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Oklahoma Treasures
I have a new grandson (Ben)! Takes after his grand pa. On the way home today I stopped at the Canadian River outside of Oklahoma City. I am sure glad I did. I found a bonaza of gemstones. Carnelian, citrine, agate, red jasper, blue and brown banded jasper, blue and red jasper, a variety of colored quartzites (green, orange, red etc) and some petrified wood for good measure. The wood was also a number of colors. I will post pictures. Has anyone collected on the Canadian in Oklahoma?
Bill
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Posted:
May 12 2008, 5:49 PM EDT by
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Greetings from Oklahoma City
Hello everyone. I am in OK City for my grandson,s first birthday. I stopped at one of my favorite fossil sites and found several great fossils. I was able to identify all but one. The site is a Mississippian Byrozoan reef. Above the reef (shaley limestone) is a sandstone river bed that was an ancient delta. The one I am not sure of is spetacular.If I identify it I think it would bring a good price (if I sel it) maybe $150 dollars. Around Tulsa there are some species unique to the area including a jellyfis like creature (Conostychus). There are lots of branching bryozoan fossils, brocapods, crinoids, and many other ocean fossils. There are some sharks teeth. If you are in the Tulsa area email me and I will put you on to it. I have posted many sites in Oklahoma, this site I will share on a request bases.
Bill
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Posted:
Apr 25 2009, 1:50 PM EDT by
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WHY HAVENT WE SEEN ANY NEW TREASURE HUNTS?
Jim, there are hundreds of sites across his nation. I hope people will start sharing their knowledge. I have posted a number of sites on the National Directory in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and South Dakota.
Bill
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Posted:
Apr 19 2008, 9:56 AM EDT by
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Road Trip...
Hi there,
A friend and I are going on a road trip from North Carolina to California via I-40. We will be passing through Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, north Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California. I have been charged with finding interesting stops along the way and was wondering if anyone knew of some good hunting spots on that route.
Thanks for any advice!
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Posted:
Dec 28 2008, 7:30 AM EST by
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RISE AND SHINE
"Good morning Bill & Billie Anne,
Sounds like you are going to have a wonderful time. Be safe around those toxic sites. I am looking forward to seeing the pictures.
Have Fun,
Willi
" Anyone else hitting the dusty trail? Pitcher Oklahoma has been declared a major toxic site. It is rapidly becoming an abounded mining ghost town The government is buying out the homes. The old shafts are still there as are tailing piles and toxic lakes. Nasty place but we are up to it. Home of scorpions and diamondbacks. We will tread lightly. You Washington folks having a nice day?
Wild Bill & Calamity Billie (can't walk and chew gum at the same time)
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PHOTO FINISH
Andy I put a piece of Missouri Lace Agate with the Alabama Paint Rock. Have you gotten your package yet?
I have a new grandson. He was born two weeks ago. Mom is doing well and Billie is staying with them. My son and his wife live in Oklahoma City. I just got back yesterday from a quick trip out there to drop Billie off. Of course I stopped to prospect on the way back. (see Oklahoma Treasures) Found some goodies. (he,he) After a few years of Rockhounding you kind of have an instent of where to hunt. I quess that's why them call us rockhounds. We can smell rocks and like to lick em. Whwn you see a "Watch for Falling Rock" I'm the guy on the side of the road waiting.
Bill
Posted:
May 13 2008, 3:31 PM EDT by
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family friendly hunting
I'm looking for family friendly sites to do a little rock hounding with our 5 year old duaghter. We live in Minneasota but have car trips planned for Oklahoma City and Black Hills/Badlands this summer. She absolutely loved our trip to ThunderBay for Amethyst last summer. We are pretty open to what to look for, it just needs to be safe and easy enough for a young child.
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Posted:
Jun 16 2009, 2:32 PM EDT by
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Happy Valentines Day
Thanks Paul. I hope you find that sneaky low life Pul before he stirs up any more problems. If you need any help just call - my son is a state champion wrestler who wrestled at Oklahoma State. I taught him everything he knew. Together we can put a stop to this homewrecker Pul.
