An Indians Dream

For this trip you will need to again go to Milford, Utah. Milford is home to so much geology you can go wrong. Just west of town they have reopened a copper mine which is surrounded by old shut down mines, just south you have Minersville, where they pulled silver and lead as well as many other minerals from the ground, southwest you have more abandoned mines and in this post I will take you to one more spot that has bee very interesting to me. Milford is also just recently home to a large wind turbine farm with many very large wind generators which they use to generate power to be sent all over Utah. One of the most interesting geological features powers its geothermal plant. A geothermal plant is a power plant which uses the earths heat to heat water and power turbines. The reason this is such an important geological feature is because it shows that it is volcanically active and is a definite way to place minerals up near the surface to be mined. I know you have probably heard of the term vein when it comes to mining, and that is where these hot minerals are deposited. Usually the vain is formed by a fault which opens up and is then filled the the very hot mineral liquid. Once it reaches near the surface it quickly cools and is deposited for future prospectors. Now I will take you to one of my favorite spots. The spot is filled with obsidian which can be casually collected. Native Americans used obsidian to shape into arrow heads and used for hunting, but also as a trading commodity. To get to this site you need to go north of Milford on Highway 257 until you can see a road marking the wind generators it will be a dirt road just to the south. Once you turn here follow the road up a few miles and you will see the geothermal plant on your left. If you want you can take a side trip just after the plant and turn left just before the cattle guard where you see the road going almost parallel to the road you were just on. Follow this road to the nearby hill which is surrounded by banded opal. It is not opal you are used to seeing but it is very colorful strands of minerals. The area used to be a free collecting site for rock hounding but the rights have recently been bought and now you may only look at the rocks but leave them on the site. To find the obsidian go back to the cattle guard and continue on the main dirt road into the canyon. Once you get into the canyon you should be able to see the obsidian laying on the ground everywhere you look. This is the site hope you enjoy.  

Brian Head

Most of you have heard of Brian Head as a great place to ski and in the summer, mountain bike. The area is very beautiful and is surrounded by tons of trees. Just in the last few years the resort added new ski lifts to make the park more easily explorable where you can go from the beginner side of the mountain to the more advanced side without getting on the bus. In the summer it is also a great place to play frisbee golf or just hike with the colorful flowers all over the hill and nice mountain air. You can also continue up the main highway to the backside of the mountain and take a dirt road up to the top to see the amazing view from the lookout. It is a great place to visit year around and has access to so many places including some of the oldest pine trees in the world known as the bristle-cone pines and making up the twisted forest. If you want to fin rocks it is also a great place to visit. When you follow the main highway toward the lookout, your first stops should be at each of the road cuts, in them you can find some very nice agate that will polish up really nice. When you are done searching here continue up to the lookout and about halfway up the dirt road you will find washes that house some really nice multicolored agate. Most of them are a brown and black tiger stripe but there are many other colors as well. In my rock hounding book, which is on my amazon carousel, you can read a story about this site were there were visitors from England who came to this site to collect as much agate as they could take home because there was such a large market for it back home. Brian Head is a great place to explore and if you have the time I would highly recommend it. To get there just get on highway 143 in Parowan, Utah and follow it up the mountain.

Silver Reef Utah

The name says it all, it was an area with a large collection of silver ore that was mined in the early 1800's.  If you visit today you will see beautiful scenery but a very sleepy town with many retirement homes.  This was not the case in the 1800's, the town was booming with 5 grocery stores, many hotels, a saloon and everything else you could imagine at that time.  If you do any research on the area you find out that it was the only place in the world where they found silver in sand stone as well as petrified wood. In fact one of the petrified wood pieces that was found in the area was sent to the Smithsonian who said it was a good fake, because they had never seen anything like it before. I have seen many estimates on the amount of money they made from the mining but the latest one I read was 25million dollars, which is a lot of money now but back in the early 1800's is an unthinkable amount.  If you are driving through the sleepy town on Interstate 15 and about 15 miles north of St.George, I would highly recommend you stop and explore the area. If you go to the north end of town and head west under the freeway you will find a museum and many of the ruins still remaining.  If you have enough time to spend here I would also recommend driving and walking along the white cliffs to see how many mines you can find. In the few times I have searched I have seen probably 40 mines.  I had also heard that the miners ran into a cave underground and it was all petrified trees crossing through laced with silver and would have possibly been another wonder of the world but it was destroyed by the miners searching for silver. Although you are not supposed to collect rocks in the historic area it is worth the time you spend there. All of the mines are closed so you can't get in, but many of them are covered by welded re-bar allowing you to look in or even stand on top of the deep pit mines.  If you are in the mood for rock hounding you can head east of town and search for some white petrified wood.  I has been very well picked over and chances are you will only find a few small pieces but its still fun ti search for.  The pieces are found mostly at the bottom of the wash.  When I went I only found 2 very small pieces but is made the trip like an Easter egg hunt.      

