Rock and Mineral Collecting
Manti-La Sal National Forest
Birdseye Marble
Directions: From Salt Lake City, take I-15 south approximately 50 miles to Spanish Fork (exit 261). Travel east and proceed up Spanish Fork Canyon (Rte 6) for about 13.5 miles to Hwy 89. Make a right onto Hwy 89 and go south about 5.8 miles until you see a gravel road to your left. Make the left turn and proceed up the road until you reach a gate. This gate marks the beginning of Forest Service Road 126. Before you proceed up the road, remember to close the gate after yourself. Continue up this road for about 1.5 miles until you see a sign indicating that you have crossed into Forest Service lands.
Description: Approximately 58 to 66 million years ago (Paleocene epoch), a large body of water known as Lake Flagstaff covered parts of northeastern and central Utah. This lake deposited a sequence of sediments that formed rocks known as the Flagstaff Formation. Although these rocks are technically a limestone, the building stone industry has termed this deposit a "marble". The rocks are rich in algal ball structures commonly known as "birdseyes". These birdseye features were formed by algae that grew around snail shells, twigs, or other debris. The algae used these objects as a nucleus, forming into unusual, elongated, concentric shapes.
Where to collect: Specimens can be found along the road just after crossing the Forest Service boundary. If you feel adventurous, this road can be followed up to the abandoned birdseye marble quarry (roughly 2.5 miles), but four wheel drive is highly recommended. Some of the birdseye marble contains cores of snail fossils, which have been replaced by the mineral calcite. This material takes a great polish and is ideal for making unusual decorative bookends.
Forest Service collecting rules: Rock, mineral, and fossil collecting on lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service requires a permit, which is free to the public. The permit allows one to collect small amounts of material for personal use. This permit can be obtained at the Manti-La Sal National Forest office, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 599 West Price River Drive, Price, UT, 435-637-2817 or 435-637-3521. (From: Survey Notes, Utah Geological Survey, April 1999, v. 31)
Sawtooth National Forest
Oakley Stone
Directions: The mining of stone is from several quarries located a few miles south of the town of Oakley, ID on the west flank of Middle Mountain.
Description: This thinly bedded micaceous quartzite including the Elba quartzite is quarried for decorative use and is composed of quartzite and muscovite mica. A metamorphic rock created from the deformation of quartz-rich sandstone; it quickly became famous for its quarried thickness of less than one-half of an inch. This enabled one ton of the stone to cover many more square feet than other stone veneers on the market. This characteristic, along with its color and durability, makes it highly popular and it is shipped throughout the United States and overseas. A unique type of Oakley stone is the green micaceous quartzite seen on the front of many 20th century buildings in southern Idaho and northern Utah. The green color of this "Elba Quartzite" is given by chromium-bearing mica, fuchsite.