluorescent orange ribbons for easy identification and travel. The five planned collecting sites were identified as: the "Classic Pink Limb Casts", "Past the Pink", "Rich's Hill", "Snakeskin", and "Small Pink Limb Casts and Bog". The 2 most popular sites were the Classic Pink and Rich's Hill. Because of limited parking and to minimize the collecting pressure we had sign-ups for these sites, with a limit of 50 people per site. The other 3 areas were self-guided sites. Dean led the group to the Classic Pink on Thursday and Friday and I led to Rich's Hill; on Saturday we switched sites.

     The group assembled each morning at 8:00 for information about the sites, instructions, safety information, and announcements of the other activities for the day. We lined up our vehicles and headed down the road at 8:30. The Classic Pink site is a sparsely foliated hill of ash and dirt. Their are many holes and old digs for previous rockhounds. While a rare piece can be found as float, collecting at this site is accomplished by digging and many of the holes are deep. As the name denotes the sought after material here is pink agate limb casts that range in size from twigs to large masses over 100 pounds. Some of each was found, but most were in the ounces to a couple of pounds range. Rich's Hill is named for Dean's son who discovered the area where he found a number of fair sized logs and casts last year. Rich's Hill is about one half mile due east of the Classic Pink area. The material here ranges from twigs and small limbs as float to small logs and limbs 10 to 12 inches below the surface. The digging was easy in this loose topsoil. The material is mostly a brown jasp-agate. The most productive digging was at the bottom of the hill.

     Of the three self-guided sites the Small Pink was the most productive, the Snakeskin had the most unusual material and the Past the Pink was more of the same and harder to dig. The Small Pink is a lowlying hill about one half mile long. There are small, forger sized pink agate limb casts all over the east side of the hill. Although this was not planned to be a dig site someone tried digging and found small logs like those on Rich's Hill. Soon everyone was digging. There was gray/brown bog agate at this site also.

     There are two geode sites near by. One at Contact about 18 miles south of Jackpot and one 5 miles north, just off of the highway, at Rabbit Springs. Sunday was a free day so some headed off to check out these sites. Baseball to softball size geodes were abundant at each place and are fluorescent. The Contact geodes were found in a trench and in shallow digs on the hillside. They are hollow geode that filled with calcite. The Rabbit Springs geodes are hollow and chalcedony lined. They are just off the old highway, about .3 miles in from the turnoff. Broken geodes litter the surface and whole ones can be found with easy digging in loose/ashy soil.

Our Other Activities

     Each afternoon about 4:00 we assembled for Happy Hour in the shade in front of our trailer. This was a time to get to know each other. When the circle was big enough we would have self-introductions and to share stories about the "big finds" of the day. On Wednesday, Mike Brown from the BLM office in Elko, NV, gave us a talk about the California Trail that runs through this area. Mike told us how the trail was begun, about life on the trail and about some of the people who came west on the trail. Gene Kaplan from Wells, NV continued our history lesson on Thursday telling about this area, the people who settled here, why they came and what the area is today.

     During Happy hour on Friday and Saturday evening, we had our tailgate displays and a map exchange. About 12 to 15 people participated in the tailgate display showing off material and specimens from their home collecting areas. There were minerals from several locales including Colorado and Arizona, petrified wood from several locations, as well as other material. Several people brought buckets of specimens to giveaway to the group: glauberite from Arizona, obsidian, "Pecos Diamonds" from New Mexico, and some petrified wood. Only 8 to 10 people participated in the map exchange, but they were good maps.

     One of my favorite activity when camping is the campfire. After dinner each evening somebody would get our campfire going and in no time at all people would pull up their chairs and the circle around the fire would grow. On several evenings the musicians showed up with a guitar and a mandolin to entertain us. Some jokes and tall tails were shared along with the marshmallows. Plenty of wood was brought from home and we were challenged to get it all burned at our 7 campfires.

Let's Eat - a Favorite Rockhound Activity

     We had two potluck dinners - a welcome potluck on Thursday evening and the All Rendezvous potluck on Saturday evening. It is amazing that in the midst of the desert and sagebrush, when the dinner bell rings the serving table is filled with freshly prepared food and delicious desserts. However, the gustatorial highlight of this trip was the Dutch Oven Dinner on Friday evening. Bill Roach, also from the BLM office in Elko, and his son demonstrated Dutch Oven cooking then fed dinner to over 130 appreciative rockhounds. Bill arrived about 4:00 and a delicious dinner of Tri tip beef, country ribs, chicken, potatoes, pork and beans, salad and rolls was server at 6:15.

     We had beautiful sunny weather for our Rendezvous. Nighttime temperatures were in the 30's and 40's but warmed up to the 80's during the day. Sunrise comes early, about 5:00AM and by 8:00 it was shirtsleeve warm. Each afternoon a breeze would pick up and cool things down a little. On Saturday afternoon our breeze developed into a full-fledged dust storm, but it only lasted about an hour. Sunday afternoon the breeze blew in a rainstorm that kept us inside for a half an hour and settled the dust.

     As the weekend drew to a close the big question from all was "Where will the Rendezvous be next year?" My answer to them was "Any where you want to lead it?" This TA-Federation Rockhound Rendezvous was a great, fun, rewarding event. It was more than a fieldtrip, it was a rendezvous, a coming together of rockhounds to do and share all the things we like to do. We had a great time together. We met and got to know a lot of wonderful rockhound friends. We collected some interesting rocks. We learned a little history. We enjoyed the beauty and majesty of this great land of ours. I hope that someone out there will pick up the ball and arrange for our next Rendezvous.