Pat graduated from the University of Southern California in 1969. His major was business, but he loved the earth sciences and studied geology, botany and more. Upon graduation, he worked in his family’s office furniture business and after 15 years opened his own retail stores in Santa Barbara and Ventura.
Selling his business at age 42 and retiring, Pat has spent much of the past 26 years collecting agates. He and his family relocated to Sedona, Arizona, where he joined the Sedona Gem and Mineral Club. His long years of intensive rock hunting resulted in one of the most comprehensive collections of sagenite, plume and banded agate, in the world. More than 8,000 polished agates and other specimens from over 550 locations can be admired at his “Museum of Agates” at his home in Arizona. Most of the agates in his collection have been dug and collected by Pat, and all of them are awe-inspiring.
Pat has spent considerable time mining on the Laguna and Coyamito Ranches in Mexico with Gene Mueller from thegemshop.com. He has dug “Condor Agate” at over a dozen localities in Argentina, and collected in all 11 Western states in the U.S., as well as in Canada and Alaska. He has displayed agates in rock shows in Europe and across the United States. He has published articles in Rock and Gem Magazine and the German magazine, Mineralien Welt, and was a contributing writer on the topic of agates with inclusions in Johann Zenz’s authoritative book, Agates II.
Pat has finished his book which exhibits his finest agates. The book is called: Agates, The Pat McMahan Collection. It can be found HERE. The book will be available for purchase on May 1st, 2016.