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Back when I visited Seth's fossil fish quarry near Kemmerer, I had the opportunity to explore the outback of SW Wyoming as my wife and I tried to find the blue petrified forest. I had found explicit directions as to how to reach my destination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwE5AINP5Ck Sep 16, 2012 - Uploaded by Samuel Martin This is a video documenting ACCURATE and HONEST directions to the "Blue Forest" in Sweetwater County ... Please watch this video as it is absolutely true!!! It is 2 minutes long and set to great music. Some of the instructions say odd things like "turn right at a trash can". Now who would expect to see a trash can IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. We hadn't seen anything along this path but sagebrush for 7 miles! But there it was.My wife was very hesitant to continue on past this as it narrowed and became rough. In fact a slight argument took place by this important landmark. For once I won, even though it was through compromise (she gave me 15 minutes to find our destination). We did make it and as the video shows, you are there when you see all of the holes dug. Our time was spent just surface collecting and time wise, we put a little over an hour attempting to find this blue wood. If one was to visit this site for the purpose of serious collection, BRING A SHOVEL/PICK and I am sure you could put our finds to shame. This first picture shows the shards of wood that litter the ground: A closer look at one of the pieces : This next piece has orange crystals along side the blue wood. Any one able to identify these crystals ? Here is a piece that I would love to clean up a bit. It appears to be a significant piece of a branch. Are there any suggestions on how to do this without harming the specimen? I did experiment with acid. It did little to the matrix but unfortunately turned the blue rock totally white. Now I need a chemist to explain that reaction!!

Splitting some dried limestone this past weekend and out popped the largest Knightia I’ve ever collected. The rock split down the middle but I’ll use some EC-9000 industrial sealant to link the two pieces back together. Should turn out nice. Thinking of framing this one up in a shadow box. Used a dental pick to carefully expose the fins that were buried in sedimentary rock.

When considering the permineralization/replacement processes and how they affect wood.And all of the organic material in and or around the wood.In clear to opalized voids in the tree sections what other organic material has been found,beside the wood itself?

Our giant summer road trip (18 states, 20 days, almost 7,000 miles) began at a road cut in St. Leon, Indiana, finding trilobites. I haven't unpacked those yet, so I'll start this trip report with Part 2, the Kemmerer Fish Dig. After the extended family left to head home (there were 11 of us for a few weeks), I took my family on an extended fossiling adventure. First stop was the south-western corner of Wyoming. Just outside of Kemmerer, we stopped at the American Fossil Quarry (http://www.fishdig.com/) for a full day of splitting fish. The quarry wasn't that far out of town, and the roads were actually quite decent. (In a minivan, this is always a concern of ours.) We even had cell-reception for most of the drive! At a fork in the road we turned left, down the driveway into American Fossil's quarry. (on the other side of the road was Fossil Safari at Warfield Fossil Quarry - the difference is that at American Fossil, you get to keep all that you find, and I think there are better services - a guy at our hotel had a giant plate with a tiny fish to bring back....I would have cut it down) The quarry itself was a small area, with some areas to the left and right staked out by the professionals. We were focused on the middle section, a few rows of rocks that had been pulled off the quarry wall. They were divided into an older section (left) and a newer section (right), with the difference being that the newer section the rocks were a bit more damp, and didn't split as well.

