The Whipsaw Creek Shale showing outcrops intermittently along Highway 3, 0.7 to 2.6 kilometres north of Whipsaw Creek and 8 to 10 kilometres southwest of Princeton.

The showing is hosted in the Eocene Allenby Formation (Princeton Group), within a unit of grey to brown, locally carbonaceous shale, with minor thin sandstone beds, known informally as the Vermillion Bluff shale (Open File 1987-19).

Analyses by x-ray diffraction of fine fractions indicate abundant chlorite, minor illite and quartz and trace feldspar, while a similar analysis of coarse fractions (silt and coarser particles) indicate the presence of chlorite, mica, quartz and feldspar (CANMET Technical Bulletin 54, pages 63, 64). Firing characteristics are as follows (CANMET Technical Bulletin 54, page 59):

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Shrinkage Absorption Colour Hardness Cone

(per cent) (per cent)

0.8 18.4 Light brown Fairly soft 04

1.8 18.4 Light brown Fairly soft 03

4.3 12.2 Brown Fairly hard 01

4.5 7.7 Brown Hard 02

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The firing range for this material is short. The shale may be used in the manufacture of common brick, tile and facebrick.