How One Fossil Discovered Diamonds In Wyoming- True Story

[Ray Eklund]

This is a short story that is evidence that an amateur fossil collector can make an important DISCOVERY.

Laramie, Wyoming- University of Wyoming- circa 1974-1975 (I just did not want to Google this short story to make it a monograph.) This was when I was a student at UW.

A student of Dr. Don Boyd who taught classes concerning Invertebrate Fossils to Freshman and Sophomore Geology majors... also was like all of us... a curious fossil collector. Dr. Boyd also taught Historical Geology / Stratigraphy as it is also as important as the fossils within a formation as well. Wyoming students were being "groomed" to be Petroleum Geologists. You know... the ones in the small trailer next to a 105 foot deep well Drilling Rig being awakened at all hours of the night and busy all day while drilling. When the "mud and drilling fluids" are being circulated, this fluid mix brings up parts and pieces of the formation that has been drilled into. When the drilling is getting closer to the objective... the Petroleum Engineer is taken from his "high tea and five course meals" at a local hotel to come to the drilling site.

I had inspected drilling rigs in Wyoming in July... and in January. I understand why the drilling crew is paid well. This is not something for the weak and prone to tripping over drill pipe or chains.

So now you understand the glamorous field career of a "soft rock Geologist".

The geology department had been making thin sections. Maybe for the Optical Mineralogy class... maybe for some Master Degree paper... I forget. But the lap wheels to thin the rock thin sections, thin enough to put under a polarized microscope... was having the wheel damaged with scratches. The first thing a Professor will do is find the "dip $**t" who was costing the department money. Normal operating procedure. This did not happen once, but too frequently. These samples were being recovered from a location just south of the Colorado / Wyoming State Line. Just south of Laramie... near Virginia Dale, Colorado. Why were these samples being... studied? Well, that is where our under grad student of geology made an important discovery... sitting down for a sack lunch break.

Our mystery student, who can most likely be found in a Wyoming Geological Survey newsletter, while eating lunch "scouting" out weathered granite noticed something... odd. Something that was not suppose to be there. A brachiopod.

This was an Ordovician brachiopod. Common as sand in Indiana, Ohio and much of this area. But this area of Colorado and Wyoming had... no... Ordovician rock formations. It was assumed that the Ordovician oceans never made it to this area. Or, was completely eroded away and lost to all.

Dr. Boyd recognized the brachiopod and knew it was... Ordovician. This created some excitement. The WHY, HOW and WHERE is it kind of excitement... especially to an unknown now becoming known.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Ray Eklund

[Ray Eklund]

... just so I do not lose the previous text, I take a pause and post method.

This location was examined and this exposure was Ordovician... it was a brachiopod... and surrounded by... SHERMAN PRECAMBRIAN GRANITE. How could that be was the next thought(s)?

This gave rise to the problem with the thin sections ruining the lap wheels in the laboratory. The enclosing rock formation was different from the Ordovician and the Sherman Granite. To know exactly what this stone was needed to be collected, cut thin, mounted to a slide and polished thin enough to run through the optical microscope... you know... the one with polarized optics and a rotating plate (whatever they call these parts in the lab). These "pipes" also broke through the surface and rock fell into the pipe. This is how the Ordovician rock was preserved. It had fallen below the surface and preserved by accident.

KIMBERLITE. Just like Crater of Diamonds State Park, Murfreesboro, Arkansas.

Kimberlite transports diamonds that form under great pressure and heat deep within the Earth's crust. When a deep fracture creates access towards the surface, the kimberlite travels quickly to the surface and trapping diamond into its unstable crystallized form while cooling quickly. Some of these diamonds were microscopic... scratching the lap wheels in the lab.

You can search Google using the following keywords for an "accurate" point by point report.

Colorado, Kelsey Lake, Diamonds, Wyoming, Kimberlite

These "pipes of Kimberlite" are also scattered on both sides of the Colorado/Wyoming border. Many are found in the National Forest. This Kelsey Lake find was on Union Pacific owned property and shut down as the mine operator and UP could not agree on a "lease", as the story is circulated. The Wyoming Geological Survey had a bulletin about these Kimberlites printed... and if there is any interest, I can check my shelf for the correct title.

********

Disclaimer: These facts are from memory nearly 40 years ago... BUT... you can follow up and get the latest information. Even at UW the staff said no diamonds could be found in the Sherman Granite region. None. No Ordovician rock... None. If you plan to hunt for diamonds in this area, research it well, buy some good maps and know if you are on private or public land. The kimberlites are soft, so weather into shallow ponds and hold water. That is why they were originally missed. Today, this is how you find them. They have been weathering out for millions of years and since diamonds can resist being reduced to find powder... they could also be panned or found loose in down stream gravels. And while you are at it... look for some brachiopods... they could add some sparkle into your hunt!

