Left to right: Paleobotanist Howard Schorn, retired Collections Manager Of Fossil Plants at the University California Museum Of Paleontology in Berkeley, and geologist Robinson Cecil examine outcrops of the Middle Eocene Ione Formation, western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, Amador County, California, during a brief stop on our way to observe the type locality of the Lower Miocene Valley Springs Formation in the vicinity of Valley Springs, Calaveras County, California. This was the specific locality I had taken paleobotanist Dr. Bruce Tiffney (professor at the University Of California Santa Barbara, a specialist in fossil seeds and fruits) during a field trip with my late father (an Engineering Geologist), Howard Schorn and paleobotanist Dr. Jack A. Wolfe on August 19, 2000. The locality is sparsely fossiliferous, unfortunately, but does offer an easily accessible and well-exposed section of the Middle Eocene Ione Formation in the Ione Basin. Image taken on June 3, 2003.

Please note: All fossil localities in the Ione Formation of Amador County, California, presently occur on private property; explicit permission from the land owners must be secured before collecting fossils there.