Where to Find Fossil Fish – Dig Sites

Two sites outside the small town of Kemmerer, Wyoming, offer pay-to-dig. Just make an appointment or register, show up and they will take great care of you, showing you how to fish… with a hammer and chisel.

One site is the Warfield Quarry, also known online as Fossil Safari, and the other is the American Quarry.

While visiting the pay-to-dig sites in Kemmerer, it is a must to travel a short distance away to the Fossil Butte National Monument. Sorry no collecting here, but the museum boasts a tremendous variety of animals and plants from the Green River Formation. Cut unobtrusively into the hillside, the visitor center is filled with wonderous fossils, a great compilation of the ecosystem 50 million years ago.

The Green River Formation

Pay-to-dig sites are part of the Green River Formation where there are hundreds, no, thousands of fish trapped in rock that was once a series of fairly shallow lakes. Streams and rivers drained the surrounding mountains enabling the formation of this special fossil location.

The Green River Formation is known as a lagerstatte, which loosely translated from German means “storage place.” The area butts up against the limestone of the Wasatch, Unita, Wind River and other mountain ranges. It is an area where fabulous and spectacularly preserved fossils including plants and animals represent a snapshot of life living within that ecosystem.

When & How was this Site Made?

The Eocene period, about 53 to 48 million years ago, was a transition from a warm and moist environment to one that was hotter and drier. This is evidenced by some of the fossil finds in the area. Palm fronds, crocodile and sycamore leaf remains point to a warm moist environment and deciduous tree leaves point to a drier climate. The mountains were partially made up of limestone. During heavy rains, water would run down into the streams and rivers bringing with it sand, mud and silt sediments filled with dissolved minerals such as calcium oxides, inorganic elements and calcium components.

This would wash into the lakes fouling the water, making it turbid and in some cases changing the pH levels. At times the change in the chemical composition of the water was detrimental to the life forms in it.

Fish would die along with many of the other creatures and become buried in the silty sediments. Paleontologists can tell by looking at the various layers, which were deposited during times of drought and which were deposited in times of flood. It is also possible by studying the cross-section of the quarry where the best location is to find fossil fish.

The spectacular fossilization and completeness of the fossil fish is because they were buried quickly. Even the bottomfeeding scavengers were not quick enough or did not survive to disarticulate the bodies of the dead fish. The sediments filtered down to the bottom of the lake and covered the creatures with thin layers. It is within these layers that spectacular fish specimens may be found.

Where to Find Fossil Fish – Digging

In specific horizons, one of which is called the split fish layer, a finely laminated limestone is present that entombed many fish. This is easy to split and if the rock contains a fossil, it splits so that you can easily see it in both a positive fish fossil and also a negative impression. The fish are beautifully preserved with bones, gill covers, ribs and even scales intact. In some cases, a bit of matrix, the limestone that clings to the fish skeleton, is still present. It is quite easy to remove. In many instances, all that is needed is a dental pick, or a pin vise to gently remove excess rock matrix. You must be very careful not to go too deep into the limestone so it’s best to attack it at an acute angle.

This limestone is so fine-grained that many plants and insects that fell into the water or were washed in from rivers and streams are also seen in spectacular detail.

In some areas birds, reptiles, turtles and even crocodiles may be found all preserved in exquisite detail.

This story about where to find fossil fish previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story and photos by Joseph “PaleoJoe” Kchodl.

The post Where to Find Fossil Fish first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

What are Mercenaria Clams?

Unlike fossil fish, the Mercenaria permagna is a marine bivalve – an aquatic mollusk with two similar halves hinged together and containing the soft parts of the creature within the calcium carbonate shell. Other popular marine fossils include trilobite fossils, fossil ammonites and agatized coral. Various Mercenaria species, also called Venus clams, are still alive in the oceans today and are edible. You may see them on the menu as quahog, cherrystone and littleneck clams. The valves usually have bilateral symmetry, which means only that the two haves are nearly equal in size and shape.

How Mercenaria Clams Fossilized

During the Pleistocene Epoch, 78,000 to 1.8 million years ago, these animals thrived in the warm saltwater tropical seas that periodically transgressed Florida. A transgression is the inundation of a landmass with water, be it salt or fresh, that remains for an extended period.

Throughout history, sea levels would occasionally rise and fall. Sometimes this was because of the sea rising, and sometimes it was because of the land sinking through geological forces such as plate tectonics.

Regardless, the clams lived and died in this space because they were trapped beneath the waves and sand or tossed up onto the beach. Being a hard substance, the calcium carbonate shells would generally survive decay while the soft tissues decayed, creating a void. Over time, calcium-rich water would permeate the shells and deposit calcite within the void, creating beautiful amber-colored rhombohedral crystals.

These amber-colored crystals are sometimes called honey amber. The impurities determine the color of the crystals during formation.

Coquina Matrix

Calcite is one of the most common and abundant minerals on earth. It has a Moh’s hardness of three, and a soft Coquina matrix generally surrounds the clams.

During the era in question, when the sea level dropped significantly, acidic rainwater dissolved some of the shells and beach sand that had accumulated and cemented them together to form Coquina. This Coquina is composed of many shell fragments and other dissolved or partially dissolved calcium carbonate structures. As sea levels again rose, successive sediment layers covered the area.

Where to Find Mercenaria Clams

These natural history wonders came from the once-closed Rucks Pit Crystal Mine located in Fort Drum, Florida. They have a pay-to-dig site where people can pick through the spoils piles; however, the most prized complete specimens are hardly ever found. Geologically, they generally were found within specific zones just above the Tamiami Formation within the Lower Nashua Unit. Diggers are most likely to find pieces of clams, whelks, and other shell material along with small and large calcite crystals, but it’s worth a try!

This story about fossil hunting in Florida for Mercenaria clams appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Joseph “PaleoJoe” Kchodl.

The post Fossil Hunting in Florida for Mercenaria Clams first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Finding Dinosaurs

In the past, paleontologists would spend a great deal of time prospecting, walking along the face of the earth looking for evidence of bones. That evidence is usually a fragment of a bone or what is called a “float.” These are little pieces of bone that have migrated to the surface – or the last bone fragment as it weathers to dust. That is an indicator of dinosaur bones. The float is followed uphill to the rest of the bones.