Bill
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Posted:
Feb 14 2009, 3:28 PM EST by
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Help! Geology programs in peril
Yes I am aware of the trend and it is a shame. It is part of a trend to move industry over seas. I was a mining engineer for a number of years. Mines have been closed all across our nation. Not because there is no longer any ore but because labor is cheaper overseas and laws are more relaxed concerning safe mining practices and environmental laws. Arizona is seeing the end of copper mining. Missouri and Oklahoma is loosing the lead and zinc industry. The great Masabi Range of Minnesota is becoming a memory. The universities are responding to supply and demand - sad to say. No mines - why train geologist. I had to work overseas to stay in the mining industry - so did Bob. The trend effects not only mining but most of America's industries, steel, automobiles, electronic, clothing, petroleum. America is a debtor nation that produces very little but imports vast amounts of foreign goods. No wonder unemployment is climbing.
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Posted:
Apr 10 2009, 7:09 PM EDT by
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Ohio
Thanks Tom. I have seen points as tiny as a head of a small screw driver. I figured that the tiniest points had to do with more than hunting big game. It takes extreme skill to make a point that small. In my imagination I have thought about braves sitting around a camp fire seeing who could make the tiniest point. Kind of like deer camp where hunters sit around the fire and whittle wood making tooth picks and swapping tale tales about the big one still left in the woods. I have a true bird arrow that dates back 2000 years that I posted a picture of on the Unique Treasure page. I plan on donating it along with my Native American collection to the University of Oklahoma. Do you any nappers?
Bill
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Ohio
(15 replies)
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Posted:
Oct 30 2008, 4:09 PM EDT by
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Cabachons & Free forms
"HI,
THIS SOUNDS GREAT KEEP THE INFO FLOWING!! BILL HAVE YOU EVER TRIED THE SILVER CLAY? I HAVE DONE SOME WAX SETTINGS AND HAVE YOU TRIED THAT FORM? THEY ARE BOTH FUN AND I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT ENJOY THEM AS YOU CAN WORK WITH FREE FORMS WITH BOTH. LOVED THE PICS KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK SHARON" Yes we have worked with the clay and it is fun. The price of silver is coming down a little and hopefully the price of the clay will also. Yes we hare experience with lost wax and we a looking at getting a centrifugal casting machine. We try to make jewelry that is unique and unusual. If a lady or gentleman can buy it at Wal-Mart why would they want to buy from us. Billie had a good show this last weekend and she has one coming up next week in Oklahoma City. We will stay with the kids and I will attend a seminar on energy efficient homes. The big big shows are coming up in October. Here in NW Arkansas the War Eagle show attracts 150000 visitors eager to shop. One nice aspect of the hobby is that it makes a good supplemental income that is great fun. When I retire we will gear up to boost our retirement and keep us active hunting treasures, creating, and meeting folks. I cut the stones and make the settings and Billie designs and creates the pieces. She also is a silver smith. Hunting treasures is the best part but making the treasures into finished pieces is a close second. It is also fun selling the pieces and talking rocks with the buyers. Jewelry has to be sold. People want to know what they are buying so we have to know our rocks. I also sell unusual mineral specimens and fossils. We are a good team. She is a great lady and we have been married for 38 years.
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Posted:
Sep 8 2008, 9:04 AM EDT by
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Hellection 2008
Thank you; that's the way I believe and live. My kids were big into sports - football, wresting, baseball-you name it. David wrestled at Oklahoma State. We always had a house full of teenagers from the teams along with their friends, To that generation race was unimportant. David talked to me on the phone this morning and he had no real understanding of where the nation had come from. Last night Obama carried the capital of the old Confederacy ( Virginia) along with the deep Dixie states of North Carolina, and Florida. The race was close in Georgia. Where I live has as great a diversity as any where in the country. We had an 80% turn out in the county and the majority voted their views and not race. Where McCain had 20 point leads were in the far west (Montana, Idaho. Utah, Arizona, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska , and Wyoming which had 2 out of three votes for McCain. I do not think with that Westerners voted for race but more for their conservative values. Western Arkansas is as much western as it is southern. There are mountains ,cattle ranches, elk hunts, Texas style Bar B Que and the capital of the Cherokee nation in Oklahoma is forty mile from here. It a great place to live as is the Great State of Washington.
