Horse Mountain: Horse Mountain Agate Rockhounding in Bedford County, Tennessee

Plan your visit

Permission required before collecting

County

Bedford County

State

Tennessee

Nearest road

Tuliptree Road

Coordinates

35.51295, -86.42000

Coordinates are approximate. Confirm the exact ground in the RockHoundR app, where land overlays show which agency manages the area.

Land & collecting status

Permission required before collecting

Requires landowner or agency permission before any collecting. Do not enter without explicit authorization.

Access note: The productive ground is private farmland, and historic access has run through named rock farms rather than open land, so treat this as a permission-required locality. Confirm landowner permission before collecting. Agate float can also appear in area road and creek gravels, but the mountain itself is not open public access.

Public-land rules vary by agency, season, and field office. The RockHoundR app pulls live BLM, USFS, NPS, and tribal overlays so you can see exactly which agency manages the ground at this spot.

Best time to visit Horse Mountain

Comfortable months (45 to 90°F highs)

Conditions here are workable year-round, with typical highs from 48°F in winter to 88°F in summer.

Climate normals: NOAA 1991-2020 monthlies, SHELBYVILLE WATER DEPT station (3 mi away), adjusted for elevation.

Geology at Horse Mountain

This spot sits on Nashville Group; Bigby-Cannon Limestone and Hermitage Formation, mapped as limestone and calcarenite that formed roughly 485 to 445 million years ago. Chert and agate nodules typically form inside carbonate rock like this and weather out as tough, waxy lumps in soils and creek beds.

Mapped unit

Nashville Group; Bigby-Cannon Limestone and Hermitage Formation

Age

485–445 Ma (Ordovician)

Rock types

limestone and calcarenite

Elevation

1,190 ft

Geologic mapping via Macrostrat and the underlying state geological survey maps (CC BY 4.0). Bedrock at the surface can vary within a mapped unit.

Sources & verification

Spot details combine the public RockHoundR location dataset, normalized mineral labels, agency land-status checks in the app, and community submissions. Coordinates are approximate until verified in the field.

• Tennessee Division of Geology
• Cherokee National Forest
• Tennessee State Parks rules
• Community submissions reviewed against published agency rules