The Trip That Nearly Didn't Start (Lengthy image-intensive trip report follows) Tammy and I had planned a fossil hunting trip to Wyoming for the third week of September to redeem our day of digging (splitting rock) at the Green River Formation quarry that @sseth had earlier so generously offered up as a prize on an auction to benefit TFF. We had our airfares, a rental car reserved, and a series of hotels booked across the state ready for a monumental fossil hunting trip. The one small problem was the not so small storm named Hurricane Irma that tore through the northern Caribbean and had its sights set on the Florida and being wider than the peninsula, no Floridian was going to miss the effects of this storm. Earlier in the week the forecast had the centerline of the cone of probability for the track of the storm hitting Miami and traveling up the eastern coast where Boca Raton sat squarely in the cross-hairs. I guess that if you are going to be in the path of some major destruction it is better to be the target early in the week rather that toward the end when the storm is at our doorstep. Thankfully (for us, but not so for those in the Lower Keys and Southwest Florida), the storm's turn to the north was delayed and though we were now on the stronger NE quadrant of the storm, the eye was significantly far away to the west that we escaped the strongest of winds. The storm unleashed squadrons of tornadoes and micro-bursts which had us ducking into our safe room for cover. During the storm unidirectional winds first blew from the east and then from the south as the storm passed us to the west but the tornadic winds were something else as the trees started whipping around in all directions quite violently. Luckily for us, the house survived with no structural damage. The newer more sturdy pool cage that replaced the original one that Wilma had crumpled and stuffed into the pool back in 2005 (shockingly) did not even lose a single screen panel. The damage on our property was limited to toppled trees and broken limbs and branches. We lost power even before the eye wall had made first landfall in the Florida Keys. As soon as it was safe to go outside, we started the portable generator and ran extension cords throughout the house to keep refrigerator, freezer and a box fan and a few lights powered. We've cooked on our outdoor grill and Coleman camp stove in previous power outages caused by the rash of hurricanes in 2004/05 and so we were well prepared and never at risk of starvation (we actually ate rather well). While Wilma had run over the house in late October, 2005 when the temperatures had cooled somewhat from the hot muggy Florida summer, we were not so lucky this time. Outdoor temps in the low 90's were soon matched by the 88 degrees inside which made sleeping difficult (even with a fan). We spent the days cutting up the downed foliage and stacking it into many piles along the street in back of the house as well as a towering mount in the cul-de-sac in front (which is still growing in size to this day and is due to be cleared by FEMA sometime in the next 2-3 weeks). Taking frequent breaks inside to lay down on the floor in front of the fan to avoid all-out heat exhaustion, both Tammy and I worked to clear the property as much as we could and monitor the progress of power restoration in our county. Over 70% of homes and businesses were left in the dark after Irma but Florida Power & Light had learned a few things after performing poorly in the 2004/05 hurricane seasons. They had staged a bunch of replacement parts and crews fresh from working in Houston were in the state working to get the grid back online. We couldn't leave on our trip unless we got power back and we watched the percentage of customers without power slowly but steadily decrease until one evening our power flickered and within a few minutes was restored for good. I had been waiting till the last possible minute to cancel my plans and try to get refunds for the reservations we'd made for this trip. I was tired of a week of hot sweaty yard work clearing debris and I was ready for some cooler Wyoming temps.

Just going through the last of the items I'm framing for my kids, and printing out labels. These were some fish they picked up at the fish dig in Wyoming. I'm pretty sure the first two are Knightias? 1) 2) (My son learned not to toss a baton *in* the house, *over* the fossil table...) 3) Same fish? And is this upside down? 4) baby version? (also...is it upside down?) 5) and then this one I thought used to be a Phareodos before it blew up. But @FossilDudeCO thought it was a large Priscacara

