I have recently been made aware of some concerns regarding places I have written about in my blog and the material I have for sale on the Rock Shop page of this site. I had been approached before about materials I have had for sale that came from a claim and was asked not sell the items. Since this request had come from the owners of the claim I respected their request and removed the items. The remaining items I have for sale came from various sources but half of the came from BLM lands; this was the concern about the material I have for sale. The following will address both of these concerns.

Before addressing these concerns I wanted to make sure that I had correct information to start with. To get the correct information I decided to visit the local BLM field office in Boise, Idaho. I spoke with one of the local geologist, Forrest Griggs, about my situation. One of the main points he stressed was to contact the local field office for the area where mineral collecting will be taking place because the rules, regulation and enforcement can vary slightly in each area.

The first issue I would like to address is mining claims. I had written in one of my earlier blogs that I had visited the original Owyhee Picture Jasper Mine with a group of friends. This location is still an active mining claim. When somebody places a claim on BLM land they have the right to remove claimed minerals from the location and others should not take any materials without their permission. Claim owners do not have the right to keep you off the land except in case where machinery is active and dangerous conditions due to their mining exist.

When I wrote about being at the original Owyhee Picture Jasper Mine I stated that we were there for about fifteen minutes before moving on to other areas to collect jasper. I should have also stressed that nothing was taken from this location instead of saying “There was not a lot of material left at this site”.

This brings up the question of why you would want to stop at a location where you are not able to take anything. The first reason would be to learn. When visiting a location studying the geographic features of the area could help you discover other locations where similar material could be found. Since there are many locations where jasper exist, some with claims and some without claims, it would be good to know some things to look for when searching for them. The second reason would be for a sense of history. The term Owyhee Picture Jasper is well known. As I was writing this I did a check on eBay and found 63 items listed as Owyhee Picture Jasper. Some of the items listed I recognized and know they did not come from the original Owyhee Picture Jasper Mine. For those item that could have come from this location it is nice to know exactly where they have come from. The items that were not from this location show the value of this location and how people desire items from it.

Just to be clear I want to stress again that no material was taken from the original Owyhee Picture Jasper mine. When I stated in my blog “I took a lot of material from this site” I was referring to another location in the Owyhee Mountains located on the Idaho-Oregon border. I have not attempted to sell any of this material either. So far all I have done with it is photograph the rough material (see gallery page) and create four finished pieces. One of the finished pieces sits on my desk at work. The other three have been given to children in my neighborhood.

When I talked with Forest Griggs at the BLM about claims he told me that BLM does not stop people from filing claims on land where others already have active claims. He then went on to explain that this unethical act could lead to very costly litigation between the claim owners. Forest also pointed me to a fantastic online tool for researching claims .

The following is excerpts from the BLM web sites dealing with claims.

Care must be taken not to violate the rights of a mining claimant. Patented claims are private land and permission to collect specimens on them must be obtained from the property owner. Unpatented claims, however, are still public lands and rockhounders may pursue their hobby on such lands as long as they do not interfere with mining activities or collect locatable minerals or gemstones for which the claim is “located”. In other words, if an unpatented claim is located for jade rockhounders can look for and collect any mineral except jade (claimants frequently locate claims for all locatable minerals). The claimant is entitled to the rights to the jade which is, for all practical purposes, his private property.

A claim owner may not legally charge fees for recreational use of unpatented claims.

The second issue that needs to be addressed is with selling items from BLM lands. Public lands administered by the BLM are open to everyone, to take limited amounts of rock material for noncommercial purposes without charge. This means that I can’t sell items that I have picked up on BLM lands. The Succour Creek eggs and Jack Rabbit Springs eggs that I have listed on this site will be removed in order to be in compliance of this rule.

I find this rule to be very vague. What is considered to be a “limited amount”? There are federal regulations that clearly define the rule when it comes to petrified Wood but other materials are not define.

The maximum quantity of petrified wood that any one person is allowed to remove without charge per day is 25 pounds in weight plus one piece, provided that the maximum total amount that one person may remove in one calendar year shall not exceed 250 pounds. Pooling of quotas to obtain pieces larger than 250 pounds is not allowed.

When Talking with Forrest Griggs I asked what is considered to be a “limited amount” for materials other than petrified wood. He told me that I should always check with the field office that manages the area where I will be collecting. Two examples of how different field offices measure the “limited Amount” are the Boise region and the Twin Falls – Burley region. In the Boise region it is considered a “limited amount” if it will fit in the trunk of your car. In the Twin Falls – Burley region considers a limited amount” to be able to fit in a kids backpack.

Next I asked about what it takes to be able to sell items from BLM lands. The first and main way to be able sell items would be to file a claim. The second way would be to purchase the rough material from a dealer.

Since I have to remove some of the materials from this site in order to meet BLM regulations I have purchased some rough material from a local dealer to make replacement items. Soon I will have replacement Succour Creek thunder eggs listed on this site; I wanted to get some Jack Rabbit springs eggs but the quality of what was available did not match the quality of what I currently have. I also purchased some Graveyard Point agate, Owyhee jasper and agate nodules the looked like Hog Creek material that I will add once I have worked the materials. The dealer said the material that I thought was from Hog Creek was from Beacon Hill; maybe I will find something new that I will want to keep instead of selling it.

Thank you to Forrest Griggs for taking the time to talk with me about the BLM regulations that apply to rock hounds and the collection on materials on BLM lands.