Septarian Nodules

The next place I would highly recommend for you to go is Kanab, Utah.  I mentioned it earlier in my blog and what a great place it is to find petrified wood. It has a few rock shops, and a great history of movie making.  Kanab is also home to many vibrant cliffs, and so much open land to explore. On the way to Kanab, if you drive south on highway 89 from Cedar City, you will pass through a small town called Orderville. Orderville is another small town that has a few very nice rock shops including Joe's Rock Shop where you can get a map to find Septarian Nodules and also a explanation of the nodules.  The Septarian Nodules were formed under sea water when shelled sea animals died and the shells formed calcite in the middle of clay.  The Septarian Nodules are a type of geode that can be cut and polished into many different shapes but are very dull when you find them. If you go to this site you need to stay in the areas where Joe's rocj shop says, because there are multiple mineral right owners in the area and separate claims.  Also if you want to if you find any in your search you can bring them back to Joe's rock shop and pay them to cut and polish the rocks.  The first time I went there, I searched for about an our before I found anything and once I found one I found a whole bunch more in the same area, so keep persistent in your search and you will find them.   

Looking Forward to More Rockhounding

It turns out that the site I went to to find the topaz was completely off. I followed a map that said to go to Lund, but when I typed in the township number and did a search the real area I was supposed to go was just outside of Modena, another old train town. This town was developed in 1899 as a place for steam locomotives to refill their water supply. It grew into a very active small town which even included a saloon. As diesel powered trains were started to replace the steam powered, the town had less reason for existence. Today you can get there by taking Highway 56 about 50 miles west of Cedar City and you will see it to the left of the main Highway. It is just east of Lincoln County Nevada which also holds some amazing geological history and Geological features, one of my favorites being, Cathedral Gorge State Park. If you get a chance to go and explore Modena you will find a lot of history in the old buildings still standing and you will also realize that a few people still live in the tired old town. And I would highly recommend driving a little bit further to Nevada and explore the area, not to mention all of the minerals and rocks you can find here.

For this post I will take you to some really great places to explore with great histories attached. These locations are also on the way to Nevada 60+ miles north of highway 56. You will want to head to Milford by either Beaver going West on Highway 21 or Cedar on Minersville Highway. Once you get to Milford you will want to head West on Highway 21 for about an hour. You will see the mines on your right in the nearby hills.

The Unfound

Today I finally made it out again to search for some mysterious Topaz. I have used many different books and websites and today I followed some directions that sent me out to the town of Lund, Utah an old train town. The directions said the site was at SE section 12. I found a section map online for the area and proceeded to find the spot. My Fiancee and I followed the railroad tracks out a few miles and stopped when I could see some hills in the distance. Then we hiked out a few miles to where I thought the site was and we found some small sand dunes but no Topaz. After a short time we gave up searching and headed back toward the car pretty disappointed. On the way back we came across a horny toad which we held and then let go. I guess that's one of the fun aspects of rock hounding, its always better finding the rocks and minerals but if it was easier to do it wouldn't be as fun searching. Although we didn't find anything this time, Lund is a really great place to explore. It is surrounded by mineral filled mountains, in the center of Modena, Minersville and Millfard. I'm sure if you look around the local hills enough you are bound to find something worth collecting. To get to this site, you need to take Highway 56 out to Lund Highway and follow it out about 30 miles until you see the railroad tracks when you get there you will know. Look around the local hills and see what you can find. Just a note, you will want to bring water and snacks because it is very hot in the summer and there are no nearby services.

Rock Hounding Seasons Almost Back

Its finally starting to warm up again and snow has almost disappeared. One of my favorite stops for rock hounding so far has been Marysvale. Its located on highway 89 just south of I-70 near Circleville, where Butch Cassidy the Sundance Kid grew up. I have recently heard many stories about him and his life that are very interesting. He enjoyed being called the modern-day Robyn Hood because he would rob from the trains passing by and help others in his community. I had heard that he had a place in Chile where he would retreat to after he had blasted into a train vault. Him and a friend would ride horses all the way thousands of miles. There are many mysteries about where he actually ended up and where he was buried. One of my co-workers Moms was actually writing a documentary about Butch Cassidy and after interviewing many of his current family members, they led her to a place where they unearthed a skeleton and were going to do a DNA test to check and see if it was really him. Other people say he was tracked down by a Bolivian Army Calvary near a mine they believed he would rob and a gun fight broke out which lead to his and his crime partner Harry Longabaugh death. No matter what happened Marysville and the surrounding area have a lot of history attached to them. I really has a lot of beauty with so many different colored hills and the great rafting Sevier river flowing right through it.

When you go here there are so many sights you can find rock. One of my favorites is just north of town where you can find rutile and bixbyte encased encased in Rhyolite a white chalky rock left from volcanic activity. If you get a chance and want to go here you can use this link I found and it will bring you to the site if you look at the Marysville area. http://www.xmission.com/~jbdaniel/piute.htm.