North Carolina's "Emeralds" !

After several years of legislative debate, the North Carolina Legislature finally in 1973, settled on the Emerald as the Official State Gemstone. This selection was made hard by the fact that North Carolina is host to more than sixty-three different types of naturally occurring gemstones and minerals! Many of these are very rare, including Emerald, Aquamarine, Sapphire, Garnet, Topaz, Amethyst, Citrine, Rutile, and Tourmaline, along with an abundance of world class smoky and clear Quartz crystals. In addition, North Carolina is famous as the only place on earth where the very rare gemstone "Hiddenite" can be found!

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Nestled snugly in the foothills of the beautiful Brushy Mountains of North Carolina is located the small town of Hiddenite. This locality is recognized as one of the most unique and interesting geological locations on the North American continent. Each year, thousands of rockhounds, tourists and educational field trip participants flock to this popular North Carolina attraction to experience the thrill of finding rare gemstones in the rough. Whether a serious or amateur prospector hoping to fulfill dreams of finding hidden treasures, a student experiencing an enriching "hands on" learning experience or a family seeking quality outdoor recreation, they can all be found in this area.

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Another very popular area is in the mine fields around Franklin, in Macon County, in the western tip of the state. No matter which direction you arrive from, you'll pass through some of the prettiest areas of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Waterfalls, rock-clustered streams of rushing water, scenic mountain views, something for everyone. This area is especially noted for its Corrundum finds. Sapphires and Rubies are both variations of corundum. We tend to think of Sapphires as blue, but they can be green, pink, yellow, and many other colors depending on the presence of different impurities. All colors of Corundum are called Sapphire except one: Red Corundum is always a Ruby. A few mines in the area produce the rare Star Rubies and Sapphires, stones that produce a six-pointed star when they're cut into a cabochon shape, with a smooth, rounded, dome-like top. The star is the result of needle-like inclusions that react with light.

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Depending on who one talks with or which advertisement is read, there are between 30 to 50 gemstone producing mines in North Carolina, with only a small handful working commercially these days. Some mine have been in continuous use since the 1870s.

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Again, don't confuse the Emerald as being the State Gemstone with the State Rock named in 1979, which is Granite. Although Granite is found all over the State, the most famous location is Chimney Rock State Park which is located just 25 miles southeast of Ashville.

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Alaska & Wyoming "Jade" !

The term Jade is generic; it actually refers to three minerals - Jadeite, Nephrite, and Chloromenlanite. “Nephrite”, commonly referred to as Jade, was adopted as Wyoming's official gemstone on January 25, 1967. This same Jade was adopted as the State gemstone by the Alaska Legislature in 1968.

The famed Wyoming jade fields occur in a rectangular band that runs roughly from Lander southwest to Farson, down to the Red Desert in Sweetwater County, east to Seminoe Dam, north to Alcova, and westward back to Lander. Wyoming jade is black, olive green, emerald green, light apple green and sometimes gray to white. The lighter colors of jade, especially apple green, are most in demand for gemstones. Today, most people believe that Wyoming's jade fields have been scoured so thoroughly by six decades worth of jade hunters that the light green variety of nephrite can no longer be found.

Most deposits of Jade are found near the Kobuk River. Alaska has large deposits including an entire mountain of jade on the Seward Peninsula, called Jade Mountain. It can also be found near the Dall and Shungnak rivers. This famous, remote, Arctic jade has an extensive history. Artifacts made from Kobuk River nephrite are hundreds of years old and have been found at archaeological sites along the Bering and Pacific coasts of Alaska and British Columbia, and the Arctic coast of Canada. The quality of Alaskan nephrite is highly variable; the finest material is usually found in smooth, stream-rolled boulders. Many of the boulders are covered by a thin rind of brown material, a result of weathering, which must be removed to reveal the unaltered green nephrite beneath.

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Kentucky & Tennessee "Freshwater Pearl" !

