Maryland " Patuxent River Agate" !

Effective October 1, 2004, the State Legislature named the Patuxent River Stone the State Gem of Maryland . The Patuxent River Stone is actually an Agate, a cryptocrystalline form of quartz. This particular variety found only in Maryland, the Patuxent River Stone's colors of red and yellow reflect in the Maryland State Flag.

.

The Patuxent River Stone is a recently newly-discovered gemstone that has extraordinary color and has high potential as a gemstone. It also reflects the geology of Maryland and is found only in Maryland. Wisps of red and yellow, traces of bone like cell structure, and a glowing translucence make the Patuxent River Agate an excellent stone for cutting, polishing, carving, and setting into jewelry.

.

The gem is occasionally found in the late Cretaceous gravel of the Arundel formation, which has been mined for decades for construction material. It is silica replaced fragments of petrified bone material, mostly dinosaur bone, and is evidence of Maryland's roughly 115 million year old bay type environment. Perhaps 10,000 generations of dinosaurs are represented in the exposed Arundel formation which outcrops though the middle of the state. The petrification process amounted to infilling of bone marrow by silica and minute amounts of clay. Perhaps, there may have been some later changes in the crystal structure due to depth of burial. Recently found specimens prove that there is a link to dinosaur bones. Many of the internal bone patterns can be readily seen in the cut stones and slabs. The history of this stone itself is an asset as a gemstone. The gems can be found best in a narrow band running from Washington D.C. northeast through Baltimore and, thanks to movement by the glaciers, the gems also exist in younger sediments througout the Eastern shore area. The nature of the formation of these stones may also be connected with the Geothermal hot spots that still exist on the Eastern shore. .

.

North Dakota "Teredo Petrified Wood" ?

North Dakota falls in line with Pennsylvania in that it really does not have a State gem, stone, rock or mineral, but it also names a fossil as the State Symbol. Although many charts refer to the Teredo Wood as the state stone, in 1967, the South Dakota Legislature was the first State in the Union to name a Fossil for its Official State Symbol.

.

Teredo Petrified Wood bears the boreholes of shipworms, genus Teredo, hence its name. Shipworms are actually a type of mollusc (not worms at all) that were the bane of mariners past and still wreak havoc today on wooden boats and dock posts. During the Paleocene Epoch, about 60 million years ago, North Dakota was partially covered by the last seaway to invade North America, the Cannonball Sea. The swamps and lowlands bordering this sea were home to 50 foot long crocodiles and giant predatory birds. The marine fauna includes bony fish and sharks, crabs, lobsters, snails, and clams. Trees that washed into the sea were frequently attacked by shipworms before they were fossilized, leaving them riddled with holes. This wood belongs to a variety of species, including bald cypress, ginkgo, redwood, and magnolia trees.

.

Because of the uniqueness of this Petrified Wood, it is collected and worked on by lapidarists and collectors alike in making jewelry, bookends and paperweights. The best collecting sites are in the south-central portion of the state in the Bismarck-Mandan area.

.
.

Pennsylvania "Trilobite" ?

Pennsylvania actually should be added to the list of states - Kansas, New Jersey and Virginia - which have not designated an official State gem, rock, stone or mineral. However some charts show Trilobite and leave it at that. However, the fossil from the Phacops rana Trilobite was named by the State Legislature as the State Fossil in 1988.

.

Phacops rana (Trilobite) is a fossil organism known as a Trilobite (pronounced “tri-lobe-ite”). Trilobites are an extinct category of jointed-legged animals related to crabs, lobsters, shrimp, spiders, insects, and so on. This group of creatures, called arthropods, are among the most complex of all the animals without backbones and trilobites are no exception. They had well-developed nervous systems and large antennae. Trilobites had many appendages for swimming, walking, or feeding. Although these appendages are relatively rare in most groups of trilobite fossils. Phacops is one of four genera for which they are fairly well known and studied. Trilobites also had a hard outer skeleton composed of chitin, a complex organic protein, and the mineral apatite.

.

