Glass Butte Obsidian
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On August 6th we went hunting for obsidian between Bend and Burns, Oregon, at a place called Glass Butte. The area is well known for its many varieties of obsidian.
My mother, nephew Justin, and I made the hour and a half trip from Sisters, Oregon. We turned off the highway past mile post 76 and made the 2+ mile drive into the collection area on a bumpy dirt road. We scouted around for awhile and found a spot next to a pit with a lot of mahogany and dug there for awhile. I found a nice piece of gold sheen there, but my mother was looking for a spot she thought might have some truly amazing gem obsidian. Soon, we moved our area of operations a couple hundred feet and dug there for the next four hours.
The day was perfect the sky was filled with small puffy clouds and it was not too hot. There was no shortage of obsidian anywhere, the trick was finding some of the great sheen material, or better yet, some with really wild color. All in all the day was a great success and we will be back!
On the 12th we again journeyed out to the Glass Butte pits to dig for the day. The day started out great. We were there by 11:00 am and again, it was not too hot. As an unexpected surprise, we ran into a friend that had arrived the previous day, he had camped there for the night. We talked with him about his success and he told us he had found some nice stuff the day before. We were excited about the opportunity to dig some good material. Soon after we started in on our hole we had a couple of reporters from the Bend Bulletin newspaper arrive that had arranged to meet us out there. They wanted to come out and meet with us for a piece they were doing. We dug and talked, and found plenty of the good stuff. Our friend was finding excellent pieces. He showed me a piece that was flashing a rainbow of colors all through it. My mother calls the gem-grade obsidian, "Firecracker Obsidian". It goes by several names. We packed it in at 2:30 pm. We talked some more with the reporter and the photographer before they left, then we took off for Hampton Butte. We actually never made it out to Hampton Butte that day, however, we did manage to make it to the Outback Steak House in Bend for dinner! |
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