Discussion: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon

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washingtoncougar	Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 28 2008, 10:05 PM EDT Hello all, The family reunion RockPuppy and I went to this last weekend was great had a lot of fun. Sunday on our way home we stopped about a mile above Biggs on highway 97 to do a little jasper hunting . We found pet. wood, pet. bogg (similiar to the stuff we found a Saddle Mountain) some picture jasper and alot of stuff we are not sure if it is jasper untill we get it cleaned off and cut. We also have rocks from the Rufus area as well , not sure if it jasper, perolite (sp), ryeolite (sp) or what, but I will post pics in the next couple of days to pick at the minds of the knowledgable (sp). I am going to post one pic tonight that I know is picture jasper, I already have it on display at work. At this time I will say it is one of the better finds I made on sunday. Dave P.S. I will let Livy fill everyone in on the trip she is a better story teller then I am. : ) Post reply Do you find this valuable? Keyword tags: None
PyriteCube	1. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 29 2008, 10:44 AM EDT "Hello all, The family reunion RockPuppy and I went to this last weekend was great had a lot of fun. Sunday on our way home we stopped about a mile above Biggs on highway 97 to do a little jasper hunting . We found pet. wood, pet. bogg (similiar to the stuff we found a Saddle Mountain) some picture jasper and alot of stuff we are not sure if it is jasper untill we get it cleaned off and cut. We also have rocks from the Rufus area as well , not sure if it jasper, perolite (sp), ryeolite (sp) or what, but I will post pics in the next couple of days to pick at the minds of the knowledgable (sp). I am going to post one pic tonight that I know is picture jasper, I already have it on display at work. At this time I will say it is one of the better finds I made on sunday. Dave P.S. I will let Livy fill everyone in on the trip she is a better story teller then I am. : )" Great piece of Biggs. Did you stop at the quarry in Biggs? At the mouth of Fulton Canyon there is an operating picture jasper quarry. It is owned by Isami Tsubota (Sami). To get there, from Portland take I-84 east to Exit 104 at Biggs. Sami lives beside the Nu-Vu Motel. He will take you to the dig to pick jasper. Most of what you take will be rolling hills scenes in shades of brown, with a brown to slate sky. Some may have nice dendrites as well. He also has an unusual black jasper. With cloud scenes and such. I was in Biggs a few months ago. Bill http://www.minerals-n-more.com/Biggs_Jasper_Info.html Post reply Do you find this valuable?
washingtoncougar	2. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 29 2008, 7:33 PM EDT No, most of what we collected was south of Biggs near the old jasper mine. It appears that the ODOT uses the place we went to to dump all the rock and dirt that fall off the cliffs and onto the highway. Took pics today of all our finds including those from the canyon above Rufus and will be posting them when I get the chance. Dave Post reply Do you find this valuable?
aubreyreynolds9@gmai	3. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 29 2008, 11:30 PM EDT "No, most of what we collected was south of Biggs near the old jasper mine. It appears that the ODOT uses the place we went to to dump all the rock and dirt that fall off the cliffs and onto the highway. Took pics today of all our finds including those from the canyon above Rufus and will be posting them when I get the chance. Dave" I will post some pics of my Oregon collection. I love the Oregon jaspers and agates The Biggs jaspers are one of my favorites. Bill Post reply Do you find this valuable?
pvjjh	4. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 29 2008, 11:41 PM EDT "No, most of what we collected was south of Biggs near the old jasper mine. It appears that the ODOT uses the place we went to to dump all the rock and dirt that fall off the cliffs and onto the highway. Took pics today of all our finds including those from the canyon above Rufus and will be posting them when I get the chance. Dave" Hey dave, is it fairly quick and easy to get to site? I may be able to stop there on my way back home from OR. I know Val may not like it, but I don't get that way very often. lol It would be nice to try to pick up a few pieces on the trip home. It would be a good time for a break from driving anyway. lol Let me know unless it is one of those "if I tell ya, I'll have to kill ya" thingy or something like that. lol Thanks, Paul Post reply Do you find this valuable?