Rarely are complete dinosaurs discovered. Then as now, scavengers roamed the earth. They would consume the bodies of dead dinosaurs and scatter bones around the ground. Dinosaurs walking around the carcass often would step on bones shattering them into pieces. Often bone beds are located near rivers and the flowing waters would carry many bones away. It is a lucky crew that finds even fifty percent of a dinosaur skeleton.

Digging Tools

Generally, bulldozers and backhoes are not used while surface prospecting because they would destroy the bones. Once bone material is found, out come the brushes. One- and two-inch paint brushes are used to brush away sand and sediment in search of more bone material. At times just below the surface overburden (dirt, rocks, and detritus that cover the bones), fairly complete bones are found.

Once a bone is discovered, be it in rock or softer sediment, a trench is dug around the bone at a minimal distance. In rock, air tools like a mini handheld jackhammer, are used. In softer sediment, the dirt and sand fall away easily with a brush, old screwdriver, or icepick. As the bone is being exposed, various stabilizing liquids are applied because of the brittleness of the bone. The liquids used vary from digger to digger and crew to crew, but generally, they are some form of glue. Often these glues and stabilizers are mixed and created onsite by the crews. As the stabilizer enters the bone, the liquid quickly evaporates leaving the hard stabilizer behind within the bone.

Jacketing Dinosaur Finds

Once the bone has been stabilized, the jacketing process begins. First tin foil or some other material is placed over the bone so that the plaster jacket can be removed easily. Plaster of Paris is brought to the field in dry form, mixed with water in buckets, and strips of burlap are cut and saturated with the Plaster of Paris. The saturated strips are placed over the tin foil-covered bone.

This process is repeated until the entire top surface and as many of the sides are covered as possible. At this point, the bone is undercut and more material is removed until the bone is just barely held in place by the remaining sediment. At times, transverse holes are dug under the bone from one side to the other and burlap is wrapped underneath to further stabilize the bone. After the plaster has dried solid, the bone is gently rocked until it is almost free and then rolled over very quickly, and hopefully, intact. Once free, the other side is also jacketed, and the bone can safely be removed from the dig site.

Removing Lots of Bones

Sometimes pods need to be jacketed. Large amounts of bones are jacketed together at times weighing hundreds, even thousands of pounds. Then heavy equipment is necessary to remove the pods to the back of flatbeds for transport. Tactics, tools, equipment, stabilizers, and glues vary from crew to crew, but the process is generally the same. The goal is to remove the fossil with the least amount of damage possible so the bones can be used for research, study, or display.

This story about digging for dinosaur bones previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story by Joseph “Paleojoe” Kchodl.

The post Digging for Dinosaur Bones first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Finding Deer

Evan and I met one of these handsome creatures while camping in the late fall on Mzatzal Peak. It was a chilly, foggy night and deadly still as we settled by our campfire after a day of hiking and digging at a nearby flowing snowmelt spring. In Arizona, any water is like a magnet to animals. It is the giver of life and the desert animals know every source.

While sitting by our campfire we heard rustling in the nearby brush. We knew bears were about because Evan and a fellow scout had camped in this same area before.

We flashed our lights and lit up a gorgeous, regal-looking male deer. His antlers were at least eight points. Neither of us carry a gun or shoot animals so we did not move as we watched him. He obviously sensed no danger so just turned away and strolled down toward the stream for his evening drink.

Calcite-Willemite Collecting

One of my most exciting encounters was when I was collecting fluorescent calcite-willemite in the desert near Red Rock north of Tucson. A power plant at Red Rock had installed towers to deliver power to the Ajo area. It was not unusual for power line workers to rock hound during their free time and one of them had found a three-foot-wide vein of calcite nearby. The calcite vein ran at least 100 feet and had small willemite crystals scattered through it.

He staked claims as a zinc property and later worked it during his free time. He eventually dug a shaft down over 20 feet, but the ore never improved and he finally gave up. While he did not hit a rich vein of zinc ore, the combination of red fluorescing calcite and green fluorescing willemite was popular among collectors and he invited local clubs to visit the site. The small dump he made was good for collecting and that’s where I did my collecting.

Watering Hole Visitors

To check out the deposit I met the miner late one afternoon. He had a good reason for me to come while it was still daylight. About 50 yards across from his mine was a desert seep in the limestone where animals came in to drink in the late day. The seep was about a 10-inch-wide hole in a limestone formation where water could be reached. As we sat by his mine and waited at dusk, desert animals began to appear. The more powerful desert animal came first, a mountain lion. He was leisurely as he had his fill. Next to appear was a small family of wild pigs or javelina. They were followed by an old bobcat. A trio of coyotes came next. They left and many minutes later a trio of deer slowly approached and took turns drinking and watching for danger. Finally, an animal showed up I did not recognize. The miner said it was a coatimundi. Looking like a huge cat with a bushy tail. It took a hasty drink and scurried away. Seeing such an assortment of wild desert creatures in the wild is an unforgettable treat. After that desert animal show, I collected some nice calcite-willemite.

A Mountain Lion Encounter

Bill Panczner and I collected at the Weldon mine on a local Reservation. It produces nice dog tooth calcite on large plates and galena with cerussite and barite. To collect underground you follow a long tunnel then take a side tunnel to the calcite deposit. As we walked into the mine it was evident some animal had been in there.

We spent the day collecting, then packed up to leave. At the exit, we could hear an animal making noise and stirring in the brush outside but this is cow country so we were not concerned. However, as we listened, it was obvious the animal was an unhappy mountain lion that we were in his home. We could not see him but heard his distinctive throaty snarling. We hightailed it down the mountain slope as fast as we could. I have not collected in that mine since!

Spiders! Oh My!

On one of our trips to Mexico, we visited the mine that produced wonderful Iceland spar calcite during World War II. We camped at the foot of the mountain and sitting around the campfire I heard Bill say, “Well! Well! What are you doing here?” He was looking down at his foot and we looked too. Sitting on Bill’s boot was the biggest furry tarantula I’ve ever seen. It was huge, motionless, just sitting there. Bill knew how to handle them so he reached down and with two fingers picked up the hairy thing and carried it off into the darkness. He put it down and sent it on its way. Why we slept on the ground that night makes no sense now.

