[Rockhounds] Accommodations, petrified forest

[Tim Fisher]

But one does occasionally get lucky. In my story I mentioned the 
Murphys, out of Winslow across the freeway from the south entrance, 
who did at one time allow fee collecting. They had their own "forest" 
of quite a few nice logs that were "off limits" (they didn't realize 
that many times more logs were buried just under the surface of the 
soil lol). A friend from Apache Junction collected and sold a few 
thousand pounds from there for lapidary & yard rock. I still have a 
few of the larger rounds we dug. So it pays to ask local rockhounds 
(OK so Apache Jct. ain't exactly local lol). Most of the shops in 
Holbrook have leases on "state land" or on private ranches (You are 
correct; AZ mineral rights are bizarre, and the ranchers can own the 
land but NOT the mineral rights unless they were transferred from the 
state with the property title). It is the landowners' right to limit 
access to "landlocked" BLM sections as the see fit, so I am not 
surprised there. I am certain that the Murphys did NOT own the 
mineral rights but the state isn't exactly knocking down doors 
looking for locals selling wood that they don't really own. You 
should be aware that most everyone out there is Mormon and they 
aren't really all that friendly to outsiders, or the "gummint", 
especially since the residents of the four corners area are notorious 
for sheltering polygamists among them. I was once offered the 
opportunity to collect with the Grays (big shop in Holbrook) on one 
of their leases (for a fee of course) but I couldn't stick around and 
wait for them to go out & dig. So any one of the shops might help you 
out there. Stewart's in Holbrook used to have fee digs but I haven't 
heard of anyone actually going out digging with them for many years.

P.S. I swear to this day that I smelled a white lightnin' still at 
the Murphys in a dilapidated corn silo ;)

At 01:46 PM 12/9/2007, you wrote:
>(Catching up on my email backlog...)
>
> > At the meeting he showed the rock, still in it's plastic bag, sealed
> > with a piece of official government red tape.
>
>Seems weird, but I've done this myself -- entered Petrified Forest NP
>with petrified wood already collected elsewhere -- and it's a sane
>policy, really.  You declare your goodies on the way in, they seal them
>in bags, and then you shouldn't run into any trouble on the way out.
>
>I've done a lot of map study and sleuthing in the area outside the park.
>The BLM sections are scattered and mostly hard to reach, and the locals
>are fed up with people trying to collect on their property.  Compared,
>say, with Wyoming, looking up a landowner and politely requesting
>permission to collect on their private property, gets a resounding NO.
>
>Also I learned that AZ "state sections" set aside for school support are
>very much off-limits.  No way to get a permit for casual surface
>collecting.  What a pity.
>
>Of course you/I could buy all the AZ pet wood we wanted in places like
>Holbrook, but it's not about the having, it's about the fun of
>collecting...
>
>I have found a few places where scraps of nice wood can be found, and
>apparently legally too.  It does occur over a very wide area -- many
>miles -- but can be "occasional".
>
>Cheers,
>Alan Silverstein
>--
>_______________________________________________

Tim Fisher
Ore-ROCK-On!
Email address at http://OreRockOn.com