stonerose interpretive center and eocene fossil site

Stonerose is a great place to take your family. I've been with children of all ages and they all loved the process of discovery. The staff are wonderful at ensuring that you always have something interesting to take home.

I was very excited and looking forward to my experience at Stonerose, and indeed did have a very good time when I was discovering fossils. It was my experience when I was with a staff member as she went through my quite exceptional discoveries that was the problem. I had found some very good examples of deciduous leaves that were uncommon and also dragonfly wings and blossoms. I was told before we started to dig that if I were to find a insect, that I would be able to keep one half for myself and the other half would be kept by the interperative center,fair enough and I was expecting that to occur. What actually happened is that all of the fossils that were of any value were kept by the staff and I was left with a few incomplete shards of leaves. One of the staff members made a coment to the staff member who was sorting the fossils, "Oh, the poor lady, you are leaving her with nothing!" and indeed that is what happened.

Stonerose is an unusual fossil site, where collecting is actively encouraged! Most fossil sites either forbid collecting or charge exorbitant fees ... Stonerose is reasonably priced, family-friendly, and very educational. You are allowed to keep 3 fossils per person, but you can collect as many as you like, and select the 3 you like the most. The friendly staff will even help you pick out the best ones.If this is your first trip to eastern Washington, be prepared for hot weather. Bring a hat, sunscreen and lots of water. Bring a spray bottle for kids, they'll use it to keep cool and/or to wash off their fossils.

Bring your own hammer and chisel; (you save $5.00). Rent the tools or bring your own it still is a fun and different thing to do. It is located 1 block off the main street of town. The dig site is 2 blocks form the office (pay area). I suggest slacks / old shoes and a hat and gloves. The cost was $10.00 for non members daily. You receive a sticker that states you paid. You are directed 2 blocks down the road to a hill full of rocks. You get a 5 min. demo on how to look and chisel for the fossils in the rocks. I found most of my fossils just picking up a stone and turning it over. It does take a knack to find the right stone and make the stone split correctly. You bring back to the office your findings and you get to keep 3 fossils per person. They have some gifts inside for sale also. The staff is very friendly. The office is located across from a park with swings / bathrooms / and toilets. Bring a lunch and break up your fossil hunt. You just walk back to the park from the hill and when done with lunch to return to digging. They ask you be back to the office by 4:00 with your findings because they close at 5:00.

Our family of five spent half a day in early August at the fossil site. First, Republic is a cute and quaint old town. It is small, so even without having written down the address it was easy to find. The signage is good. The Museum and Interpretive Center are one block off the main drag. The folks inside are very friendly and helpful. It is $10 for adults and $5 for children, plus five dollars each if you want to rent a hammer and chisel. You will need them for sure... Bring your own or rent them. Once you pay, they give you a bright sticker to wear that shows you have paid to be there. They show some things that have been found at the fossil site in the display cases, and then explain what you are looking for and how to split open the stones and so forth. They have examples of the different types of stones, and you can touch and hold them. Pay close attention to this part, as it will greatly help you in choosing stones to split apart. I wished I would have listened better, because once you get to the fossil site, there are thousands and thousands of stones, and it can be hard to tell which is the right type of stone to have the best luck finding a fossil. With our questions answered, we were on our way. You walk about a block, a portion of which is a moderately steep hill, to the fossil site and off you go. It is a steep hillside, covered in thousands of pretty sharp stones, so you have to be very careful not to fall. You don't have to climb much to find stones is you don't want to, though. You select some stones and put them in the little cardboard box they give you, then carry them to one of the picnic tables that are set up. It is HOT is Republic in the Summer, and the fossil site has no shade, but the picnic tables have little roofs over them which give some much-needed respite from the blazing sun while you carefully split your stones. My 6 year old had fun playing around, using the chisel some and collecting stones for me to try, but he could not really do the splitting of the stones at all. He was entertained enough, though, and never complained. My 10 year old found splitting the stones with the hammer and chisel challenging, but she was able to do it. It is a very fun little treasure hunt, and you want to keep looking, because the very next stone might contain the coolest specimen. This Eocene fossil site has been dated at 48 - 50 million years old, and the site used to be a lake. We found some cool extinct plant leaves and pine needles. I was hoping for a fish or insect, but no luck. For the fee, you can stay all day if you want. When you are finished, you bring your things back to the Interpretive Center and someone there will lay out all of the things you found and identify them for you, which is fascinating. You get to keep 3 specimens for each paying person. We got to keep virtually everything our group found, which means, with four of us working, we found about 15 items in 4 hours, to give you an idea. My favorite fossil was broken in two and they glued it for me. They will mark the back of each specimen you keep and give you an information sheet that identifies them for when you go home. They sell some cool items there, like geodes to split open when you get home, and have cool drinks for sale, too. This is a great, unique experience. It gives you a tiny idea of what a geologist or paleontologist might do. Our whole family enjoyed it, and it was a memorable experience. Highly recommended, if this type of thing interests you at all (and why wouldn't it?!)Suggestions: 1. Bring a cooler with some drinks if you can in the summertime. 2. Wear sunscreen. 3. Wear heavy-soled, good tread shoes that you don't mind getting dirty (like hiking boots). Tennis shoes are okay. 4. Bring gardening gloves. If you want to chisel off the walls or dig at all, the gloves will protect your hands. Have fun!

