Christmas Mountain volcano

[SHANEA]

Got this from the Terlingua Islands yahoo group.

About the Unibomber living in the Christmas).. . I was told by geolgists (in the late 90s) who were from Univ of Texas and Univ of Arizona that the Christmas Mountain volcano was such a great eruption that the lava that blew out the eruption formed most of the mountains that extend from the Christmas to hwy 118. I don't know if Wildhorse mountain is from that eruption, it may be an igneous plug, but Willow IS an igneous plug, and not formed from the Christmas  volcano. Doggie mtn and litte Christmas are from the Christmas  volcano, as are many of the mountains that extend along the main   ranch road toward 118 (I was told). The Solitario Dome is what all the area around the Christmas once looked like, before it eroded into separate igneous mountains (according to those geologists). Apparently, looking at older maps, the Christmas were considered the mountains from the large Christmas, including the mountains all
the way to 118. Locals still considered themselves to live in the Christmas mountains a few years ago who lived along the main ranch road, and above Snake Rd. I think its when the locals begin inhabiting the area, that the Christmas Mountain name refers only to the mountain that was the main volcano. See this map of the 60's,  http://www.terlinguagallery.com/1961gen_hwy_map_80.html
( at the top left) and note that the Christmas mountains were shown to be a wide area of mountains, reaching all the way to 118.  So back in the 90's when Unibomber was caught, and the journalists interviewed locals around Terlingua Ranch, the mountains his brother had once lived in, were likely still called the Christmas.  Now, hardly anyone refers to them as a range. Its just the Christmas and the Little Christmas.

[BigBendHiker]

Wow.  Interesting and speaks to the strange geologic features of that area.


BBH