G E O L O G Y F A N O D T N M I E N M E T R R A A L P I E N D D U N S O T G R E I R E S O 1937 Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries Volume 68, Number 1, Fall 2007 IN THIS ISSUE: 3 Early Pliocene (Blancan) Always Welcome Inn local fauna, Baker City, Oregon 24 Jurassic crocodile discovered in Crook County, Oregon 27 Watershed assessment, river restoration, and the geoscience profession in Oregon 34 Preliminary assessment of the extent of the leaf fossil beds at Wheeler High School, Fossil, Oregon 46 MLRR Program 2006 Mined Land Reclamation Awards Also: 42 Agency news 48 Recent DOGAMI publications 33 Oregon seismicity in 2006 TO OUR READERS From the State Geologist: Oregon's spectacular geology sometimes overshadows the paleontological wonders that can also be found in our state. This issue highlights some recent finds and reminds us that biol- ogy and geology are inseparable. — Vicki S. McConnell OREGON GEOLOGY (ISSN 0164-3304) VOLUME 68, NUMBER 1 FALL 2007 Published in Spring and Fall by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries on its web site http://www.oregongeology.org. (Volumes 1 through 40 were entitled The Ore Bin.) Governing Board Don Haagensen, Chair. Lake Oswego Steve Macnab. Bend Barbara Seymour . Oceanside Vera Simonton. .Pendleton R. Charles Vars. .Corvallis State Geologist. Vicki S. McConnell Assistant Director. .Don Lewis Editor. Deb Schueller Main Office: 800 NE Oregon Street #28, Suite 965, Portland 97232, phone (971) 673-1555, FAX (971) 673-1562. Cover photo Internet: http://www.oregongeology.org Baker City Field Office: 1510 Campbell Street, Baker City 97814, phone Ammonite (species unknown) found by DOGAMI ge- (541) 523-3133, FAX (541) 523-5992. ologist Jason McClaughry about 10 miles WNW of Izee Mark L. Ferns, Geologist, Eastern Oregon Section Leader. and the south fork of the John Day River along the Coastal Field Office: 313 SW Second Street, Suite D, Newport 97365, Izee Highway (CR-63) on July 1, 2005. This locality is phone (541) 574-6642, FAX (541) 265-5241. one of the few easily accessible areas in Oregon where Jonathan C. Allan, Geologist, Coastal Section Leader. ammonites have been collected. The ammonite speci- Grants Pass Field Office: 5375 Monument Drive, Grants Pass 97526, men is about 10 cm across. phone (541) 476-2496, FAX (541) 474-3158. Thomas J. Wiley, Geologist, Southwest Oregon Section Leader. The specimen is from the Middle Jurassic (Bajo- cian) Snowshoe Formation (Basey member, unit Jsby of Dickinson and Vigrass, 1965). This series of rocks is Mineral Land Regulation and Reclamation Program: 229 Broadalbin strongly folded and faulted (see above photo) and is Street SW, Albany 97321-2246, phone (541) 967-2039, FAX (541) 967- 2075. composed mostly of marine volcaniclastic strata. The Gary W. Lynch, Assistant Director of Regulation. geology of the Suplee-Izee area is covered by Dickin- The Nature of the Northwest Information Center: Suite 177, 800 NE son and Vargas in DOGAMI Bulletin 58, 1965. Oregon St. # 5, Portland, OR 97232-2162, phone (503) 872-2750, FAX (971) 673-1562. Internet: http://www.naturenw.org Donald J. Haines, Manager. Reference: Dickinson, W. R., and Vigrass, L. W., 1965, Geology of the Suplee-Izee area, Crook, Grant, and Permission is granted to reprint information contained herein. Credit given to the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral In- Harney counties, Oregon: Oregon Department of Ge- dustries for compiling this information will be appreciated. ology and Mineral Industries Bulletin 58, 109 p. Photo credits: Jason McClaughry, DOGAMI 2 OREGON GEOLOGY, VOLUME 68, NUMBER 1, FALL 2007 Early Pliocene (Blancan) Always Welcome Inn local fauna, Baker City, Oregon by Jay Van Tassell1, Eric Bergey1, Calvin Davis1, Misty Davis1, Bryan Grimshaw1, Jayson Kisselburg1, Robert Ledgerwood1, Story Miller1, Carli Morris1, Jesse Steele1, Corby Wehymiller1, Mark L. Ferns2, Gerald R. Smith3, H. Gregory McDonald4, Jim I. Mead5, and Robert A. Martin6 ABSTRACT in the Columbia River Basin and ap- Miocene mastodon Gomphotherium pears to be an ancestor of Cosomys (Downs, 1952), 2) over 100 kg of bone Early Pliocene lake and stream sedi- primus, the most common microtine fragments identified as bones of the ments behind the Always Welcome rodent found in the ~3.7–3.1 Ma rhinoceros Aphelops, a mastodont, Inn in Baker City, Oregon, contain localities in the area of Hagerman, and the camel Megatylopus by J. A. fossil diatoms, sponges (Ephydatia Idaho. A metapodial of a camelid, Shotwell (1969, written communi- fluviatilis), gastropods (Gyraulus, possibly a llama, was found in the late cation cited by Brooks and others, lymnaeids), bivalves (Sphaerium and Pliocene to early Pleistocene gravels 1976), 3) plant fossils known as the Pisidium), ostracods (Cypricercus), ch- overlying the tilted sequence that Keating and Sparta floras (Gilluly, arophytes, root casts, leaf fragments, contains the other fossils. 