Obsidian Bonanza - Great Fun, Big Success

     July (the 6th through the 8th) for Davis Creek/Lassen Creek and the second weekend (the 13th through the 15th) at Glass Butte.

     What did we find? OBSIDIAN! How much did we find? A LOT! That just about tells the whole story! Oh, we also found petrified wood and sunstones. And we had a great group of rouckhounds from all around California and Nevada. And we had fun Happy Hours, delicious potluck dinners, fabulous pancake breakfasts and enjoyable campfires. That's what you get when you have a fun bunch of rockhounds go to the two premier obsidian collecting areas in the western United States. When it comes to obsidian, Davis Creek/Lassen Creek and Glass Butte just can't be topped for the great abundance of a wide variety of sheens and colors.

Davis Creel/Lassen Creek

     Betty and I arrived late Tuesday afternoon to layout our camp in the Lassen Creek Campground. We did our scouting trips on Wednesday and Thursday and enjoyed the peaceful beauty of the large pines and the babbling brook behind our trailer. Most of the others arrived late Thursday afternoon and Friday. There were 38 people from 15 clubs for this portion of the trip. We broke up into small groups for our daily collecting trips. We collected at 8 sites over the course of the weekend. The main sites were the Pink Lady, Needles, Rainbow, Mahogany Gold Sheen and Electric Blue. One pit at the Pink Lady was very productive, yielding over thirty 10 to 40 pound pieces of pink and silver sheen obsidian. There was more than enough obsidian for everyone; some required a little digging but a lot of attractive material was found in the discard piles of previous diggers. A BIG THANK YOU to Marion Roberts and Chuck McKie who assisted me with leading the collecting trips. Betty Pankey got the Happy Hours going each afternoon in the shade in front of our trailer. She also organized two nice potluck dinners. On Friday evening we had a Soup Potluck; each person contributed a can of soup, vegetable, stew, chili, beans or broth, which were heated together in a large pot with Betty's secret seasoning. Saturday evening we filled the table with an array of delicious dishes and desserts. On Sunday morning Marion Roberts and the Mother Lode Crew fixed us a hearty breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon. All of this outdoors eating was fantastic. Each evening Gary Hagen got our campfire going - an enjoyable, relaxing way to finish the day. By 9:30 the fire was out and most people headed off to bed; I know I did.

Glass Butte

     On Wednesday morning we took our showers, filled our water tanks and gas tanks and left Lakeview, OR for the 140 mile trip to Glass Butte. We arrived late morning and posted orange paper plates directing the way to camp. Most of the 34 other rockhounds from 13 clubs arrived that afternoon. The Glass Butte area is high desert with sagebrush and an occasional scrub tree. We camped amongst the sagebrush wherever a level spot could be found. Each afternoon the breezes moved in and threatened us with rain, which never came. However, every night was too windy to have a campfire but didn't stop our happy hours and potluck dinners. The collecting sites at Glass Butte are all within a 3 mile radius of our camp so we were able to get to them faster and easier. We were able to visit the 5 main obsidian sites (banded gold sheen, banded green and silver sheen, midnight lace, lizard skin/midnight lace and mahogany/red) on Friday. On Saturday morning Marion Roberts and the Mother Lode Crew fixed us another hearty breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, ham and bacon. After breakfast about half the group packed up their load of obsidian and pulled out of camp. Some were heading home while others were off to visit family and friends. The half that stayed set off to explore the cinnabar mines just a couple of miles east of camp. The mines were open pits of opalite with occasional veining of orange to red cinnabar. Although this material was called myrikite it was not as striking as the vivid orange bands in brown to black matrix that is found in Napa County, CA.

     While camped at Glass Butte we made 2 day trip excursions for petrified wood. The first trip was on Thursday to an area known as Hampton Butte for green jasperized wood. We collected in 2 areas north of the road but had the most success on the hill south of the road. The material was widely scattered and mostly golf ball to fist size pieces. The green wood south of the road was larger and more abundant. The largest piece found weighed 57 pounds. On Sunday those of us who were left (8 people) drove 60 miles to an area south of Prineville called Bear Creek to a petrified wood claim held by the Prineville-Crook County Chamber of Commerce. The petrified wood here is exceptionally good - black to brown, some tan and gray, most material has retained the original grain and surface structures. We found a pit left by previous diggers with a large log exposed and were able to extract several 20 to 30 pound pieces and many smaller ones - more than enough for everyone in the group to have several nice specimens with pronounced wood grain. There were several more pits in the area and float pieces were easy to find. This is a definite "do again" site.

     One of our planned activities at both Davis Creek/Lassen Creek and Glass Butte was to conduct a clean up of the campgrounds, collecting sites and area roads. The Modoc National Forest Service office gave us a large supply of garbage bags to use. To our pleasant surprise these areas were relatively litter free. We filled up only 4 large bags in 5 days at Davis Creek/Lassen Creek and 2 bags in 4 days at Glass Butte. Most of the litter was aluminum cans and plastic bottles, but we did find an old Chevy hubcap and an old muffler. Litter pickup (and recycling of aluminum cans and plastic bottles) has become part of my rockhounding activity. Besides they are litter and easier to carry than rocks. In planning and setting up this trip I was in contact with several BLM and National Forest Service people. They were all very interested in what we were doing and were cooperative and eager to help. All were genuinely pleased that we were visited and utilizing "their" areas. Were appropriate, I encourage others to involve these people in our trips or at least notify them that we will be collecting and camping on BLM and National Forest Service land. They can be a useful resource and a big help on field trips.

     We collected at many sites and visited others. I took GPS readings at all of these sites. I hope others are documenting their field trips with maps and GPS readings.

     We had a great time with old rockhound friends and met many new ones. And we have great memories of our OBSIDIAN BONANZA.