So far in this series, pretty much every material we’ve covered has had to undergo a significant industrial process to transform it from its natural state to a more useful product. Whether it’s the ...

JESSIEVILLE -- Ron Coleman Mining, located at 211 Crystal Ridge Lane, will host its 12th annual Family Fun Day on Saturday.

Moonstones in Montana, amethyst and emeralds in North Carolina, garnet and quartz in upstate New York. At pay-to-dig mines around the United States, visitors can paw through piles of mine tailings to ...

When I set out to write a story about visiting Crystal Peak, a former mine site now managed by the U.S. Forest Service just east of Truckee, California, I worried it would be a bust. Either the ...

*Refers to the latest 2 years of stltoday.com stories. Cancel anytime. Happiness can, of course, come in many forms. For a rockhound — and I know this well, being one — it’s all but guaranteed by time ...

When I thought of quartz crystal in Arkansas — if I thought of quartz crystal in Arkansas — I thought of the rock shops that used to line the highway into Hot Springs, the ones with the big blue glass ...

As I turned yet another shovelful of dirt, I thought about a comment made long ago by the millionaire, Andrew Carnegie: “Men are developed the same way gold is mined. When gold is mined, several tons ...

In and around Mount Ida, the identity of the official Arkansas State Mineral can be guessed just by looking around. In fact (pun alert!), the laureate is crystal-clear from billboards and other signs.

Some modern-day prospectors make thousands of dollars selling precious stones they dug up themselves. By Alexandra Marvar Moonstones in Montana, amethyst and emeralds in North Carolina, garnet and ...

Even before the pandemic sent people searching for road trip destinations and outdoor adventure, interest in prospecting and rockhounding (or “fossicking,” as it is called in Britain and Australia) ...