A New Discovery In Idaho

Scott Schlagel is riding his motorcycle with friends, in the early spring of 2000, down the dirt roads of the Owyhee desert, in Idaho. While riding down one of those, “Least traveled roads”, he is intrigued by some strange cliffs that parallel one of the passing dry, sandy creek beds. He turns and rides into the winding creek. After a few minutes, he stops and decides to have a little lunch, enjoying the fascinating geologic landscapes. Getting a little more comfortable, he sits down onto one of the sand banks, pulls out his sandwich and enjoys the view. Looking down at the ground, as most rock hounds do, he checks out the various washouts around him for anything interesting. Soon, he spots a waxy looking, black rock on the other side of the stream bed. He decides to walk over and give it a look. He picks up the rock and to his amazement, the stream polished, black rock is orbed jasper. Nearly choking on his sandwich from excitement, he brushes off the sand to reveal that it’s part of a thunder egg. Just like a shark that smells blood in the water, Scott walks side to side in the creek bed, looking for the source. Scott is very familiar with the well-known Bruneau, Morrisonite and Willow Creek jaspers, having known and dug with the claim owners for decades. Finding nothing, after a long time of searching up and down the sandy bed, he returns to the place where he had initially found the jasper. Looking up, he sees impassable, steep, cliffs of rhyolite, which merge all the way down into the creek. He spots a narrow, small branch of the creek leading into a larger branch. He begins to walk up the dry small creek and immediately begins to see signs of agate, jasper and thunder egg pieces. Placing the pieces in his backpack, Scott continues up the creek. After about a quarter mile, the small creek converges in to an open area at the base of some foothills. The area is littered with thunder eggs. Scott’s backpack is filled to the brim in no time. He then begins to walk back to his motorcycle. He makes the decision to travel back home and revisit the area at a later date, more prepared with water, food and, the most important thing, a hammer. Since then, Scott has spent many years, off and on, collecting the float and digging a few small holes. All the while, he keeps his secret spot under wraps, thinking that someday he might make a claim. Scott’s First Discovery in the creek bed.

Fall 2016,

I’m on my way over to my good friend, Brian Hendrickson’s, house to look at some rock that he had picked up at an estate sale. He wanted some help identifying it. Brian sells a lot of rock on EBay and was getting ready to upload the pictures for his next sale. I drive up and see he has two buckets of rough. I look it over and see Haystack Butte jasper, which comes from Oregon. He said that he thought so and thanks me. Then he says, “Hey, Scott is home. Let’s go over and see what he’s doing.” “Scott?” I say. “I don’t know him.” Brian says, “Yeah, he lives three doors down and has been a family friend for decades. He used to go out to my Dad’s Big Horn picture jasper claim years ago. He would help my dad dig”. We walk down the street and into Scott’s backyard. I see a good deal of rough rock, in neat piles, in his yard. Brian introduces Scott to me. “You got some neat rock out there”, I say. Scott looks out and says, “Lots of years out there digging.” After a while, Brian looks at me and gives me a sly smile. I know him…something is up. Brian says, “Scott, show Philip that jasper you showed me”. Scott looks puzzled, “The black one?” Brian says, “Yeah, the one you showed me the other day”. Scott walks back into his shop and brings out a softball sized rock. Amazed, I say, “Wow! Now that’s a great, orbed, Black Bruneau!” Brian chuckling states, “That’s not Bruneau”. Confused, I questioned, “Wait…what?”

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.

