Best Rockhounding Spots in the US
These 462 spots are the hand-picked standouts from our US map, chosen one by one for documented public access, a named district or mine, or minerals you cannot find in the average gravel bar. Every pick links to a full field guide with coordinates, land status, geology, and nearby spots.
Prefer a map view? See every curated pick on the interactive map.
Alabama
All Alabama spots →- Bankhead National ForestWinston County · Quartz, Chert, FossilsThe William B. Bankhead National Forest spreads across about 181,000 acres of the Cumberland Plateau in northwest Alabama, where the Sipsey Fork cuts sandstone gorges that expose fresh rock.
- Black Warrior River Mines & PitsTuscaloosa County · Agate, Chalcedony, FossilsThe gravels of the Black Warrior River around Tuscaloosa are one of Alabama's most productive spots for agate, jasper, chalcedony, and silicified wood eroded from the Coastal Plain and coal-basin rocks upstream.
- Demopolis (Black Belt)Marengo County · Fossils, Shark Teeth, CalciteDemopolis gives its name to the Demopolis Chalk, part of the Selma Group that makes Alabama's Black Belt one of the premier Late Cretaceous marine fossil regions in the world.
- Hog MountainTallapoosa County · Arsenic, Arsenopyrite, GalenaHog Mountain was the most productive lode gold mine in Alabama, yielding roughly 24,000 ounces from quartz veins in the Tallapoosa County schists during the early 20th century.
- Pegmatite OutcropingsCoosa County · Cassiterite, Feldspar, MuscoviteCoosa County is widely regarded as the richest single county in Alabama for variety, with pegmatites and the historic tin belt producing feldspar, muscovite, tourmaline, cassiterite, beryl, and garnet.
- Red Mountain (Birmingham)Jefferson County · Hematite, Fossils, ChertRed Mountain is the type area for the Silurian oolitic hematite that Alabama named its state mineral in 1967, the red iron ore that built Birmingham's steel industry.
- Sylacauga Marble BeltTalladega County · Marble, Calcite, WollastoniteSylacauga marble is Alabama's state rock and one of the purest white marbles in the world, drawn from a belt in Talladega County described as the longest marble deposit on Earth.
- Talladega National Forest (Shoal Creek)Cleburne County · Gold, Quartz, GarnetThe Talladega National Forest sits on the southern end of the Appalachian gold belt, and the Shoal Creek district is the most reliable place in Alabama to prospect on open public land rather than private mine ground.
- Tennessee River (Muscle Shoals)Colbert County · Chert, Fossils, ChalcedonyThe Tennessee Valley around Muscle Shoals exposes Mississippian Fort Payne and Tuscumbia limestones and their cherts, which weather into gravels loaded with silicified crinoid stems, corals, brachiopods, and blastoids.
- Tuskegee National ForestMacon County · Petrified Wood, Silicified Wood, FossilsPetrified wood occurs in a broad swath of Alabama gravels from the northwest to the southeast, and Macon County sits squarely on that belt where silicified logs weather out of the Coastal Plain sands.
Arizona
All Arizona spots →- 1 mi. N of old Three-Way drive-in theaterGreenlee County · Fire Agate, ChalcedonyBlack Hills is one of Arizona's clearest public fire-agate localities, with BLM stating that fire agate is the principal attraction and that the site is open for public digging without fees or permits.
- Area around Diamond Point LookoutGila County · QuartzDiamond Point is a managed Forest Service crystal site where clear, doubly terminated quartz crystals weather out of cavities in the Devonian Martin Formation.
- Area near Meadow Creek PassMohave County · Fire Agate, Grape Agate, ChalcedonyMeadow Creek Pass belongs to the same western Arizona volcanic-desert collecting belt that gives Mohave County its agate, chalcedony, jasper, and fire-agate reputation.
- Kingman Feldspar MineMohave County · Allanite, Microcline, QuartzKingman Feldspar Mine represents northwestern Arizona pegmatite collecting, with documented feldspar-quartz workings and rare-earth allanite from the Kingman area.
- Neptune Mine near Grays SpringPima County · FluoriteNeptune Mine is a focused Arizona fluorite locality, with Mindat and MRDS records describing a former fluorspar mine where fluorite occurs in lenses and stringers along a schist-granite contact zone.
- On surface around Rich HillYavapai County · Gold NuggetRich Hill is Arizona's benchmark coarse-gold placer, documented by USGS as part of the Weaver district and by later geochemical work for nugget-rich placer units.
- Red Rover mineMaricopa County · Chalcocite, TetrahedriteRed Rover is a compact Cave Creek district copper-silver stop, with Mindat listing chalcocite and tetrahedrite-group minerals and Western Mining History tying the mine to copper, silver, and gold.
- San Domingo WashMaricopa County · GoldSan Domingo Wash is a documented Au-Pt placer district in the western foothills of the Wickenburg Mountains, with Mindat and USGS-derived records tying the gold to stream-placer concentration.
- Under Burro Creek BridgeMohave County · Pink AgateBurro Creek is a Mohave County agate landmark, with Mindat recording both the Burro Creek agate occurrence and agate in the Lower Burro Creek Wilderness Area.
- York AreaGreenlee County · Fire Agate, Banded Agate, CarnelianFire agate is the reason the York and Duncan country earns the first Arizona slot: BLM identifies the nearby Round Mountain area as a public rockhounding destination, and its Arizona brochure lists fire agate as a notable Safford Field Office gemstone.
Arkansas
All Arkansas spots →- Bauxite QuarriesSaline County · Bauxite, Heliotrope BauxiteSaline County is one of the two districts in the Arkansas bauxite region, a roughly 275-square-mile belt described by the Arkansas Geological Survey and USGS as the state's historic aluminum-ore province.
- Cove Creek BridgeHot Spring County · Apatite, Monticellite, MagnetiteKimzeyite and perovskite give the Cove Creek Bridge area its weight: Perovskite Hill and the nearby Kimzey carbonatite localities are documented Magnet Cove occurrences rather than generic creek gravel.
- Crater of Diamonds State ParkPike County · Diamond, Amethyst, GarnetCrater of Diamonds is exceptional because visitors search the eroded surface of a diamond-bearing Prairie Creek lamproite and may keep diamonds and other minerals they find.
- Lake Catherine (South Side)Garland County · FluoriteThe south side of Lake Catherine is tied to Garland County fluorite occurrences noted in Arkansas Geological Survey mineral-deposit reports and Mindat locality records.
- Mount IdaMontgomery County · QuartzMount Ida sits in the heart of Arkansas's Ouachita quartz province, where hot fluids moved through fractured Paleozoic sandstone, shale, and chert to form crystal-bearing veins.
- Prairie CreekPike County · Amethyst, Diopside, EpidotePrairie Creek is the geologic source behind the Crater of Diamonds field, a lamproite diatreme with diamonds plus mantle and alteration minerals such as chrome diopside, epidote, garnet, hematite, and amethyst.
- Unnamed Location (Magnet Cove area)Hot Spring County · Sphene, Nepheline SyeniteMagnet Cove is a classic alkaline igneous complex, noted in USGS work for nepheline syenite, carbonatite, and titanium-bearing minerals such as perovskite and titanite.
- Unnamed Quarry (Wavellite)Montgomery County · WavelliteMauldin Mountain wavellite is not an interchangeable green phosphate, Mindat and Arkansas Geological Survey references tie the quarries to botryoidal wavellite, variscite, planerite, and related phosphate minerals.
- Wegner Quartz MinesMontgomery County · QuartzClear hydrothermal quartz is the draw here, part of the Ouachita Mountain quartz belt that USGS and the Arkansas Geological Survey describe as one of western Arkansas's signature mineral resources.
- Yellville MinesMarion County · Galena, Pyrite, SmithsoniteYellville belongs to north Arkansas's historic lead-zinc belt, where Arkansas Geological Survey summaries record galena, sphalerite, and smithsonite production from Marion County and nearby Ozark districts.
California
All California spots →- Afton CanyonSan Bernardino County · Opalite, JasperAfton Canyon pairs documented BLM rockhounding access with a strong Mojave silica suite: Mindat lists opal, opalite, chalcedony, plume agate, agate-jasper, petrified wood, and jasper in the canyon area.
- Big Sur areaMonterey County · Jade, Nephrite, SerpentineBig Sur is California's clearest public jade locality because sanctuary rules specifically allow loose nephrite collection in the Jade Cove authorized area below mean high tide.
- El Paso MountainsKern County · Agate, Opal, JasperThe El Paso Mountains stand out because BLM identifies the area as a place where rock hounds find material among dark volcanic mesas, red buttes, and fossil-bearing badlands.
- Gem HillKern County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperGem Hill is a focused Kern County silica locality, with Mindat recording agate, chalcedony, iris agate, jasper, petrified wood, native gold, and uranium minerals nearby.
- Glass MountainSiskiyou County · ObsidianGlass Mountain represents California's northern volcanic-glass collecting better than any ordinary agate wash, with Forest Service materials identifying designated obsidian collecting areas in the Modoc country.
- Happy Camp Jade MinesSiskiyou County · Jade, Gold, SerpentineHappy Camp gives the top-10 list a Klamath Mountains jade and gold locality rather than another Mojave silica field.
