Desert Messenger

January 4, 2017 www.DesertMessenger.com 15 SEE ROCKS PAGE 36 Freight wagons, floods & weird rocks ADVENTURES WITH ROCKS ™ www.RocksInMyHead.com There are hundreds of holes dug into the light-greenish colored volcanic ash, called tuff, which is part of the geologic makeup of an area called "The Potato Patch". It is in this re- mote section of California desert that sometimes dozens of rockhounds may be found digging for geodes. The Hauser geode beds, where the famous "Potato Patch" is found, are named for Joel F. Hauser, who discovered them with the help of his very obser- vant father, George. George Hauser took interest in the area as early as the 1930s. The elder Hauser had noticed the beds of odd looking, spherical rocks that were found in the foothills of the Mule Mountains as he drove heavily laden wagons across the desert for his freight company Hauser & Giddings. The freight line transport- ed goods between the town of Blythe and the Southern Pacifi c Railroad Sta- tion at Glamis. The main route through the Palo Verde Canyon was somewhat shorter and more direct, but portions were subject to fl ooding and washouts during heavy rains, and especially dur- ing the monsoon season. Rains often forced the freight company to use an alternate route, which traveled along the Colorado River, southwest through the Mule Mountains, over a low pass, and then continued on to eventually meet back up with the main Blythe- Glamis Road. It was while traveling this alternate route that George Haus- er became enamored with the curious round rocks he saw there. Some twenty years later, in the mid 1930's, George's son, Joel, had col- lected some geodes and nodules from another location in California. Though George had never collected any of the curious spherical rocks he had seen in the desert, the ones Joel showed him seemed to be very similar. He told his son of the area where he had seen the beds of odd round stones that were much like the ones Joel had collected, and urged him to explore the location. Despite having some doubts about the trip, Joel headed out into the desert. Upon arriving at the location his father had described, to his delight, he found the ground covered with the odd, dark- colored, round stones. Some were up to six inches or more in di- ameter and looked like large potatoes. Upon breaking open a few of them, he discovered they were very nice solid- centered nodules with a variety of interiors. Some were banded ag- ates, some had crystals that had grown together into a solid mass, and some had hollow cavities lined with quartz crystals. Based on what his father had told him and what he himself had recently found, Joel decided that there should be more of these rich nodule produc- ing areas not far from the original dis- covery. In 1937, he set out for the west side of the Mule Mountains in search of new deposits. After several days in the area, he and two friends discovered an enormous deposit of geodes and thun- dereggs and the area became known as the "Hauser Geode Beds". Excited, Joel published his fi ndings and began to take others with him into his newly discovered rock collecting paradise. More beds of nodules were discovered throughout the area, some with small concentrations, and others with exten- sive and varied deposits. To add to the excitement, there were distinctive dif- ferences in the agates and nodules from each of the different localities. ATTENTION DIABETICS on Medicare CASA MEDICAL 480-941-9493 on Please join CASA MEDICAL (A Participating Medicare Provider) Find Out How You Qualify for DIABETIC SHOES at No Cost to You! (In most cases) IN BRENDA DESERT GOLD RV PARK 11:30 am-12:30 pm Card Room BLACK ROCK RV PARK 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm - Rec Room WAGON'S WEST 3:00 pm - 4:00 am - Rec Hall IN QUARTZSITE QUARTZSITE SENIOR CENTER 10:30 am - 12:30pm - in the Dining Room WEDNESDAY, JAN. 18 TH THURSDAY, JAN. 19 TH

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