Back at home

After our scouting trip, I thought to myself, “Man! This is going to be very hard for me to keep something like this quiet!” I need to though. I don’t want to get any one’s hopes up, just to find out later, that the rock isn’t any good or it’s not cost effective to dig. First, I need to find out if the rock in the ground is viable. Although, seeing what Scott has picked up on the surface for over 20 years, there’s a great chance it will be fantastic. Then, ultimately my number one concern was the logistics of even getting an excavator out to the site at all. Google Earth would be my prime tool to asses if there was a way to travel to the site, by road. Looking at the map, I thought I had found a good way in that was not too difficult or far to “walk-in” the excavator. The thing about Google Earth is that the ground looks a lot different on the computer screen, than when you are actually on the ground. However, with trial and error, I found an existing road that was only a 4 mile travel distance. First hurdle over! Second, I had to write up the Mining Notice to the BLM. I have, of course, done these many times before with my other claims. With this particular notice though, I want to get it right the first time. Any questions or any lengthy revisions that BLM might want me to do, will just add to the time it will involve. This type of mining is quite different from what I am used to. I had many discussions with Gene Mueller, of situations I was encountering on the ground, and asked if I can bounce things off of him. I’ve known Gene for years now and he has helped me dig, on several occasions, at many of my other claims. Also, I know he’ll keep it all, “Under wraps,” when I ask him to.

Fast forward to fall of 2021.

received my Notice approval from the BLM, with very few changes and should be able to begin digging in September. Now, I have to come up with the money to cover the initial costs. I calculated that I will need $10,000, before I even get any rock out. This is unproven ground, unlike my other claims in the Graveyard Point area. This site will be a larger risk. However, the rewards could be great for the rock lapidary and the specimen collector world. Judging from what Scott found on the ground and what Scott had previously hand dug out, this claim has a real potential of being epic. Again, I try not to think too much about it. Otherwise, I will have to resort to drinking a shot or two of whiskey every night, just to get some shut eye.

Digging Day, Fall September 2021.

I thought I would invite Gene Mueller out to help me dig. Maybe, he would enjoy getting away from the shop for a while and helping me make the discovery of this new claim. Since he had offered so much advice and insights into this expedition, I thought it would be a good way of saying, “Thanks.” I knew The Gem Shop was always such a busy place and I hoped he could find the time. As it worked out, he did have a time frame that he could come out. Between him and Brian Hendrickson coming out to help, I knew this was going to be a great time.

After walking the excavator the four miles in, we arrived at the site. We started prospecting with the aid of the excavator. Prospecting with the excavator is like using a garden hoe, but magnified exponentially. The process involves scraping off a little of the ground area, stopping, walking over to the exposed area and looking to see if anything has, “Popped up.” Repeating this process, over and over in the course of each day can be a very tedious process. In the beginning, we find nothing worthwhile. I’m getting a little worried. I stop digging, turn off the machine and just sit there contemplating. Brian and Gene are on the ground spotting. They look up wondering why I had stopped. Brian has been with me, at all my claims, and knows me well. Gene is about to say something. Brian holds up his hand, says something to Brian and Gene stops. After a while, Brian walks slowly up to the excavator and says, “What you think’n Boss?” Then, Gene walks up. Together, we discuss this spot and all agree that the good stuff we are finding is just float from somewhere else up hill. I point to the side of the hill from where we are currently digging. I say to Brian, “Remember when Scott took us up here and we found that exposed boulder over there with the black nodules with orbs imbedded in it?” Gene and Brian look over to where I’m pointing. “Let’s walk over there and take a look on the ground”

The Black Pit.

We started digging out and around the boulder. Instantly, small nodules come to the surface. The boulder was part of a much larger deposit, full of black nodules. Jackpot! Picking up and then proving out the nodules with a small tap of the hammer revealed beautifully orbed and colorful, brecciated patterns together. These patterns of orbs and brecciate together is truly unique. Neither Gene nor I have ever seen it in combination anywhere else. We pulled out varied sizes from large marble to baseball sized nodules. The most exciting ones were the orbed nodules. Some were very similar to the Bruneau nodules in some ways, but different in many other ways. Two main difference was COLORS! and orbs with brecciate or just brecciate. There were Red, yellow, tan and green orbs with brecciate mixed in the orbs!…WOW!