For a small fee you can dig for fossils, have them identified, and bring a few home to show off. How cool is that??? When I say dig, you are actually banging on rocks with a hammer and a chisel, so wear eye protection. How many people can show you a fossil of a prehistoric plant or insect that they unearthed? WE CAN!!! we were only planning on staying for an hour, but stayed for three we were having such a good time. Plan on staying for a little while. Very friendly staff :) If you are really lucky you could find a fish, or something totally NEW. This stop was worth the trip!!!

Stonerose Interpretive Center and Fossil Site are rare finds themselves, tucked away in the scenic small town of Republic, WA. Located about 3 hours northwest of Spokane, and a day's drive from Seattle, Stonerose is definitely worth checking out if you or any family members are interested in fossils and dinosaurs. The Interpretive Center is a small spot located next to the city park where you can see a small, but great collection of several types of flora and fauna fossils. At the Center, you can also purchase a day digging permit (not sure of the rate, but it's cheap) that includes the use of a hammer and chisel. You can also bring your own tools. The cost of the permit helps to fund the Center. Staff are informative, friendly and helpful and actually like dealing with kids (of all ages) who are interested in fossils. The fossil site is located up the hill a short walk or drive from the Interpretive Center, and I think is open for digging from about April until end of October. Often it's possible to find more fossils at the beginning of the season, when the weather has exposed new layers of rock,but you can find them any time. Plan on bringing sunscreen, water, a hat and wearing shoes you can scramble around on the rocks with. It can get really hot, especially in July and August. If you are lucky enough to find a fossil, you are asked to show it to the staff to 1) help identify it and 2) see if it's something new or not. In the past, fossil-diggers who've discovered a new insect or plant have had it named after them. Cool! Breaking open rocks to find fossils takes time and patience, so really little kids might not think this activity is that much fun-unless they're good at entertaining themselves on a rock pile while you crack away. I would also recommend going in the morning before the sun gets too hot. Doors open at the Center at 8am. A fun family trip to Republic can include visiting the Center (and the digging site or not), camping out at Curlew Lake State Park and doing some fishing or swimming, and maybe some bike riding or hiking on the Rail Trail. Now there is a beautiful newly resurfaced trestle you can use to walk or ride over the lake. If it's just an adult crew, then Republic has the Republic Brewing Company in the middle of town, that brews and serves its own beer in an incredible atmosphere and the location of the original Brewing Company. A couple of great places to eat right next door. I've used the word 'SMALL' several times, so you get the idea. Unless I was a total fossil geek, Iprobably wouldn't drive from Seattle just to visit Stonerose, but I definitely would include it for a weekend visit. Having said that, people from all over the world actually DO visit Stonerose since the findings here have been geologically significant. Bring your bikes, fishing poles, kayaks, hiking boots and cameras. They also have a Facebook page you can check out for events.

Visiting the Center and splitting rocks for fossils was a very educational experience for us and our 9 year old boys. FredSmithSeattle below has a good review that is very helpful. I would just add that if you are headed here in the summer, take a hat, and wear boots. I also had with me my gloves, and chisels that had a broad head, which helped me hammer on for a longer time. The whole hunt was very addictive, and my kids were engaged for a much longer time than I had expected from them.Once you take your fossils down to the center, the staff examines them and gives you a good description of what you found, and will also glue any fossils that you may have broken into two parts.

My mom and two kids came here on a Tuesday in August. The staff are very helpful and give you a quick tutorial to help you get started. We rented the chisel and hammers - the price was right! You walk up the hill to the dig site. There are a lot of small, broken fossils - mostly leaves. We didn't find anything big - like a fish. But, the kids enjoyed it. I recommend getting there early because it got quite hot by 11am. We got there at 9:30am and were ready to go by 11:30am.

The stone rose site is a nifty place that owns a hill of rock that contains lots of fossils that are from the Eocene period (6 million years old). When you buy an admission, you may dig from 8:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Also, you may rent a chisel and hammer for $5 a pair. This is a very unique, cheap activity that can get you 3 fossils each.

This is a great inexpensive experience for adults and especially for children. What kid wouldn't like sitting in a pile of rocks and chiseling stone to uncover a plant or animal that has been buried for 50 million years?