Trilobites are a common fossil in many of the early to middle Paleozoic rocks of central Pennsylvania, i.e., rocks that are between 570 and 365 million years old. Complete fossil specimens are rare because the animals were composed of rigid outer skeletal segments joined by flexible organic connections that decayed on the death of the animal. An interest in trilobites is not restricted to scientists and geological dilettantes. They are prized by lapidarist and jewelry and curio collectors. This interest is a long-standing one. Trilobites were found on necklaces belonging to the prehistoric inhabitants of 15,000 year old rock shelters of Europe. The Ute Indians of the western United States fashioned trilobites into amulets. The Ute name for these fossils was, “timpe khanitza pachavee” which means “little water but like stone house in.”

.

The best place to hunt for Trilobite is at Swatara State Park. Fossil beds are exposed along the Old State Road and provides a variety of Devonian age (375 million years ago) marine fossils. Swatara State Park is in Lebanon and Schuylkill counties, 14 miles north of Lebanon and three miles west of Pine Grove. The park is easily reached from I-81.

.
Picture of Pennsylvania Trilobite from fossilman
.
.

Massachusetts "Rhodonite" !

Rhodonite was recognized by Massachusetts State Legislature in 1979 as the state gem or state gem symbol. Rhodonite varies in hue from a light pink to a deep rose or reddish pink, and is considered the most beautiful gem type of material found in Massachusetts ..
.
The best known Rhodonite in the world come from the Sverdlovsk district in the Ural Mountains of Russia, however massive deposities of Rhodonite has been found at Plainfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. Gemrock Rhodonite was recorded from these Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts as early as 1825. In describing Rhodonite from one mine in Cummington, Kunz wrote: "Blocks were taken out weighing some hundreds of pounds each, having a rich pink and red color ... were equal in quality and beauty to the Russian Rhodonite, which is made into vases and also table-tops and mantels."

.

There was a time in the 1950's when pink and black were so-to-speak fad colors, especially for men -- e.g., they/we wore pink shirts, black ties, etc. At that time, Rhodonite, with its pink and black colors, was popular for such things as tiepins and large cuff-links.
.

Rhodonite is a manganese inosilicate and a member of the pyroxene group of minerals, crystallizing in the triclinic system. It commonly occurs as cleavable to compact masses with a rose-red color, often tending to brown because of surface oxidation. Rhodonite crystals often have a thick tabular habit, but are rare. It has a perfect, prismatic cleavage, almost at right angles. .

.

Large pieces of Rhodonite have been carved into vases, plates and objects standing some 20 feet tall or 20-25 feet in diameter. Many can be seen at The Herimatage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia. One such bowl was an amazing site to view, carved out of a single block of Rhodonite.

.

Mississippi "Petrified Wood" !

After considerable discussion about minerals, rocks and gems, the Mississippi State Legislature recognized Petrified Wood as the state stone on May 14, 1976.

.

Petrified Wood in Mississippi comes in several varieties: a nondescript type called "silicified wood," a denser type called "massive silicified wood," and a third type known as "petrified palm wood." Because it is difficult to know exactly which trees these woods came from, they are assigned to paleobotanical form genera with the suffix -oxylon (meaning "looks like") -- hence wood which resembles that of modern palms is called Palmoxylon, but may or may not be from trees closely related to modern palms. Most of the best petrified wood from Mississippi comes from trees which grew in the state during the Oligocene Epoch, around 30 million years ago. The Gulf of Mexico's shoreline extended further north at that time, which explains why the wood is found in the more northern parts of the state. The only one of its kind in the eastern half of the United States, the Mississippi Petrified Forest is a privately-owned Registered National Landmark featuring 35-million-year-old fossilized logs. Once part of a massive primeval forest, the trees were uprooted by a large flood that eventually turned the wood into stone at the bottom of the river. Most of the logs are now between five and 10 feet long, but they were over 100 feet high and perhaps 1000 years old.

.

.

Missouri "Mozarkite" !

Mozarkite was adopted by the Missouri State Legislature as the official state rock on July 21, 1967. At the same time Galena was named the State's official mineral, the same material that Wisconsin selected. An attractive rock, Mozarkite appears in a variety of colors, most predominantly green, red or purple. The rock's beauty is enhanced by cutting and polishing into ornamental shapes for jewelry.

