Quartz Mountain (also called Baldy Point) is located in Greer County in southwest Oklahoma. It is the namesake of

Quartz Mountain Nature Park Quartz Mountain State Park is located in southwest Oklahoma at the western end of the Wichita Mountains, east of Mangum, Oklahoma and north of Altus, Oklahoma. The nearest community is Lone Wolf, Oklahoma, about northeast of the park. It is op ...

and its eastern flank is enclosed by the park boundaries. It is near the cities of

Mangum, Oklahoma Mangum is a city in and county seat of Greer County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 3,010 at the 2010 census. It was originally part of Old Greer County in the Texas panhandle. The community was named for A. S. Mangum, who owned the ...

and Altus, Oklahoma. The park is open to the public year-round for rock climbing, hiking, boating, camping, nature observation and photography, and environmental education and interpretation. The mountain overlooks scenic

Lake Altus-Lugert Lake Altus-Lugert, also known as Lake Altus, Lake Lugert, Lake Lugert-Altus, and Lugert Lake, is a reservoir located on the North Fork Red River, about 17 miles (27 km) north of Altus, Oklahoma on the former site of the town of Lugert, Ok ...

.summitpost.org "Baldy Point (Quartz Mtn)"
Retrieved April 13, 2014.

Geology

Quartz Mountain is one of the westernmost peaks in the

Wichita Mountains The Wichita Mountains are located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the principal relief system in the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, being the result of a failed continental rift. The mountains are a northwest-south ...

. In simplest terms, the Wichita Mountains are rocky promontories and rounded hills made of red and black

igneous Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...

rocks, light-colored

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

rocks, and boulder conglomerates. The Wichita Mountains were formed in four distinct geologic episodes. :1.

Magmatism Magmatism is the emplacement of magma within and at the surface of the outer layers of a terrestrial planet, which solidifies as igneous rocks. It does so through magmatic activity or igneous activity, the production, intrusion and extrusion of ...

induced by continental

rifting In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben wi ...

just prior to and in the Cambrian Period produced the

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

s and rhyolites (the red rocks), gabbroic rocks,

anorthosite Anorthosite () is a phaneritic, intrusive igneous rock characterized by its composition: mostly plagioclase feldspar (90–100%), with a minimal mafic component (0–10%). Pyroxene, ilmenite, magnetite, and olivine are the mafic minerals most ...

s, and diabases (the black rocks). :2. Subsidence resulted in burial by

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

s and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

(the light-colored rocks) during the early

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

. :3. Uplift during the Pennsylvanian Ouachita Orogeny brought these rocks to the surface as mountains. :4. Weathering and

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...

during the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

Period flattened the mountains and produced a mantle of conglomerates. The mountains themselves are

landforms covered and preserved by river-borne sediments in the

and partially excavated only in recent geological times. Exposure of these fossil mountains is greatest towards the southeast; much of the western part of the Permian range remains buried under

s and shales. Quartz Mountain is made of

emplaced during the early Cambrian period. Like the other granite knobs nearby, and the larger masses of granite in the eastern Wichita Mountains, these rocks are part of the Wichita Granite Group.M. Charles Gilbert, 1982, ''Geologic setting of the eastern Wichita Mountains with a brief discussion of unresolved problems'', in Gilbert, M.C. and Donovan, R.N., eds., Geology of the Eastern Wichita Mountains, Southwestern Oklahoma, Oklahoma Geological Survey Guidebook 21, p. 1-30. Most of Quartz Mountain and the other exposures in the park are homogeneous pink-red Lugert Granite. However, the flank of Quartz Mountain, as well as the adjacent peaks to the west are made of a coarser grained, red Reformatory Granite.M. Charles Gilbert and Powell, B.N., 1988, ''Igneous Geology of the Wichita Mountains, southeastern Oklahoma,'' in Hayward, O.T., ed., Geological Society of America, Centennial Field Guide, 4, p. 109-126. The Reformatory Granite is quarried locally in and around the appropriately named town of

Granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

; the park's numerous monuments are polished monoliths of the quarry products. A mixed zone between the two units reveals that these are two separate pulses of magma intruding the same level of the crust, and that the Lugert post-dates the intrusion of the Reformatory. Numerous miarolitic cavities and

hydrothermal vein In geology, a vein is a distinct sheetlike body of crystallized minerals within a rock. Veins form when mineral constituents carried by an aqueous solution within the rock mass are deposited through precipitation. The hydraulic flow involved ...

s pervade this zone and its surroundings. Both contain appreciable amounts of

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

Climbing

Climbing using modern techniques at Quartz Mountain began in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1978 and 1982, the majority of climbing routes were established. The property where the mountain is located was privately owned by Ted and Margaret Johnson, who had allowed access to the mountain for several decades. In an effort to ensure the area was preserved, it was purchased in 2001 by

The Access Fund {{Infobox organization , name = The Access Fund , image = The Access Fund Logo.jpg , image_size = 200px , caption = , map = , map_size = , map_alt = , map_caption = , type ...

and the Wichita Mountains Climbers Coalition (WMCC), then donated to the State of Oklahoma. In 2002 the area was designated Quartz Mountain Nature Park. There is no fee charged to climb the mountain. Activities at Baldy Point are only permitted during daytime. Climbers must be off the mountain and out of the parking lot by dusk. One source reports that Quartz Mountain climbing is very strenuous and that this mountain is not recommended for beginners. It has been compared to climbing at

Joshua Tree National Park Joshua Tree National Park is an American national park in southeastern California, east of San Bernardino and Los Angeles and north of Palm Springs. It is named after the Joshua trees (''Yucca brevifolia'') native to the Mojave Desert. Origin ...

. Most of the climbing is done on the south face of the mountain, so summer is not a recommended time for climbing. Spring and fall are the best times for this activity. Camping is not allowed at the climbing area (which is normally called Baldy Point area). Camping is available at Quartz Mountain park campground, about from the climbing area, where there are 100 RV hookups plus a number of tent sites. Fires, firearms, paintball guns, mountain bikes, and dirt bikes are prohibited at the climbing area.

References

{{Mountains of Oklahoma Mountains of Oklahoma Climbing areas of the United States Landforms of Greer County, Oklahoma Cambrian magmatism

Geology

Climbing

See also

References