We visited Stonerose from Seattle with our 4 year old son and 6 year old daughter. In particular, our daughter really loved Stonerose.WHEN TO GO – We arrived on a Friday around 9:00 am and the Stonerose center was just getting ready to start an introductory session for a school group. There was about a 30 minute presentation which we found interesting. One of the center’s staff then accompanied the group up the hill to the dig site and provided some good tips about fossil hunting (but we asked a lot of questions or otherwise probably wouldn’t have been as successful). We called ahead to make sure they would be open and the person on the phone was happy to recommend what to bring and were to stay.WHAT TO BRING – We basically used a hammer and a chisel. We brought several sets and rented a set as well from the center. They also gave us a cardboard box to hold our fossils.WHO LIKED WHAT – Our 4 year old son had fun just digging in the dirt. But he also understood which kinds of rocks to look for and would occasionally bring one to us to split open. Our daughter loved it all and wanted to come back a second day, which we did. My wife enjoyed being on the hill with the energy of the school group, but was not so anxious to return the second day. I liked it all.WHAT YOU MIGHT FIND – We found lots of fossils. Each person is allowed to keep three fossils, and anything more than that is kept by the center so they can send them out to schools. So for our group of 4 we were allowed 12 fossils and in 2 hours had probably found 20. They were all less than 2x2” in size. We found lots of pine needles, but also a piece of a maple leaf, another small complete leaf, a small flower with four petals, and a section of lake-bottom. The leaf and flower we found not by splitting open a rock, but actually by just turning them over on the rock pile. The second day we also found a small fish scale (not much to look at) and some additional plant material. But although small, it was all pretty cool considering it was 50 million years old and we could keep it. After “digging”, you bring what you find back down to the center and they identify and label everything for you.WHERE TO STAY – The first night we stayed at the Northern Inn in Republic. It was clean and one woman at the front desk was particularly helpful, but otherwise it was nothing special but just like any other motel room. The second night we stayed at Black Beach Resort on Curlew Lake about 7 miles out of town. It seemed like a throwback to the 60s (and even the reservations were all down with pen and paper) and was not as clean, but for the kids it was a lot more fun. And for $25 for a half day (until “the sun goes down”) they rented us a flat bottom boat with an outboard motor and we boated up the lake to another place called Fisherman’s Cove for lunch. Fisherman’s Cove had what appeared to be the nicest cabins (for around $100 a night) but it had been booked when we called.WHERE TO EAT – We had a great dinner at the Riverside in a small town called Curlew about 20 minutes north of Republic (What’s your house dressing? They are all homemade). The restaurant was only open Friday through Sunday and the night we went it was all locals. Be sure to call a head to make sure they are open. We ate dinner somewhere in Republic as well (not sure of the name but may have been the sportsman – it was the only place open) but it was not memorable (What’s your house dressing? They are all bottled). WHAT ELSE TO DO - On the drive over from Seattle, we toured the Grand Coulee Dam. In Curlew (20 minutes from Republic) there is the Ansorge hotel from the early 1900’s run by the historical society which was very nicely done (http://www.ferrycounty.com/activities/museums/ansorge-hotel-museum/) – admission was free and we received a guided tour by the granddaughter (now old herself) of one of the traders who set up the first general store there in the late 1800s. And just outside of Curlew there was a car museum which was fine but it also had a fully restored sawmill from the early 1900’s which was something different – again free admission but call ahead or ask at Stonerose and they can probably provide further info. Also nearby was the Ghost Town of Bodie http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Bodie.html which had about 6 buildings you could wonder around. The locals all recommended going hiking and camping.

this was our second trip to fossil dig, and we did good. The people at the Center are really helpful, friendly. It is in a location that can be really hot during they day so be prepared.

The logo of the stone rose is actually from a cocoa plant which nowadays you can only find in Asia. You are provided a hammer and chisel in a bag and sent 2 blocks further up the hill to the dig site. Other than the areas marked with yellow danger tape and red do not dig areas, you can pick any spot to start digging or picking out rocks to tap/split apart to see what you get. Initially you just make more shale and wonder why you paid money to hammer rocks. But when you finally pick the right kind of striated rock, it's a big wow to open up a cool slice of the past. Mostly plant impressions, but once in a great while you can uncover a bug, or parts, and the museum has first dibs on anything really cool. They can give you a half and will keep your information in case your great find becomes a museum display or even part of an article, etc. The nice part about going uphill first, is that coming back with a bunch of rocks is at least better going downhill back to the museum. We got plenty of sunshine Vitamin D and felt good at the end of the day. One day of archeological digging was plenty.

The guide, was very hospitable and helpful. The fees are low and for a small Museum they have an amazing display.