Prineville Rock hound Powwow 2009

Each summer in the City of Prineville, Oregon there is a rock and gem show referred to as the Prineville Rock hound Powwow.  I have heard about how great this show is each of the three years I have been active rock hound.  I have always been reluctant in going to this show because it is a four to five hour drive from my home.  This year after reading about this show on the Rock Tumbling Hobby (RTH) web site I decide that this year I was not going to miss it.

Lucky Strike Thunder Egg Slab

The plans were for my family to leave Nampa, Idaho Friday evening go to John Day, Oregon and camp over night.  The next morning we would go to Walton Lake to meet up with other rock hounds to search for agate and jasper.  Luckily I was able to leave work early Friday so we had enough time to go all the way to Walton Lake.  We even had time to stop for dinner in Mount Vernon, Oregon and do a little prospecting on our own that evening.

If you ever find yourself in Mount Vernon, Oregon I strongly recommend stopping at the Silver Spur Restaurant.  I had one the best burgers ever there.  It was so good that we stopped there again on our way home.

Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful day and quickly packed everything in the car.  We then ate muffins for breakfast while we waited for the rock hounds that we were going to meet.  Thirty minutes after the meeting time nobody had shown up so we decided to head to Prineville.  I figured that either plans had changed or we were at the wrong location.  I later met up with some of the people who went on the trip and they told me that they arrived shortly after we left.  I also double checked and confirmed that we were at the right location.  That was a real bummer because I really wanted to go rock hounding with people I have chatted with online.  Hopefully the opportunity will present itself again in the future and I will be more patient.

Meadow at Walton Lake

When we arrived in Prineville it was way too early to check in at our motel so we went looking for the powwow and Elkins Rock Shop.  We were actually there so early that neither one of those were open yet so we went to the fairgrounds where the powwow was located to wait.  The wait was short and we were able to start browsing the show early.

There were many dealers at the powwow.   The thing that amazed me was how one dealer would have a material priced extremely high and the dealer next to them would have the same material at a very low price.  One dealer had ocean jasper priced at nine dollars a pound.  I didn’t buy any of it because I didn’t want to spend too much until after I visited Elkins.  I never made it back to the powwow to purchase the ocean jasper; I wish I had.

After the powwow we went to Elkins and filled a couple of buckets with rock before heading to out motel.  We stayed at the City Center Hotel which is definitely a home away from home for rock hounds.  As you walk into the motel office the first thing you see is a display of rocks.  There is also a table made with slabs and a petrified wood wall clock.  On the counter there is a dish of crystals that the manger, Cyndi, passes out to kids that stay at the motel.  There is also a petrified log by a power pole in the parking lot.

When we got into our room the first thing I did was take a shower.  After the shower it was nap time for the whole family.  I really didn’t need a nap so I left the family there and headed to Quant Rock Shop.  I was there just a couple of minutes when I noticed one of the members from RTH, Dan, I was planning on meeting at Walton Lake.  We spoke briefly.  He told me that other members were at Elkins.  I purchased a few slabs then headed back to Elkins.  I was planning on returning to Quant’s later but that never happened.  I will have to schedule another visit there the next time I am in Prineville.

Back at Elkin’s I was able to meet a few more members from RTH.  After introductions there was some brief chit-chat but for the most part everybody was busy digging in a pile of rock that was ten cents a pound.   I will have more information about this rock shop in my next post.

That evening we went to dinner at the Apple Peddler Restaurant.  If you like poor service and crummy over priced food this is the place to go.  After dinner we walked around for a while checking out the town and playing in the park.  Before going back to the motel for the night we stopped at fast food place for ice cream.  The counter where we ordered was made from slabs of local rock.

Andy and Jen in the Park

Sunday morning I made one last trip to Elkins and filled a couple more buckets with rock.  My small car was really beginning to hate me.  I left with roughly 350 pounds of rock in my trunk.  The trip home was uneventful.  We pulled into the drive way just before 5:00 exhausted and ready to call it day.  Funny thing was we were talking about our next big road trip to Billings, Montana for the rock show at the end of July.

Moss Agate

More photos of this trip and what I purchase at the powwow are available on our photographs page.