The Howard Dolph museum is located about three miles east of Biggs Junction, OR on the frontage road that parallels Interstate 84 (called the Biggs Rufus Hwy. It is just before your enter the very little towm or Rufus.

Howard Dolph was, and still is, a legend among rock hounds. His forays looking for rock resulted in a number of new discoveries. Some, like Dolphite Agate, of interest to both rock hounds and flintknappers!

My wife and I were at the 2012 Goldendale Knap-in when we first heard about the Howard Dolph Museum. We missed an organized trip to the museum on Saturday but after hearing about it from some of the flintknappers who did go. decided to visit the museum on Sunday. This required a call to 'Marge', the museums caretaker. Marge readily agreed and so my wife and I, accompanied by good friends Joe Greenwell and Bettye Hensel, set off. We'd been told by some that we could see the whole museun in an hour - boy was that wrong - we stayed three hours and went back the next year!

Eventually I will get some photos but for now I'll just describe some of what we saw:

     Polished Picture Jasper slabs over 18" across

     Purple Crystal Geodes as large as 5 gallon buckets

     Hundreds of polished agate cabs, thunder eggs, small geodes, wide variety of jasters, opals, etc.!

     There are even some outstanding display cases of arrowheads, some authenic artifacts, some incredibly beautiful points from knapper Jim Hoppper, who at one time worked for Howard!

This museum was a real treat - and while admission is free, donations are accepted - and justly deserved!

If you are interested in going you will have to call Marge and coordinate your visit. To contact Marge you'll need to get in touch with me at  

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