Well I haven't had much time to go fossil hunting since we made an offer on our home. We are moving in on Saturday. I'm so excited. Two weeks ago my wife allowed me to take an excursion for fish fossils in Wyoming with her cousin Luke. Little did the twelve year old boy know what he was getting into. This would be his first fossil hunting experience but he also experienced the following: first off roading experience, first taste of beef jerky, first time to Wyoming, and first time to a Sonic drive through. Being in the middle of Wyoming I diligently followed Google Maps which led us off roading. I have done some crazy stuff in my lifetime (i.e. sky diving) and have been really worried. This was one of those times. The off roading experience started us off on a dirt road with deep tracks from tires with chains for getting through snow. At one point I had to keep my left wheel in the middle of the road and my right wheel was off road with the right side of the vehicle slamming into rocks and sage brush. Thankfully we made it out. The quarry was amazing. Here are a bunch of pictures going back to our trip to my parents cabin in Island Park near Yellowstone and the new home. Heading out for date night at a nearby ski resort in Utah. Here we are at the Sundance ski resort for an outdoor play. My wife insisted we take a selfie. You can tell that I'm not a big fan of selfies. This is Bear World located in Rexburg, Idaho. We stopped here on our way up to Island Park. Bear World is a zoo for wild animals native to North America. Cute little fawn. American Bison. This Black Bear decided he didn't want to move so we had to wait for a few minutes. Big Grizzly Bear waking up after an afternoon nap. This is my brother Spencer holding my daughter Clara. He has a little son and I can tell he really wants a daughter. The Caldera pots of Yellowstone. The sulfuric smell was horrible but the sight was interesting and pleasantly warm. This may look like an inviting hot tub but is dangerously hot. Having our picture taken near the falls. Old Faithful My dad and I went to his secret spot near the cabin for some fishing on Saturday morning. I ended up catching thirty rainbow trout but only kept three. My father caught a bunch but only kept a few. We had enough fish to feed our families for lunch (keep in mind not everybody had trout as there were hamburgers). Clara loves the great outdoors. My mother really enjoyed spending time with her only granddaughter. My four young nephews really adored her as well. I had to share this one. A few weeks ago I came home to see my young daughter smiling up at me. That made up for the long day I had at work. This is where I decided it was time to turn the Subaru back. That hill was rather steep with loose gravel and even with X-mode and Incline mode set I couldn't make it up and the other side of the hill didn't look promising. Almost ran down into this deep crevice. It's a good thing I was going really slow. As you can see there are no roads up here. Luke is being a good sport, but he was a bit nervous about the whole ordeal as was I. Thankfully we made it out. We ended taking another dirt road and coming to this sign. Definitely turning back this time. Bad road! This was the "bad road." Doesn't look to rough but over the bend it could "evolve" into something nasty. Despite the rough start Luke is still looking forward to getting at those fossil fish. Almost there! That sign notes that off roading is illegal. I'll keep that in mind for next time as I was unaware. I notified Luke that he couldn't keep anything over 100k. And we are here! Within the hour discovered this massive Mioplosus that shattered upon extraction. I had no clue it was in the limestone. The stuff is so brittle it just popped right out in pieces. I left it out in the open for the brave preparer who would try his hand at this heart breaker. I keep forgetting to take pictures of fossil extractions on site. Managed to snap this photo while heading out. The car definitely needs a good washing inside and out. The serenity of Wyoming. A heard of Antelope running up the gorge. Here is Luke's amused face. The preservation on this Knightia oceana pair isn't great but what's interesting is that they are inverted against each other. Another pair. The bottom fish is well preserved. Close up. Another K. oceana. This is a K. oceana but looks like a miniature Piranha. Excellent preservation. Another K. oceana. A K. oceana and what I believe is a Diplomystus bottom right that needs some preparation. This will be the location for a new fossil preparation bench. The space looks small on camera but is surprisingly large at 7ft wide by 3 ft deep. Lots of fossil fish. More fish. One of the plates had seven K. oceana but I had to cut that one down (too big). I'm not sure what species the fish is bottom right but it's about the size of a dinner plate. Here is a decent Mipolosus that should prep out well. @Ptychodus04 this is the specimen I told you about. What would you recommend for this fish in terms of exposing it. Any other feedback from TFF members is welcome. The big plate sized fish. K. oceana K. oceana A plate of K. oceana. This is a beautiful Priscacara. @sseth father helped me to extract it and he said that this was one of four found that day. Unfortunately it was already split from the first hammer hit but I do have the other half. @Ptychodus04 recently you worked on a GRF fish that needed to be glued back together. Mind if I send you this project? I'll pay you or add some new features to the website. I'm a bit worried about messing this one up. The spikes look really neat and I do have the complete half that goes with it. Should turn out to be a rather neat looking fossil. This Diplomystus was a trip maker. It's not that large but has fine detail. I applied an air scribe from the rock quarry to the back portion as the tail was covered in limestone sediment. This one is currently on display at my office at work. All of my coworkers are green with envy. Measuring out the work bench. Picked up a large shelf for storing fossils on in the garage. Here is the backyard. The neighborhood is built against a mountain so the backyard is a hill with terraces. I'll plant a garden and trees on the terraces. I can't wait to move in this Saturday. View of Utah Lake from the backyard. Right next to the lake is the city of Lehi. These sunflowers grow well in the desert region of Utah and require very little water. @SailingAlongToo here are some pictures for you. I ordered these fine paintings from the Annapolis Marine Art Gallery in Annapolis. They weren't cheap but should look really nice. This painting is the HMS Surprise the British frigate featured in Master and Commander. This is Beyond the Mark and one of the most famous paintings by Willard Bond. The painting depicts the abstractness of a regatta race. Mr. Bond frequented Maryland to witness these ships racing each other. He is considered to be one of the greatest ship painters of our modern day. This is one of my favorites and depicts a sail boat returning home from a day in the bay. In the background is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge linking the western shore to the eastern shore. At one point in time the bay bridge was the largest man made bridge in the USA. To this day it's one of the older bridges in the country and was built in 1952. I have fond memories of this area from my Calvert Cliff days. I also spent countless weekends in Annapolis. If you ever get a chance to visit the east coast the Chesapeake Bay is a must see. Neat picture of Lone Peak mountain right outside my wife's parents home. It was overcast that day and the clouds sat right on top of the mountain. Close up of the Mioplosus. Another shot of the backyard from the top. I'm in love.