- Jacolitos CanyonFresno County · Jasper, Petrified Wood, Fossilized CoralJacolitos Canyon adds a Coast Range sedimentary and fossil-bearing locality to a list otherwise dominated by volcanic glass, agate, jade, and gold.
- New Almaden Area MinesSanta Clara County · Chert, Cinnabar, ApophylliteNew Almaden is not just a cinnabar stop, it is one of California's classic mercury districts, hosted in altered serpentinite and silica-carbonate rock.
- Trinity RiverTrinity County · Chalcedony, Gold, JasperThe Trinity River is a north-state benchmark because it combines historic placer-gold country with Klamath Mountains metamorphic and ultramafic source rocks.
- Unnamed Location (Fire Agate)Riverside County · Chalcedony, Fire AgateThe Wiley Well and Mule Mountains area is one of California's best documented public desert collecting districts, with BLM specifically identifying the Wiley Well District Geode Beds for rockhounding.
Colorado
All Colorado spots →- Crystal HillSaguache County · Amethyst, Quartz, Smoky QuartzCrystal Hill near La Garita is documented by the USGS as a source of clear rock crystal and pale lavender amethyst in brecciated volcanic rock, a San Luis Valley collecting site worked since the 1880s.
- Crystal MountainLarimer County · Beryl, Aquamarine, FluorapatiteThe Crystal Mountain pegmatite district, mapped in USGS Bulletin 1011, contains beryl in roughly a quarter of its pegmatites, including aquamarine, alongside muscovite, fluorapatite, and bismutite.
- Del Norte Thunder Egg BedsSaguache County · Plume Agate, Moss Agate, ChalcedonyThe thunderegg beds northwest of Del Norte have yielded plume and moss agate from rhyolite flows since the late 1800s, with chalcedony, common opal, and quartz-lined cavities documented at the locality.
- Devils Head (Rampart Range)Douglas County · Smoky Quartz, Topaz, AmazoniteDevils Head sits in the Pikes Peak granite of the Rampart Range, where weathered pegmatite pockets have produced large topaz and smoky quartz crystals along with amazonite and fluorite.
- Italian MountainGunnison County · Lapis Lazuli, Grossular Garnet, DiopsideItalian Mountain holds one of the few genuine lapis lazuli localities in the United States, a contact-metamorphic deposit in marble that has produced some of the largest North American lapis specimens.
- Mount AnteroChaffee County · Aquamarine, Beryl, PhenakiteMount Antero is the highest gem locality in the United States, with aquamarine and beryl occurring in granite cavities above timberline near its 14,269-foot summit.
- Quartz Creek (Brown Derby)Gunnison County · Beryl, Tourmaline, LepidoliteThe Quartz Creek, or Brown Derby, district is Colorado's most fractionated lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatite field, mapped by the USGS as more than 1,800 pegmatite bodies.
- St. Peters Dome (Gold Camp Road)El Paso County · Fluorite, Smoky Quartz, AmazoniteSt. Peters Dome is a Pikes Peak granite peak in Pike National Forest where the historic Cheyenne fluorspar district left dumps that still yield loose purple, green, and white fluorite within a short walk of the parking area.
- Tarryall Mountains (Spruce Grove)Park County · Smoky Quartz, Topaz, AmazoniteThe Tarryall Mountains are one of the better topaz localities in the Pikes Peak region, with smoky quartz and pale amazonite in pegmatites of the Redskin Stock.
- Wolf Creek PassMineral County · Amethyst, Mordenite, HeulanditeWolf Creek Pass cuts through Conejos Formation basalts whose gas cavities are lined with zeolites, including mordenite reported among the finest in North America, alongside amethyst-bearing geodes.
Connecticut
All Connecticut spots →- Case QuarriesLower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region · Beryl, Aquamarine, ColumbiteThe Case Quarries are one of only three sites in Connecticut where mineral collecting on state land is legally sanctioned, set in the pegmatites of Meshomasic State Forest.
- CCC QuarryLower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region · Beryl, Aquamarine, MicroclineThe CCC Quarry, a 19th-century feldspar working near the old Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Cockaponset State Forest, is the third state-sanctioned collecting site in Connecticut.
- Clark Hill QuarriesLower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region · Beryl, Aquamarine, GarnetClark Hill in Meshomasic State Forest is a second DEEP-sanctioned collecting site and includes the well-known Nathan Hall Quarry.
- Guilford & East HavenSouth Central Connecticut Planning Region · AgateThe Guilford and East Haven shoreline yields water-worn agate, jasper, and quartz pebbles carried in as glacial erratics and reworked by Long Island Sound, a long-documented occurrence in Connecticut locality guides.
- Hubbard ParkSouth Central Connecticut Planning Region · QuartzHubbard Park spans roughly 1,800 acres on the Talcott Basalt of the Hanging Hills, the traprock ridge that gives central Connecticut its classic quartz and zeolite pockets.
- Plum Bank BeachLower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region · Agate, MoonstonePlum Bank Beach is one of Connecticut's more reliable shoreline spots for surface agate and moonstone, tumbled from glacial outwash and concentrated in the beach gravel by Long Island Sound tides.
Delaware
All Delaware spots →- Bowers BeachKent County · QuartzBowers Beach is a small Delaware Bay fishing town at the mouth of the Murderkill and St. Jones rivers, where the meeting of river and bay concentrates shells, sea glass, quartz pebbles, and beach-worn material along the public strand.
- Cape HenlopenSussex County · QuartzCape Henlopen sits at the mouth of Delaware Bay, where longshore currents pile up the water-clear quartz pebbles known as Cape Henlopen (or Cape May) diamonds, sometimes tinted milky, rose, or smoky.
- Chesapeake & Delaware CanalNew Castle County · FossilsThe dredge spoil banks along the north side of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal are Delaware's most famous fossil ground, cutting into roughly 70-million-year-old Cretaceous marl of the Mount Laurel and Merchantville formations.
- Coursey PondKent County · FossilsCoursey Pond, a millpond on the Murderkill drainage southeast of Felton, is one of the few inland Delaware spots where fossils turn up: poorly preserved Miocene shells and marine fragments, roughly 15 million years old, weather from the banks at the water line, mixed with quartz pebbles, feldspar, and mica in the sand and gravel.
- Fowler BeachSussex County · QuartzFowler Beach is an undeveloped Delaware Bay shoreline on the edge of Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, and one of the better free beaches in the state for the water-clear quartz called Cape May diamonds, with scattered chalcedony, jasper chips, shells, and sea glass in the wrack and pebble lines.
- Killen PondKent County · FossilsKillens Pond, the centerpiece of Killens Pond State Park near Felton, is the twin of Coursey Pond in the Delaware Geological Survey's fossil-site list, with the same poorly preserved Miocene shells and marine fragments eroding from the pond banks.
- Near Brandywine Springs State ParkNew Castle County · SillimaniteThe Piedmont hills around Brandywine Springs and the Red Clay valley west of Wilmington are the type area for sillimanite, Delaware's state mineral, which occurs here as large masses and boulders in the high-grade Wilmington Complex gneiss alongside garnet, mica, and microcline feldspar.
- Pepper CreekSussex County · FossilsPepper Creek, a tidal creek south of Dagsboro draining toward Indian River Bay, is a Delaware Geological Survey fossil locality where Pleistocene marine shells, less than two million years old, weather out of the low banks and mix with the creek gravels.
- Pickering BeachKent County · QuartzPickering Beach, a quiet bay community north of Dover, is one of Delaware's most celebrated sea glass beaches, and its tide lines also yield shells, water-worn quartz, and beach pebbles.
- Slaughter BeachSussex County · Quartz, JasperSlaughter Beach is a classic Delaware Bay beachcombing shoreline near Milford, long known for shells, abundant sea glass, driftwood, and water-worn quartz, with the occasional reworked fossil or shark tooth in the tide line.
Florida
All Florida spots →- BrooksvilleHernando County · Calcite, Echinoid GeodeThe Brooksville area sits on the Ocala Uplift, where Eocene Ocala Limestone produces calcite crystal pockets and echinoid (sea biscuit) fossils, some hollow and lined with calcite as geodes.
- Caledesi Causeway BanksPinellas County · ChalcedonyThe causeway and beaches near Dunedin and Honeymoon Island are cited as one of the best remaining public sources of agatized coral and chalcedony in the Tampa Bay region.
- Cottondale AreaJackson County · ChertJackson County in the western Panhandle exposes the Oligocene Marianna Limestone and its Marianna chert, a highly fossiliferous unit carrying echinoids, mollusks, and bryozoans along the Chipola River near Marianna and Cottondale.
- Crystal RiverCitrus County · Calcite, Quartz, ChertCrystal River sits on the Nature Coast where the Eocene Crystal River Formation limestone hosts calcite and quartz crystal pockets, chalcedony-filled fossil molds, and chert, along with fossil echinoids and mollusks.
- Englewood BeachCharlotte County · Fossilized Coral, Shark Teeth, SpongesManasota Key at Englewood is the Charlotte County extension of the Venice shark tooth beaches, drawing fossil teeth and fossil coral from the same offshore Miocene bone bed.
- Gulf BeachesSarasota County · Fossilized Coral, Shark Teeth, SpongesVenice bills itself as the Shark Tooth Capital of the World, and the Sarasota County beaches around the Venice jetty sit above a Miocene to Pleistocene fossil layer that feeds fossil shark teeth onto the sand.
