Fossil, Oregon
With a population of about 450, Fossil is not exactly a premier site on most people's to-do list. But it should be. It was one of my most favorite stops in all of Oregon, and I found it much more enjoyable than other tourist attractions like Cannon Beach or Bend.
This is pretty much downtown Fossil. In the next block (to the right) is RJs, and across the corner is the Country Cafe, both delicious small-town eating at its belt-loosening best. The blue building in the center is the Fossil Mercantile General Store--a wonderful store, not just for water and groceries, but with fine t-shirts and even some extremely well-priced quilts for sale.
Below is the offices of the county seat in Fossil, and the picture on the right is the cabin where we stayed, the Fossil Motel and RV Park. Wonderful beds, great views, cheap rates--what else could you ask for? But there was also a very nice, friendly proprietor, Ann, who was a fountain of information about the area, and at midnight one could see the stars.... I wondered at the lack of air conditioning, since it was very hot when we arrived in Fossil, but I understood when we had to get up in the middle of the night to get extra blankets for the beds. It gets cold at night. And then, the sunrise, sitting in the chairs out front, watching the deer and the antelope (really) grazing on the adjacent hillside, peacocks roaming and crying, roosters crowing, horses stretching in the cool dawn air.
After a (too) hefty breakfast at the Country Cafe, we had to do what we came to do: fossil hunting in Fossil! Just behind Wheeler High School is a large hillside. It was originally intended to be removed and used for football, but the townfolk found it was a rich fossil bed. So they left the hillside, and instead set up a little hut where you can pick up hammers and buckets, and dig out fossils to your heart's content (if you can stand the heat). They suggest a donation of $5, and the fossils are yours to keep (unless you find something special, which they then request you to turn in--all on the honor system, of course). We brought back two small boxes of fossils, mainly leaves from the Oligocene period.
Here are some samples of the fossilized leaves we found.
There were "fossils" of another type as well, always very visible in small town America. Of course, we have them in big cities as well--they just don't stand out as much! Take your conspiracy theory pick: chem bombs, TMCs, Impeach Obama, or Bless God and Stop Abortions.
