Saturday June 21 was the Owyhee Gem and Mineral Societies Jamieson Oregon Petrified Bog Wood field trip. For those of you that are not familiar with were Jamieson Oregon is it is about 30 miles north west of Ontario Oregon with the collection site about another 10 miles on a dirt road just north of Jamieson.

The day started kind of late for a field trip that was over a hundred miles away in my opinion. The club left O’Connor Field House in Caldwell Idaho at 7:50 a.m and headed to Vale Oregon to meet up with a few Ontario Oregon Gem Club members. After we finally had everybody in our convoy we were headed off to Jamieson Oregon.

We arrived to the dig site at 10:15 a.m. with the temperature at just below 90 ouch! The vehicle I was in was the second to last in the group so we had to park down the hill from all of the other vehicles. This turned out to be the best spot due to all of the material was located where we happened to park.

As soon as I jumped out of the truck this is what I saw. A huge piece of Petrified Bog Wood not going to load this one. After getting all of my tools and backpack on I headed down the hill and started to look for the days prize. The first thing you will notice about this location is you will have to be very selective on what you want to take home since 90% of the rocks on the ground are Petrified Bog Wood (no kidding).

After about a 10 minute hike down the hill I arrived to a spot that looked very promising. I started to dig my hole and within the first 5 minutes I happened to find what would turn out to be the best pieces of my trip a 12 inch piece of a branch. At this point I was getting very excited that this was going to be the trip that I finally scored. Well in a way I did as this probably has to be the nicest piece that I have collected all year.

Digging in the same hole about a minute later I unearthed this beautiful piece also. I really like the yellow in this Petrified Bog Wood.

These two pieces were found in the first 30 minutes of the day and after that I just kind of hiked around the hills looking on the surface. I did not feel like digging anymore holes since by this time it was pushing 100 degrees. I left the Jamieson Oregon Petrified Bog Wood site at around 2:00 p.m. and headed back to Boise Idaho with my treasures just itching to clean and cut the specimens that were in my bucket.

This trip was a surprise as I’m not much of a Petrified Wood person but I had a great time and found a few pieces that will go into my collection. Also just a little info on the road up to the Petrified Bog Wood site you will need a vehicle with some clearance and do not try a get there in a car you will not make it. Also there are 3 gates that you must cross make sure you close them as there are cattle in the area. Last but not least there is a limit on the amount of Petrified Wood you can collect in a day which is 25 pound plus one piece. So don’t be greedy and leave some for others to enjoy for years to come.