Bill
PS I love rocks!!!!!!
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Posted:
Nov 5 2008, 11:02 PM EST by
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Devastating Storm
"Sobering pics, Bill. I hope and pray you weather this one with no more damage than is already done.
Dan" It is moving from eastern Oklahoma, northern Arkansas, southern Missouri into the Ohio River Vally. Since we are up in the mountains we really got slammed. My neighborhood was beautiful in the fall. The vast majority of homes have no power, so we have opened our home to those without heat.
Bill
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Posted:
Jan 28 2009, 10:55 AM EST by
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Who Has Any Good Ideas for Kirsten's Next Trip?
I left out:
1.Graves Mountain Georgia
2.South Caroline Amethyst - new finds are dark purple
3.Ohio Flint Ridge - hey Flint Knapping with Roy Miller schedule the program during the knapper gathering
4.The Largest Gypsum Cave in North America and then dig selenite crystal clusters in Oklahoma on the Great Salt Plains
5.Agate Fossils Beds Nebraska and collect Pliocenes fossils at Homestead Cookshack & Bunkhouse real Western Hospitality and fossils for sure - after appraising the fossils donate them to the SD School of Mines.
Much much more
Bill
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Posted:
Apr 11 2009, 11:12 AM EDT by
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Washington Gravel Pit
"Billl,
I found it interesting that wood is found in all states. What kind of geography would a person look for? I live in MI and haven't heard of pet wood here before.
Thanks for any info. Pam
" Just 12000 years ago Michigan was covered with massive glaciers. Like many states in the mid west, material has been transported to Michigan from far away locations. Also rivers transport rocks from a wide area, With that said. like Andy I would look in the gravel pits. Two weeks ago I visited a gravel operation on the Canadian River in Oklahoma. We found plenty of petrified wood. I have collected pet wood in many states . The other location in Michigan I would look is the coal basin. Coal was formed by ancient tree like plants simular to modern ferns. Around coal mines there are generally lots of pet wood. I posted ferns leaves I found three weeks ago in a coal seam in Alabama. It was across from a McDonalds believe it or not. When I travel for business I always try to squeeze some rockhounding in. Hope you find wood. You will.
Bill
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Posted:
Jun 7 2008, 11:58 PM EDT by
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Ellensburg Blue Agates
Bob it sounds like the Fairburns, You can spend all day for a couple of agates if you know where to look. Fortunately there are more things to collect which keeps it interesting. Is you Field Guide still in print? I enjoy writing and have been thinking about an Arkansas Field Guide but so many sites are on private property it seems unwise to produce a guide to other peoples land. I have not had a passion for Quartz growing up in Hot Springs.. I have many great specimens but just have not gotten the bug.But visiting with you has kindled an interest in Quartz. So I am refocusing on combination specimens and inclusions, The same area that is renowned for Quartz is also know for phosphate minerals. tourquise, wavellite, vanadinite ,Variscite and many others. The geology is side by side. The Bigfork chert , the Blakely sandstones, Crystal Mountain Sandstone and the shale. I recently found some snow white calcite crystals with large quartz points. Most of the quartz veins are restricted to a belt about 30 to 40 miles wide that extends a distance of about 170 miles west southwest from Little Rock, Arkansas, to eastern Oklahoma, The most productive quartz veins are present in both Paleozoic sandstones and shales, but those having shale as the host rock typically are massive milky vein deposits with a smaller proportion of clear, well-developed crystals. I know sites with unusual inclusion and combinations I will have to send a little more time around Hot Springs.
Bill
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Posted:
Nov 1 2009, 11:00 PM EST by
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Adna, Washington ((((No Trespassing???))))
