The search for augite crystals at Cedar Butte, an augite crystal locality inside the Tillamook State Forest in Oregon. This was my first solo true mineral hunt or “crystal hounding” trip.
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Transcript
What if there was a dark crystal called augite very close to your house? You’d go find it, right? Let’s go. Cedar Butte is located in the Tillamook State Forest off of Highway 6 in Northwest Oregon. I did see one logging truck, other people that were recreating in the area, off-road vehicles, elk, so definitely use caution on these roads.
The time of this filming is May of 2026, and it is absolutely beautiful. At this time, the Cedar Butte trailhead sign has seen better days, but luckily, there are plenty of other signs available. The road glitters with broken augite crystals to let you know that you are on the right track. This area is a single canopy forest. All of the trees are the same age because Cedar Butte had a fire in 1945.
In the book Rockhounding Oregon, Lars Johnson says if you’d like more information about this location to read The Ore Bin, a publication from 1969. The publication contains an article written by Dennis O. Nelson and Gerald B. Shearer when they were undergrad students at Portland State University. Both men went on to have long careers in geology, and as of this recording, they’re both still alive.
I’d like to say a quick thank you, both of you, for your work in documenting the geology of this area. This was my first visit to Cedar Butte. And it’s also the first time I’ve ever gone rockhounding in search of a mineral, the crystal augite. You might think as a logical first move, I would watch videos from my friends and mentors, Jared at Currently Rockhounding, Kyle at World of Rockhounds, Patrick at Donohue Labs. But no, I just got in my car and drove straight out there.
Which is typical for me. And it’s fine. I just have a few things that I wish I had known before I did get here. Number one, bring bug spray. There are mosquitoes.
Number two, it’s probably not worth it going to the top of this hill. There aren’t bigger crystals up there. Or at least I can tell you that the biggest crystals I found were maybe 10 ft up this slope. They had already eroded themselves out of the tuff. And you know, it’s dangerous up there.
We all say it, we all know it. The first trip to a locality is usually just a learning experience. Consequent trips are usually more productive. It’s very tempting to climb to the top. I don’t know if I could resist it when I return.
But I’ll tell you this, the people below you are in danger because of falling rocks. Everything is falling constantly. It’s extremely loose, very crumbly tuff material. There’s nothing to hold on to and it’s hard to stop yourself when you start sliding. that.
Honey. I found a big one. You get some Oh, I’m reporting you already. Yeah. What did you find?
Augite. Oh my god. Into the pocket. Right into the pocket. That’s a steep hill.
This way you get like it’s steep. I’m almost And if you fall fall fall on your face towards the hill, okay? Okay. That was me talking to my husband, Tom. I was telling him if he falls to fall onto his face towards the slope.
It’s way steeper than it looks. When I got to the top, I thought it smelled like urine. I’m not sure if there’s somebody that visits here that thinks that peeing on the rocks will help them erode out better or quicker. Maybe that’s true. Um but yeah, it smelled like pee and I didn’t find any big crystals once I got up here.
I know that there’s probably some large crystals here, but even the largest crystals here are smaller than about an inch. They’re They’re all very short, squatty crystals. I recommend you grab a couple chunks of matrix with augite crystals in it so that you can take it home and remove the crystals yourself. It’s a super satisfying and way easier at home with good lights. Here’s a clip of me removing an augite from the matrix at home on my kitchen counter.
Your best bet to find any unfractured crystals is to carefully remove them from the matrix yourself or find the whole ones that have already eroded out of the matrix there at the site. Before I had heard it pronounced, I assumed that augite was pronounced aw-gite. But no, it’s aw-gite. And in this location, you’ll see a lot of olivine crystals accompanying it. It’s so incredibly beautiful out here.
So for me, even if I drove out here and didn’t find a damn thing, it would still be worth it. I hope you enjoy this footage of the scenery and wildlife that we saw on our way out of Cedar Butte. Thank you for watching. See you soon.
