Dust Devil Mining Company

During the Fall of 1991, rock hounds and lapidarys Terry and Jude Clark and Don and Patsy Buford decided to look into filing gemstone claims in Oregon. After searching BLM records for the entire state, they discovered three abandoned Sunstone claims in the high desert near Plush, Oregon. Both couples had previously collected these beautiful gemstones in the area set aside by the BLM for public digging.

On February 1, 1992 Terry, Don, and Don's son Clay drove to the area. After spending the night in a Geo Metro while the outside temperature dropped to around 10 degrees, the claims were located and staked.

The partners spent long weekends and vacations digging and breaking up rock with 16 pound sledge hammers. After hand screening, having the gems cut, and setting them in gold, they found that they had beautiful salable jewelry.

Join in the Fun

The new ore that can be screened for a fee is the same ore that we are processing. It has not been high-graded and stones from 100 to 300+ carats have come from this pit. The mine is known for its exceptionally large stones as well as its red/green bicolor, watermelon, dichroic, and color-change stones.

Read more about Dust Devil Mine Fee Digging.

A Mine is Born

The partners decided to mechanize the operation and incorporate the business. After welcoming Steve Hackler, equipment operator and mechanic, to the company, a home made screening plant was constructed from salvage materials. An ancient backhoe was purchased and the race was on to see if enough material could be mined and sold to keep the company afloat.

After three years the men left their jobs and moved to the desert for half of each year to mine. The number of claims grew from three to nine, then fifteen, seventeen, and now twenty-five, including opal and varicite claims in Nevada and fire agate claims in California.