About

Life Adventure Book... Soon to be released.

"Could the early history of California be written in all its details, it would form a volume of romance, startling as it would be interesting,
and it would again demonstrate the fact that truth is stranger than fiction." - The Placer Argus, Auburn, California, Thursday May 21, 1885.
The Placer Argus was a weekly newspaper published 1872-1898.

This Old Rock project was launched in 1998 to study Earth Science and share the wonderment. A few years later professional Geologists advised we look into Citizen Science programs. Citizen science is a term that describes projects in which volunteers partner with scientists to answer real-world questions. As volunteers we work with scientists to identify research questions, collect and analyze data, interpret results, make new discoveries, develop technologies and applications, as well as solve complex problems.

A group of students young and old searching our tailing piles for keepers.

Founding Principals: John and Catherine French

Below are photos from one of our interactive outreach programs.

A group of students explore and learn at a STEM Educational Science Camp. The big rock has been recognized as a "Friendship Rock" and shared with several thousand eager earth scientists. This intrepid explorer used his camera as a microscope. We also use an inexpensive "Plugable" USB microscope to look at what was created inside this fault-line geological event. The hydro-thermal environment allowed for the deposition (and or alteration) of almost any mineral to be captured in quartz (Silicon Dioxide-SiO₂).