As I dig, I find many more nodules, further down. Finally, I reach the base rhyolite host rock floor which happens to be loaded with thousands of black nodules cemented in it. This base rock is practically impenetrable with the excavator teeth, which are now worn and rounded by use. I put on some fresh sharp teeth ($100 each) on the excavator bucket and it seems to help. We spend about three days at this particular spot, which I name, The Black Pit. I only have a limited amount of time to focus on this particular spot. I don’t have the luxury of extra time to work through all the base rock and so I decide to save the harder extractions for the next time. For now, I make the decision to get the easier extractions and move on. I have other good prospects to explore still and I need to see what else can be discovered in the area.

Scott's Hole

Scott had a spot where he had done some hand digging. Here, he had found some good sized nodules, along with some very interesting brecciated lens formations. It was not too far from the Black Pit and was near a small, dry creek bed. I began digging with Gene, with Brian spotting. At this point, I have done most of the digging. I can see Gene itching to get in the driver’s seat. So, I hand over the reins to him. He walks up to the machine and gets in. Standing down next to the tracks, I look up to him in the cab. I point out, approximately, the direction I am thinking we should dig. Gene agrees. I start to walk away, looking down on the ground. Suddenly, I spot something blue that the excavator tracks had dug up. I pick up the broken nodule, wipe away the dusty dirt and see a good sized nodule with blue opal in the center. Of course, I give it a lick. I then climb up the excavator to show Gene. With a big smile, I hand over the thunder egg to Gene and say with a laugh, “Just keeps getting better!” Gene inspects the rock and says, “Blue Opal?” He then shakes his head and says, “Gees, I don’t believe it. Anymore?” I point down to the tracks and say, “I think its float, since the tracks pushed it out from the surface. It’s hard to say from where.” We are already in place, having spent time digging out the side of the hill in two spots, creating “Pads” for the excavator to sit on, in order to dig at the right angles. This is done to be able to pull at a different direction on the exposer, if necessary. We will keep an eye out for more blue opal, but in the meantime, we press forward on the new pit that I call, “Scott’s Hole.” This time it is Brian and I spotting and Gene in the machine. We stand near the bucket as it pulls, and keep a sharp eye out for any color variances or bulges in the rhyolite, which would indicate possible nodules. Soon, Brian puts his hand up and shouts “Ho!” That is our one command to stop digging. The main reason is for safety. Everyone in the active hole and the digger knows, “Ho!” means stop. Not to be confused with, “Wait a minute” or waving your hands as if saying, “I think I might see something” or one of the many other indications for stop. Well, it didn’t take long to start pulling up the nodules here at Scott’s Hole. Brian then begins to clear out some dirt from around two rounded bulges, which reveal two baseball sized nodules side by side. These, being near the surface, are a little easier to get out. I motion for Gene to come down and see them. Brian makes a few taps with his hammer and one of the nodules rolls out. He holds it up in the air triumphantly. We all have big smiles on our faces. He then taps the second nodule and it rolls out the same way. Having some of the rhyolite matrix still stuck on the nodules, he begins to gently nap it off and then places it in the bucket, along with the other, “keepers.”

The nodules at Scott’s Hole are a little different from the Black Pit. They are larger and have different variations of colors; green, red, black and even some with the traditional Bruneau cinnamon. In addition to nodules, we pull up large blobs of beautiful brecciate. Not really a nodule or a vein, they are more like an intersection in the rhyolite. As time passes, the pit is getting wider and deeper. Most times the excavator is sitting idle, as we prospect and hand dig the outer edges of the pit. The excavator’s main function is not necessarily digging the nodules or veins out. Its main function is moving the muck. One quick, big scoop of waste dirt or tailings is worth a half a day of hand digging it out, let alone the wear and tear on one’s body.