"You'll notice I never mentioned what creek I was talking about, just in case...so i guess Skeeter has a point. Still, if we can't talk about rock hounding, what are we all doing here? Does that mean we should erase the ND? I guess I don't get it. I'm sure the local clubs are talking about it...maybe doing something about it. Seems to me that talking about it is the first step. In the end there are a finite amount of good collecting spots. If it becomes the policy of this wiki to not talk about them, are we any better than those who strive to deny access to them? I think this thread is very informative, I'd hate to think there are relevant topics we are not suppose to discuss for fear someone might actually read them. like I said, I don't really get it. Personally I'd like to find out what has been happening with these sites. What if the signs aren't valid? What if all your favorite spots were suddenly posted? However, I think we've all said what we are going to say until we learn more anyway. I'd just hate to think it now taboo to discuss access issues...and I still have time to go out looking for rocks.
~Zeke" You are not getting the point. If a private property owner wants directions to his property posted - by all means post it. Look at the National Directory. I posted directions to sites that were public or the owner wanted rockhounds. The Crater of Diamonds, the City of Sylvania Ohio Fossil Park, the Green River Wyoming fossil formation, a road cut in Oklahoma, Two Hearts Ranch in SD are just a few. But to give directions to private property without the owner consent is irresponsible. How would you like some forum posting directions to dig in your front yard. WORSE YET how would like to return home after a vacation to find your yard excavated. There is plenty to talk about than to tell the world how to trespass on private property. That is a good way to get in a lawsuit.
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Posted:
Sep 21 2009, 6:56 PM EDT by
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Findings
"logging roads are a great place ot find old washers and dryers for motors. and yard sales are great for old drills. get jeff off of that compotorator and put a wrench in his hand.
tom" Tom, I am going to set up a big tumbler. My youngest son lives in Oklahoma city and I have access to large amounts of high grade tumble material. There is a good market for tumble stones. Thanks Andy for the video.
Bill
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Posted:
Feb 21 2009, 10:25 AM EST by
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Fossils
"I have a friend in Penn. who goes rock hunting, and has a place full of shale that she hits every time she's out. She sent me 3 pieces of the shale and I'm excited to see what's in the other two pieces. I found pieces of ferns, both large (about 5 in long) and smaller (about 3 in long). I'm not real good with chisels and hammers, and I broke several ferns in half or worse!
When we went to Thermopolis on vacation one year, we were able to purchase trilobites that had been dug on the museum land. Thermopolis is a GREAT place to vacation, for sure!! Whether you're a rock hunter a fossil hunter or both, you're in luck!!
nan" The fern fossils are very ancient. The flora during that period were quite different than flowering plants of today. Huge swamps thick with vegetation including ferns, tree size ferns like plants laid down many of the eminence coal layers, The Carboniferous Period occurred from about 354 to 290 million years ago during the late Paleozoic Era. The term "Carboniferous" comes from England, in reference to the rich deposits of coal that occur there. These deposits of coal occur throughout northern Europe, Asia, and midwestern and eastern North America. The term "Carboniferous" is used throughout the world to describe this period, although this period has been separated into the Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) and the Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) in the United States. This system was adopted to distinguish the coal-bearing layers of the Pennsylvanian from the mostly limestone Mississippian, and is a result of differing stratigraphy on the different continents. I have collected at Pennsylvanian sites in Oklahoma coal fields where logs were 2' in diameter. The freezer method you are referring to is often used to break open the siderite nodules that contain fossils. The most well done as the Mazon Creek formation in Illinois
Bill
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Fossils
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Posted:
Sep 14 2009, 8:16 AM EDT by
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Fairburn Agates
"Thats cool Bill what ever your used too right! I too like to do the shapeing by hand and have the equipment to do castings but haven't gotten brave enough to jump into it. Ya it is hard to hold onto something small like 15mm and smaller. So tell me again where your at Bill? DB" I am in NW Arkansas. When I say NW I mean NW. I can be in Missouri or Oklahoma in a matter of minutes so I collect in a four state area easily. On my profile I have slide shows of things I collect in the area and a little about me and my family. Billie Ann and I specialize in in larger harder to find material, therefore, I do very little cutting or faceting of small pieces. The little common stuff I leave to Zales Jewelry Stores. I don't want to compete with them mainly because we have are own niche. What you you cut mostly?
Bill
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Posted:
Jan 24 2009, 1:15 PM EST by
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