Ulrich Studio™

4 generations 50 million years.

Fossilstone™ is a unique freshwater marble quarried from the ancient 50 million year-old tropical Eocene age lakebeds of America’s western Wyoming.

THE STONE.
PREPARATION.
FOSSIL BUTTE HISTORY. 
CONTACT.

stone




Ulrich Studio document

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Wyoming Eocene - present day
Fossilstone™ is a unique freshwater marble, quarried from the ancient 50 million year old tropical Eocene age lakebeds of America’s western Wyoming. Fossilstone™ is completely hand worked as an artistic piece not a mass produced or machine produced stone slab. Even gauging and edging are meticulous hand processes. Our pieces reflect a long, generational tradition of stone working by hand, superb quality, accountability of source, science, and magnificent beauty. We look forward to beginning the creation of your design.

Stone and fossils from Ulrich Quarries are spectacular art pieces. From large stone counters, stone hearths, and magnificent tables to floor and wall coverings, we specialize in one of a kind custom work. Varied shapes, custom cutting and fabrication are our specialty and forte. Each project, no matter its size or scope receives our complete attention and skill.

QUARRY

Fossilstone™ is quarried at the prestigious Ulrich Quarries operating for four generations in Wyoming. The discovery by Wallace Ulrich of new stone layers within the quarries at Fossil, Wyoming in 1969 opened exciting possibilities for applications in floor and wall coverings, showers, bathtubs, fireplaces, table tops, and counters. As well as free standing wall or tabletop art pieces.

STONE PROPERTIES

Certain layers take a remarkable polish and have properties similar to marble. In fact, in the commercial stone market, the term “marble” is used to indicate any lime carbonate rock capable of taking a polish. Though the stone can be used in “marble” applications, we prefer to refer to it as Fossilstone™. 

It is a stone with siliceous components. Dolomite and calcite exist in the composition as well. The fossil specimens entombed in this hard stone are composed of an interesting array of minerals, primarily cryptocrystalline types of brown to green and burgundy apatite, golden yellow calcite and white quartz. When exposed to light, the entire composition has remarkable reflective properties which create the appearance of translucence in portions of a specimen. The stone ranges in hardness from 3.5 to 5 on Moh’s scale. The fossils embedded in the stone are harder with apatite at 5 and quartz at 7.


When polished, the stone yields cross sections of fossils ranging from shell and plant life to subtle and spectacular fishes. The stone invites ones touch and its subtle undulating surface intrigues and entices imagination into realms long past.

Stone and fossils are discovered through work with flat metal hand tools. They are inserted between layers that are less well cemented and delaminate the stone’s page-like layers.

Light from the Sun or an artificial source, cast shadows where the fossilized bones push up the laminated layers of stone. Gas bubbles, fossil excrement (coprolites), and bones, insects, feathers and an array of remnants from 50 million year ago life in a tropical Wyoming are entombed and now discovered at Ulrich Quarries. Hard labor and long hours result in stone material and fossil specimens.

The quarries are situated on a large butte, overlooking the old town of Fossil, Wyoming. The town, a railhead for the Union Pacific Railroad, now abandoned, is the center for the Ulrichs’ preparations and display in southern Wyoming.

Like a book with several million pages, the quarry is a record of the some five million years of an ancient lake. Forty five million years ago the basin that created the lake filled with the sediments from that long existence. The ancient lake ceased to exist. Instead the long process of compaction and cementation of the material began resulting in lithification, the creation of stone, in which are entombed some of the most spectacular fossils of planet Earth.
Today, the layers of stone are hand extracted, telling the ever enlightening story of ancient environments, extinct creatures and plants, as well as organisms that survive to this day largely unchanged.

finishing surfaces

High Polish Finish

 is a hand honed polish with a smooth finish. The freshwater marble surface with fossil fish is world unique. The very slight undulations of the ancient lake bottom are retained and invite touch.

Brushed Finish

 is an antiqued and slightly honed textural finish. The touch of our Brushed Finish is silk-like, but appears natural, as if polished by water or long-lived wind and sand wear. Less shine then a classic polish, more matte and natural. Specimens can be left wire brushed or hand worked smooth, creating magnificent island-like polished fossils within the antique brushed surface. 

COLOR 

The stone is discovered in dark browns to taupe and light brown through greys. The colors are smooth and rich. The stone color is subject to natural markings and color variations.

The fossil specimens in the stone exhibit a deep brown to golden brown crystal  in the bony material with gem like white and golden yellow crystals filling the hollow cavities and cartilage.

4 generations 50 million years                            4 generations 50 million years                        4 generations 50 million years