- Hillsborough RiverHillsborough County · Brain Coral, Finger Coral, AgateThe Tampa Bay area is the third of Florida's classic agatized coral regions, and the Hillsborough River drainage yields silicified corals and agate along with brain and finger coral fossils.
- Peace RiverDeSoto County · Shark Teeth, Megalodon Teeth, FossilsThe Peace River was a shark nursery during the Miocene and later ran through Ice Age Florida, so its gravel bars carry fossil shark teeth, including large megalodon teeth, alongside mammoth, mastodon, and other Pleistocene mammal fossils.
- Quincy AreaGadsden County · Silicified Wood, FossilsGadsden County in the eastern Panhandle is one of Florida's better sources of silicified (petrified) wood, which weathers out as tan to brown grain-patterned fragments from silica-rich Tertiary sediments.
- Suwannee RiverHamilton County · Agatized CoralThe Suwannee River bed and banks downstream of White Springs are one of the three classic sources of Florida's state stone, agatized coral, where silica has replaced fossil coral to form chalcedony that keeps the original coral structure.
Georgia
All Georgia spots →- Baggs BranchLumpkin County · GoldBaggs Branch sits in the Dahlonega gold belt of Lumpkin County, the district that touched off the 1829 Georgia gold rush and yielded an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 ounces.
- Chattahoochee RiverMuscogee County · Chalcedony, Chert, FlintWhere the Chattahoochee River crosses the Fall Line at Columbus, its gravels carry a varied suite of silica minerals: chalcedony, chert, flint, jasper, opal, and opalized wood.
- Dodge CountyDodge County · TektitesDodge County is the heart of the georgiaite strewn field, the source of most of the roughly 1,700 to 2,000 tektites recovered in Georgia.
- ElbertonElbert County · Aquamarine, Garnet, QuartzThe Elberton district of Elbert County is a long-documented pegmatite area that has produced aquamarine beryl, including masses up to several inches across, along with quartz, garnet, and tourmaline.
- GirardBurke County · Savannah River Agate, Chalcedony, QuartzThe Girard area produces "Savannah River agate," a banded mix of agate, jasper, chert, and opalite that forms in the Coastal Plain near the Burke and Screven county line.
- Soquee RiverHabersham County · KyaniteHabersham County lies along a kyanite-mica schist belt roughly 30 miles long, and the Soquee (Soque) River drainage near Clarkesville is a recognized source of bladed blue kyanite.
- Tallapoosa RiverCarroll County · RubyThe gravels of the Little Tallapoosa River near Carrollton carry small rubies and garnets shed from nearby vein exposures, with garnet and olivine also reported in outcrops just off GA 166.
- Towns CountyTowns County · AmethystTowns County, in the far northeastern mountains, is one of Georgia's better-known sources of gem-quality amethyst, documented at several localities including the Garrett Mine near Titus.
- Windy Ridge and Mineral BluffFannin County · StauroliteThe Mineral Bluff area of Fannin County is the classic source for staurolite "fairy crosses," the twinned crystals that are Georgia's state mineral.
- Withlacoochee RiverLowndes County · Agatized CoralThe Withlacoochee River near the Florida line is one of the best remaining places in Georgia to find agatized coral, fossil coral colonies replaced by chalcedony.
Idaho
All Idaho spots →- Bruneau CanyonOwyhee County · Bruneau Canyon JasperBruneau Canyon stands out for Bruneau jasper, the orbicular and scenic jasper variety tied to the Bruneau River canyon in Owyhee County.
- ChallisCuster County · Red Agate, Banded OpalChallis represents the Challis Volcanics better than a single protected petrified-forest stop, with Idaho Department of Lands listing nearby red agate, banded opal, and petrified-wood localities in Custer County.
- Dismal SwampElmore County · Smoky Quartz, TopazDismal Swamp is a focused Elmore County locality for smoky quartz and topaz, both listed for the area by Idaho Department of Lands and Mindat.
- Emerald CreekShoshone County · Almandine GarnetEmerald Creek is Idaho's signature public star-garnet locality, with the Forest Service noting that commercial quantities of star garnet are otherwise known only from India.
- Idaho CityBoise County · Quartz, GarnetIdaho City anchors the Boise Basin, one of Idaho's best-documented historic placer-gold regions.
- Little Wood RiverBlaine County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperLittle Wood River is the strongest Blaine County pick because the same drainage is listed for green and moss agate by Idaho Department of Lands and has Mindat specimen records from the Little Wood Reservoir area.
- MackayCuster County · Azurite, Chalcopyrite, ChrysocollaMackay is the best Custer County mine-district pick for copper minerals, with Mindat documenting malachite and related species across the Alder Creek and White Knob district.
- Parker MountainLemhi County · Agate, ChalcedonyParker Mountain gives Lemhi County a documented agate and chalcedony locality outside the crowded southern Idaho fields.
- Seven Devils Mining DistrictAdams County · Epidote, Red Garnet, Pink GarnetSeven Devils is a classic Idaho skarn and copper district, where Idaho Geological Survey maps and reports emphasize limestone-garnet belts, copper deposits, and lime-silicate minerals.
- Succor CreekOwyhee County · Red Agate, Green AgateSuccor Creek is one of the clearest public names in Owyhee agate collecting, especially for red-and-green nodules and thunderegg-style cavities.
Illinois
All Illinois spots →- Cave-In RockHardin County · Barite, Calcite, CerussiteCave-In Rock sits at the heart of the Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District, the largest fluorite-producing region in United States history and the reason fluorite is the Illinois state mineral.
- CordovaRock Island County · AgateThe Mississippi River gravel bars at Cordova are among Illinois's most reliable spots for Lake Superior agate, carried south by glacial meltwater from the agate source region in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
- FayvilleAlexander County · Agate, Jasper, DiamondThe Mississippi River gravel bars near Fayville and Thebes, at the far southern tip of Illinois, are the state's most productive agate ground, where fortification agate and jasper accumulate in the river sediment.
- HamiltonHancock County · Agate, Jasper, GeodeHamilton lies on the Mississippi River within the Keokuk geode bed, a Lower Mississippian (Warsaw Formation) zone regarded as one of the finest quartz-geode localities on Earth.
- Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish & Wildlife Area (Pit 11)Grundy County · Concretions With Fossils, Siderite, Tully MonsterThe Mazonia unit preserves the reclaimed spoil of the old Pit 11 coal strip mine, the source of the world-famous Mazon Creek fossil biota and its soft-bodied preservation inside siderite (ironstone) concretions.
- McKee CreekPike County · Geode, SphaleriteMcKee Creek marks the southern reach of the west-central Illinois geode belt, where Warsaw Formation geodes wash into the creek gravels.
- NiotaHancock County · Fossils, GeodeNiota anchors the eastern edge of the Hancock County geode country, where creeks cross county roads and expose Warsaw Formation geodes weathering out of the outcrop.
- Rapatee Strip MineFulton County · Pyritized GastropodsThe reclaimed Rapatee strip mine in Fulton County is a well-known source of pyritized and marcasite-replaced fossils, including golden pyritized gastropods and marcasite concretions prized from Illinois's Pennsylvanian coal measures.
- RosiclareHardin County · Calcite, Blue Fluorite, Yellow FluoriteRosiclare was the milling and shipping center of the Illinois fluorspar industry, and its sub-district produced the deep-blue and purple cubic fluorite that made the state mineral famous.
- SpartaRandolph County · Pyrite, FossilsThe coal-measure exposures around Sparta in Randolph County yield well-preserved Pennsylvanian plant fossils along with pyritized and marcasite-replaced material from the Carbondale Formation and associated beds.
Indiana
All Indiana spots →- BeanblossomBrown County · GeodeBeanblossom Creek cuts through the Harrodsburg and Salem limestones in Brown County, freeing quartz- and calcite-lined geodes that collect in the stream gravel.
- BedfordLawrence County · GeodeBedford is the "Limestone Capital of the World," center of the Salem Limestone (Indiana Limestone) district that supplied the Empire State Building and the Pentagon and became the official state stone in 1971.
- Big Pine CreekWarren County · Sphalerite, Barite, Fossilized WoodBig Pine Creek carves a wooded bluff-and-ravine landscape in west-central Warren County, where glaciated stream gravels mix quartz, chert, and jasper with sulfide and sulfate minerals such as sphalerite, barite, and marcasite.
- CorydonHarrison County · Calcite, Fluorite, DolomiteCorydon, Indiana's first state capital, sits in the karst country of Harrison County at the southern end of the geode belt, where cave-and-spring geology produces calcite, fluorite, dolomite, and quartz along with geodes in the local limestones.
- HarrodsburgMonroe County · Calcite, Dolomite, AragoniteHarrodsburg is the type area of the Harrodsburg Limestone, the Mississippian unit that lends its name to some of Indiana's best-documented geodes: quartz, calcite, and barite fillings that have also yielded rare millerite needles.
- Maumee RiverAllen County · Agate, Jasper, Fossilized CoralThe Maumee River corridor at Fort Wayne carries Pleistocene glacial float across northeastern Indiana, mixing agate, jasper, and chert erratics with Devonian fossil coral and petrified wood transported from the north.