It’s getting late and I decide to take a break. Sitting on my ATV, I eat lunch and watch as Gene and Brian continue to dig. Sitting somewhat away from them, I see Brian call Gene over to where he’s digging. They are now kneeling down, with their backs to me, looking into a small hole along the pits’ edge that Brian had dug. Brian takes out his chisel and hits it a few times. He stands up and looks over at me with the rock hiding behind his back leg and, as he smiles. I say with a plain voice, “Find something over there?”, as I stuff another potato chip in my mouth. Gene looks over his shoulder and chuckles. Brian walks across the pit to me, with the rock hidden. He stops in front of me, saying nothing, smiles and waits. “Well, are you going to show me what the hell you found or what?”, I say laughing. He pulls it out from behind his back and hands it to me. It is a large grapefruit- sized nodule, 6” across, and nearly perfectly round. I reach out to take it and he quickly pulls it back and says, “No way…this one’s mine!” I say, “What the hell!” Already in my mind, I see he’s awfully proud of what he has found and I’ve already decided to let him have it. I can’t help but have fun with him saying, “I own the mine, you keep the big one and I get the small one? What the hell kind of logic is that?” We banter back and forth some more. Finally I say, “At least, let me hold the damn thing!” He reluctantly hands it to me. Man, is it heavy. It must be solid jasper inside. One side has already been chipped off showing big orbs. Turning it around in my hand and looking at it, I can’t help myself, but to have one more dig at Brian. I place it in the wired basket on my ATV, right on top of the other smaller nodules. “No way in Hell!” he says, grabbing it from the basket. Laughing hard, I give in and say, “Ok, you can have this one, but I want the next one.” Brian chuckles stating, “Gene already has that one.” Shocked I get off the ATV and walk over to where Gene is digging. Sure enough, there’s another one about the same size. I have Gene hold it up, as I take a great picture of the smiling, proud, new owner.

It’s been over a week now and the two pits have been fairly productive for the claim’s first dig. Fortunately, I don’t have to dig very big holes to find good rock and in that respect, the closing of the pits shouldn’t take too long. The nodules come in various sizes, ranging from marble to soccer ball. The biggest ones tend, for now, to be fractured in halves or thirds. I think, because of them being closer to the surface, water and temperate variances of expansion and contraction have occurred. Even so, the jasper in the nodules is still high quality, dense, and has no spidery fractures. I think the rhyolite covering protects them, in this respect. The rhyolite is fairly “sticky”, stubbornly adhering to the nodules, making it more difficult to clean. In some cases, when I plan on slabbing the nodule, I let most of the rhyolite stay on. In this way, rather than trying to clamp onto a round rock, it’s easier for the slab saw to clamp and hang onto something. The other type of formation that I found a great deal of here is a vein/blob formation which was always brecciated. The most beautiful of the ones I dug out were the ones with a black background and had colorful brecciate of green, red and yellow. This type is more of a slabbing/cabbing material for cabochons than of specimens

Nodules with Brecciate

"we need to get the Hell out of here!"