The Freshwater Pearl, taken from mussels in the fresh water rivers of Tennessee was designated in 1979 as the States gemstone. Then in 1986, Kentucky followed naming the River Pearl as its State gemstone also. Pearls are deposits of calcium carbonate (aragonite, calcite, or both) called nacre. Pearl (nacre) is not a mineral because it does not have a distinctive crystal structure and because it is formed by the action of a living organism. Pearls are one of the accepted 'organic' types of gemstones

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Native Americans of the Atlantic Coastal areas and the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio River Basin were the first to collect and use U.S. freshwater mussel pearls and shells. Pearl pendants and ear pendants were worn by both sexes and both pearl and shell were used for decorative purposes on articles of clothing. Some of the tribes used pearls as tributes, reportedly Powhattan (Pocahontas' father) had large stores of pearls received as tribute. These shellfish served as an important supplemental food resource, while the shells themselves were often modified into various tools, such as scrapers and "hoes," bowls and "spoons," and ornaments. Additionally, armlets, pendants, and gaming pieces were made from mussel shell.

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Between 1882 and 1914, beautiful pearls were taken from many of the state's streams, from the Pigeon and Holston in the east to the Forked Deer and Obion in the west. The Caney Fork in Middle Tennessee was noted for its pearl-bearing mussels, and “pearling” was a favorite sport for young people on Sunday afternoons at the turn of the century. Tennessee river pearls are of all colors and they are “natural” as the mussel made them—all pearl, all the way through. They have been found in various shapes—spherical, pear-shaped, and baroque or irregular. After World War I, dams were built on many of the rivers, and the mussels lost their swift and shallow shoals to live in. Today, pearling exists as a byproduct of shell harvests which supply the cultivated pearl industry of Japan. Tennessee river pearls are among the most beautiful and durable in the world.

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NOTE: Several have advised me that charts on the Internet show Fortification Agate as the Kentucky State Gemstone. However the Kentucky General Assembly made the designation of the Freshwater Pearl official on July 15, 1986 (Kentucky Acts ch. 488, sec. 2). Fortification Agate is the State Rock.

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Oklahoma's "Red Rose Rock" !

The Red Rose Rock was selected by the Oklahoma Legislature as the Official rock of Oklahoma in 1968. Although not really a gemstone, they are charished by rockhounds and gemologist alike world wide. Oklahoma's Red Rose Rocks are aggregates of Barite Crystals and sand and with an iron content which produces their reddish hue. The Barite crystals form a circular array of flat plates, giving the rock a shape similar to a rose blossom. Rose Rocks appear either as a single rose-like bloom or as clusters of blooms, with sizes ranging from pea sized to over 8 inches inches in diameter.
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The Red Rose Rocks are most common in and near central Oklahoma and can be found in mineral deposits in the Wichita Mountains and Ouachita Mountains. Red Rose rocks are most common in the Noble area of Cleveland County. Barite Rose Rocks have also been found in California, Mexico, Eqypt and Saudia Arabia, but are not the red color due to the lack of iron. Other varieties of Rose Rocks called Desert Roses, consist of formations of the minerals gypsum and barite with poikilotopic sand inclusions. The 'petals' are crystals flattened on the crystallographic axis, fanning open along the characteristic gypsum cleavage planes. The rosette crystal habit tends to occur when the crystals form in arid sandy conditions, such as the evaporation of a shallow salt basin. Gypsum roses usually have better defined sharper edges than Barite roses. These can be found in the SW United States, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the Saraha Desert. Some varities also contain Selenite, thus giving a translucent crystal look rather than a sand look.

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Oklahoma's Red Rose Rocks were formed during the Permian era, 250 million years ago, when western and central Oklahoma was covered by a shallow sea. As the sea retreated, barite precipitated out of the water and crystallized around grains of quartz sand. This left behind large formation of reddish sandstone, locally called Garber Sandstone, containing deposits of the Red Rose Rocks.

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Ohio's "FLINT" !

In 1965, the Ohio General Assembly adopted flint as Ohio's official gemstone. Large quantities of this gem exist especially in the eastern and central parts of the state.

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Flint occurs in nodules or beds in Devonian limestones and particularly in Pennsylvanian limestones. It is thought that the silica was derived from the siliceous spicules of sponges. The most conspicuous bed of flint is associated with the Pennsylvanian-age Vanport limestone at Flint Ridge in Licking and Muskingum Counties. Although most flint is gray or black in color, Flint Ridge flint is characterized by its light color with hues of red, green, yellow, and other colors. Flint, a variety of quartz, is a hard and durable mineral. Native Americans, both prehistoric and historic, used flint to make a wide variety of tools, weapons, and ceremonial pieces. Skilled workers started with coarse pieces of flint and fashioned such implements as knives, scrapers, arrowheads, and pipes.