Owls at the Rowley Mine

Bill Panczner and I often collected wulfenite underground at the Rowley mine where it occurred in quantity. At day’s end instead of carrying our tools and specimens up the steep incline exit, we took advantage of a vertical shaft at the end of the tunnel. I’d go to the surface and lower a rope. He’d tie off the flats and I’d haul away. One day I did not realize a great-horned owl had taken up residence in that shaft. As I hauled up the boxes that huge bird with what seemed like a fifty-foot wing span suddenly burst forth and zoomed just over my head. He sure scared me but I did not drop the precious cargo.

A Bobcat Home

The most common creatures to watch for in the desert are scorpions. They live under rocks so I always wore leather gloves and flipped rocks over and looked before picking them up.

I live out of town surrounded by horse ranches so we do get uninvited visitors now and then. The coyotes sing to us on some nights.

One morning we had a pleasant surprise when we had a visitor to our front atrium wander in from the desert. Lots of lizards and other visitors were always there. We were thrilled one day when a gorgeous young bobcat arrived and took up residence in the atrium. He stayed for two weeks until he ran out of lizards and small rodents from the ranch next door. He had beautifully patterned fur and would sit on our fountain wall like a young prince. It was midsummer with daytime temps around 110 and he had found a home.

When you visit Arizona to collect, just remember you are an intruder in the desert. The wildlife was here first. Mineral collecting is wonderful here but watch for the desert denizens. Just admire them for their ability to survive in a challenging environment.

This story about desert animals previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story by Bob Jones.

The post Rock Collecting in Arizona first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

A Learning Curve

According to Frank, the lessons were tough from the start.

“When we started, we knew absolutely nothing about rocks,” he recalls. “All we knew was that there were valuable gems all over the world to be found and people would buy them.”

Their learning curve began in April 2020 when the couple visited a pay-to-dig mining spot for the first time. The pair spent two months mining quartz crystals at Ron Coleman Mining in Arkansas and fell in love with the pursuit.

“We sold all of our belongings in four days and hit the road to become full-time YouTubers and gem miners,” he recalls. “All we had was a tent, the money we made from selling our belongings, two dogs, two months’ worth of crystals that we planned on selling, and a newfound passion for mining – we didn’t have a part-time job or a plan B.”

With scant options, the pair learned fast about how to recognize what gems, minerals and fossils they wanted to mine, where to find them and how to make sure their digs were legal.

“The more rare and valuable, the better,” says Frank.

Pay-to-Dig Sites

Mostly they mine pay-to-dig, also known as fee mining sites, where people like the Stallings can pay a fee – as much as $190 per person per day –to dig, pan for gold, wash for gems and split rocks to find fossils. These sites are scattered all over the country and their locations can be found online. Successful miners can legally keep whatever they find and sell it.

“The sites dictate what we are collecting, and digging at pay-to-dig sites allows us to legally sell what we find, ” Frank says.

Reservations are preferred at pay-to-dig sites and check-in at the mining office is a must, he advises.

Public & Private Land

On public lands, which are collectively owned by people in the U.S. and managed by government agencies such as the National Park System, explorers may legally prospect, but may only collect material if the land is unclaimed or is a designated rockhound area. If the area is designated a rockhound area, prospectors may collect what they find, but are not allowed to sell it.

“If it is public land, we use internet resources to check if the land has active mineral claims to respect the claim boundaries,” Stallings explains. If it is a designated rockhound area, we read the rules (that must be followed) online.

By contrast, private lands are owned by individuals, businesses, or some other non-governmental organization, and require the permission of the landowner or claim holder. Those who want to prospect there must obtain permission from the land or claim owner.

Know Before You Go!

Long before that ever happens, the Stallings research potential prospective dig-sites online and consult claim maps that pinpoint the boundaries of privately-held land or claimed land to avoid stealing any resources that may be buried in the earth.

“If it is a claimed area, we stay off the claim perimeters to avoid claim-jumping, also known as stealing,” Stallings explains. “If it is private land, (a person) could do research to contact the land owner, but we personally just stay off private land.”

Fabulous Finds

Since they began prospecting, the Stallings have mined museum-quality gems from several locations including honey calcite crystals in Okeechobee, Fla, $15,000 worth of Herkimer diamonds in Herkimer, NY, wulfenite crystals from the Red Cloud Mine in Yuma, Ariz., solid turquoise nuggets in Tonopah, Nev., and blue-green Smithsonite in Magdalena, NM. They’ve also discovered an entire agatized petrified tree in Holbrook, Ariz.

“Nearly every location we visit, we find gems worth $500 or more,” says Frank.

As a result, Frank, 29, and 24-year-old Kyndall Stallings have built a tidy business from their explorations.

They clean, prep, and ship the treasures they find from their bus while they are on the road. Sales come from the weekly gem shows they host on one of their Facebook sites, and through online stores, they maintain on eBay. Meanwhile, they cultivate their business by sharing on-the-spot videos of their excavations on their YouTube channel and on one of their sites on Facebook. They also share their adventures on their website thatcampingcouple.com.

Making a Living

“Our main income source is our gem sales,” Frank says. “About 10 percent of our income comes from social media, and the rest is from selling our hand-collected gems.”

Still, the way the couple has chosen to make their living is not easy, Frank points out.

“When we started, we barely made any money for an entire year – we went broke several times and had times where we couldn’t afford gas or important bills,” he recalls. “Even now that we make more money, we still put every penny we make back into mining gems and traveling to the next collecting site to grow our business.”

These days, their work still demands long hours all day every day involving not just mining, but preparing their finds for sale, marketing them, and filming and editing videos for their social media and website outlets.

On The Road Realities

Meanwhile, recent economics have also added new challenges.

“To be successful, we have to find noteworthy pieces at each location to accommodate rising gas prices and travel expenses, as well as entertaining our social media following,” he says.

Then, of course, there are the hours of windshield time, and forfeit of even the most simple creature comforts.

“We sacrifice certain comforts, like being far from family and friends, and not being able to shower on a daily basis,” Frank admits.