We have only four days of digging left, so we concentrate on getting out, as much as we can. By-passing the harder rock and leaving it for some future time, we go for the “easier” stuff to dig out. Scott’s Hole is fairly productive, so we concentrate our efforts there. Clouds start to roll in, relieving us from the sun’s heat bearing down on us all day and the reflective glare from the light colored rhyolite. Sometimes, I can get phone service at this location. I decide to check the weather radar for our area. I see a storm front is moving into our area and I try to get more details of it, but then I see my phone says, “No Service.” I’m sitting in the excavator, as Gene and Brian dig in the pit. I look up and see dark clouds in the sky. I yell down, “Hey, we might get some rain coming our way. Think we should head out?” Both Brian and Gene stand up and look up at the sky. Brian says, “Looks like it might go around us. Let’s keep digging.” We all decide to continue digging. You really can’t see the horizon from the spot we are digging at. You can only see the tops of the hills, which make it difficult to see what might be approaching. We continue to dig. After about 30 minutes, a loud thunder clap reverberates in the air. Then, it starts to rain. A curtain of rain quickly envelops us! We run for cover. It becomes too late now to take the excavator out the same path as we came in on. The only way out and back to camp is our ATVs. After about 15 minutes, I yell down to them, “We need to get the hell out of here!” We are going to get soaked on the way out, but it’s gotten to the point, that it really doesn’t matter anymore. It’s pouring! We quickly get on the ATVs. I’m taking Gene with me and Brian is “leading” the way. By now, it’s hard to see where we are or any other land marks. The rain has washed way the old ATV tracks that lead us the way out. The Excavator track out is too muddy and steep, in places, for travel. We decide (Brian decides), to go cross country and take off looking for a way out. I had no choice but to follow. He was too far ahead to hear me say, “HO!” The down pour deluge was upon us, and only getting worse. Our ATV was having a hard time maintaining traction, so I opted to go over the large sagebrush, hoping for a little more traction. Of what I could see, Brian was ahead of us, going down a steep hill. When I stopped at the crest of the hill and looked down, I could see him 100 yards away at the edge of a great torrent of gushing water. The small, sandy, cute, little stream that had separated us from camp was now an angry river that we needed to cross. However, it was still impossible to see exactly where we were in relation to our camp. There was no way Brian could get back up to us with his ATV, I can see that he knows that too. I turn on my headlights and he sees me, abandons his ATV and begins to walk, slipping and sliding all the way up to us. Brian is soaking wet and his boots are caked in mud. He says, “Good thing you turned on your lights. I couldn’t see anything. My glasses are all wet and I couldn’t see a damn thing through them!” My Boy Scout training kicks in and I say in a loud voice, “I need to get to higher ground to see where we are. I will drive up to the top of this hill and see where we are. Gene, you stay here with Brian. It will be a little easier for me to drive, without you on the back.” Being so heavy from the rain, we had to pull Gene off with great effort. I leave both of them there in the pouring rain. Looking back at them as I go up, they look like two, sad wet, rag dolls standing in a curtain of rain, arms down and dripping water from their fingertips. It was a lot easier without a rider on the back of the ATV though and it took me no time to get to the top. Damn! The camp is very close, but the river was too high and fast to traverse at the normal crossing point. I could see the only way was for us to go up stream or “river” from where we were, as the stream seemed to become narrower the further up it went. Normally, it wouldn’t be too much of an issue for us, but the rain and accumulating water was becoming an ever increasing problem. I rode back down and told them what I was able to see. They agreed to the option. By this time, our ATVs will get stuck if we try to ride them out. We decide to leave them. We walk downhill towards the river’s edge, and then up the stream trying to find a narrow crossing. After about a quarter mile, we find a good spot to cross. Brian and I stand in the rushing water, him in the middle and I am near the water’s edge. I can see Gene is a little apprehensive, standing there at the water’s edge and thinking about having to cross it. I grab him quickly and pull him into the water, all the time holding onto him firmly and quickly handing him over to Brian. Brian grabs hold of him and sets him on the opposite bank. Then, Brian pulls me across the stream. Then lastly, I pull him across. Safely on the other side of the stream, we slop through the mud over to camp about 200 yards away.

It rained most of that night and the following day. Of course, it was wet and muddy everywhere, but the sun was shining! That day was wasted, but there was nothing we could do about it. I stress thinking about all the implications and what may have happened. There was no way anyone could have come to rescue us, if that were needed. When it rains like that out here, no one gets in and no one gets out, until the ground dries out. So, we wait. The next day is a little better and the ground is nice and firm. I made the decision to stop our digging and we start reclaiming the disturbed areas and closing up the pits. I make the ½ mile walk to my ATV and drive it over to the pit. I test the road for firmness, as I drive. The path out seems to be drying out quickly due to the wind picking up and shouldn’t stick to the excavator tracks on the way out. I pick up Gene and head to the pit, as Brian begins his walk back to his ATV and to drive back to the pit. We close up the pits. Most of the water in our camp has dried up and we start preparing to break camp. We begin our long walk of the Excavator out of camp. There were so many other things that happened during this dig that made it such an incredible and a very important learning experience for me. I have many more humorous and exciting stories to tell from this adventure, but those I will leave for a future night campfire among friends.

I’m very grateful for Gene and Brian’s help in making this a successful dig. I am thankful for Gene’s vast experience, knowledge and advice and Brian for his way of keeping me centered and committed, along with his badger-like digging that never ceases to impress me. Finally, I thank Scott, whose trust in me to awaken his dream of bringing Whiskey Creek to the world.

Cheers!

Philip-

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