My fellow Tulsa Artist Fellow, interdisciplinary artist extraordinaire Jessica Harvey, is always organizing fun, weird field trips around Oklahoma. This time, we took a road trip out to Great Salt Plains state park, 2.5 hours west of Tulsa, along quiet highways flanked by golden alfalfa fields, stopping in one small ghosty town. But we didn’t go to see who and how they live out near the panhandle; we went to dig for crystals!
The landscape was lunar. We walked out into the chalky plain, wind whipping around our ears, then picked random spots to kneel in the clay and dig. We used spades and our fingers to dig down to the water table, then comb through the mud for spiky shards of crystal. We collected lots—most of the pieces about an inch long, shaped like double “wands” or “sheaths,” with reddish hourglass shapes in the centers. Our fingers got cut. Our clothes got dirty. Our cheeks got windburn. Totally worth it.
On the way back, we stopped at Glass Mountain, a butte of red clay and gypsum, and I got a phone call from a Portland number. It was Lance Cleland offering me a scholarship to the Tin House Summer Workshop!!! I am so thrilled. I’ve applied and been accepted a few times, but have not been able to afford it without a scholarship. I’ve heard such glowing things about the conference & community, and I can’t wait to experience it myself!
CRYSTAL MAGIC.