Still, there is an upside too, he says, including being self-employed and trading the outdoors for a cubicle in some office building.

“Also we get to work together as a married couple, travel, see the country, and find extraordinary, beautiful gems,” Frank says. “Most importantly, we get to really live and experience what life has to offer – in the end, it’s worth it.”

This story about how to rockhound from an RV appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Pat Raia.

The post How to Rockhound from an RV first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

In over a century of searching, riches are still found in the “Treasure State” of Montana. Initially earning this moniker for the gold, silver and copper finds, sapphires have solidly earned their place among the bounty of the State.

During the Montana gold rush in Southwestern Montana in the early 1860s, sapphires appeared as colorful distractions in the miners’ pans and sluice boxes. The colorful bits of sand and gravel were of little value. While gold was one of the main forces, followed by silver and copper, behind the creation of Montana as a territory and a state, if the miners knew what they had at the time, they wouldn’t have been as quick to toss them aside.

“They were after the gold,” says Cass Thompson, owner and operator of the Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine, roughly 30 miles northeast of Helena. Thompson’s family has mined this area for sapphires over the past 60 years.

How Montana Sapphires Were Created

Created as igneous rocks slowly cooled, sapphires are made of the mineral corundum, chemically known as aluminum oxide. With a Mohs rating of nine, sapphires are the hardest natural substances following the diamond.

Reaching the level of the sapphire-laden material can be a challenge. Bound in a conglomerate of feldspar and bentonite clay, sapphires tend to settle well below layers of topsoil, overburden, and evidence of volcanic activity in the gravel bars. In some parts of the Eldorado Bar along the upper Missouri River deposit, there are layers 100 feet below the surface making it more difficult to reach. But because of the sapphires’ high specific gravity of four (although much less than gold’s 19.3) these areas were often intermingled with placer deposits, which is why they were intertwined with the search for gold.

The Brilliance of Chemistry

“We have quite a variety of sapphires in Montana, but the mainstay is the Yogo,” said Glenn McCaffery, longtime gem enthusiast in Great Falls, Montana, and registered jeweler with the American Gem Society.

“The Yogo is untreated and of exceptional quality. There are very few flaws,” he explained. While mining for gold in 1895 along Yogo Creek in the Little Belt Mountains east of Great Falls, prospector Jake Hoover collected the brilliant blue stones instead of discarding them, and sent them to Tiffany & Co. in New York City for an assessment. It turns out these excellent quality gemstones earned Hoover and his partners $3750, over $3000 more than what they’d made finding gold.

While the beautiful “cornflower blue” of the Yogo is highly desirable, natural sapphire colors range from lighter blues, lavenders, pinks, greens, oranges and yellows. Combinations of titanium, iron, small amounts of chromium, and nickel result in this wide array of hues. The signature coloration of the Yogo is a result of titanium and iron, with the more iron involved, the deeper the blue. Rubies, which are also corundum and sometimes found in these areas, are brilliant red because of the presence of a higher concentration of chromium.

“In the Missouri River Deposit where we mine, we get the full spectrum of colors, but the most prominent is the blue/green,” said Thompson. He also notes they find a wide range of sizes.

More Valuable than Gold

“We’ve seen some really nice gem-quality sapphires up to a 26 facet grade,” said Thompson.

When searching for sapphires, sharp eyes are needed to pick out the tiny gems that are mere millimeters across, but larger stones closer to 10 carats are not uncommon. “The largest was found by my grandfather. He found a 50-carat stone. I’m still in the high 20s,” he said. To put it in perspective, Thompson said a 50-carat sapphire is roughly one and a half inches long and as big around as a man’s thumb.

The popularity and price of sapphires, especially since they are September’s birthstone, today would make early prospectors swoon. Thompson said some of the stones found on their place were valued between $1000 to $10,000 per carat. As an example, Thompson said a 24-carat sapphire cut to an 8 to 9-carat finish is easily worth $10,000 or more. “The value (of sapphires) is definitely more than gold,” he said.

Where Montana Sapphires are Found

Besides Yogo Gulch between Great Falls and Lewistown, which is no longer open to the public, there are many sapphire-rich areas throughout Central and Southwestern Montana, all of which coordinate with historic gold speculation. The gravel bars running along the upper Missouri River between Canyon Ferry Reservoir and into Hauser Lake, including the Eldorado and Spokane Bars, are some of the earliest finds and are still rich in sapphires. But after the construction of the dam in the early 1900s to create Hauser Lake, several of the gravel bars were submerged deep below the surface. It’s interesting to consider what sapphires are strewn along these now underwater former gold stakes when prospectors tossed the pretty stones aside.

More to the southwest, the Dry Cottonwood Creek (discovered in 1889) near Deer Lodge, as well as Rock Creek closer to Philipsburg, which was also found in the late 1800s, became popular sapphire mining areas. While the high-quality gems of Yogo Creek earned impressive amounts, many of the other sapphires initially found industrial uses, primarily in watchmaking, as well as being used in bombsights for torpedos and as the abrasive material on sanding wheels until the mid-1940s. After this time period, industrial operations shifted to synthetic sapphires to suit their needs. Since then, treasure hunters still gravitate toward several of these historic mining locations.

Want to Try your Hand at Finding your Own Montana Sapphires? Touch base with these knowledgeable operations for your treasure hunt. Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine Not far from the state capital of Helena, the Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine offers several digging options. Gem Mountain Sapphire Mine Located in Philipsburg, Gem Mountain offers material at a downtown shop or at the mine roughly 22 miles out of town. Montana Gems of Philipsburg Whether searching gravel on-site or having it shipped to your own, Montana Gems offers materials from Rock Creek and the Eldorado Bar areas. Sapphire Gallery Also in Philipsburg, the Sapphire Gallery offers materials from the Rock Creek deposit in the aptly named Sapphire Mountains.

Commercial Mining

Montana is the only state where sapphires are commercially mined, which includes providing opportunities for the public to try their hand picking through gravel to find treasure. Thompson said the basic premise of sapphire mining hasn’t changed very much over the past century. “Since we’ve been doing it, it’s pretty much the same. The equipment just gets bigger,” he says. Front-end loaders and excavators are the front line in removing the materials from the mining location before further processing.