Take care. Be prepared. And... please ADD to this poorly referenced post... but it is intended to GRAB your interest to follow through with my attempt to get you out west this Spring.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Ray Eklund

[FossilDAWG]

Interesting story, Ray. Thanks.

One comment, there seems to be something "missing" in this part:

"To know exactly what this stone was needed to be collected, cut thin, mounted to a slide and polished thin enough to run through the optical microscope... you know... the one with polarized optics and a rotating plate (whatever they call these parts in the lab). These "pipes" also broke through the surface and rock fell into the pipe. This is how the Ordovician rock was preserved. It had fallen below the surface and preserved by accident."

The story takes a jump from polishing thin sections to pipes breaking through the surface. I know enough geology to fill in the missing part, but I suspect much of your audience here will be lost.

Don

[jpc]

I agree with FossilDawg, but I'll add this. Word on the street (and the Geology Dept) in Laramie is that all the Kimberlite deposits on the state line have been staked and claimed... so you if you want to go look for some, you have to do more than geology research, but also a ton of claim-staking research. As far as I know, no one has found a way to make these diamonds profitable.

And Dr.Boyd still shows up at the office several time a week. Has been retired for several decades almost. Ray, I don't know how well you knew him,but his wife died sometime in the past few years.

[Ludwigia]

Ray,

Thanks for yet another well-told and fascinating yarn. Love it!

Roger

[Ray Eklund]

I agree with FossilDawg, but I'll add this. Word on the street (and the Geology Dept) in Laramie is that all the Kimberlite deposits on the state line have been staked and claimed... so you if you want to go look for some, you have to do more than geology research, but also a ton of claim-staking research. As far as I know, no one has found a way to make these diamonds profitable.

And Dr.Boyd still shows up at the office several time a week. Has been retired for several decades almost. Ray, I don't know how well you knew him,but his wife died sometime in the past few years.

OK, toss a wet blanket on the party again!

FossilDawg... as you probably figured out. I begin putting the thoughts onto the screen and run with it. If you see "edited" at the bottom, I will try to clean up the text, grammar and "what the #%LL" point I was trying to pass along. Some of these take plenty of time to type out and, lucky for me, this material is not being paid by the word as magazines like to do (and I can use a Pen Name). This is RAW... toss it out and see what brings it back... type editorials and trying to get some brain waves activated among the Forum members! Mine has been dormant too long to know what good my input has or will be, but it beats being buried with one unused idea in progress!

...and all of you smarty pants out there. If I can get some sentences together... do not let any embarressing syntax, spelling of technical terms or jargon slow you down. Press lightly on the keyboard and spill the beans. Beans... another great topic we could heat up on the cook top and run... with it.

You have those times a great idea comes to you and in two hours... it is gone.

The thin sections being made were of the kimberlite... when no one was certain what they were looking at. The Geological Survey of Wyoming made the best of printing out material to attract... investors north of the Colorado border. Obviously it worked, but like jpc said... how to make any money with the current rules and regulations... even if you find diamonds worth mining!

I never me Dr. Boyd's wife. I think she was a State or USGS Geologist. When they went on a Cruise through the Suez Canal, he caught some respiratory virus and I thought that was going to kill him, maybe thirty years ago. When talking and walking across campus to classes in 1975, during a Wyoming 15 below, wind blowing snow at 30 miles and hour... he could outrun any Professor and most students. Kept me in shape.

Tucson, Arizona update. You know Stuart...Laramie? Well, he stopped by in a UHaul truck. There have been a number, seems to me a large number, of Ford F-250's being hot wired and stolen during the early morning hours... at the Motel shows. Gone. No sign of it... yet. It was there at 10PM the night before and the next morning... it was not his truck in the parking spot. He figures they are in Mexico by the time you figure it missing. He cancelled his 2015 contract that morning... Loaded up tables and displays he kept in Tucson for his annual pilgrimage to the Show and going to figure out replacing his vehicle that had only liability insurance. So he took a big loss this year.

I did not go this year... and now am debating about how bad this is becoming. I park a trailer to the West of Tucson and would be rather... sick... if I come back from the show and it was missing in broad daylight! You only need so many agate spheres and beads.

Makes me feel sick for the others who had their pickups stolen. It is always worse when it is you or someone you know.