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Flint Ridge was a major source of flint for Ohio's Indians. The Hopewell people traded flint with other Native Americans across the United States. Archaeologists have discovered artifacts made from Flint Ridge flint as far west as the Rocky Mountains and as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. The Ohio Historical Society now operates a museum at Flint Ridge. Visitors can see excavation pits that were made many centuries ago. Early European settlers of Ohio also used flint for various objects, including millstones and rifle flints.

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Today, artists use flint to make attractive pieces of jewelry. The gem's surfaces will take a high polish. Small amounts of impurities commonly give a wide variety of colors to flint. These colors include red, pink, green, blue, yellow, gray, white, and black. Some combinations of these colors in a piece of flint are considered to be very attractive and are highly prized by collectors.

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Idaho "STAR" Garnet

In 1967 the Legislature of the State of Idaho adopted the Star Garnet as it's State Stone. The Star Garnet is treasured throughout the world by collectors. This stone is considered more precious than either Star Rubies or Star Sapphires. Normally the star in the Idaho Garnet has four rays, but occasionally one has six rays as in a sapphire. The color is usually dark purple or plum and the star seems to glide or float across the dark surface. The four and six ray phenomenon is so rare in garnets, that it is largely unknown in the gemstone community and few gemologist who know about it have ever seen one.

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The Star Garnet is found only in northern Idaho and at an undisclosed location in India. The Emerald Creek garnet area (near Clarkia, ID) is a pay to dig area run by the U.S. Forest Service. The Idaho stone is very gem quality. The four and six ray phenomenon is so rare in garnets that it is largely unknown in the gemstone community.

The very rare six-star garnet.

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Montana's "YOGO" Sapphires

Sapphires are the official Montana state gem and have shared this honor with Montana Agates since 1969, but one type of Sapphire in particular stands out: the Yogo Sapphire. The Roberts Yogo Mine in central Montana is the only commercial Yogo Sapphire mine in the world, and a new group is helping to ensure that the process of getting the gems from the mine to the store is done responsibly. Mike Roberts, the new owner of Roberts Yogo Company, explained why he came to Montana from Alaska, where he mined for gold: "Just a new adventure to see, sounded like something fun to do, and hopefully there would be lots worth doing, (and) lots of money in it."

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All it takes is following what Roberts calls the "yellow brick road," so named because limestone rock has a vein or dike running through it. The "road" runs hundreds of feet underground. And about every 30 feet of any given vein, there are 10 carats of sapphires, considered by many to some of the best in the world. But contrary to common belief, striking it rich isn't just a matter of luck. Roberts said: "None of it's luck. It's just the more dirt you move, the more sapphires you get." In just a couple of years, they have already found some 100,000 carats. The underground ore, ladened with sapphires, is loaded up and taken back to the surface. It's then sorted and the water washes away the ore. Yogos are considered more valuable because they are natural and untreated, unlike other sapphires, but they tend to be small. And after being mined, they get cut and shipped to stores, and that process is the focus of a group called the Earth Solutions Committee. The group includes Roberts, area jewelers, gem cutters and environmentalists.

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"The idea of conscionable mining is something that reaches across sectors," explained Committee representative Claire Baiz. "We are going to add value to the Yogo sapphire by demonstrating that it's socially responsible and environmentally ethical in the way we mine and cut and distribute and sell the Yogo sapphire." The mine does not use chemicals and even outside observers seem impressed. Stuart Levit of the Center For Science In Public Participation said, "As mining goes, (it's) probably as clean as you can ask for. However, ‘how clean' is clean is always a real big question." This is just one of the questions this group will try to answer in the effort to make the Yogo sapphire even more precious.

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History of the YOGO Sapphire started in the late 1880s, Yogo City was like a ghost town. The hundreds of people who had come to the town looking for gold had deserted it. Only a few people remained. Yogo City had been one of the least productive areas for gold mining in all of Montana. It was not until 1895 when Jake Hoover came to Yogo City looking for gold. Like many of the miners, he noticed the tiny blue pebbles that settled down to the bottom of the gravel bed along with the gold. But unlike others, he saved the pebbles. At the end of the season, he sent a box full of these little blue pebbles to New York for expert evaluation. The box was eventually examined by gemologist Dr. George F. Kunz, who identified the little blue pebbles as a rare untreated sapphire.
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From stories presented on KRTV and KPAX.
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Added comment from e-mail received: Other Sapphires found in Western Montana (known as "Montana Sapphires") do not have the YOGO's cornflower blue color and brilliance and usually are heat-treated to attain their blue color ...so don't be confused. Yogo sapphires are different from any other sapphire found on the globe. Also, other colors of Sapphires that are commonly seen in jewelry stores are not found in Montana.

