From the Archives: “The Solitario Dome”

I am off again this week, dear writerly readers, but I offer you this post from the archives about one of my very favorite and most secretly wondrous places on the planet.

THE SOLITARIO DOME

Originally posted on Madam Mayo blog March 13, 2015

Inside The Solitario. Photo: C.M. Mayo, March 2015

For my Far West Texas book-in-progress and the Marfa Mondays Podcasting project, I am working on an interview with Texas historian Lonn Taylor, plus a short piece about the Solitario Dome of Big Bend Ranch State Park in Far West Texas, which is to say, US-Mexico border country. 

Meanwhile, a few items about the latter:

Chase Snodgrass’s flight over the Solitario:

Google Maps screenshot of the Solitario

Flora and Vegetation of the Solitario Dome
by Jean Evans Hardy, Iron Mountain Press, 2009
(Whoa, call the chiropracter, I brought this one home in my carry-on!)

Geology of the Solitario
by Charles E. Corry, et al. Geological Society of America Special Paper 250, 1990.

“Igneous Evolution of a Complex Laccolith-Caldera, the Solitario, Trans-Pecos, Texas: Implications for Calderas and Subjacent Plutons” 
by Christopher D. Henry, et al.Geological Society of America Bulletin, August 1997 (Super-crunchy PDF)

The Solitario: Sentinel of the Big Bend Ranch State Park”
Megan HicksThe Big Bend Paisano, Winter 2004/2005
(PDF)

“Geology at the Crossroads”
By Blaine R. Hall, Big Bend Ranch State Park
(PDF)

“Solitario: A Separate Place” and “Fresno Creek:” Desert Cloister”
Texas Monthly, April 1977

Entering the labyrinth of the Solitario via Los Portales (That’s my guide, Charlie Angell, he’s the best, check him out on Tripadvisor.com). Photo: C.M. Mayo, March 2015

>Listen in to all the Marfa Mondays Podcasts anytime. The most recent is “Tremendous Forms: Finding Composition in the Landscape,” an interview with Paul V. Chaplo, author of the magnificent Marfa Flights.

Marfa Mondays #2 Charles Angell in the Big Bend

12 Tips for Summer Day Hiking in the Desert 
(How to Stay Cool and Avoid Actinic Keratosis, 
Blood, and Killer Bees)

The Strangely Beautiful Sierra Madera Astrobleme

Biographers International Interview with C.M. Mayo: 
Strange Spark of the Mexican Revolution


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