April 20th, 2024 Biggs, Oregon Field Trip Report

Field trip reports

On Sat. April 20th we had a field trip to a private quarry near Biggs Junction, Oregon for Biggs Jasper and Agate. Jay Carlson of Sherman County Rocks in Rufus, OR, manages the operation and is doing field trips for rock clubs only. We had a beautiful clear day and started out by picking through the piles of material at his shop – Wascoite, Grainite, China Hollow, and Biggs Jasper/agate. Jay also has some beautiful finished material inside his shop. There were 20 people in 12 vehicles that went up to Beers Mtn. A few things I picked up from Jay’s explanation last year of the material is that it’s a mudstone formation formed millenia ago by thick mudpools under and over basalt lava flows. There were gas bubbles burping through the thick goo causing the intricate patterns to form as it was going through a hardening process. Bands of limonite (a type of iron) form the intricate patterns. It’s highly metamorphed and over time some agate and jasper formed in seams and pockets in the stone. The material takes a great polish. Mostly in brown tones, there are some hints of bluish and greenish coloration and pockets/seams of druzy crystal. The sites were easy to pick. A few people chiseled out chunks from the hard rock, but mostly it’s walking around and collecting loose material. The hardest part is deciding what to take home. The Beers Mtn material as well as the Wascoite and Grainite was $5/lb and the China Hollow material was $2/lb. We started out at 8:45 AM and finished by 12:00.
Afterwards some of us went to the Polka Dot Agate mine and others went to Richardson’s Rock Ranch. Both of those are about 80 miles further south via Hwy 97. At Polka Dot we chiseled beautiful blue agate from a large deposit that they’ve unearthed on the property. It’s very hard and dense and difficult to get chunks out, and one has to make a time slot reservation to work in the pit, but they also have a pile that you can pick from which is much easier.

Members who joined me were:
Scott & Laurie M., Christina L, John & Dave C. & friend Mike, Kari C., Scott M., Marion R., Michelle & Jerry M., Noelle B., Pete A., Jarrod D., Chris W. +2, Arlea W. +1.
Submitted by Roger Danneman Field Trip Guide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updated: April 27, 2024 — 11:40 am

Presidents Message

  • Digging It!  Thanks to everyone who came to the club camp out at Teanaway campground near Cle Elum last month. After a brief spell of rain the first night, we were blessed with sun, clear skies, and rockhounding the rest of the weekend. And a big thanks to Roger Danneman for doing all of the trip organizing, and keeping us all warm and well fed during the weekend. This month I’ll be giving a talk at our club meeting about how to use Gaia for rockhounding. If you have specific questions, please bring them along or feel free to email …

Meeting Announcements

  • Noelle Barnes will present Using Gaia for Rockhounding, an overview of the features and tricks associated with the app Gaia and how you can use it for GPS, saving waypoints, navigation, photo tagging, trail recording and more. Show and Tell: Bring the rock(s) that have the best “story” – and tell everyone how you found them and where!

  • Club board member Paul Ahnberg will talk to us about the impact of wildfires on our lives – from protecting your home to staying safe while out rockhounding – and what we can do today to help mitigate our risk. Paul will combine his knowledge gained from learning at both the WSU Green School (Master Gardener) and WSU Climate Steward programs. Show and Tell: Bring something you found, from a place that you know has since been impacted by floods or wildfires – or was impacted shortly before you arrived. Tell your story!

  • December’s date and time is coming soon. We will update this page as soon as we know more.

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