For operations that sell gravel for individuals and families, it’s not a matter of simply dumping dirt and gravel into a bucket. Once extracted, the material goes through a trommel, a rotating drum that sorts out the larger rocks, followed by multiple screening and washing processes to refine the material to a manageable size. In the end, what’s left is a bucket of seemingly innocuous gravel and clay that is rich with sapphires, along with possibly topaz, hematite, garnets, fossils and even gold.

Digging Montana Sapphires

Is it legal to collect rocks, including Montana sapphires? Many commercial mines are open to the public throughout the state with the option of visiting the mining area and searching through the gravel outdoors in a beautiful setting. Some allow visitors to gather material to gain a better understanding of the process. Other places have storefront facilities where there is typically an option to purchase a bucket to sort through at the shop or buy materials to take home. Most mines can even ship bags of gravel.

The actual sorting process is fairly simple. Customers are given a shaker box, which is a screened, roughly three-inch tall container that allows the water to flow through the materials. It is filled about halfway with gravel, then washed in a large tub or trough.

Washing is somewhat of a zen moment. The rhythmic motion of gently working the shaker box in the water — submerge, tilt, flatten, turn, repeat — is surprisingly relaxing. With these movements in the water, the gravel rises, and because the sapphires are heavier, they sink below the layer. Washing also filters out the fine clay to make the gems more visible. After a few passes, it’s time to flip the box on the table so the sapphires are closer to the top.

It doesn’t take long to train your eye to see the pastel colors and different shapes, which are sometimes more rounded or potentially crystalline depending on the mine location. Tweezers are the tool of choice to pluck them from the gravel. Because there can be several different minerals among the sapphire material, if there is any question, save the stones and ask someone at the mine. With generations of experience, they’re happy to explain your find and answer questions.

As with many outdoor activities in Montana, operating seasons are dictated by the weather. Some of the indoor shops offer gravel washing throughout the year, but for those who want to hunt at the mine sites, it’s best to wait until the weather moderates. Thompson said that they’ll often continue mining into December, which can be a brutal month. If Mother Nature cooperates, they welcome visitors in March or April.

Treasure Hunting

Steeped in a long tradition of treasure hunting, Montana sapphires are a unique find in this extraordinarily beautiful landscape.

Picking through pay dirt, it’s easy to understand the allure of gold, and later these colorful gems, and why this quest never fails to spark the heart and imagination of those that appreciate the challenge.

This story about Montana sapphires previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story by Amy Grisak.

The post Montana Sapphires 101 first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Before you pack up the rock buckets, shovels, screens and gold pans, there are lots of things to consider. The more each traveler is invested in the planning process, the more fun everyone will have in the long run.

If you have kids or adults who have never been rockhounding before, you may first want to plan a day at a local club’s rock & mineral show or a nearby mineral museum to determine everyone’s interests.

Getting Started

Have a family meeting to get started. Once a destination and length of time have been determined, have everyone do some research for points of interest. Make sure that at least one of each person’s ideas is included in the final plan.

Researching Things to do

Paper maps are a great place to start. They often highlight parks and other points of interest, like ghost towns and natural features.

Online search “best things to do” in each of the cities you will be visiting, plus look up what minerals or fossils are found in the area and any free or fee mining or panning sites.

Perennially favorite rockhounding books are the Falcon Guides to Rockhounding and Gem Trails. They are available by state.

Be sure to get the most up-to-date version of these books and then double-check locations online to make sure the places you want to visit are still open. Also, check that your vehicle is suited to the terrain of the sites to be visited.

Make Sure Everyone Knows the Rules

Even though you may have been interested in minerals for years, be sure that everyone knows the basic rockhounding do’s and don’ts ahead of time.

• NEVER collect anything from State or National Parks or Monuments.

• ALWAYS ask permission before collecting on Private or Posted property.

• DON’T leave holes. Refill the ones you make.

• NEVER go into an old mine. Cave-ins and poisonous gases can kill you.

• SAFETY FIRST. Watch out for and respect wildlife, especially bears and rattlesnakes.

• NEVER put your hands into a rock crevice or under a bush. You never know what might be lurking to spoil your day.

• ALWAYS carry plenty of drinking water

• DRESS appropriately. Wear a hat.

• USE sunscreen.

• DON’T let new or young rockhounds go off on their own.

The Devil is in the Details

At this point, you can plan as much or as little as you like. You may want to make hotel reservations ahead or not. You may make a detailed itinerary or not. You may download a million GPS coordinates or not. This part is totally up to how you like to travel. If you are going to popular locations or National Parks, you will want to make both attraction and hotel reservations before departure.

These spots fill up fast and disappointment can spoil the best trips.

While planning is great, resist the temptation to over-plan your days and always be flexible for the unexpected things you discover along the way. Sometimes the unplanned stop can become the highlight of the trip.

A Rockhound Packing List

Depending on how many travelers you have, you may want to limit the personal items each person can pack. You will need some basic rockhounding equipment depending on your chosen adventure. The following is a good place to start.

• Rock hammers

• Two or more 5-gallon buckets

• A box of pint, quart and gallon zipper bags and a Sharpie

• Small shovel

• Two or more different-size sifting screens

• One or more gold pans, sniffers and glass or plastic vials

• A metal detector

• A walking stick with a bear bell if you will be in a bear habitat

• A “grippy” stick for picking up samples – don’t knock it till you try it

• A camera to preserve the memories you’ll make

Age-Appropriate Tips

Other considerations while planning, are the ages, abilities and interests of all the folks who are going along for the ride. Here are two examples.

1. If you are going to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park with both really young and older family members, you may wish to divide the group into those able to walk in the natural entrance and another group who take the elevator in the visitor center. Before heading in, ask a Park Ranger to suggest a meeting spot for both groups once everyone is in the cave. Remember that it will take the walkers longer.

2. Colorado is chock-full of age-appropriate choices. Older kids and adults may enjoy the mine tour at the Capital Prize Mine in Georgetown or the Georgetown Loop Steam Train with an optional mid-ride stop and mine tour. However, if you are traveling with younger children, the gold panning and tour at the Country Boy Mine above Breckenridge may be the ticket.