- Salt CreekLawrence County · GeodeSalt Creek drains the heart of Indiana's Mississippian geode belt, where quartz- and calcite-lined geodes weather out of the Harrodsburg and Salem limestones into the streambed gravel.
- SpencerOwen County · Barite, Celestite, SideriteSpencer sits on the West Fork of the White River at the northwestern edge of the geode belt, where river gravels carry geodes weathered from the Sanders Group limestones along with barite, celestite, and siderite reported from local exposures.
- Washington Park BeachLaPorte County · Agate, Beach Glass, Leland BlueMichigan City's Washington Park Beach opens Indiana's short Lake Michigan shoreline to beachcombing, where wave-sorted gravels yield Lake Superior agates, "Leland blue" slag glass, beach glass, and reworked Devonian coral and crinoid fossils.
- WeisburgDearborn County · TrilobitesWeisburg lies in the State Route 1 corridor of southeastern Indiana, part of the Cincinnatian (Upper Ordovician) outcrop belt that is world-renowned for abundant marine fossils.
Iowa
All Iowa spots →- AmesStory County · Chalcedony, FossilsCentral Iowa lies under the Des Moines Lobe, the last glacier to cross the state, and its drift is salted with Lake Superior agate, chalcedony, and jasper carried south from the Superior basin.
- BellevueJackson County · Lake Superior Agate, Moss Agate, CarnelianThe Mississippi River gravel bars near Bellevue are one of Iowa's most productive Lake Superior agate grounds, working glacial drift that the river continually reworks and sorts.
- Bells Mill ParkHamilton County · CalciteBells Mill Park preserves outcrops along the Boone River where dark, well-formed calcite crystals occur in the Mississippian carbonates, an unusual and distinctive Iowa mineral locality.
- BentonsportVan Buren County · Keokuk GeodeBentonsport, a preserved 19th-century village on the Des Moines River, lies within the same lower Warsaw geode horizon that defines southeast Iowa.
- Black Hawk CountyBlack Hawk County · Coldwater AgateThe Cedar River valley through Black Hawk County is the home ground of the Iowa coldwater agate, a pale blue-gray to cream banded agate weathered from Devonian limestone and reworked into the river gravels.
- Burlington (geodes)Des Moines County · Lake Superior Agate, Quartz, GeodeBurlington marks the transition between Iowa's two great rockhounding stories: the Keokuk geode belt to the south and the Lake Superior agate fields carried in by glaciers.
- Cedar RapidsLinn County · Silicified Coral, Calcified CoralThe Cedar River gravels around Cedar Rapids carry silicified Devonian coral weathered out of the Cedar Valley Group limestones that underlie eastern Iowa.
- LowellHenry County · Keokuk GeodeLowell sits in the heart of the Keokuk geode district, where the Mississippian Warsaw Formation sheds hollow, quartz-lined geodes into the Skunk River and its tributary creeks.
- Muscatine (agate)Louisa County · Lake Superior Agate, Moss Agate, ChalcedonyThe stream gravels around Muscatine and neighboring Louisa County are named by the Iowa Geological Survey as a reliable source of Lake Superior agate, moss agate, chalcedony, and clear quartz.
- Steamboat RiverHardin County · GeodeThe Iowa River around Steamboat Rock cuts through glacial drift and Mississippian bedrock, concentrating agate, chalcedony, and clear to smoky quartz in its gravel bars.
Kansas
All Kansas spots →- Arkansas River at Great BendBarton County · Agate, Jasper, ChalcedonyAt Great Bend the Arkansas River swings east and begins its 192-mile National Water Trail run to the Oklahoma line, a designation that gives the public access to sandbars and gravel islands along the route.
- Arkansas River at WichitaSedgwick County · Agate, Jasper, Petrified WoodThe Arkansas River runs through the center of Wichita, where its gravel bars yield agate, jasper, and petrified wood carried from the west.
- Cimarron National GrasslandMorton County · Agate, Jasper, ChalcedonyCimarron National Grassland covers about 108,000 acres in the far southwest corner of Kansas and is the largest tract of public land in the state, managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
- Kansas River at LawrenceDouglas County · Lake Superior Agate, Agate, ChertThe Kansas River at Lawrence carries the same glacial gravels found upstream at Topeka, including Lake Superior agate along with chert, quartzite, and petrified wood shed from Ice Age drift.
- TopekaShawnee County · Lake Superior AgateThe Kansas River gravels in and near Topeka hold Lake Superior agate carried south by Ice Age glaciers, a distribution the Kansas Geological Survey describes as highly localized to this part of the state.
Kentucky
All Kentucky spots →- Adair CountyAdair County · GeodeThe Green River and the creeks draining the Fort Payne Formation through Adair County are among the most reliable geode grounds in the state.
- BereaMadison County · GeodeBerea sits where the Knobs meet the Bluegrass, on the western edge of the Kentucky Agate District and within the Fort Payne geode belt.
- Crittenden CountyCrittenden County · Galena, Fluorite, BariteCrittenden County anchors the Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District, historically one of the world's great sources of large crystalline purple and yellow fluorite, alongside galena, sphalerite, barite and calcite.
- EddyvilleLyon County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperLyon County, set between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake on the lower Cumberland River, is known for agate, chalcedony and jasper that collect in gravels and along the reservoir shorelines.
- GlasgowBarren County · GeodeBarren County lies on the Warsaw Limestone outcrop belt that produces south-central Kentucky's classic gray, lumpy geodes.
- Graves CountyGraves County · Agate, Chalcedony, ChertGraves County, in the far-western Jackson Purchase, is the state's best-known source of gravel-pit agate, jasper and silicified wood.
- Kentucky Agate District (Jackson County)Jackson County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperJackson County is a core producer of Kentucky agate, the banded red, black and gray quartz named the official state rock in 2000.
- Lincoln CountyLincoln County · Geode, Quartz, CelestiteLincoln County sits at the heart of Kentucky's geode belt, where the Mississippian Fort Payne and Warsaw formations shed hollow, quartz-lined nodules into the upper Green River drainage and its feeder creeks.
- Little Sandy RiverElliott County · Apatite, Almandine Garnet, ChromiteElliott County holds the only kimberlite in Kentucky, the Late Cretaceous Elliott County Peridotite at Ison Creek, a mantle-derived intrusion that carries pyrope garnet, chrome diopside and olivine.
- Mount VernonRockcastle County · Chert, Jasper, GeodeRockcastle County lies inside both the Kentucky Agate District and the Daniel Boone National Forest, a rare pairing of collectible geology and legal public access.
Louisiana
All Louisiana spots →- Amite River ValleyEast Baton Rouge Parish · AgateThe Amite River near Baton Rouge is Louisiana's most productive agate locality, its gravel bars carrying banded agate, carnelian, jasper, and even the rare local opal.
- East & West Feliciana ParishesEast Feliciana Parish · AgateThe Feliciana parishes sit on some of Louisiana's best exposures of the gravel-rich Citronelle Formation, the source rock for the state's agate and carnelian.
- Leesville (opal area)Vernon Parish · Louisiana OpalThe Leesville area is the classic source of so-called Louisiana opal, wood that has been replaced by common opal rather than agate, giving a waxy translucent stone unusual for the state.
- Old Pearl RiverSt. Tammany Parish · AgateThe Pearl River system on Louisiana's eastern edge reworks Citronelle gravels into agate, carnelian, and petrified wood, giving the southeastern Florida Parishes their own collecting water.
- Ouachita RiverOuachita Parish · Agate, Petrified Wood, Opalized WoodThe Ouachita River carries agate, petrified wood, and opalized wood south out of the Arkansas uplands, dropping them on gravel bars around Monroe in north Louisiana.
- PollockGrant Parish · Agate, Petrified WoodThe gravel-capped Kisatchie Hills around Pollock shed agate, jasper, and petrified wood, including palmwood, into the road cuts and creek bottoms of the Catahoula Ranger District.
- Rapides ParishGrant Parish · Silicified Palm WoodThis is the heart of Louisiana's petrified palmwood country, the silicified state fossil that weathers out of the Oligocene Catahoula Formation across Rapides and Grant parishes.
- Tangipahoa River & StreamsTangipahoa Parish · AgateThe Tangipahoa River near Amite City draws agate, carnelian, and jasper from the same Citronelle gravel belt that feeds the Amite, and its LA 16 crossing is a long-known access point for collectors.
- Toledo BendSabine Parish · Petrified Palm WoodToledo Bend, straddling the Sabine River on the Texas line, is the single best-known name for petrified palmwood, a stone shared as the Louisiana state fossil and the Texas state stone.
- Vernon ParishVernon Parish · Silicified Palm WoodVernon Parish is one of the four parishes, with Rapides, Grant, and Natchitoches, that produce Louisiana's petrified palmwood, and its Catahoula gravels are a reliable source of the spotted, rod-structured fossil wood.
Maine
All Maine spots →- Catherine Mountain (Donnell Pond)Hancock County · Molybdenite, Scheelite, FluorapatiteCatherine Mountain holds a nineteenth-century molybdenite prospect where molybdenite occurs in granite pegmatite, rare vugs, and fractures, alongside reported scheelite and wolframite.
- Deer Hill (White Mountain National Forest)Oxford County · Amethyst, Beryl, FeldsparDeer Hill is a US Forest Service designated mineral collecting area in the White Mountain National Forest, known for amethyst recovered by screening the sandy soil.
