Seed Ferns from the Manning Canyon Shale
Click on any image for a closer look.
Dugway Geodes are the legacy of Tertiary vulcanism in Western Utah. Gas bubbles in volcanic rhyolite silicified and filled with agate and quartz crystals during the 40-50 million years since the volcanos.
These trees lived 40-50 million years ago in the Eocene of Wyoming. They bordered one of the three great lakes that have also left us the famous fossil fish of the Green River formation. It took a lot of silica in the environment to create all those fossils. Can the Dugway geodes from volcanoes of the same period be a coincidence?
Daddy nearly broke his back digging these out of matrix composed of silicified fossil algae.
We dug these on a private claim (with permission) near Orderville, Utah. Associated with marine fossils in the Tropic Shale. Note the snail shell exposed in one of the above.
The site is near South Pass, in the Wind River mountains of Wyoming. These big crystals are imbedded in white quartz in an old gold prospect. They're tough to photograph, but try to see the twinning in the middle specimen. That specimen on the right is a termination that is over two inches across.
Elrathia Kingii and Agnostid Trilobites
Over 500 million years ago in the Cambrian period, western Utah was a shallow sea. These trilobites are some of the earliest animals on earth to leave a fossil record. The site, in the middle Cambrian Wheeler Shale west of Delta, is under private claim, but private digging is allowed for a fee.
Topaz and Red Beryl
After going for years, we finally figured out how to really find specimens. Nobody ever mentioned that the most important tool in much of Topaz Cove is a piece of old coat hanger. Kathleen is really sharp eyed when it comes to finding red beryl.
Conger Springs is way out in the west desert. I count four species of brachiopod along with the crinoid stems in these specimens from the Mississippian Chainman Shale.
Mike Ware
August 5, 1998