Personal Thoughts for the Road

If someone in the group is a reluctant rockhound, make sure that they have a good book or game with them and a shady, safe place to watch and wait while everyone else is finding treasures. On a trip to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, my 80-something-year-old mom settled onto a bench surrounding the digging area and started reading her book. Within 15 minutes, she asked to join in to dig and sift for diamonds. We all had fun even though none of us found a diamond that day.

Remember that the best mineral sample could be found by anyone – not just the avid adult collector. Also, if the ultimate goal of this trip is to instill a life-long enthusiasm for rockhounding, be sure that the collecting sites that you choose to visit on your first few trips are not too physically demanding and are known for plentiful specimens. The key to a fun trip is filling those plastic bags with treasures.

Trip Ideas

Over the years, we have found a few great places that can get even a skeptical rockhound to join in. Let me share just a few.

South Dakota, Wyoming: Visit National Parks and Monuments of The Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Wind Cave, Devils Tower, Yellowstone. Rockhounding: Free site about 90 miles West of Devils Tower NP in WY, I-90, Exit 77 (Schoonover Road), Selenite crystals are found on the embankment on the Southside of the freeway. (GPS: N 44 12 52.6 W 106 21 01.4)

Montana: Visit one or more of the many ghost towns, like Bannack or Garnet; Yellowstone or Glacier National Parks or the Berkeley Pit and Mining Museum in Butte. Rockhounding: Crystal Park State Park near the town of Dillon (GPS: N 45 29 13.6 W 113 05 58.9) for a $5 per person fee (10 and under, free), dig quartz crystals to your heart’s content between Memorial Day and Labor Day. At Gem Mountain Sapphire Fee Mine (mile marker 38.4 on Montana highway 38) between Hamilton and Philipsburg, you can buy sapphire bearing gravel and process it with their equipment (GPS: N 46 14 43.6 W 113.35 39.4)

Arizona: Visit Meteor Crater, Petrified Forest National Park, The Grand Canyon National Park. Rockhounding: Obsidian Tank, about a 15-minute drive north of I-40 at Exit 178, West of Flagstaff, the roadside is littered with beautiful black obsidian. (GPS: N 35 21 10.1 W 111 55 17.9) There is also a fee mine with agatized petrified wood at DoBell Ranch about one mile Northwest of the South entrance to Petrified Forest National Park on US Highway 180. Check out Rhonda DoBell on Facebook, Trip Advisor or call 928-245-9010. (GPS: N 34 48 02.8 W 54 30.1)

Colorado: Visit Rocky Mountain National Park, Pikes Peak, tour the mines, ride the trains, the possibilities are endless. Rockhounding: Most mine tours include free gold panning.

This story about rockhound trips appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Sue Eyre.

The post How to Plan a Rockhound Road Trip first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Agate Creek History

More than a century ago, prospectors explored the area around Gilberton for gold deposits. It was discovered that an abundance of amygdule-derived agates had accumulated in one of the creeks that flowed into the Robertson River. These agates were believed to have weathered and eroded from basalts of the Carboniferous age. The creek became known as Agate Creek and was first officially mentioned by W.E. Cameron in his GSQ report dated 1900. At that time, agate was thought to be beautiful but of little real value as mines in Germany and Brazil supplied the world market.

After World War II affected Germany’s output, commercial mining companies began using machinery to recover sufficient quantities to make a viable operation. Agate Creek’s remoteness and lack of infrastructure were against them.

Lapidary and rockhounding became more popular pastimes for hobbyists. After conflict between miners and rockhounds in the field, the Department of Minerals & Energy amended the regulations to prevent mining with equipment at Agate Creek. Anybody could use hand tools. This led to the closure of the mines and the area being declared a General Permission Area (GPA).

Agate Creek’s General Permission Area

The GPA is a roughly rectangular-shaped plain of some 45 square kilometers bordered by a rim of hills. Agate Creek runs the length of it, though it is dry for most of the year. The only approach to the GPA is a gravel road that heads south from the gold-mining town of Forsayth. This road passes by the turn-off to the tourist attraction of Cobbold Gorge, so it is generally well-maintained, however, caution is required.

In 2019, a gold mine adjoining the southern boundary was opened, with the ore transported to Georgetown for processing, resulting in heavier traffic.

Camping at Agate Creek

There are two camping areas – the Agate Creek campground at the entrance to the GPA, and the Safari Camp, which is unattended and run down, situated at the far end of the GPA.

The Agate Creek campground has well-posted signs and is easy to find. It is a large flat area with enough trees to be pleasantly shady with plenty of room so campers aren’t in close proximity together.

During the winter months (April to September), Agate Creek is home to upwards of 50 people, many of whom stay for weeks or months at a time. They bring generators, rock saws and other lapidary equipment to process their finds. There is ample potable bore water available and two well-appointed amenities blocks with a hot-water donkey for showers. A daily or weekly camping fee is charged by the owners of Old Robin Hood station, who own the GPA land and maintain the facilities.

You are expected to leave the required cash in the honesty box and take all your garbage home with you. Inland northern Queensland is not somewhere you want to camp in summer with hot and dry conditions and unpredictable flooding.

What is an Agate?

What are agates? According to Wikipedia, agate is a “rock consisting primarily of cryptocrystalline silica, chiefly chalcedony, alternating with micro-granular quartz. It is characterized by its fineness of grain and variety of color.’” It is a fairly common stone found in many locations worldwide, and each area tends to produce its own characteristic color range and banding effects.

Agate experts can often identify where a specimen was found simply by examining the colors, patterns, and internal structures. Agate has a hardness of 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale, making it suitable for most jewelry applications. It can be carved into bowls and vessels and sculpted into decorative items.

Translucent, pale-colored agate is frequently sliced into thin slabs and dyed. These slabs are then used in various applications where the light shines through to reveal the banding effects and colors.

Agate Creek Agate

Agate Creek agate has a concentric banded pattern, but other types such as moss agate, dendritic agate, seam and tube agates, banded onyx, and sardonyx can be found. While most nodules are solid agate, others have an agate outer layer packed tightly with quartz crystals that grow inwards to fill the void.