- Edgecomb Quarry (Schmid Preserve)Lincoln County · Almandine Garnet, Beryl, AquamarineThe Edgecomb pegmatite pits sit inside the 766-acre Schmid Preserve, town land laced with more than seven miles of public trails, where 1880s feldspar and mica workings exposed almandine garnet, beryl, and aquamarine.
- Harvard Quarry (Noyes Mountain)Oxford County · Green Tourmaline, Schorl, BerylThe historic Harvard Quarry on Noyes Mountain produced the gem green tourmaline that gave the Harvard green color its name, and its dumps still yield schorl, beryl, smoky quartz, rose quartz, and purple apatite.
- Lord Hill (White Mountain National Forest)Oxford County · Topaz, Phenakite, Smoky QuartzLord Hill is a granite pegmatite in the White Mountain National Forest where more than 50 minerals have been recorded, most famously large white topaz and smoky quartz crystals encrusted with rare phenakite.
- Mount ApatiteAndroscoggin County · Green Tourmaline, Pink Tourmaline, AquamarineMount Apatite is a lithium-rich pegmatite district where the Pulsifer Quarry produced some of the finest purple apatite crystals in the world, alongside green and pink tourmaline, aquamarine, and lilac lepidolite.
- Sandy River at New SharonFranklin County · Gold, Garnet, MagnetiteThe Maine Geological Survey lists the Sandy River from Avon to New Sharon as open to recreational gold prospecting, one of the few reaches where even motorized methods are allowed.
- St. Croix River at Grand Falls FlowageWashington County · Gold, Garnet, MagnetiteThe Maine Geological Survey lists the St. Croix River at Baileyville among the state's recreational gold-panning streams, where the gold is very fine flour gold thought to be shed from nearby base-metal mineralization.
- Swift River at Coos CanyonOxford County · Gold, Garnet, MagnetiteThe Swift River at Coos Canyon in Byron carries fine glacial gold and is the most famous recreational gold-panning spot in New England, with flakes recoverable from bedrock crevices in the roadside gorge.
- Tunk MountainHancock County · Smoky Quartz, Feldspar, HornblendeTunk Mountain is carved from the Tunk Lake pluton, a concentrically zoned alkali granite that grades into rapakivi granite, producing smoky quartz, perthitic feldspar, and dark hornblende-bearing rock.
Maryland
All Maryland spots →- Calvert Cliffs State ParkCalvert County · Fossils, Shark TeethThe cliffs here expose the Miocene Calvert Formation, roughly 8 to 18 million years old, one of the richest marine fossil beds on the East Coast.
- Douglas PointCharles County · Shark Teeth, FossilsDouglas Point is one of the few Bureau of Land Management recreation areas in the eastern United States, protecting about 1,270 acres of Potomac River shoreline jointly managed with the State of Maryland.
- Flag Ponds Nature ParkCalvert County · Shark Teeth, FossilsFlag Ponds Nature Park fronts the same Miocene Calvert Formation as nearby Calvert Cliffs, and its Chesapeake Bay beach gathers fossil shark teeth, ray plates, and shell fragments washed down from the cliffs to the north.
- Mallows Bay ParkCharles County · Shark Teeth, Fossils, QuartzMallows Bay is best known for the Ghost Fleet, more than 100 scuttled World War I era wooden steamships now protected within a national marine sanctuary and visible just off the shore.
- Ocean CityWorcester County · QuartzOcean City's free public beach is Maryland's most accessible ocean rockhounding, where the surf sorts out clear and frosted quartz pebbles, sometimes called Cape May diamonds, that concentrate near the inlet at the south end.
- Purse State ParkCharles County · Shark Teeth, FossilsPurse State Park sits on the tidal Potomac where the Paleocene Aquia Formation, roughly 56 to 60 million years old, is exposed along the shore, making its teeth older than the Miocene material at Calvert Cliffs.
Massachusetts
All Massachusetts spots →- ChesterHampden County · Emery, Diaspore, JasperThe Chester emery mines worked one of the few commercial emery deposits (corundum with magnetite) in the United States, mined from the 1860s for abrasives.
- CohassetNorfolk County · Jasper, EpidoteCohasset's rugged shoreline is one of the classic South Shore localities for jasper and epidote, weathered from the volcanic and intrusive rocks of the Boston-area terrane and rolled smooth in the beach gravels.
- Deerfield RiverFranklin County · Jasper, Agate, ChalcedonyThe lower Deerfield River is the best known site in Massachusetts for agate, jasper, and chalcedony, eroded from the Deerfield basalt and other Triassic-Jurassic volcanic rocks of the Connecticut Valley rift and concentrated in the river's gravel bars.
- MarshfieldPlymouth County · JasperMarshfield's beaches lie along the Massachusetts Bay jasper belt, where glacial gravels shed red and yellow jasper, epidote, and iron-rich feldspars onto the shore.
- NahantEssex County · Jasper, Epidote, PrehniteNahant's rocky shore exposes the Nahant gabbro and diabase, a dark intrusive rock cut by veins and vesicles that carry jasper, epidote, prehnite, datolite, and chalcedony, documented here since the nineteenth century.
- RockportEssex County · AmazoniteRockport sits on the Cape Ann granite, a coarse pluton whose miarolitic pockets and pegmatites carry blue-green amazonite (microcline), smoky quartz, and the sodium amphibole riebeckite.
- SandwichBarnstable County · JasperThe Cape Cod Bay beaches at Sandwich sit at the southern end of the Massachusetts Bay jasper belt, where glacial outwash gravels deliver red and yellow jasper, often veined with green epidote.
- Stage Fort ParkEssex County · Amazonite, Smoky Quartz, MicroclineGloucester sits on the same Cape Ann granite as neighboring Rockport, and its miarolitic pockets and pegmatites yield blue-green amazonite (microcline), smoky quartz, and well-formed feldspar.
Michigan
All Michigan spots →- Charles Mears State Park BeachOceana County · Petoskey Stones, Agate, FossilsCharles Mears State Park puts almost 2,000 feet of Lake Michigan beach within easy reach in Pentwater, where wave-sorted gravel turns up Petoskey stones and other glacially transported Great Lakes specimens.
- Drummond Island (Pudding Stone)Chippewa County · Pudding Stone, Jasper Conglomerate, Petoskey StonesDrummond Island is one of the best places in Michigan to find pudding stone, a striking metaconglomerate of red jasper pebbles set in white quartzite that glaciers carried south from Ontario.
- Jasper Knob (Jasper Hill)Marquette County · Jaspilite, Jasper, HematiteJasper Knob in Ishpeming is a bald hilltop made entirely of jaspilite, a 1.87-billion-year-old banded iron formation of alternating red jasper and silvery specular hematite.
- Keweenaw PointKeweenaw County · Keweenaw Agate, Thomsonite, DatoliteThe exposed Lake Shore Traps along the wave-washed tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula carry agate-filled amygdules and datolite, with larger Keweenaw agates working loose from a narrow gravel band at the waterline.
- Lake Superior Beach (Ontonagon)Ontonagon County · Keweenaw Agate, Thomsonite, ChalcedonyThe Lake Superior shoreline around Ontonagon is among the most agate-rich in Michigan, with the stretch toward Copper Harbor noted for unusually heavy agate cover along with quartz, jasper, and occasional copper.
- Manitou IslandKeweenaw County · Lake Superior Agate, QuartzThe 93-acre Manitou Island Light Station Preserve, owned by the Keweenaw Land Trust off the tip of the Keweenaw, is one of the few outer-island shores expressly open to the public for rock collecting.
- Petoskey Beaches (Little Traverse Bay)Emmet County · Petoskey StonesLittle Traverse Bay in Emmet County is the most reliable place in Michigan to find Petoskey stones, the state stone, which are fossilized Hexagonaria colonial coral that show their honeycomb pattern best when wet.
- Presque Isle ShorelinePresque Isle County · Agate, Chalcedony Geode, Sandstone With Calcite VeinsThe Presque Isle peninsula on Lake Huron is documented for an unusual mix of agate, chalcedony geodes, and brown sandstone veined with calcite, finds that gather along its rocky shoreline after summer storms.
- Rockport Recreation AreaAlpena County · Petoskey Stones, Fossilized Coral, BrachiopodsRockport State Recreation Area opens a 300-acre former limestone quarry whose floor is scattered with Devonian fossils about 400 million years old, including Petoskey stones, Favosites honeycomb coral, brachiopods, and crinoids.
- Woodland Park Beach, Grand MaraisAlger County · Yooperlite, Lake Superior Agate, JasperGrand Marais is the most famous place in Michigan to hunt Yooperlites, sodalite-bearing syenite stones that glow bright orange under ultraviolet light.
Minnesota
All Minnesota spots →- Beaver BayLake County · Lake Superior Agate, ThomsoniteBeaver Bay sits on a stretch of North Shore where both Lake Superior agate and thomsonite wash into the beach gravel, a combination that has made it a long-standing favorite among Minnesota collectors.
- CloquetCarlton County · Lake Superior Agate, Garnet, GreenaliteCarlton County is the heart of Minnesota's inland agate country: glaciers dragged Lake Superior agate south and dumped it in the region's thick gravel deposits, and the nearby Moose Lake area is billed as the Agate Capital of the World.
