In Stone Fossils — Local services in Kemmerer

Dean & Aiden were heroes!

This is the premiere fossil hunting company in the Green River area. Most of the other companies allow for daytime general splits for the masses that are already cut from the layers and are small …and that is great if you have young kids or elderly adults who want to get a taste of fossil hunting without a lot of effort and cost, and don’t mind finding average slit-in half fossils from the top layers of the Green River Formation to take home.

However, if you are looking to bring home museum-quality specimens on bigger stone plates (that may need some preparing to fully expose the fish), then look into taking an excursion with In Stone Fossils to dig the 18” layer.

We did a basic private nighttime tour that simply provided drinks and all the fossil hunting supplies. Dean and Aiden took us out personally, let us start with normal splitting of the upper layer fossils (like the other two bigger fossil hunting companies do) to get used to the process. We watched a magical sunset as we worked smaller rocks and found some beautiful little fishes that didn’t need any preparing. After dark, we moved down to the 18” layer and Dean had set up lighting and drinks for us…we spent hours (seemed like minutes it was so fun) splitting, uncovering, and lifting giant panels from the famous 18” layer to reveal dozens of huge fish… guided with the expert eye of Dean and Aiden. Sometimes, they were able to pick out treasures hidden below sediment that our untrained eyes might have missed, but the lights exposed raised reliefs in the stone to reveal backbones, fossilized poop, and even seed pods. They cut out and saved anything we wanted from tiny plants to huge fish. They brought saws onsite to help immediately cut down items as needed, but then further prepped some of our keepsakes the next morning for us to travel home with. I wanted a large, wall hanging plate for my home with fossils, and I know that if I had just gone with the average fossil Safari group in the area, I would have gone home disappointed because they don’t let you dig directly from the 18” layer out of the ground where the real treasures and multiple groupings of fossils are.

In Stone Fossils offer higher-end experiences, with a higher-end result. They are more expensive than the cheap hourly day experience by the other local companies, but you truly get what you pay for here. This was a totally high-end experience.

If desired, In Fossil also has a full-service fossil prep department that will carefully excavate each and every museum specimen you find, can add a support backing, French cleat for hanging, etc….for an extra cost. I ending up taking home some fish from the upper layers that didn’t need any cleaning (split in half and exposed much of the fish on both sides of the stone), some from the 18” layer that will require careful picking off of the substrate covering the fish (but will reveal the whole fish underneath in more detail) that I am going to try to do myself with personal tools at home, and left my most impressive finds with In Stone to have their professionals prep my fish out for display in the future. They can ship it to me when finished exposing the fossils (can take 6months to a year depending on how extensive and deep the fish are), but I hope to drive back to get them myself since I want to fossil hunt with them again! It was truly treasure hunting!

Dean and Aiden were fun, professional, passionate, experienced, knowledgeable and great teachers. We learned so much from them! This is a hands-on activity that requires a willingness to lift large heavy plates of stone, pound on stakes with hammers, split rocks, and get dusty and dirty… this isn’t a cushy “I don’t want to help or get dirty” type of experience. If you aren’t willing to dig in and be physical, then don’t waste your money… but if you want to hunt for real treasures with experienced guides and go home with thousands of dollars worth of museum-quality fossils… then I highly recommend In Stone Fossils. It’s better than...

We thought we would visit all of the fossil shops in Kemmerer and this was our last stop. It was a great note to end on. The owners were at the store and took time to describe how they created the art that could be found in the shop. Even though we didn't find anything that we were ready to purchase at the time, the conversation led to discussions about the fossils we had found earlier in the day. Because of this discussion about how the owners go about preparing their pieces, we felt comfortable leaving a fossil we found at a nearby quarry in their hands for preparation. They have a number of impressive pieces in the gallery. My favorite was a (roughly) 6 foot by 8 foot fern (palm?) on display that was magnificent! Apparently one owner did much of the work while sequestered by the coronavirus. Speaking of the virus, they politely ask to check temperatures on arrival at the store and I appreciate that!

Not only do they sell pieces they have prepared from their own private quarry, they also provide services to prepare fossils that are brought in. Lastly, tours to their own quarry at night are available for people who are interested in having a somewhat richer experience in fossil hunting. because they have 18 inch strata in their quarry, it appears that this is a great way to find amazing fossils. When the Mrs. and I have this experience, I will update the post.

Perhaps most importantly, the passion that was exhibited in the store by the owners about what they do is unmatched. We had a great time visiting In Stone Fossils in Kemmerer Wyoming! This was the unexpected surprise of our trip.

It's now 2 years after our first trip into In Stone Fossils. We have found a hobby that has changed our life and they were a big part of that. In the ensuing period of time, we have scheduled one of the night digs and had an absolute blast. We have hunted for agate and petrified wood everywhere from St George Utah to the Yellowstone River. Anybody interested in starting to see the amazing and innate beauty of the earth could not find a better...

Using my art account to post another review of this lovely company! Again I've never been to the physical location but this is my fifth order if I remember correctly. 😁 And once again I am always pleasantly surprised by the quality of the pieces I receive from their mystery boxes! They must of had a ton of orders this Cyber Monday/Black Friday since the package was delayed. Which auctually made me really happy! I love seeing this business garner so much attention!

The products were packaged a little different than usual. With them put together in a single bag together rather than individually wrapped like I've seen from the past. I think this too may of been due to the rush of orders I suspect they got 😁. Sadly this lead to a minor casualty since the large mosasaur tooth seems to have broken in transit D: and some minor erosion/abrasions to the other specimens. Overall though they seem to be in fantastic condition for the price given!

I'm always thrilled and blown away by out of all my mystery box orders I have yet to get any true repeats. Even if specimens are from the same species they are always drastically different be it from some being preserved in matrix, location they were sources, or their size! My favorite finds thus far are the crocodile tooth and some Eden Valley petrified wood from previous orders! With this large mosasaur tooth coming in close second!

UPDATE:

They reached out to me and went above and beyond trying to make things right! I've never been happier!