For the week ending March 15, 1958

GEMS FROM THE HIGHLANDS (editorial)

Overlooking Central Oregon’s “High Desert” from the northeast corner of Lake County are a group of high, rounded domes that long ago were active volcanoes whose cloud plumes billowed into the ancient mid-Oregon sky.

They were volcanoes that produced some of America’s most interesting gem material — volcanic glass of a dozen different varieties, some of which are found in other parts of the world.

These old domes are the Glass Buttes. At an elevation of 6,390 feet, they stand some 2,000 feet above the surrounding plateau.

Mineral collectors throughout the world know more about the volcanic buttes than do most Oregonians. Their volcanic product, rare types of obsidian, has been shaped into miniature Buddhas in the Orient, fashioned into images of animals in southern Europe and cut and polished into striking figurines in Asia.

Central Oregon’s Glass Buttes actually are not a mass of glass. They are ordinary appearing peaks dominating the Central Oregon plateau.

But high in their rugged, secluded valleys and juniper-fringed rims, they hold outcroppings of rare volcanic glass that can be shaped into gems of striking beauty.

One of the rare types is iridescent obsidian, now one of the west’s most prized gem stones. Also found there are silver-sheen obsidian and the new red-band black obsidian. Then there is a rather new type with the strange ‘Marchet bands.’ Incidentally, this type was named by a Californian in honor of two of Oregon’s best-known rock hunters, Marg and Chet Springer, of Bend.

In recent years, professors from Harvard to Stanford have been studying the rare obsidian types found on Glass Buttes. Their findings are a part of the intriguing story of Glass Buttes of the mid-Oregon plateau.

Incidentally, Indians knew of the deposits long before the professors placed Glass Butte obsidian under their microscopes. The Indians of old shaped their spear points and arrowheads from this material.