Hey all! Getting to work cataloging our finds from a very productive trip to Wyoming. Me and our friends can't quite figure this one out, our closest guess is Colodon. We aren't entirely sure though, and there's not too much reference material for Colodon. Collected on a ranch north of Lance Creek Wyoming in the White River formation.

Hi all, I saw this Diplomystus online for sale. I was surprised by the prize: 20$! But then I started to get a little suspicious. Though most fakes are mosasaurs and keichousaurs, I heard that fossil fish from the Green River formation are often re-painted so that they look more splendid. Though I am pretty sure that this specimen here was originally 100% real, I think that it might have been painted on. Is my suspicion right, or is this one 100% natural? Here is the info they gave: What do you think? Thanks, Max

Hi, I just got back from Kemmerer with a large amount of fish fossils to prep and have an Aero scribe. I was wondering if a Micro Jack would be better as the vibration of the Aero knocks some of the scales off. If the answer is yes, which Micro Jack would be best in your opinion. If anyone has other prep suggestions I would also be interested. I've read all of the old posts that I could find on the subject.

I found this specimen in Wyoming's Bighorn basin, off one of the roads north of the city of Shell. I can't decide if it's a claw or a leaf, or perhaps something else entirely. On a side note, the matrix (sandstone? maybe just mud) is crumbling so I decided to cover the specimen with resin. I've yet to apply resin to the cavity in the other half of the stone. Suggestions for further preservation and a way to safely remove the matrix around the piece would be appreciated.

