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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2017)
THE Joy OF THE I Bloodless Hunt The fun of getting outside and pursuing … birds, rocks, ’shrooms and little pieces of paper BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN OREGON’S STATE ROCK, THE THUNDEREGG Rock On Local geology lovers find community in rock hunting B Y S A R A RO S A DAV I E S rtesia Hubbard, a University of Oregon student from Colorado, has always been a steward of the land. “I was a river baby. I was always running around in the out- doors,” she says. When Hubbard arrived at UO for her freshman year, her older sister on campus told her to join the school’s Geology Club. What the music-major-turned-environmental-studies major found was not only a way for her to enjoy the out- doors, but also a community of like-minded people. Ge- ology isn’t just a passion; it’s also a way for Hubbard to connect with her fellow students. While many rock hunting enthusiasts and amateur ge- ologists are in it for the hunt, many find themselves also enveloped in a community like the UO Geology Club. “It’s just a really, really good community of people,” Hubbard said. Her favorite form of rock is metamorphic; her favorite gem is turquoise, which is set in a ring on her finger. A 12 May 18, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com once told my ex-fiancé that I was a vegetar- ian because I ate only what I could person- ally kill. He promptly bought me a shotgun and taught me how to shoot it. However, he was unable get me to kill anything more mo- bile than a poorly tossed clay target. He tried — unsuccessfully — to persuade me of the joys of shooting, killing and butchering my own meals, but the closest I got to deadly force was blowing up a bottle of Coke (and then carefully cleaning up the sugary-drink-covered remains, because leave- no-trace principles apply to recreational shooting, too). Finally, a couple years ago, an avid truffle hunter explained to me how he had left the excite- ment of hunting animals for the more-obsessive joys of hunting elusive fungi. It turns out there are many odd and elusive edibles and objects in Oregon that you can track down, document, write your name on or just sleep happily in the knowledge that you found them. Welcome, reader, to this year’s Outdoors Issue and the joys of no-kill hunting. “I guarantee that if you were interviewing an actual ge- ology major that they’d say some crazy word that ends in -tite,” Hubbard says. The Geology Club participates in two to three local trips each quarter and takes one longer spring break trip to a different state. This year they went to Canyonlands National Park in Utah, just outside of Moab. But often the group stays closer to home, trekking to the Oregon Coast with pickaxes in hand to find other popular rocks. According to Hubbard, Oregon itself is geologically interesting because of its unique coast and mountains. “Or- egon is an anomaly for geology,” she said. “All the moun- tains … Crater Lake. It’s just a great place for geology.” The coast west of Eugene is a great place to find pet- rified wood and fossils, but the Willamette Valley can be lacking when it comes to Oregon’s state rock, the thun- deregg, or the state gemstone, the sunstone. The Springfield Thunderegg Rock Club has a 60-year history in the Eugene-Springfield area. The club’s members helped the state declare the thun- deregg the Oregon state rock in 1965. The group, made up of young and old, meets at 7 pm the second Tuesday each month at Willamalane Adult Activity Center in Springfield. The group sponsors rockhounding trips and participates in rock shows. Thundereggs, though unassuming bumpy rocks on the outside, can be cracked open to reveal a geode-like color- ful interior. They are found in central and southeast Oregon and you often see them for sale in Oregon airport giftshops. Sunstones are a type of gem that sparkles at certain angles in the sun. A couple Lane County stores specialize in rocks and gems and can help those aspiring to be amateur geologists. Though the aptly named long-running business Nelson the Rocky Feller is now closed, two other stores still serve Eu- gene, including Five Elements and I Love Rocks. Five Elements Gem and Mineral, a local rock and lapi- dary store, sponsors trips to eastern Oregon’s high desert to find sunstones and enjoy a mining experience. Mines like Richardson’s Rock Ranch in Madras are popular spots for those looking to shell out some cash and try out the ama- teur geologist lifestyle out for the day. Jesse Scites volunteers at I Love Rocks, the rock and gem store on Oak Street. He says the store is locally owned and all volunteer-run. Every worker donates their time, Scites mentions in an email to Eugene Weekly. I Love Rocks is an unassuming storefront with brown pan- eling and white trim. A white sign that reads “I Love Rocks: Gems, Minerals, Fossils, and Gallery” stands outside in the yard. Inside, there are hundreds of rocks; some from nearby, some from the farthest reaches of the world like Afghanistan. As for going out and experiencing the hunt, there’s not much like it, Hubbard says. Her favorite geology experi- ence happened recently when she found some worm track fossils during the club’s spring break trip. Later on that day, Dave Blackwell, UO geology professor, showed Hub- bard’s group some burrow trace fossils. Finding something really old stuns Hubbard. “It’s just really awesome thinking about putting it into perspective and thinking this has literally been here for millions of years. And it’s one of those things that you sit down to think about and you can’t even still really com- prehend it,” Hubbard said. “That’s the cool thing about geology; it’s so incomprehensible, yet people understand perfectly.” ■