1937; Chaney, 1959; Hoxie,1965), and salamanders (Ambystoma, most of 4) the Keating diatomite deposits which were neotenic), frogs, snakes INTRODUCTION (Moore, 1937; VanLandingham, 1985). (Nerodius or Thamnophis?), turtles This paper describes a new fossil lo- (Trachemys or Clemmys?), sunfish (a Late Miocene and Pliocene sedi- cality discovered in May 2002 behind new species of Archoplites), minnows ments of the Powder Valley in eastern the Always Welcome Inn in Baker (a new genus, plus Achrocheilus), Oregon have produced a number City, Oregon, by Terry Frest, a mala- ducks (Anatidae), rails (Rallidae), and of important fossils, including 1) cologist from Seattle, who collected a raptor (owl?), shrews (Paracryptotis the lower jaw and other parts of the fossil sunfish and minnow bones, rex), a gopher (geomyid), voles (Oph- iomys), beaver (Castor californicus and Dipoides sp. cf. vallicula and wilsoni;), rabbits (Hypolagus?), a mustelid (Trig- onictis), and a small carnivore. A lower left jaw of the beaver Castor californi- cus was found near the base of the se- quence. The morphology and the lack of diversity of the fish fossils indicate long-term isolation and argue against any long-term aquatic connection with the Pliocene Snake and Colum- bia rivers. The archaic vole found at the Always Welcome Inn site may be the oldest species of Ophiomys found 1 Science Department, Badgley Hall, Eastern Oregon University, One University Boulevard, La Grande, OR 97850, email: [email protected] 2 Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, 1510 Campbell Street, Baker City, OR 97814 3 Museum of Zoology, The University of Michi- gan, 1109 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079 4 Park Museum Management Program, National Park Service, 1201, Oakridge Drive, Suite 150, Fort Collins, CO 80525 Figure 1. Location of the Always Welcome Inn fossil site and other fossil localities men- 5 Laboratory of Quaternary Paleontology, Build- tioned in the text. Blancan localities (green and red): A, Alturas, California; AWI, Always ing 12, Room 10, Northern Arizona University, Welcome Inn, Oregon (this study); H, Hagerman, Idaho (plus Grandview and other near- Flagstaff, AZ 86011 by localities); KH, Kettleman Hills, California; P, Panaca, Nevada; V, Verde, Arizona; and 6 Department of Biological Sciences, Murray W, B, T., White Bluffs, Bluff Top, and Taunton, Washington. Hemphillian localities (blue): State University, Murray, KY 42071 J, Juntura; K, Keating; L, Little Valley; M, McKay Reservoir; and R, Rome, all in Oregon. OREGON GEOLOGY, VOLUME 68, NUMBER 1, FALL 2007 3 (AWI fauna, continued from page 3) gastropods (Gyraulus and lymnaeids), ers (1976) included the sedimentary by Brooks and others (1976) occur bivalves (Sphaerium and Pisidium), sequence in the Always Welcome Inn as 1) thin interbeds throughout the ostracods, charophytes, and diatoms area as part of their tuffaceous sedi- volcanic sequence, 2) a unit between from the outcrop. The site is located mentary rock unit (Tst). According to the Grande Ronde Basalt unit of the at 44°47.106’N latitude, 117°48.300’W their report (p. 19), this unit includes Columbia River Basalts and the overly- longitude at an elevation of ~1,050 a lower lacustrine facies, an upper ing olivine basalt that marks the lower m (3,440 ft) on the southeast end of fluvial facies, and overlying imbri- boundary of the Powder River Volca- the Powder Valley in the northwest cated gravels. The “lake beds” consist nics, and 3) a unit above the Powder corner of section 15, T. 9 S., R. 40 E. of mainly of 1) thinly bedded, light-gray River volcanic sequence. The Always the Baker City 1:24,000 quadrangle to yellowish tuffaceous clay, siltstone, Welcome Inn fossil site is located in (Figure 1). and sandstone, 2) diatomite, and 3) the younger Tst unit above the Pow- During the past five years, faculty glass-shard tuff. Isolated outcrops of der River volcanic sequence (Figure 2). and students of Eastern Oregon Uni- the unit preserved in fault blocks well versity, the University of Michigan, above the present valleys suggest METHODS Northern Arizona University, and the that the lacustrine sediments were University of Montana and geologists deposited in basins that were larger The Always Welcome Inn section was from the Oregon Department of Geol- than the present valleys in which measured in October 2004 using the ogy and Mineral Industries and the these sediments are mainly confined. Jacob staff technique, and samples National Park Service have searched This unit was dated as early Pliocene were collected from each of the major the Always Welcome Inn outcrop for on the basis of the presence of widely sedimentary units. The samples were fossils. These studies have opened scattered mammal fossils near the top examined in the laboratory using a an important new window on the of the sequence. binocular microscope. Smear slides Pliocene geologic history of the Baker Bailey (1990) used geochemical were made by mixing small fractions City area.