Geodes are hollow agate nodules that are often lined with crystals of quartz, aragonite or calcite. The attraction for agate-lovers is that every nodule has a different pattern and color structure – no two are identical.

Each named site at Agate Creek is known for its own particular color or design. Collecting in the creek bed will present any variation as they have been collected and jumbled by floodwaters.

Black Soil Field

To access the GPA, turn right out of the campground gate and follow the road south, taking the left fork at the Gilberton turn-off. The first field you come to is Black Soil on the left. Black Soil is literally that – a flat plain of dark, cracked, fine silt with broken pieces of agate and quartz everywhere you look. No digging is required, so grab a bucket and start collecting. Easy pickings, indeed! These pretty little bits are great for your tumbler or cabbing, and they come in an astonishing array of colors and patterns.

It seems that this particular type of soil has a high moisture absorption ability, so when the yearly rains come, the flat plains flood with water and become quagmires. As the soil dries out, it cracks open in fissures, and this action brings the smaller stones to the surface.

Digging for Agates

For museum-quality specimens, digging is required. After a particularly heavy rain event, foraging in the creek beds will produce the odd, unexpected beauty. Agates and geodes can be found pretty much everywhere in this country – at the top of hills, in creeks, on the flats, on the sides of old riverbeds. There is a lot of untouched territory yet to be dug.

Some diggings are a sandy loam, which yields easily to the pick and shovel. Others are virgin hillside or riverbank silt/clay soil requiring the removal of boulders to access the paydirt. Rough agates, unless broken, are quite unremarkable to the untrained eye. Agates can sometimes be distinguished by their weight when held in hand. They are heavier for their size than you would expect because of their dense mineral composition.

However, if the said specimen is actually an agate or chalcedony outer shell with a lining of crystals, it may be lighter than expected and be tossed out with the rejects. It can take a while to get in the groove.

Other Areas to Visit

Crystal Hill is well worth a visit. It is located relatively centrally in the GPA, and a short walk up to the top gives you a spectacular 360-degree view of the whole plain. This is where geodes filled with white, clear, or smoky quartz, or occasionally amethyst crystals, are likely to be found.

There are other areas like ‘Bald Hill,’ ‘Mushroom Rock,’ and ‘Chimneys’ that are named after prominent landmarks or topography. ‘Pink Patch’ and ‘Green Patch’ are named for the predominant color of the stones found there. Some unique rock and mountain formations just beg to be photographed for their sheer majesty and uniqueness.

Tips for Collecting at Agate Creek

Be sure to pack enough buckets, boxes, or rock transport receptacles. As rockhounds know, collecting becomes addictive, and it is hard to leave a potential treasure behind. Be sure to account for the sheer weight of the material being taken home.

On a personal note, our camper floors were packed tight, and the back of our four-wheel drive was loaded full, leaving just enough room for the dog. Not only did we have lots of agate, but the banded jasper found in this area is also beautiful.

It is impossible to spend time at Agate Creek and find nothing worth taking home, as there are beautiful rocks everywhere you look. In fact, the official rock pile of rejects at the camping area gate itself was easy pickings.

This story about Australia’s Agate Creek previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story and photos by Jenni Clark and Leigh Twine.  

The post Exploring Australia’s Agate Creek first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Putting the Pieces Together

One of those early buckaroos was Harry L. Wilson, who was born and raised in the Surprise Valley community of Fort Bidwell, and later worked cattle for an enormous, multi-state ranching operation before partnering with a couple of friends in 1925. “They bought homesteads that eventually became consolidated as the Virgin Valley Ranch,” says Julie Wilson, granddaughter and third generation to operate the Royal Peacock Mine.

The appeal of these pretty gems wasn’t the reason Harry L. Wilson purchased the nearby opal mine, which they later named the Royal Peacock, in 1944. It was all because of his wife, Mabel. He was all about the cattle and the horses, but she liked the “sparkle and bling.”

Beyond the beauty of the opals, this entire region is a world of its own. “The Virgin Valley is remote, but it was genuinely nestled in the boondocks in the 1950s. My grandfather lived on the ranch before Highway 140 connected Virgin Valley with Lakeview, about 100 miles to the west,” says Julie. “It was a time when Modoc County’s Surprise Valley towns of Cedarville, Fort Bidwell and Lake City were the nearest watering holes. There was no electricity until 1968 or telephone service until 1970. For years, my grandparents operated a cattle ranch and raised horses. It became surrounded by the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, which was created in 1931.”

Changing Times

When the refuge eventually expanded, cattle were no longer permitted on the land. This required the Wilsons to sell 1,600 acres of the ranch, which was the largest inholding in the area, to the Nature Conservancy. But they still had the mine and the remainder of the ranch.

Born in 1932, Julie’s father, Harry W. Wilson, naturally fit into the rhythm of this stunning landscape. He met his future wife, Joy Wimer, during their high school years in Cedarville. Julie comments that after they were married in 1953, her mother’s initial impression was, “I thought he brought me to the end of the world.’”

In the first few decades, there was some early small-scale commercial leasing and public fee digging. It wasn’t until 1973 that Julie’s parents shifted the focus of the mine, introducing more people to these beautiful gems. The couple is even responsible for petitioning the Nevada State Legislature to recognize the black opals from the Virgin Valley as the Nevada State Precious Gemstone. There is now an exhibit at the capitol building in Carson City.

“Over the years, millions of dollars of opals have been extracted from the family mine in Virgin Valley, which has more than 200 private claims,” Julie notes. To this day, the mine remains family-run with a keen focus on welcoming other families to this beautiful locale with the opportunity to find their own opals.

Growing Up at Royal Peacock

“All you find is yours to keep,” says Jake Anderson, Julie’s son who started working at the Royal Peacock in 2010 and has been a key figure in the mine’s operation since Julie’s father passed suddenly in 2016. Jake also runs their 500-acre alfalfa farm located a couple of hours from the mine.

“As a young boy growing up (Jake) would go stay with his grandparents, Harry and Joy, playing in the dirt at the mine with his brothers,” says Julie.