washingtoncougar	5. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 29 2008, 11:57 PM EDT Paul it is very easy to find where we were at. It is a little over a mile south of Biggs, directly under the high voltage power lines, it appears to be a section of the old highway on the east side of highway 97. You will be coming from the Oregon side so after you pass mile marker 2 you will be wanting to look for the high voltage powerlines, when you locate them start looking to the right if you miss the turn off there is another about an 1/4 mile down. You will see piles of dirt and rock that have been dumped there, we parked just north of being directly under the power lines and that is where we found most of our finds. The piles at the south end of the area where never reached by us and don't know what is there. If you do get the chance to stop, Good Luck rocking. Dave Post reply Do you find this valuable?
washingtoncougar	6. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 30 2008, 12:08 AM EDT If anyone has answers or ideas asto what the rocks are in the pics I posted as unknown, I would be thankful for your input. Dave Post reply Do you find this valuable?
pvjjh	7. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 30 2008, 12:21 AM EDT Hey dave thanks for the info. Sounds pretty quick and easy hopefully I will get a hacne to stop by there. Man you have some nice pieces of wood and jasper in the pics. That big chunk of Jasper will test your saw. lol Did you get the wood at the same site or is that the Rufus site? Paul Post reply Do you find this valuable?
washingtoncougar	8. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 30 2008, 12:34 AM EDT The pieces that we know are wood came from the Biggs site. All the finds from Rufus are unknown to Livy and I. I'm hoping their jasper but Livy thinks there rieolite (sp) or pirelite (sp). So we either have some nice finds or a lot off leaverite to decorate the yard with. Dave Post reply Do you find this valuable?
pvjjh	9. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 30 2008, 1:06 AM EDT Wow so one can find wood and jasper in the same piles? Way cool. You just start digging or just pick through rocks? Post reply Do you find this valuable?
washingtoncougar	10. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 30 2008, 1:41 AM EDT A little of both. There is alot of small stuff sitting all over the place, that large chunk we found was sticking out from under a couple of big chunks of basalt. If a person really wanted to, I'm sure some nice pieces could be found with some serious digging and rock moving. That big chunk that we found I thought was just jasper on the outside of a piece of basalt but when I started to break pieces off of it I noticed that the dark area I thought was basalt was to compacted and shiny. I believe the whole piece might be jasper, but won't know until I cut into it. I plan to use a dry concrete blade in an old skill saw that is on its last leg to score where I want it to break and then use the sledge and chiseles to break it. The cream colored stuff on the outside I believe is churt after looking at PyriteCube's web site from above. Dave Post reply Do you find this valuable?
aubreyreynolds9@gmai	11. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 30 2008, 2:21 PM EDT The unknown I saw looked like a colorful high grade chert or as nappers would say Flint. Notice the conchoidal fracture that looks like a dish. Also note the sharp breaks. I have polished some Abates Flint from the Canadian River breaks in the Texas panhandle. It takes and extremely high polish. Jasper is a catch all term for any opaque cryptocrystalline variety of quartz . So if you prefer you could call it jasper. In the mineral shows the tern jasper is not allowed if the specimen is to be judged for prizes. Bill Post reply Do you find this valuable?
aubreyreynolds9@gmai	12. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 30 2008, 2:28 PM EDT "The unknown I saw looked like a colorful high grade chert or as nappers would say Flint. Notice the conchoidal fracture that looks like a dish. Also note the sharp breaks. I have polished some Abates Flint from the Canadian River breaks in the Texas panhandle. It takes and extremely high polish. Jasper is a catch all term for any opaque cryptocrystalline variety of quartz . So if you prefer you could call it jasper. In the mineral shows the tern jasper is not allowed if the specimen is to be judged for prizes. Bill" If you explore the site there might be signs of early Native American mining the flint and maybe some artifacts. There will be a lot of chips if it was worked. See Ohio National Directory Bill Post reply Do you find this valuable?
