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 ...

MOUNT IDA — 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 ...

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 ...

Excited screams filled the air as two of my sons jumped from the platform and plunged downward into the mine below. Within minutes, they dropped several hundred feet and had traveled over a half-mile ...

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) ...