Teepee Canyon Agate, Somewhere in the Black Hills Of South Dakota..

We left Minneapolis and headed west for the Black Hills of South Dakota.  The first night we boon docked at Cabelas, where I only spent 124 bucks while camping for free and then we journeyed further west to Rapid City. It's one of our favorite places and its also a great place to rock hound, among which is the rare and expensive Teepee Canyon Agate.
Now the Teepee Canyon itself was named by George Custer who, while exploring the Black Hills the year before his massacre, named the canyon because it was filled teepees. There aren't any teepees there anymore but a small house marks the valley, which is just west of Jewel Cave National Monument.
I had led field trips of students there for the past thirty years but I had never really done anything with the agate, only gave it away. We hadn't yet learned any lapidary and the thought of all the agate I gave away made me want more but this time to work and wire wrap.

As we neared the hillside we passed through the huge area devastated by an arsonist and it was pretty apparent that the area would be mostly prairie for a long time. Parking I grabbed my pick, a bucket and our new crack hammer and headed up the slope. Renita opted to work the bottom scree and  it made sense as I had often found nice material there in the past
The hillside itself was man made as the road was widened and the area you see me in the picture is the area where the agate is contained in hard chert nodules. The nodules themselves are embedded in a thick and hard layer of limestone in the Minnelusa Formation. One way to mine the agate is by driving pry bars into the stone and slowly working the rock out to get at the nodules.
You would think that after all this work they would take the nodules home and saw them but many break the nodules with their hammers, destroying the agate and sending pieces flying. I was looking for the pieces.

Quickly my bucket filled up as I found cabochon sized pieces of the beautiful agate as well as large nodules that had been discarded but still deserved to be sawed. Renita watched me as I slipped and almost fell over backward down the sharp rocks but luckily I only cut one leg.
Being more careful I slowly moved the bucket down the hillside. I showed Renita my pieces and she led me to her five piles of possibilities. Looking at them carefully I added many to the bucket, hmm more rock for the fifth wheel, lots more rock. Our field season is just beginning and already we have added about two months worth of rough to saw into slabs. Is it possible to have too much rock?
Tracing our way back to Rapid City we stopped at several rock shops where more rock begged me to buy it but I actually resisted the temptation as I do have some control, not much but some. Perhaps I can ship some rock to our friend Mark and we can share the rock after he cuts it. Clear skies