McDermitt Basin is just a few miles from the town of McDermitt, a town of 500 which sits on the Oregon Nevada border and a great place to go rockhounding. It's a massive, desolate section of desert with several different digging sites located within it. Each site produces slightly different wood, both in preservation, colors and species. 
 
Petrified wood is hundreds of millions of years old. Each slab is one-of-a-kind with beautiful and unique line detailing. No two are alike. These collector specimens are all slices taken from the center of perfect McDermitt logs. Stand up cut and polished to a mirror finish on site, each piece is cut flat on the back unless otherwise noted. Having a nice stone is half the battle, having it properly prepared by a skilled lapidary with a mirror finish is the other half.
 
The Zimmerman Ranch produces world class hardwood specimens that are preserved perhaps better than any other diverse hardwood location in the Northwest, but few rounds are obtained here.
 
Further up the mountain is another dig site that has produced huge hardwood rounds with beautiful color patterns.
 
Another famous location is the airport dig which produces museum grade cherry logs that are sometimes several feet long.
 
Yet another ridge produces twisted, gnarled juniper limbs and other conifer wood with unusual and appealing external weathering frozen in white ash stained agate. This wood is easily some of the best in the Northwest, although the easy collecting disappeared years ago. What's obtained now is dug by hand and hard earned.
 
I guarantee you'll be proud to show any of these collector grade pieces in your own collection!