A Day of Fossil Collecting at the Warfield Fish Quarry

 

As soon as the quarryman George showed us how to split the rock our hammers were driving the thin steel into the bedding planes. Molly didn’t like the noise, so she did her usual thing and retreated to the shade of the truck and probably wondered what was wrong with us. Meanwhile Mark let out a shout of discovery and proudly showed us a complete fish fossil!

We had always wanted to go to one of the Green River Formation private fish fossil quarries so when our friend Mark arrived we decided it would be the first major trip we took. After all we were only one hundred and five miles from Kemmerer and so we headed out on a bright sunny day.

Arriving at the quarry site we were amazed at all the travel trailers. Quite a few people were actually boondocking there, allowing them to work the fish quarry without constantly driving back and forth to town. Renita quickly nixed my suggestion that we move the fifth wheel there and so we drove down to the quarry office and met George, the quarry operator.

Driving the thin steel tools into the bedding planes was exactly like my old days of aid climbing and the pinging sound was the same as when I used to drive knife blades, an aid climbing piton, into the rock walls at Devils Tower. Renita found a partial fish and yet I was finding nothing. I was so jealous of her and Mark, but it was fishing after all, (with the only difference being they were hiding in stone)!

Soon my moment arrived and I found my first complete fish fossil and the bonus is that when you uncover one you actually get two as you get a positive and a negative impression. So we drove steel and moved rock, kind of like a chain gang really, except we had paid for the pleasure. Every once in a while one of us would let out a sound as we discovered another fish fossil and our piles of rock grew.

Taking periodic breaks we talked with George and Kim who both own and operate rock shops. They both also spend the entire summer, or a lot anyway, at the quarry and so were full of advice. They both even moved rock away from the headwall and Kim told us to never turn our back on the headwall as it could collapse at any time!

Breaking for lunch we kept busy and three hours flew by. I moved the truck closer to our treasures and started to load our specimens. Mark decided to work one more rock and he suddenly hit the bonanza as he found fish plate after fish plate.

Finally loading all our fish we headed back home, but did make a stop at the Fossil Butte National Monument. During the drive back we talked of the day and how we couldn’t believe our success. None of us had ever collected so much in a single day of fossil hunting! I also realized I better get my rear end in gear and build a shed to house them. Clear skies