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Is Japan's Akoya Pearl Industry in danger of Collapse ?

Japan's akoya pearl industry, which began in the 1890s when Kokichi Mikimoto created the world's first cultured pearls, is facing collapse due to plunging sales and stiff competition from China. In the small fishing town of Wagu, on central Japan's Ago bay, about half of the 45 akoya pearl growers are about to close down their pearl beds after prices halved this year, sending them even deeper into the red. "It's the end if you lose your passion for the work you do -- and I'm losing it," said Akihiro Takeuchi, 43, one cultivator of Japan's renowned akoya cultured pearls. "We can't live like this. It's really unprofitable ... Akoya may die out completely in this town in a few years."

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Saltwater akoya oyster pearls have long been a benchmark of quality in the industry, with domestic production peaking at 88.5 billion yen ($900 million) in 1990. But by 2008, output had fallen to one-fifth of that. First, a "red tide" of deadly phytoplankton washed in each year in the mid-1990s, killing two-thirds of the country's akoya oysters. Then the market was flooded with less expensive Chinese freshwater pearls. At the same time, young people's tastes have shifted to more casual accessories. Now the current recession -- the country's deepest in decades -- could be the last straw. Loss-making jeweler Tasaki Pearl has closed seven of its eight pearl farms in Japan this year, and U.S. upscale retailer Tiffany & Co has announced plans to end its pearl-only store outlets. In Wagu, young growers have already drifted away, while their elders see little hope of survival after this year's open tender, which was delayed by a month, resulted in a 50 percent drop in prices.

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"Those who can quit are lucky, but many can't because they've got bank debts from the past," said Makoto Yamamoto, president of the Pearl Cultivation Fishery Union in Mie, where one-third of Japanese akoya pearls are produced. "I was always optimistic in the past, even when we had the red tide, but this time I've got no ideas," the 74-year-old veteran said in an interview

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SEEKING SURVIVAL
Chinese growers have succeeded in cultivating freshwater pearls as big and round as akoya and have been exporting them since the 1990s. Unlike akoya oysters, which can yield a few pearls, a single freshwater mussel can produce as many as 40. China now has 50 times Japan's pearl production capacity and the pearls are much more price-competitive, according to Mikimoto director Takashi Shimokura. There is also more competition now from South Sea and Tahitian pearls which are often bigger than akoya, attracting consumers especially in many western countries. Japan's global exports of cultured pearls have tumbled 60 percent over the last 25 years, and the country currently imports more than double the amount of pearls it exports.
Since last autumn, the country's retailers have seen falls in sales of up to 40 percent at home and 70 percent overseas, a document they submitted when seeking government support showed.
The Japanese government unveiled in late May a 120 billion yen emergency package for small fishery companies as part of a supplementary budget. But that alone won't help, said lower house member Norio Mitsuya, who also sits on parliament's Pearl Promotionary Group. "They (pearl industry) must come up with more innovative ideas. Whining about competition won't change the situation because we can't stop the imports," said Mitsuya. "For survival, the industry as a whole must seriously consider to whom they want to sell and how," he added.

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Akoya pearl producers and retailers agree that they need to raise public awareness about the quality of their products. "Not many people know the difference between saltwater and freshwater pearls and that the chance of cultivating a top-class akoya pearl is so small -- less than 1 percent," said Yoshimasa Ohata, president of Ohata Pearl Industry, a pearl processor that also owns oyster beds in Ago Bay. Ohata said an increasing number of pearl stores, especially those on the Internet, are selling freshwater pearls without clear explanations of their origin as they can be sold at lower prices. In an ominous sign, even the company that first gave the world the akoya pearl now appears ambiguous about its future. "As the originator of akoya pearls, we do feel responsible for akoya, but there are also high-quality South Sea pearls," Mikimoto and Co's Shimokura said. "We want to keep providing customers with high-quality jewelry, whether it's akoya, South Sea pearls or diamonds."

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Partial reprint of a Reuters News Article and AGTA story.
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