RockPuppy	13. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 30 2008, 5:29 PM EDT Hi all, sorry long time no hear from me, been keeping busy with the boys, work, car stuff, and play. And when I haven't been doing that I haven't been to anxious to be sitting at the computer. Wanted to yesterday but couldn't hardly see straight, today's the first day my head hasn't hurt even a little bit in a week. Let's hope it's the start of a new trend. This last weekend was lots of fun at our reunion. We donated some Teggs, both cut and uncut, and they sold very well at our auction. All proceeds go to helping pay for our annual reunion site. David brought our small trim saw and soon had a good sized group of all ages hanging around while he cut eggs. I personally don't like the blade he was using (to thin for me) so he sent me off looking for Kevin to have him take over for the last couple of cuts. Of course had to stop and catch a blue bellied lizard on the way back. I'm looking forward to going back and looking for more Biggs jasper and purdy "high grade flint" and seeing where ODOT had originally removed these piles from and have a little more time to actually look through the pile more thoroughly instead of just a quick surface hunt. Would love to have the time to do a better search of the area and not have to worry about tired boys. They hung in there for a short while but it probably didn't help their energy level none after having stayed up till 3am visiting with cousins and then getting up at 730 with me and Dave. Even though we too were up til 2am playing cards, I guess us 'old farts' are just a little more driven than these 'young bucks' when it comes to rocks. Even though they don't have the love of hounding like us, we are going to miss them when they go back to their other homes. It's going to be real quiet next week. =( Keep on Rockin' Livy Post reply Do you find this valuable?
aubreyreynolds9@gmai	14. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 30 2008, 5:37 PM EDT Livy we all have been missing you. Glad to hear the about the reunion. I was at Biggs a few months ago. No doubt about you folks live in rockhound paradise, Bill I will post my Biggs finds Post reply Do you find this valuable?
washingtoncougar	15. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 30 2008, 10:29 PM EDT "If you explore the site there might be signs of early Native American mining the flint and maybe some artifacts. There will be a lot of chips if it was worked. See Ohio National Directory Bill" Thanks for the info Bill. It would not surprise me to find any signs of early Native Americans in the area it is just across the river from where Andy ( washatonian) found alot of his items, before it was made illegal to collect Indian artifacts except for on private property. Dave Post reply Do you find this valuable?
aubreyreynolds9@gmai	16. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 31 2008, 11:17 AM EDT "Thanks for the info Bill. It would not surprise me to find any signs of early Native Americans in the area it is just across the river from where Andy ( washatonian) found alot of his items, before it was made illegal to collect Indian artifacts except for on private property. Dave" I will make a slide show of my Oregon collection. I do have some nice material. I hope to fly out there on a "Business Trip?" and go prospecting with you all. This community is made up of some friendly folks. Is all of the NW this friendly? Bill Post reply Do you find this valuable?
pvjjh	17. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 31 2008, 11:56 AM EDT "I will make a slide show of my Oregon collection. I do have some nice material. I hope to fly out there on a "Business Trip?" and go prospecting with you all. This community is made up of some friendly folks. Is all of the NW this friendly? Bill " Sounds great Bill. Come on out. Now I can't speak for the rest of the NW, however the group we have here cannot be beat for being friendly and a great group of people. :-) Paul Post reply 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?
PyriteCube	18. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 31 2008, 9:25 PM EDT Paul has the package arrived Bill Post reply Do you find this valuable?
havermap	19. RE: Biggs/ Rufus Oregon Jul 31 2008, 9:45 PM EDT I would agree with you Paul that you Northwesterners are a friendly lot. There are some of us in the Midwest who are also friendly. We just don't seem to have many on this wiki. Pam Post reply Do you find this valuable?

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