I went along with my brother and a friend from work down to an area just East of Clawson, Utah (Southwest of Castle Dale). The specimens of interest were septarian nodules and various fossils. We brought plenty of buckets and water and a surety that we would bring back loads of good stuff.
I had heard that one had to dig like a madman to get the good whole septarian nodules and when we saw the ground littered with pieces we started shoveling furiously to see what was in store. Some of the nodule pieces were amazing and I could only imagine how stellar the whole ones would look once we cut them open.
There was a ditch on the left hand side of the road (it looked human-made; maybe an excavator?) and when we started digging on both sides of the ditch we started seeing the septarians emerge like little dinosaur eggs being uncovered from the black soft shale. They ranged anywhere from 2-3 inches in diameter all the way up to basketball size.
Terror struck again as I was digging and came face to face with a yellow scorpion whilst uncovering yet another small nodule. It looked no bigger than a baby (scorpion that is ha ha), but it sure got my heart racing. We took some pics and let the little guy go far away from the dig site.
Moving a little further down the road, we came upon rolling hills filled with all manner of fossils. By this point we ended up spending most of the time exploring since it was too hot to just sit in one place. I did manage to find a sizable fossil that we all thought was pretty neat.
On the way home, we hit up a small rock shop in Castle Dale and enjoyed the long drive back to civilization. Good times were had by all and we are highly likely to visit these sites again.
Directions to East of Clawson:
From the intersection of 800 North and I-15 in Orem, Utah
1. Drive South on I-15 for 13.5 miles to Spanish Fork exit 258. Stay left onto Highway 6
2. Drive Southeast on Highway 6 for 67.7 miles to exit 241 and turn right (South) onto East Carbon Avenue/UT-10
3. Continue 37.1 miles and take a left (South) onto North Main Street in Clawson, Utah
4. Drive .4 miles and turn left (East) onto Center Street
5. Continue 4.1 miles until destination on left
This area is claimed by Team Hard Rock, LLC under the name Septarianville. It is illegal to collect without permission on the claim. The ditch you are referring to is too close to the road for legal collection by BLM regulations. Please remove this post, or redirect traffic to http://www.teamhardrock.com so that people may have an opportunity to legally harvest septarian from the area you have mentioned.
I know this is an old post, but shows this web site is for sale. If you have a claim, can you update your web site address. I would like to drive down that way this summer and surely don’t want to dig your claim without permission.
This is now a fee dig site. Well, actually you can dig for free, but you pay for what you find. We stopped by in the late afternoon, called the claim owner and got permission to dig. They just started hand digging out a hole and are apparently bringing in a backhoe in a couple of weeks. Dug a bit, got a small one, and headed out.
I went on 11/12/2016 spent a couple hours digging and found 20 or so. Every single one would break apart in pieces when picked up, very frustrating. They ranged from softball to basketball sized, with most closer to basketballs
Has anybody been there lately do they know if the nodules are still available
Hi Kelly. I haven’t been recently, but when I did go there were so many broken Septarian pieces on the ground that I can only imagine there are thousands and thousands all buried around in the hills. I was monitoring a Facebook group the other day though and did come across this gentleman who appears to have done pretty well: https://www.facebook.com/groups/102979169687/permalink/10154679569714688/?pnref=story. He says he found them in three different locations around the San Rafael Swell and these look very similar to the ones I’ve found here.
I’m at the location and I cannot find where you’re talking about is it after the gravel pit or before the Gravel Pit the Gravel Pit is to the right sidedid you have to climb wire fence
Th ere was a y in the road before the gravel pit thAt went to a dead end is that where it is
Hi! Sorry for the delay in response. If you are talking about the first Y you hit in the road you’ll want to continue straight heading East for about another mile rather than take the left of the Y to the North up past the power plant.
I just got back today (Aug 15,2016) There’s still a lot of broken pieces around but I dug about 5 holes 2 and 1/2 to three feet deep and couldn’t find an intact one. I don’t know how deep you would have to go to find one since I didn’t find anything.
Went today (8/22/16) and I think I saw your holes. I tried digging in them for like an hour and didn’t get anything intact either. I was running out of time but I saw whole nodules eroding at the top of the next hill over, should have gone there.