Spending so much of his childhood at the mine, Jake was privileged to be mentored by his grandfather who taught him how to read the layers of the hill, along with the “ins and outs” of operating a mine. “This allowed Jake to gain the knowledge of the past and the best ways to help people be successful in digging,” Julie notes One of Jake’s earliest significant discoveries was finding his first black opal when he was 14 years old. “I used to think fossilized wood was worth a million bucks,” he says, but one day when he and his brother were messing around, he broke a limb cast that was loaded with fire. Being immersed in the mine throughout his life, and understanding the satisfaction of finding these gemstones, allows Jake to help others experience the same thrill of discovering something truly special.

Through the tutelage of his grandfather, Jakes says he learned, “You’ll find (a treasure) when you least expect it.”

Continuing a Legacy

These words of wisdom turned out to be especially true for Jake when it came to meeting his wife, Cassie. In August 2020, Jake took a trip to the Spectrum Sunstone Mine in Plush, Oregon, and happened to meet a family from Washington. He immediately hit it off with Cassie as the couple worked together looking for sunstones, but ultimately, Jake and Cassie found a treasure in each other. Before Cassie’s family left for their next mining adventure, Jake gifted her with an opal from his family’s mine.

“The Royal Peacock was my family’s second stop,” says Cassie. She and her family traveled to the mine, leaving Jake to continue his effort looking for sunstones, but were pleasantly surprised when they woke up the next morning with Jake parked outside of their lodging. The running joke in the family is that Jake claims, even to this day, that his phone broke, but others think it was a plausible excuse.

Regardless of the phone functionality, Jake discovered his ideal mate. Cassie has gemstones in her blood.

“My parents got me started when I was seven,” she says when they visited Crystal Park in Montana looking for amethysts and crystals. “It’s incredible what the earth can create. I’m so blessed to have been able to become part of this family.” She’s equally smitten with the terrain in this remote country. “It’s an oasis out there, that’s for sure. It’s absolutely beautiful.”

Continuing a Legacy

From this serendipitous meeting, the two married and continued the family legacy with the birth of their son, Sterling HB Anderson, the fifth generation of the Royal Peacock Opal Mine. “It just means the world to me.

I am still in shock,” says Jake.

Julie admits she was wondering whether Jake would ever meet anyone and continue the legacy of the family mining business.

“When he met Cassie, it changed our lives forever,” she says.

With a focus on the future, the entire family strives to make the mine viable for generations to come. Julie always has an eye on annual improvements to the mine and the campgrounds.

“Every time she says, ‘Here’s what I was thinking” (almost daily) to the crew, we all know we are in for a new project,” jokes Cassie. As Julie looks to the future, her intent is to hand over the torch to Jake and Cassie, allowing her to make time for things she has always wanted to do, but never had the time.

A Place for Nature

Besides a premiere opal mine, their family’s legacy is a place of beauty and serenity. Jake says if folks like wide open spaces and the ability to see for miles upon miles, this is the place to be. There are also exceptional bird watching opportunities, trails for ATV adventures and hiking routes throughout the area which are favorites for those searching for a time to unwind. However, it is important to note that there are many active mining claims, which make it important to not trespass.

Julie also notes that they are blessed with rare dark skies for those who wish to experience the stars as few can anymore. With less than 80 percent of Americans able to see the Milky Way at their homes, looking up at the stars without light pollution is something few people forget. This is just another special aspect of this place they call home.

With their roots sunk deeply in the opal-rich earth, Julie, Jake and Cassie, along with their hardworking crew, look forward to the future. They are proof that treasures come in many forms, and for this family, what is most precious is being together in the place they were meant to be.

This sponsored story about the Royal Peacock Opal Mine previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Amy Grisak.

The post Exploring the Royal Peacock Opal Mine first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

On the ground, bubblegum agates are full of round, bumpy nodules that are usually small between a half-inch and less than one inch across. The nodules are earth-colored — dull brown, tan, pink, orange, yellow or dirty white.

Bubblegum agates can make a beautiful specimen and are lots of fun to collect. When cut or tumble-polished, these nodules sometimes reveal vivid and fantastic colors and patterns. The keyword is sometimes. They don’t always make a beautiful specimen. You take your chances if slicing into these little agates with a rock saw or grinding them with a grinding wheel or a tumbler filled with grit. If you’re lucky, the results are worth it!

What is an Agate?

“Agate is a banded form of finely-grained, microcrystalline quartz. The lovely color patterns and banding make this translucent gemstone very unique. Agates can have many distinctive styles and patterns, but each agate is unique in its own habit, with no two agates being the same.” – minerals.net.

Bubblegum Agate Facts

Habit: Compact

Color: Multi-colored

Transparency: Translucent

Cause of Coloring: Finely banded, filling cavities

Mohs Hardness Scale: 7

Where to Collect Bubblegum Agate

Bubblegum agate is most often collected in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland of South Dakota, near the Badlands National Park. Buffalo Gap National Grassland is a national preserve, but it does allow informal noncommercial rock collecting. The visitor center at Buffalo Gap will guide you to the best collecting spots.

Per the Buffalo Gap National Grassland Rockhound Guide – “Rock hunting (surface collection of rocks and agates, excluding meteorites and fossils) for personal, hobby and noncommercial use only, is allowed without a permit. For other uses of rock material, contact the local Forest Service Office. Trading, bartering, or selling rocks and agates from National Forest System Lands are not allowed. Collecting on private land requires the owner’s permission.”

What is Microcrystalline Quartz?

“When quartz forms at low temperatures in volcanic cavities, the crystals can be so small that the mineral looks more like porcelain. The general name for this ‘cryptocrystalline’ quartz is chalcedony.” – John Farndon, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rocks, Minerals & Gemstones.

How is Chalcedony Used?

“Chalcedony is a form of chert, and perhaps the most widely used of all gems through the ages. In fact, apart from sticks, bones and plain rocks, chalcedonies may have been the earliest hard materials used by mankind, shaped into arrowheads, knives, tools, cups and bowls…It was a sacred stone for Native Americans, said to promote stability and harmony.” – John Farndon, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rocks, Minerals & Gemstones.

This story about bubblegum agate previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story and photos by Jim Brace-Thompson.

The post What is Bubblegum Agate? first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.