- ElySaint Louis County · Jasper, Quartz, ChalcedonyThe bedrock around Ely belongs to the Archean Ely Greenstone, some of the oldest rock in Minnesota at roughly 2.7 billion years, and its iron formations and quartz veins yield jasper, quartz, and chalcedony.
- Grand MaraisCook County · Lintonite, ThomsoniteThe Cook County shore around Grand Marais holds Minnesota's best thomsonite, a zeolite that filled gas cavities in the billion-year-old North Shore basalt flows and weathers out as rounded nodules with concentric green, pink, and white eyes.
- Hibbing (area 2)Saint Louis County · Iron, Agate, JasperHibbing sits on the Mesabi Range, where the 1.9-billion-year-old Biwabik Iron Formation exposes banded iron formation of alternating hematite, magnetite, and goethite layered with red and gray jasper.
- Kelsey BeachLake County · Lake Superior AgateKelsey Beach, the public cobble beach at the Stewart River mouth a few miles north of Two Harbors, sits in the North Shore agate belt where wave-sorted gravel yields Lake Superior agate along with basalt and jasper from the billion-year-old rift lava flows.
- Knife River beachesLake County · Lake Superior AgateThe cobble beaches at Knife River are one of the North Shore's most reliable places to hunt Lake Superior agate, Minnesota's state gemstone, formed roughly a billion years ago in the gas vesicles of Keweenawan basalt along the Midcontinent Rift.
- Little FallsMorrison County · Lake Superior Agate, Garnet, StauroliteThe Mississippi River gravels around Little Falls carry Lake Superior agate along with staurolite, the twinned fairy cross crystals that made the area locally famous.
- Red WingGoodhue County · Lake Superior AgateRed Wing anchors the southeastern reach of Minnesota's Lake Superior agate range: glaciers and the Mississippi River spread agate-bearing gravel far south of the stone's North Shore origin.
- RochesterOlmsted County · Lake Superior Agate, Chalcedony, FossilsThe Rochester area combines two southeastern Minnesota draws: Lake Superior agate scattered through the glacial and river gravels, and Ordovician marine fossils weathering out of the region's roughly 450-million-year-old limestone and shale.
Mississippi
All Mississippi spots →- Adams CountyAdams County · Banded AgateAdams County in the far southwest yields banded agate, quartz, and chalcedony from Citronelle and Mississippi River terrace gravels, historically collected from commercial gravel stockpiles along the Natchez riverfront.
- Bienville National ForestScott County · Petrified Wood, Chalcedony, ChertBienville National Forest spreads across central Mississippi on Oligocene and Miocene sediments that host the state's petrified wood, formed when buried hardwood was replaced grain by grain with chalcedony and opal.
- GulfportHarrison County · Jasper, Petrified WoodHarrison County's Pliocene and Pleistocene Citronelle Formation and terrace gravels carry jasper, agate, chert, and petrified wood pebbles across the coastal plain behind Gulfport.
- Holly Springs National ForestMarshall County · Petrified WoodHolly Springs National Forest sits on Eocene Wilcox and Claiborne sands and reworked upland gravels that carry silicified and petrified wood, Mississippi's official state stone.
- Mississippi RiverTunica County · Agate, FossilsPoint-bar gravels along the Mississippi River in Tunica County carry quartz, chalcedony, agate, chert, and petrified wood rafted downstream from as far as the Great Lakes and the Ozarks.
- PadenTishomingo County · AmberThe clay and lignite beds around Paden in Tishomingo County are one of the few documented sources of Upper Cretaceous amber in Mississippi, tied to the Coffee Sand and Tuscaloosa Group.
- Tombigbee RiverItawamba County · Shark TeethThe Tombigbee River in Itawamba County flows past Cretaceous chalk and sand of the Coffee Sand, Demopolis, and Prairie Bluff units, the same fossil-bearing belt exposed farther south.
- Twentymile CreekPrentiss County · Fossils, Petrified WoodTwenty Mile Creek near Baldwyn cuts through the Campanian Demopolis Formation and the underlying Coffee Sand, exposing a marine fossil bed roughly 75 million years old.
- WaynesboroWayne County · Fossils, Petrified Palm WoodCreek gravels around Waynesboro in Wayne County carry petrified palm wood and silicified wood eroded from Citronelle and Hattiesburg-age sediments of southeast Mississippi.
- WessonCopiah County · Banded Agate, Chalcedony, Petrified WoodThe upland terrace and Citronelle gravels around Wesson in Copiah County produce banded agate, chalcedony, and petrified wood, all catalogued from the county on mindat.
Missouri
All Missouri spots →- Alexandria & WaylandClark County · GeodeClark County is the most productive geode-collecting county in Missouri, sitting at the southwestern edge of the famous Keokuk geode district along the Des Moines and Mississippi drainages.
- Daviess CountyDaviess County · Lake Superior Agate, Jasper, FossilsDaviess County lies in the glaciated plains of northern Missouri, where Pleistocene ice sheets carried Lake Superior agates south from the Great Lakes basin and dropped them in glacial drift and stream gravels.
- Elk River near Bee BluffMcDonald County · Chert, Blue ChertThe Elk River in McDonald County is a clear, floatable Ozark stream whose gravel bars are packed with colorful Mississippian chert, including the locally prized blue and gray banded chert weathered from the surrounding Boone Formation.
- Fabius RiverLewis County · Geode, Calcite, MalachiteThe Fabius River drainage in Lewis County cuts through the Warsaw Formation on the southern margin of the Keokuk geode belt, releasing geodes lined with quartz, calcite, aragonite, and trace sulfides into the river gravels.
- GallatinDaviess County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperGallatin sits on the Grand River in glaciated Daviess County, and the river gravels here are a documented source of petrified wood, agate, jasper, and chalcedony reworked from glacial drift.
- Gentry CountyGentry County · Lake Superior Agate, Jasper, FossilsGentry County in far northwestern Missouri lies squarely in glacial-drift country, where ice-rafted Lake Superior agates, jasper, and petrified wood are scattered through till and reworked into the area's stream gravels.
- Grundy CountyGrundy County · Lake Superior Agate, Jasper, FossilsGrundy County rounds out the cluster of glaciated northern Missouri counties that yield ice-transported Lake Superior agates, with mindat documenting Lake Superior agate from the county.
- La GrangeLewis County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperThe Mississippi River gravels around La Grange in Lewis County carry gem-quality agate, chalcedony, jasper, petrified wood, and the occasional Keokuk geode, all concentrated by the river and reworked glacial drift.
- LincolnBenton County · Chalcedony, Chert, MozarkiteLincoln sits at the heart of the mozarkite country in Benton County, the source of Missouri's official state rock, a multicolored gem chert that weathers out of the Mississippian Burlington and Warsaw limestones.
- WarsawBenton County · Agate, Chert, MozarkiteWarsaw anchors the southern end of the Benton County mozarkite belt and sits on the Harry S. Truman Reservoir, where falling lake levels expose chert and mozarkite cobbles along the shoreline.
Montana
All Montana spots →- American BarLewis and Clark County · Sapphire, Cassiterite, ChalcedonyAmerican Bar belongs to the upper Missouri River sapphire province, where GIA traces gem-quality sapphire mining back to 1865.
- ButteSilver Bow County · Bornite, Pisanite, RhodochrositeButte is Montana's heavyweight ore-mineral locality, with MBMG and USGS work documenting complex copper, silver, manganese, and related vein mineralogy in the district.
- Calvert Hill MineBeaverhead County · Scheelite, Garnet, AquamarineCalvert Hill Mine adds a tungsten-skarn flavor to the Montana list, with Mindat describing a surface mine in Cambrian Meagher Formation limestone and listing scheelite, garnet, beryl var.
- Crystal Mountain MineRavalli County · White Fluorite, Green Fluorite, Purple FluoriteCrystal Mountain Mine is a focused fluorite locality, with Mindat tying the Ravalli County site to the Crystal Mountain Fluorspar Mine and listing fluorite with quartz and accessory phosphate and silicate minerals nearby.
- Dry Cottonwood CreekDeer Lodge County · SapphireDry Cottonwood Creek is one of the historic Montana sapphire fields named by USGS and GIA, discovered after the Missouri River bars and before Rock Creek and Yogo Gulch.
- GlendiveDawson County · Agate, Jasper, Moss OpalGlendive sits in eastern Montana's Yellowstone River agate belt, where gravel bars and nearby breaks are known for agate, jasper, and petrified-wood style silica material.
- Pryor MountainsBig Horn County · Fossils, Agate, ChalcedonyThe Pryor Mountains stand out for Dryhead-style agate, with Mindat listing agate and chalcedony from the range and a named Dryhead Agate Mine in the Bighorn River area.
- Rock CreekGranite County · Quartz, SapphireRock Creek is one of Montana's four classic sapphire districts, documented by USGS and GIA alongside the Missouri River, Dry Cottonwood Creek, and Yogo Gulch.
- Ruby RiverMadison County · Almandine GarnetRuby River is Montana's clearest garnet-focused pick in this candidate set, with nearby Mindat records listing almandine and broader Madison County garnet occurrences.
