Rockhounding Wyoming: A Guide to the State's Best Rockhounding Sites

by Kenneth L. Graham

Overview

The 75 sites described in this guide take you across the red desert to the high mountain majesty of the Big Horns and Wind Rivers as well as the geologic wonders of Yellowstone National Park. Graham, a former hardrock miner, developed an interest in rocks at an early age, and he shares his enthusiasm for rockhounding and his appreciation for the diverse Wyoming landscape that holds the treasure. Each description provides detailed information complete with maps on how to find the remote as well as popular digs, what will likely be found there, the tools to bring, the best season to visit, the appropriate vehicle to drive, or when to lace up your hiking boots to get to those out-of-the-way places.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493067138
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	07/01/2023
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,054,535
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Born in Wyoming near the southwestern edge of the Black Hills, Ken still considers himself a native. The old west history came to life at an early age, which contributed to the urge to explore and especially find undiscovered wonders. Black Hills Gold lured many colorful characters to The Black Hills adding to his desire to gain more knowledge of this mysterious connection between rocks and men. Kens search cut a trail through local mines and ghost towns, including work as an underground miner at Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, and then expanded into an international quest. A serious mining accident created a career change from underground mining to writing. As time marched on a new perspective on mining presented an opportunity for Ken to attend Montana Tech at Butte, Montana, resulting in a Mining Engineer degree. This opened more new doors to explore previously unseen minerals and metals of all types. The adventure then expanded to tunnels in places such as the Weehawken Tunnel in New Jersey, and the Seymour-Capilano Twin Tunnels in Vancouver, BC. The interest in rocks, minerals and geology is still very active with historical information helping to focus on some specifics. Writing is taking on a more prominent place at this stage of life as his body just can’t do what it used to. A novel is in the works. Rockhounding Wyoming is an attempt to share the “treasure trail” with those who would like to embark on their own adventure. It is hoped that the sites and information shared in this book will help enlighten seekers and provide a little more clarity on what to look for in the geology that surrounds us all. Currently Ken lives in Craig, Colorado with his wife Sandy. They still load up and head into the vast expanse all around them at any opportunity. The adventure of the treasure hunt lives on, even if the destiny of old age slows Ken up.

Table of Contents

About This Book ix

Introduction 1

Rock Hound Etiquette 7

Black Hills, South Dakota

1 Teepee Canyon Agates 13

2 Garnets near Custer 17

3 Fairburn Agates of Buffalo Gap 19

4 Agates East of Rapid City 23

Northeast Wyoming

5 Agates of the Mineral Hills 28

6 Fish Scales of Pine Ridge 31

7 Selenite at Schoonover 33

8 Dry Creek Petrified Forest 36

9 Agates and Petrified Wood along Highway 16 40

10 Selenite at Newcastle 41

Southeast Wyoming

11 Youngite of Guernsey 44

12 Hartville Onyx 47

13 Roadside Schist near Hartville 48

14 Glendo Shoreline Agates 49

15 Moss Agate Road at Douglas 51

16 Natrona Archery Range Agate 54

17 Muddy Mountain Agate 57

18 Casper Alabaster 58

19 Moss Agate Ridge 59

20 Silicified Wood of Marshall 62

21 Medicine Bow Wood 64

22 Foxpark Feldspar 68

23 Saratoga Agate and Wood 72

24 Hog Park Crystals 74

25 Mine Minerals at Encampment 76

26 Sierra Madre Mine Minerals 79

27 Marshall Agates 81

28 Green Nodules on Marshall Road 86

29 Holaday Road Agates 90

Central Wyoming

30 Cottonwood Creek Dinosaur Trail 94

31 Pelccypods of Alcova 97

32 Buzzard Road Jade 101

33 Horse Creek Jade 104

34 Intrusive Crystals along CR 321 106

35 Dry Creek Jasper 109

36 Pathfinder Feldspar 112

37 Sage Hen Creek Agates 116

38 Gas Hills Black Jade 120

39 Microwave Tower Snowflake Jade 123

40 Apple Green Jade of Home on the Range 126

41 Cedar Rim Agate 130

Southwest Wyoming

42 South Pass Treasures 135

43 Tri-territory Quartz 138

44 Palm Wood West of Oregon Buttes 141

45 Agatized Algae in the Wood Bed 143

46 Eden Valley Petrified Wood 146

47 Opalized Wood of the Big Sandy 149

48 Big Sandy Algae 153

49 The Blue Forest of Green River 156

50 Muddy Creek Agates 159

51 Lonetree Black Agate 162

32 Agate of Burntfork Road 166

53 Red Agate of Cedar Mountain 169

54 Banded Flint of McKinnon 172

55 Red Agate near Henry's Fork 175

56 Brown Turritella of Little America 178

57 Ridgetop Agate 182

58 Fossil Fish of Kemmerer 186

Northwest Wyoming

59 Sandstone Shells along Highway 294 190

60 Gneiss along Highway 212 196

61 Pegmatite Minerals on 296 199

62 "Devil's Toenails" of Red Lake 202

63 Colored Chalcedony along Highway 120 204

64 Petrified Wood of the North Fork 207

65 Petrified Wood of the South Fork 210

66 Basalt and Crystal of Carter Mountain 212

67 Gypsum and Calcite South of Lovell 216

68 Bighorn Agates 220

69 Fossils at Medicine Mountain 224

70 Five Springs Fossils 227

71 Crystal Creek Fossils 231

72 Birdseye Chert 234

73 Tough Creek Smorgasbord 237

74 Wind River Iris Agates 241

75 Thorofare Agates 243

About the Author 246