Fossil

You could visit Wheeler county in central Oregon for the sheer beauty of its wide, lonely landscape.

There are towering rock formations,

and sculptures as impressive as any artist could dream up.

But aside from the spectacle of the place, there's another reason to slow down and spend some time there.

Embedded in those rocks are millions of fossils. Weather and erosion cause them to appear magically, as if you were looking at old photographic film being developed in a darkroom.

It's high and dry now, but plants and animals were captured by violent, muddy ash-flows back in the day when the area was a semi-tropical landscape.

Now they come slowly but continuously to the surface.

You can collect leaf and invertebrate fossils for non-commercial use on most public lands and all road cuts, but there is only one specific public fossil-hunting bed, and that is located behind Wheeler High School in (where else) Fossil, OR. For a 5 buck donation to the school you can borrow some gear and climb around in the loose, sharp rocks above the football field.

 It's just like hunting for treasure.

Metasequoia sp, now extinct: my very own astonishing little post card from 33 million years ago.