- Yellowstone River (Billings area)Yellowstone County · Montana Agate, Chalcedony, ChertThe Billings reach of the Yellowstone River is a benchmark Montana agate setting, where river gravels carry chalcedony, jasper, chert, and dendritic moss agate.
Nebraska
All Nebraska spots →- BayardMorrill County · Agate, Petrified WoodBayard sits in the North Platte valley under Chimney Rock and the Wildcat Hills, where terrace and river gravels yield agate, chalcedony, and petrified wood eroded from the Tertiary beds of the western Panhandle.
- ChadronDawes County · Chalcedony, Blue ChalcedonyChadron sits in the type area of the Chadron Formation, the Oligocene beds that produce Nebraska's state gemstone: translucent blue chalcedony, often called Nebraska blue agate.
- Crawford (Fairburn area)Dawes County · Fairburn AgateCrawford is the gateway to Toadstool Geologic Park and the northern Oglala National Grassland, and the grassland draws around it are one of the few places in Nebraska to hunt Fairburn agate, the prized fortification agate, alongside prairie agate, jasper, and chalcedony.
- GothenburgDawson County · Petrified Palm WoodGothenburg and the central Platte valley are Nebraska's classic hunting ground for petrified palm wood, along with agate, carnelian, and chalcedony carried down from the Rockies and shed from the Ogallala gravels.
- Little Nemaha RiverNemaha County · Agate, Moss Agate, ChalcedonyIn far southeast Nemaha County the Little Nemaha River and the surrounding glacial drift carry moss agate, chalcedony, jasper, and petrified wood, giving the corn-country side of Nebraska its own honest rockhounding, far from the Panhandle.
- MontroseSioux County · Agate, Jasper, FossilsA classic Sioux County agate ground in the far northwest, on the Oglala National Grassland side of the Pine Ridge.
- OmahaDouglas County · Banded Agate, Moss Agate, ChalcedonyEastern Nebraska sits on glacial drift, and the gravels around Omaha turn up an unusually varied mix: banded and moss agate, Lake Superior-type agate, chalcedony, chert, flint, jasper, and even opal, all ice-transported into the state.
- OrellaDawes County · Fairburn Agate, Jasper, CarnelianThe heart of Nebraska rockhounding.
- Platte RiverBuffalo County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperThe braided Platte at Kearney concentrates agate, chalcedony, jasper, and petrified wood in its gravel bars, all tumbled east from the Rockies and the western Nebraska gravels.
- ValentineCherry County · Agatized Wood, Opalized Wood, AgateThe Niobrara River country around Valentine, on the edge of the Nebraska Sandhills, carries agatized and opalized wood, agate, and jasper in its river and terrace gravels.
Nevada
All Nevada spots →- Black Rock DesertPershing County · Opalized Wood, Petrified Wood, AgateBlack Rock Desert belongs on the list because the collecting context is an enormous BLM-managed volcanic and basin landscape rather than a single small pit.
- CoaldaleEsmeralda County · Agate, Chert, Hyalite OpalCoaldale is a useful Esmeralda County silica locality because the candidate data points to agate, chert, hyalite opal, jasper, and turquoise in a compact desert area.
- Fernley HillsLyon County · Agate, Chert, JasperFernley Hills is a practical western Nevada silica stop, with Mindat records documenting agate, chalcedony, opal, quartz, and zeolite minerals in the Fernley area.
- Fish Lake ValleyEsmeralda County · Cinnabar, OpaliteFish Lake Valley is notable for hot-spring mercury mineralization rather than ordinary desert float, with Mindat records describing opalized and silicified rhyolite-hosted rock carrying cinnabar and opal.
- Garnet HillWhite Pine County · GarnetGarnet Hill is Nevada's clearest public rockhounding benchmark: BLM identifies it as the Ely District's designated rockhounding area, and Mindat ties the locality to almandine garnet in flow-banded rhyolite with lithophysae.
- GoldfieldEsmeralda County · Alum, Pyrite, QuartzGoldfield is one of Nevada's strongest mineralogical districts because Mindat documents a high-sulfidation quartz-alunite gold system with native gold, native silver, pyrite, alunite, tellurides, and several type-locality minerals.
- Lincoln HillPershing County · Blue Dumortierite, Pink DumortieriteLincoln Hill is unusually specific for a lapidary locality: Mindat and cited NBMG work document pink to lavender dumortierite in felsitic trachyte breccia, with quartz, andalusite, corundum, ganterite, and tourmaline in the same deposit.
- San Antonio MountainsNye County · Jade, Petrified Wood, WonderstoneThe San Antonio Mountains add central Nevada range-scale diversity, with Mindat documenting a large Nye County assemblage that includes quartz, chalcedony, opal, fluorite, rhodochrosite, scheelite, sulfides, and several copper minerals.
- Virgin ValleyHumboldt County · Agate, Chalcedony, ChertVirgin Valley is the United States' classic black-opal district, with USGS and Mindat both placing the opal field near the Oregon line in the Sheldon refuge country.
- White BasinClark County · UlexiteWhite Basin stands apart from Nevada's silica and precious-metal localities because it is a borate occurrence, with Mindat listing ulexite, colemanite, gypsum, halite, and related evaporite minerals from the Muddy Mountains district.
New Hampshire
All New Hampshire spots →- ConwayCarroll County · Feldspar, Smoky Quartz, TopazMoat Mountain is one of only a handful of White Mountain National Forest sites where the public may dig for minerals, and it is the classic New Hampshire locality for smoky quartz and green amazonite feldspar weathered out of the Conway granite.
- Deer Hill Mineral Collecting AreaCarroll County · Amethyst, Beryl, GarnetDeer Hill is one of the White Mountain National Forest's designated mineral sites and is best known for amethyst, which weathers loose into the sandy soil and can be recovered with a screen.
- Indian StreamCoös County · Gold Nugget, Gold PlacerIndian Stream drains the remote Great North Woods above Pittsburg and carries fine placer gold in its glacial gravels, a lightly worked alternative to the busier Grafton County streams.
- RedstoneCarroll County · Amethyst, Apatite, QuartzThe Redstone quarries worked the Conway granite from the 1880s to the 1940s for its prized red and green building stone, and the waste piles still yield smoky quartz and the green potassium feldspar that tints the granite.
- South Baldface MountainCarroll County · Smoky Quartz, Topaz, PhenakiteThe pegmatite ledges high on South Baldface Mountain carry smoky quartz, feldspar and biotite in the Conway granite, and the site is historically important as the source of a rare phenakite and topaz find first described in 1923.
- Tunnel BrookGrafton County · Gold Placer, Gold NuggetTunnel Brook is a long-favored gold-panning stream in the White Mountain National Forest, and coarse gold with the occasional small nugget has turned up in its gravels where it drops over fractured bedrock.
- Wild Ammonoosuc RiverGrafton County · Gold Placer, Gold NuggetThe Wild Ammonoosuc is New Hampshire's most popular gold-panning river, carrying fine placer gold from its White Mountain National Forest headwaters down to its mouth at Bath, and it was a center of the state's brief 1860s gold rush.
New Jersey
All New Jersey spots →- Big Brook ParkMonmouth County · Shark Teeth, Belemnite, FossilsBig Brook is New Jersey's best known free fossil stream, cutting Late Cretaceous marine beds of the Navesink Formation that are roughly 70 million years old.
- Cape MayCape May County · Quartz, ChalcedonySunset Beach at the tip of Cape May is the classic place to hunt Cape May diamonds, rounded pure quartz pebbles that polish up like gemstones.
- FranklinSussex County · Epidote, Pyrite, FluoriteFranklin is called the Fluorescent Mineral Capital of the World, and its Buckwheat Dump is where visitors can still collect the glowing willemite, calcite, and franklinite that made the district famous.
- Franklin-Ogdensburg-Sterling Hill mining districtSussex County · Willemite, Zincite, CalciteSterling Hill in Ogdensburg is the twin of the Franklin deposit and the last of the district's zinc mines to close, now preserved as a mining museum.
- Higbee Beach Wildlife Management AreaCape May County · Quartz, ChalcedonyHigbee Beach is a free, no-tag stretch of Delaware Bay shoreline where Cape May diamonds, wave-polished clear quartz pebbles, concentrate along the strand line.
- Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil ParkGloucester County · Amber, FossilsThe Jean and Ric Edelman Fossil Park preserves a former marl quarry whose bone bed sits right at the 66-million-year-old end-Cretaceous extinction boundary.
- Poricy Park Fossil BedsMonmouth County · Belemnite, Shark Teeth, FossilsPoricy Brook exposes the same Late Cretaceous Navesink Formation as nearby Big Brook, and its fossil beds are among the most accessible in the state.
- Ramanessin BrookMonmouth County · Shark Teeth, FossilsRamanessin Brook is a quieter alternative to Big Brook and Poricy, draining the same Late Cretaceous Monmouth Group marine sequence in Holmdel.
- RiegelsvilleHunterdon County · Jasper, QuartzThe Delaware River gravel bars near Riegelsville carry a rounded mix of jasper, quartz, and chalcedony pebbles washed down from Appalachian and Piedmont bedrock upstream.
- Shark RiverMonmouth County · Shark Teeth, FossilsShark River is named for the fossil shark teeth found where it cuts middle Eocene marine beds, notably the Shark River and Manasquan formations, roughly 45 million years old.
