Fairfield

Fairfield is a small town in Utah County best known today for Camp Floyd State Park, but among mineral collectors it's the gateway to one of the most famous localities in American mineralogy: the Clay Canyon variscite deposit, 5.5 miles northwest of town in the Oquirrh Mountains. Variscite from here — historically marketed as "Utahlite" — has been prized by collectors for well over a century, and the Little Green Monster claim in Clay Canyon produced nodules once used as gem material and, historically, phosphate ore. The batch coordinate for this listing sits essentially at Fairfield itself rather than out at the mine, so this dossier covers both: the town as a jumping-off point, and the honest access reality at Clay Canyon, which is a private claim, not open ground. The other listed specimens — chalcedony, chert, limonite, pyrite, quartz, fossils — line up with the broader Camp Floyd/Mercur mining district around Fairfield, an area with its own long gold-mining history, rather than with Clay Canyon specifically.

Fairfield sits on State Highway 73, reached by heading west from Lehi through Cedar Fort. Clay Canyon, where the named variscite locality sits, is about 2 miles south of the historic Mercur townsite and 5.5 miles northwest of Fairfield at roughly 5,800 feet elevation — the turnoff is a dirt road about 1.5 miles past Fairfield on Highway 73, running northwest into the mountains for about 3 more miles.

Clay Canyon variscite historically came from claim-based hardrock and pit work, not casual surface collecting — not something to attempt without permission. For the broader Camp Floyd/Mercur district, general Utah BLM/state rules for surface and float collecting would apply on any public land encountered, but confirm land ownership parcel-by-parcel; this is historic mining country with a mix of patented private claims and public ground.

The Clay Canyon/Little Green Monster variscite claim is private and closed to unauthorized public access; organized collector trips have occurred historically only with the claim owner's specific permission. Do not treat this as an open collecting site. For the broader area around Fairfield, land status is mixed (state park land at Camp Floyd, historic patented mining claims, and BLM/SITLA parcels) — UNVERIFIED at the specific batch coordinate, which sits at/near the town rather than a named public collecting site. If pursuing rock/mineral collecting on Utah public land near Fairfield, standard state rules apply: BLM allows 25 lb/day plus one piece up to 250 lb/year without a permit; SITLA (state trust) land requires a paid rockhounding permit; private land always requires the owner's written permission.