I got back last week from a two week collecting trip in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming with my wife and our two friends Bill and Jean. In addition to collecting, sunstones, topaz, agates and fluorescent minerals we collected Cambrian,Silurian, Jurassic, Cretaceous and Eocene fossils. We collected trilobites outside Delta, Utah and Liberty, Idaho, Marine fossils in Emigration and Riley Canyons in Utah and fossil fish in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The results of the trip was 15 boxes shipped home and many hours of preparation ahead of me. My friends came away with 13 boxes of fossils. If anyone wants tips for successful shipping of fossils please PM me as I learned a lot shipping with both USPS and UPS. Perhaps a post about shipping might be valuable. Photots from the trip will be posted at the end. Our first fossil excursion was to U-Dig quarry. Within ten minutes of arriving my friend Bill found a beautiful Asaphiscus wheeleri molt. That was the start to a great day of collecting. By the end of the day my wife and I had a table covered with trimmed examples of all of the common trilobites. The highlights were Bill's Asaphiscus, a huge 2 inch Asaphiscus I found, two brown trilobites and a 1 3/4 Asiphicus my wife found in the discard pile as we were getting ready to leave. We left with four flat rate boxes in total. After collecting in the Delta area for fossils and minerals we went back to our condo in Park City, Utah and visited Emigration Canyon for Jurassic marine fossils in Salt Lake and Riley Canyon, near Jericho, Utah. We found some brachiopods in Emigration Canyon but the fossils were not abundant. Our next stop was Riley Canyon for agatized horn coral. After a hike that resulted in a 3000 foot elevation change from 6000 to 9000 feet we eventually found the horn coral site. It wasn't what I expected. The searching involved looking for loose rock on the mountain among vegetation. While we found pieces of red agate, the agatized horn coral was elusive until my friend Bill found a nive 3 inch horn coral. We continued to search the area with little luck. By the time we left I found one small agatized horn coral and several chuncks. I did find one fossil that was mostly buried in matrix. At the time I thought it was a horn coral but imagine my surprise when I started prepping it and found that it was a large brachiopod. I do want to say that Riley Canyon material is one of the hardest materials I've ever prepped. The matrix is very stick and doesn't want to release from the fossil. It is also extremely difficult to remove with micro-abraision. Our next excursion was to Spence Gulch outside of Liberty, Idaho for Cambrian fossils. Fortunately I had read many different directions to this locality, otherwise we wouldn't have found it. It was a solid miles walk from where we had to abandon our rental vehicle. My wife and I found the matrix at the site to be very similar in consistency and friability to Spring Creek material in Alden, New York. You definitely want to bring cyanoacrylate (super glue) or some other stabilization agent as well as foil to wrap your fossils in so that they dry slowly. Otherwise your prized fossil may be dust by the end of the day. As soon as we arrived at the site I found what looks like a partial Zacanthoides trilobite. By the end of the day our party had found three partials. Bill and I started the morning climbing the slope and excavating pieces where someone had exposed a flat section of rock outcropping. We were rewarded with trilobite pieces and a few hyoliths. We then moved to the base of the outcrop and started splitting small pieces of shale. By the end of the day we found about 20 complete Achlysopsis (at least that's what I think they are). By the end of the day we had a good representation of the Spence Shale. Our last fossil excursion was to Forum member Sseth's fish quarry in Kemmerer, Wyoming. I want to start off by saying that the people working at his quarry are some of the nicest people I have ever met. They were very friendly and always checking in to see if we were having a successful trip. If you ever make it to Kemmerer to collect I have the following pieces of advice. Visit Fossil Butte National Monument Visitors Center first so you know what things look like. Bring boxes and packing material. Bring lots of water. Four people can drink a case of water by early afternoon. Bring sunscreen. Be ready for the dust. You will be covered in dust as will the interior of your rental vehicle or personal vehicle. We had such a good time at Sseth's quarry we actually went back a week later for another day of collecting. We had a lot of fun at his quarry. We came away with many individual fish and several plates of multiples. Most of the fish were larger than three inches and we came away with at least five different species of fish. Our largest fish were a 10 inch Diplomystus my wife and I extracted from a very large rock and an 8 inch Phareodus my friend Bill found in the discard pile splitting discarded rock. While we were there Sseth was excavating a turtle and while excavating it they found a second one. Photos will follow.

University researchers comb Big Horn Basin for tiny fossils by Tracie Mitchell, Northern Wyoming Daily News, July 5, 2017 http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/news/wyoming/article_66b4b8d4-1390-578c-8e36-ffe6b51bf123.html Yours, Paul H.

A month or so ago a French friend came over for a fossil hunting vacation. With my new wife's blessing (and his wife's as well), we spent 8 nearly solid days of fossiling here in Wyoming before the snow flew.... literally. I spent a good chunk of time since then preparing some of my finds and some time writing up our adventure. It is very photo-heavy, so I had to break it down to three chapters. The first is posted here and I hope the others will be posted in replies. Enjoy. Outing w caterpillar Ch 1.pdf

This by far has been the most ambitious trip that I've done, but it was certainly worth the long drive times, poor truck stops (to sleep at), and lack of time to sleep and even eat. In just 10 days I traveled through 7 states (WY, ID, MT, CO, UT, AZ, NM) and covered at least 4700 miles (I might actually have broken 5000). Not only did I alot some time for general fossiling/rockhounding, but also time to stop at a few of the more "touristy" types of places (national parks/monuments, etc). The first day I visited a couple sites in southeastern Montana, with the first being known to produce oysters. It took longer than expected to find, but afterwards I discovered the site to be completely loaded with oysters and oyster fragments. The majority were completely covered with just a tiny bit showing, but after finding a few it seemed like all of them kept popping up one after another. Most were under 1cm in total length, but I found a couple that were larger. The next site was a little disappointing in that due to poor road conditions, I couldn't make it out to a few of the stops that were rumored to yield crinoid pieces (given that I've been working on crinoids for the past year at university, this was going to be one of the highlights of my trip for rockhounding). But I did manage to find one of the stops, which while it appears mostly picked over, did produce one nice piece of coral and several pieces with fragmented clams. This was actually a place that encompassed much more land than I anticipated, so I hope to return next year and alot several days there.

