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Brian then tells
me, “Scott found it in a spot out in the Owyhee’s.” I look at Scott.
He’s not smiling, so I know this is not a joke. Finally, Scott
says, “It’s not even close to where the Bruneau claims are.” Scott
doesn’t know me yet, and rightly so, doesn’t tell me exactly where
this area is. After he tells me how he discovered it, he shows me
other examples of what he had picked up off the ground. I’m very
intrigued at this point. Brian says, “Scott is thinking about
claiming it and has questions about how to go about it.” I discussed
some of the ins and outs about making claims and left it up to that.
A Crisp Spring Day,
I get a call from Brian. “Scott is thinking of letting you
claim that jasper that he found out in the Owyhee’s and he wants to
meet with us again.” It’s been a few years since I initially saw
Scott’s jasper. It’s something you try not to think about too much,
if you value getting any sleep at night. We meet at Scott’s shop the
next day. He asks me if I would like to make a claim on his jasper
and all he wants, in return, is a little rock to cut up every so
often. Puzzled, I say, “I thought you wanted to mine it?” Scott then
relates his rational for asking me to mine it. “After years of
keeping the jasper location a secret,” he states, “Maybe it’s time
to see what’s in the ground.” Like the rest of us, he’s not getting
any younger. Also, he recently came into the possession of a claim
of facet, high grade, opal in Idaho that he would like to spend more
time with than the jasper. I’m trying not to show too much emotion.
Inside, I’m like a little kid at Christmas getting a toy that I
always wanted and no one else has. A few weeks later, Scott, Brian
and I head out to the area that Scott had discovered. This area of
the Owyhee’s is very dry, with big, old sagebrush. Driving over the
land with the ATV is going to be hard. I find it amazing, that in
order for this sagebrush to grow this big, there must not have been
any fires here for a great many years. For this trip, we are going
to walk to the area, instead of taking the ATVs. Starting from the
dry creek bed, where Scott first saw the initial piece of jasper, we
head up the little creek to the flat area where he had found the
source. When we arrived at the spot, I look down on the ground.
There was very little rock that Scott had left behind. He,
basically, vacuumed up the ground through the years of collecting.
There are a few proving flakes and tailings in areas, where he had
dug small holes. Not much else, in terms of rocks, for us to take
home. I could see the host rock was hard Rhyolite similar to
Bruneau’s host rock. There were large boulders of it lying on the
ground, with pockets of small nodules cemented in to it. This will
be quite different from the way I normally dig rough. I may need
some advice from miners who have experience in this type of
environment. Judging from what I saw on the ground, I may need the
advice of Gene Mueller, of The Gem Shop. He lives in Cedarburg,
Wisconsin and owns the Regency Rose Plume claim. He also actively
digs the Agua Nueva Agate in Mexico, and previously owned the
Christine Marie Morrisonite claim. There is also Larry Ridley, who
owns the Willow Creek mine, with its large thunder eggs of jasper.
As the day progressed, Scott showed us all the places that he
thought would be good for prospecting, and for our first dig. I
walked around a little more to get a feel for the lay of the land
and where I’d be putting up my claim stakes.
Below is the float we found on the first day out with Scott.
Nodule
stuck on Rhyolite
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Agate Inclusions in Jasper. The Agate
Fluoresces!
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Orbed
Nodule
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Nice
Brecciate
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Orbed
Chunk
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