.

Mozarkite is most commonly found in Benton County. Mozarkite is a form of Chert. The name is a contraction of Mo (Missouri), zark (Ozarks), and ite (meaning rock). Mozarkite consists essentially of silica with varying amounts of Chalcedony. It has won distinction as a particular form or variety of Chert because of its unique variation of colors and its ability to take a high polish. It has the hardness of 7-7.5 on the Mohs scale, which qualifies it as a suitable material for a semi-precious gemstone, Typically, the colors are different hues of red, pink, and purple with varying tints of green, gray and brown. It is collected and admired by lapidarists across the country.

.
Interest in collecting Mozarkite in Missouri started in the early 1950s, in Benton County. It is found primarily in west-central Missouri, south of the Missouri River, and west of the Lake of the Ozarks. Mozarkite occurs in the Cotter Dolomite of Ordovivian age, which means it is some 450 million years old. It is found in residual boulders in the soil on hill slopes, along ditches, and in roadcuts where the boulders are exposed in the soil formed by weathering of the Cotter Dolomite.

.

.

Vermont "Grossular Garnet" !

Vermont's Legislature designated the grossular Garnet as it's official state gem in 1991.

.

Grossular or grossularite is a calcium-aluminium species of the Garnet group though the calcium may in part be replaced by ferrous iron and the aluminium by ferric iron. The name grossular is derived from the botanical name for the gooseberry, grossularia, in reference to the light green Garnet of this composition. Other shades include cinnamon brown (cinnamon stone variety), red, and yellow. The more common variety of grossular Garnets are called hessonite from the Greek meaning inferior, because of its inferior hardness to Zircon, which the yellow crystals resemble. Grossular Garnets, like other Garnets, form rounded crystals with 12 rhombic or 24 trapezoidal faces or combinations of these and some other forms. This crystal habit is classic for the Garnet. As stated, Grossular is the calcium aluminum Garnet and forms in contact or regional metamorphic enviroments as does andradite Garnet, the calcium iron Garnet. It is believed that these Garnets form from the metamorphism of impure siliceous limestones. Grossular has many color possibilities and is probably the most colorful of the Garnets. The orange variety is the most common and specimens of orange grossular crusts are prized by many collectors. The dark green variety is called tsavorite and is cut as a gem. Hessonite is a red to yellow variety of grossular and is also used as a gem.

.

Windom and Lamoille counties are the primary locations for Garnets in Vermont, but collectors are reminded to obtain written permission to search for them on priviate property or old mine sites. Beautiful brownish-reddish grossular Garnets can be found near Mt. Belvidere, Eden Mills, Vermont.

.

.

Wisconsin "Ruby" ??

Even though several gemology and other semi-official sites list the Ruby as Wisconsin's State gemstone, nothing can be found officially where the State Legislature ever declared it as the State gem.

.

What is listed in Official Wisconsin documentation is that Galena (Lead sulphide) a combination of abundance, uniqueness, economic value, historical significance and native nature, lead to the appointment of Galena as the State mineral in 1971. Galena is the primary ore mineral of Lead. Worked for its lead content as early as 3000BC, it is found in ore veins with Sphalerite, Pyrite and/or Chalcopyrite, and in Sedimentary rocks as beds or impregmentations. The crystals are bright when fresh but often receive a dull tarnish after exposure to air.

.

Likewise Red Granite was chosen for its economic importance in the state in 1971 as the State rock. This speckled rock is composed of quartz and feldspar. Granite is an igneous rock and is formed from magma. Granitic magma has many potential origins but it must intrude other rocks. Most granite intrusions are emplaced at depth within the crust, usually greater than 1.5 kilometres and up to 50 km depth within thick continental crust. The origin of granite is contentious and has led to varied schemes of classification. Classification schemes are regional; there is a French scheme, a British scheme and an American scheme. This confusion arises because the classification schemes define granite by different means. Generally the 'alphabet-soup' classification is used because it classifies based on genesis or origin of the magma.

.

.