In going through some matrix from the Lance Formation, Late Maastrichtian, Wyoming, which shares much fauna with the Hell Creek formation, I have found even more interesting things since my last posting on this area. 1. The first I believe is a theropod, similar to the one in my previous posting, although slightly larger. 2. Is this (unknown 11) also a theropod tooth, or maybe crocodillian? 3. Is unknown 10 a pycnodont fish tooth? 4. Unknown looks like what has been identified as a ceratopsian "spitter" tooth in a previous posting, but this seems awfully small. 5. I have no idea as to what unknown 9 is. It looks like a tiny jaw with teeth, but seems to be closed off on both ends. I tried to clean it more, but was afraid of breaking it - it's only 2mm. 6. Unknown 6 looks like some tiny amphibian (maybe Newts) teeth that I have seen from the Permian, but not sure. 7. Unknown 7 also reminds me of ceratopsian teeth, but once again, this is really small and flatter. The hash marks are 1mm. Thanks for any help.

Looking to see whether anyone might be able to help with the following two items I found at Warfield Quarry today. This first is perhaps a fish scale but it's big at 1" across - I could be very wrong though. The second looks like a rear fin of a Priscacara and is fairly big at about 7" across. Any help would be really appreciated.

Hello FossilForumers- I want to let you all know that in June we will be hosting the 23rd annual Tate Conference. The theme this year is "High Tech and Old Bones". We have speakers from all over the USA speaking on all sorts of cool technologies they are using with fossils. Dr. Mary Schweitzer will be speaking on soft tissues in T rex as Keynote Speaker. We have talks on all sorts of topics from 3d printing to laser flourescence, to paleorobotics, and more. There will be two days of field trips. The first day is into the White River Formation near Douglas, Wyoming. The second field trip will be to Medicine Bow. We will do a historic tour of the Como Bluff area... not much collecting, then do a collecting trip to a Cretaceous ammonite site nearby (Cenomanian/Turonian Frontier Formation). The cost is 145 bucks for the conference only, and each field trip is 40 dollars. Space on field trips is reserved for people who also attend the conference. The conference is on June 2-4, 2017. Details and registration is available at: http://www.caspercollege.edu/tate-geological-museum/events/conference I hope to see a few Forum folks show up. This conference is always a lot of fun. I hear that from participants; I am too busy organizing and running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Feel free to ask me about details.

Hello FF This is a a recent find from private land near Lusk Wyoming. Lots of Oreodonts and turtles in the area. I think it is a distal femor. I think. The shaft feels too thin for the heft of the epiphyseal end. A condyle is broken off on one side. The patellar groove(if I am right about it being a femur) seems so much on the end of bone rather than rolling around from the cranial aspect like I expect with mammals. Thoughts

Made my first trip up to Wyoming to visit the fish quarry this weekend. Everything went well, but the rocks are still a bit wet. We spent most of the time removing junk to get to our good productive layers! The main mission of the trip was not to dig, but to see how the winter had treated us! Below is a picture of the quarry Our digging platform for the split fish is right behind that truck and trailer. We moved the trailer up this year to house our finds and our gear! Of course....being such a gorgeous day and only about 16°C or 17°C we couldn't help but dig up some fish! After just a couple of hours of digging we had a pile of nice fish to bring back home and after trimming them up you can see our spoils! The real catch of the day though took us by surprise! It was a perfectly preserved bug!! Not uncommon in the Green River layers, but one like this has never been seen before! It is headed over to Fossil Butte to be examined by the Curator there and hopefully he has some fun news for us! If you look close you can see one wing spread out, all the legs preserved and even big, long, gorgeous antenna! This is one primo bug! Hope you guys enjoyed my report (I know it is short) but keep your eyes peeled for more Green River Adventures! -Blake