Forty two years since my summer in the Eagle Mountains in Hudspeth County, Texas. (Sometimes, when I get nostalgic/ melancholic, I go back to the Eagle Mts., in my mind, as I did here and here.)
[From a few miles away, at the "Allamore - Hot Wells" exit on Interstate 10, the Eagle Mountains don't seem so imposing, but once past the outer rampart of hills, it was quite the adventure in 1978.]
Due to various "life experiences", my student tenure at UT El Paso had two phases, 1977 - 1979 and 1984 - 1990. I may touch on aspects of these as deemed needed and appropriate. The Eagle Mountains adventures were part of Phase 1.
During my 10 weeks in the Eagle Mts., my truck camper was my home. No A/C, no "indoor plumbing" (further details are not needed), but with power steering and 4x4, in its youth, my 1976 Jeep J-10 was a good vehicle for off-pavement use. After this 1977 photo, my Dad and I added a sliding rear-window for the truck cab and added an inflatable "boot" to allow transit (crawling) between the cab and camper during inclement weather.
I began my grad school experience at UT El Paso in January 1977. As I enjoy almost all aspects of Geology, my coursework included both "hard-rock" and "soft-rock" classes and I could have gone "either way" with my planned Thesis work.
As the summer of 1978 approached, within the El Paso region, subject choices included various aspects of Oil and Mining Economics, Paleozoic Paleontology, Mesozoic Paleontology, Volcanics, Rio Grande Rift Tectonics, Basin and Range Tectonics, Hydrology, Petrology, Petrography, Geophysics, and more. With the proper connections, one could do a Thesis related to the Permian Basin.
At that particular time, as the oil industry was the "hot ticket" to jobs, Master's theses within related fields were preferable to many students (or so it seemed). Other opinions were that finishing the thesis in good time was more important than the actual subject matter. Unless you were seeking a specific "niche job", over-specialization was not favored (that is why I didn't pursue a Ph.D.).
The particular professor I was most comfortable with ("Dr. David") was scheduled to spend the summer in Yugoslavia studying limestones there. I could have waited until he returned to start my project, but as I wanted to use the summer as a starting point for my fieldwork, I didn't want to wait.
Thus, my choice of doing something in Volcanics was a fallback choice. At the time, I got along fairly well with the "volcanics professor", hereafter referred to as "Dr. Jerry". With the mid- to late-1970s growth in the understanding of calderas, ash-flow tuffs, the "Great Ignimbrite Flare-up", and related subjects, that was deemed an appropriate project. There was some grant money available for a monthly stipend to help cover expenses.
A Master's Thesis had already been done on the volcanics of the Northern Quitman Mts., the Texas caldera closest to El Paso, by one of my roommates, Tom. [As contact has been lost with a number of contemporary classmates or not well re-established to gain approval, first names only are used.] Due to the size of the Eagle Mountains, which included volcanics and a "rim" of pre-existing Cretaceous sedimentary rocks, a decision was made for four students to divide the volcanic center into four quadrants.
As the topographic maps suggested that the southern "half" of the mountains was more rugged than the northern "half" and I had the only 4x4 vehicle, it was decided that I would do the SE quadrant and my field partner Dan would the SW quadrant.
The first few days were spent getting acquainted with the Eagle Mountains and - if memory serves me correctly - Dan and I hung out in the northern half of the mountains with Mike and Bob for one or two days, before proceeding southward along the east side of the mountains. We used an older, existing geologic map as the basis for our planned updates that were to focus on lithologies and interpretations as related to caldera-type volcanoes.
Basically, the Eagle Mts. are the preserved remnants of an Oligocene caldera (or two slightly overlapping calderas), superimposed upon a Laramide thrust sheets (a portion of which is seen in Devil Ridge, northwest of the Eagle Mts. proper). (I am not certain if the current interpretation is different.)
More to come as nostalgia drives me.
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