Millard County · House Range
House Range trilobites
Paid quarry and public shale are not the same lease. Common invertebrates are not a backbone.
The Wheeler and related Cambrian shales west of Delta are why people drive out with a chisel. One famous operation is a paid private dig. Around it is a mix of BLM, other private, and whatever the ownership layer says that week. The fee site rules are the fee site’s. They do not unlock the next ridge.
Two legal paths
- Paid dig: You pay, you follow their tools and keep rules, you leave when they close. See paid dig vs public land.
- Open BLM: Casual collection of common invertebrate fossils for personal use, hand tools, inside the usual weight story — only on unclaimed, unrestricted BLM. Confirm the acre.
Status in one line
Do not treat “House Range” as one public park. Park and split rock only where the layer is open BLM (or where you paid). SITLA, private, and claims still exist in fossil country.
Invertebrate vs vertebrate
A common trilobite on open BLM is an invertebrate casual-use problem. A bone, tooth, track, or anything that looks like a backbone is not. Leave it, photograph if the office wants a report, do not bag it. Scientifically sensitive or rare specimens are a field-office question, not a “but I found it” question.
What this site will not publish
No driving directions to a free pit. No “better than U-Dig” wash. No claim that every brown chip in the House Range is free.
Before you go
- Ownership and claim layer on the exact slope.
- Fillmore Field Office if the acre is BLM.
- Water, gloves, eye protection. Shale cuts. Heat still wins.
Informational only. Confirm current fossil rules with BLM before you split a slab on public land.