Lapidaryforum.net
Let's Rock => Prospecting => Topic started by: Redrummd on June 09, 2017, 04:52:54 PM
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There are two new active digs at the Gary Green site - McDermitt, Oregon. So, if you know the area the new "find" is to the south of the usual dig. If you take the 4 wheel drive road to the dig it would be the very first left track once you get to the bottom of the hill and start back up. From the 2 wheel trail it is the last right track before the bottom of the trail. There is only room for 1 vehicle to park near the vein and it is a VERY steep hike down to the best part of the vein from the park point. The trip back up is brutal if you are carrying a load. I can only manage about 60 pounds at a time back up and I am a pack mule at heart.
There is a very long wide "vein" being worked but 99% of what you see is junk that needs to be rolled down the hill. The 1% left is very top grade Gary Green.
There is another new "hole" about 100 yards uphill from the big vein. it has very large pieces of the more typical mostly green version but more solid than the wild new 1% vein. In spring is the best time to dig here as the matrix is soft enough to chisel out. By summer it basically turns into "concrete" and people start trying to use chisels and hammers to break out pieces but end up with fractured Gary Green stone ready for a rock tumbler.
I am disclosing this as I hope some of you get out there to roll a few tons of the crud I left behind down the hill so that the next time I go I can start prying new pieces out. Most people go with the wrong tools. We use mostly pry bars and I mean BIG ones - 6 feet and over 1 inch diameter at the biggest down to about 3 feet plus a 8 pound sledge. The "vein" is about 100 yards long and up to 4 feet across so it will be there for decades so no rush. Just be sure to roll the junk down the hill for us! :-)
This area has been know for at least a decade but until last year it was all considered trash. So, I would guess that less than a dozen people know that there is top grade mixed in. I have a couple hundred pounds I recovered in the last two trips we took so I have enough for my needs already - have at it all!
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Nice stuff!!! Thanks for the info, Michael. Next time we go we'll do our best rock rollin'... :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:
Craig
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Thanks for the information. Like the knife scales you did with the Gary green.
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Holy Smokes! :occasion14:
Thanks for the info! If I ever get back up that direction I can have some fun!
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I just finished a Buck 112 with some of this new Gary Green and it is pretty nice looking.....
We are heading back to McDermitt in a couple of weeks and if our two new sites are not as productive as we hope we may head back out to the Gary Green to see if any "work" has been done in the two spots I describe above.
I am surprised no one is going out to the sites I am disclosing?????
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Nice work and nice looking material, check out the sphere section I believe Jhon and myself hit this spot. I used your directions you sent in your reply back to me, when I was asking about the disaster peak location when jhon and myself were there last summer.
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Beautiful work!
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Love the stones and love the knives. Fine work.
Thanks for the encouragement to get out there and collect some material. Glad to hear there is plenty to hound. Been meaning to collect some ever since I heard about Gary Green Jasper, (aka Larsonite). With my name being Gary Larson, this stone has become an obsession of mine. I bought some material from Idaho Rock Shop a year ago since McDermitt was frozen over. I got some really fine pieces.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171225/68a59eb7fe55f5f7005d46b79b1593bd.jpg)
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171225/440525673eb1bb948a32deae756943d9.jpg)
I really need to plan that trip out there come this spring.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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It would be fun to do a group outing. But I think I will pass on a spring trip to the thunderegg area.
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I would be interested hooking up with anyone heading out that way this spring.I planned a trip last fall but
a surgery laid me out for a few months,I haven't been there.
Mike