Great forum! I am a jeweler, gemcutter, and rockhound from central Idaho. I enjoy going out and mining Idaho Star Garnets, Idaho Aquamarines, various local jaspers, and Idaho Opals. Of course, after the fun of finding the gems, comes the really fun part, cutting and polishing, and then designing and building the settings. I am impressed with the amount and quality of the information available on this forum.
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:20 am Posts: 2756 Location: Southern California, U.S.A.
Welcome Kwillis, from an Idaho native. I've visited Mountain Home many times and have collected/cut all the stones you mention. I've spent many days collecting in the Owyhees within sight of 3 Fingers Butte and I miss all that "fresh air and naked geology."
Are there new aqua pegmatites outside the official Primitive Area? When I lived in Boise, working in advertising/PR for J.R. Simplot the late "Potato King," the productive aqua sites were declared off-limits.
Thanks for the warm welcome! The garnets are still being dug at Emerald Creek out side of Clarkia,ID at the forest service pay site, I have just under 1,000 cut and polished, with some very nice stars. My sizes run from 3mm to a very nice 18X22mm that weighs in at 43.55 cts. I still have about 30 lbs of rough to do, but I really don't see too much need to rush and get it all cut for a while. As far as the aquas go, I found a very nice one that came out as an 11X15mm 10.36ct medium blue that came out of the James Creek area between Rocky Bar and Atlanta! I have also heard about some coming out of the Silver City area. Yes, I will be going out again in the spring to see if I can find more.
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