New Mexico
All New Mexico spots →- Fort SumnerDe Baca County · Quartz, Pecos DiamondsFort Sumner represents the Pecos diamond belt, where the collectible material is doubly terminated authigenic quartz rather than true diamond.
- Harding Pegmatite MineTaos County · Blue Apatite, Bityite, EucryptiteHarding Pegmatite Mine is a preserved lithium-beryllium-tantalum pegmatite where UNM still allows small personal collecting under posted rules.
- HatchDoña Ana County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperHatch is a useful southern New Mexico agate and jasper area because it represents the broad volcanic terrain around the Caballo and Hatch country, not a single pay-to-dig pit.
- Jemez National Recreation AreaSandoval County · Obsidian, Opalized WoodThe Jemez National Recreation Area sits in one of New Mexico's most visible volcanic landscapes, within the Santa Fe National Forest's Jemez Ranger District.
- Kelly Ghost TownSocorro County · Smithsonite, Zinc, FossilsKelly is a benchmark locality for blue smithsonite from the Magdalena mining district, with Mindat rating the species occurrence as world-class or very significant.
- Kilbourne HoleDoña Ana County · Augite, PeridotKilbourne Hole is a BLM-managed maar crater and National Natural Landmark where volcanic bombs can contain bright olivine-rich interiors.
- Mount ChalchihuitlSanta Fe County · Agate, Chalcedony, Petrified WoodMount Chalchihuitl is tied to the Cerrillos turquoise district, one of New Mexico's defining prehistoric and historic turquoise sources.
- RedrockGrant County · Ricolite, Banded SerpentineRedrock stands out for ricolite, the banded nonfibrous serpentine associated with the Ricolite district in the Burro Mountains.
- Rockhound State ParkLuna County · Agate, Blue Chalcedony, JasperRockhound State Park is unusual because it was set aside specifically for personal mineral collecting, with state-park rules allowing visitors to keep a limited amount of material.
- Zuni MountainsCibola County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperThe Zuni Mountains give New Mexico's top ten a western forest-and-public-land agate field rather than another southern mining district.
New York
All New York spots →- Ace of Diamonds & Herkimer Diamond MineHerkimer County · Herkimer DiamondThe Ace of Diamonds and neighboring Herkimer Diamond Mine sit on the Cambrian Little Falls Dolostone, the type ground for the doubly-terminated clear quartz crystals known worldwide as Herkimer diamonds.
- AmityOrange County · Blue Corundum, White Corundum, FluoriteAmity is a classic Orange County contact-metamorphic locality where blue and white corundum, spinel, and fluorite occur in the crystalline limestone belt.
- BalmatSaint Lawrence County · Anthophyllite, Apatite, TalcBalmat anchors the Balmat-Edwards zinc district, a world-class metamorphosed carbonate terrane famous for fine tremolite, talc, anthophyllite, and associated sulfides.
- Crown PointEssex County · SunstoneCrown Point produces the iridescent Adirondack feldspar known as sunstone, along with labradorite, in the anorthosite and gneiss of eastern Essex County.
- EdwardsSaint Lawrence County · Barite, Galena, GypsumEdwards is a core locality of the Balmat-Edwards zinc belt, yielding sphalerite, galena, gypsum, and purple fluorite from the same metamorphosed marble that made the district internationally known.
- FowlerSaint Lawrence County · Geode, Hematite, BariteFowler is a St. Lawrence County locality noted for barite and hematite geodes in the metamorphosed carbonate terrane, offering collectors crystal-lined pockets uncommon elsewhere in the region.
- Gore MountainWarren County · Almandine, GarnetGore Mountain is the classic Adirondack almandine garnet locality, source of the enormous dark-red garnet porphyroblasts that made Warren County world-famous and supplied the abrasive industry for a century.
- LockportNiagara County · FluoriteLockport is the type area for the Lockport Dolostone, whose vugs and cavities host classic New York fluorite along with celestite, calcite, and dolomite crystals.
- Mill PondEssex County · Rose QuartzMill Pond is a well-known Essex County source of massive rose quartz weathering out of Adirondack pegmatite.
- SprakersMontgomery County · Herkimer Diamond, QuartzThe Sprakers roadcuts and quarry ground expose the same Little Falls Dolostone that hosts Herkimer diamonds, and the site is a long-known free alternative to the fee mines for finding doubly-terminated quartz.
North Carolina
All North Carolina spots →- BurnsvilleYancey County · Albite, Amazonite, ApatiteRay Mine gives North Carolina a rare free public pegmatite locality, with Mindat documenting aquamarine, beryl, amazonite, muscovite, rutile, tourmaline, and other Spruce Pine district minerals.
- Chunky Gal MountainClay County · Garnet, StauroliteChunky Gal Mountain stands out because the Buck Creek dunite body is a named mafic-ultramafic complex, not just a generic mountain roadcut.
- Corundum HillMacon County · Corundum, Ruby, Blue SapphireCorundum Hill belongs to the Cowee Valley ruby and sapphire belt, one of the classic eastern U.S. corundum districts described in early USGS work.
- DanburyStokes County · Agate, Carnelian, ChalcedonyDanbury is the best northern Piedmont silica stop in this set, with agate, carnelian, chalcedony, jasper, hyalite opal, hematite, and amethyst listed from the Stokes County area.
- EldoradoMontgomery County · Azurite, Calcite, GoldEldorado is the Uwharrie-region gold and base-metal pick, tied to the Carolina Slate Belt rather than the Blue Ridge gem belts.
- Island CreekVance County · Apatite, Chalcopyrite, FluoriteIsland Creek represents the Hamme tungsten district, where NCGS work identifies hubnerite-bearing veins with quartz, sericite, fluorite, and scheelite at the Tungsten Queen mine.
- Linville MountainBurke County · Actinolite, Graphite, ManaccaniteLinville Mountain is a useful Burke County contrast because NCGS collecting-site maps call out itacolumite, a flexible quartzite, along with pyrophyllite and related metamorphic minerals.
- Little Pine Garnet MineMadison County · Garnet, Quartz, ChloriteLittle Pine is a focused almandine locality where Mindat records red garnets up to 6 inches in green chlorite schist, a scale that separates it from ordinary garnet-bearing roadcuts.
- Little Snowbird MountainsCherokee County · Chloritoid, Ottrelite, GarnetThe Little Snowbird Mountains add chloritoid, ottrelite, staurolite, garnet, and gold to the western North Carolina set, a distinctly metamorphic association rather than another pegmatite stop.
- Vengeance CreekCherokee County · Calcite, Garnet, QuartzVengeance Creek is one of the better free Cherokee County entries for staurolite, with garnet, quartz, and calcite adding a compact metamorphic suite.
North Dakota
All North Dakota spots →- BismarckBurleigh County · Agate, Chalcedony, Silicified WoodBismarck fronts the Missouri River, the one North Dakota waterway the courts have held navigable, meaning the state owns the bed below the ordinary high water mark.
- KilldeerDunn County · Knife River FlintKilldeer is the seat of Dunn County, the core of the Knife River flint source area, a glossy brown chalcedony that prehistoric knappers quarried and traded across much of the continent.
- LisbonRansom County · Quartz, Teredo Petrified WoodLisbon marks the eastern end of North Dakota's Teredo petrified wood belt, which runs across the state from the Mandan badlands to the Sheyenne River valley.
- Little Missouri RiverMcKenzie County · Montana Moss Agate, Jasper, Agatized WoodThe Little Missouri River drains the heart of the North Dakota badlands, and its gravel bars concentrate Montana moss agate, agatized wood, and jasper eroded from the Sentinel Butte and Bullion Creek formations and carried down from Montana.
- MandanMorton County · Agate, Chalcedony, ChertMandan lies in the Cannonball Formation belt that produces Teredo-bored petrified wood, North Dakota's state fossil: ancient driftwood riddled by marine shipworms and later silicified.
- McKenzie CountyMcKenzie County · Montana Moss Agate, Jasper, Silicified WoodMcKenzie County holds the largest share of the Little Missouri National Grassland, the one broadly reliable place in North Dakota to collect on public land.
- MedoraBillings County · Agate, Chalcedony, Silicified WoodMedora sits in the badlands of Billings County, ringed by the Little Missouri National Grassland where the Forest Service permits casual collection of petrified wood, agate, and chalcedony.
- RichardtonStark County · Agate, Chalcedony, Agatized WoodRichardton sits in the gravels of Stark County at the eastern edge of the Little Missouri badlands collecting country, where the Bullion Creek and Sentinel Butte formations shed agate, chalcedony, agatized wood, jasper, and blades of selenite.
- Souris RiverMcHenry County · Quartz, Agate, ChalcedonyThe Souris, or Mouse, River loops through the drift prairie of north-central North Dakota, and its glacial gravels carry quartz, agate, chalcedony, and jasper eroded from Canadian bedrock and dropped by the ice sheets.
- Williams CountyWilliams County · Montana Moss Agate, Red Jasper, Yellow JasperWilliams County ranks among North Dakota's better counties for Montana moss agate and jasper, which wash into the Missouri and Yellowstone river gravels and glacial drift of the state's northwest corner.
Ohio
All Ohio spots →- Caesar Creek Lake SpillwayWarren County · Fossils, Trilobites, BrachiopodsThe emergency spillway below Caesar Creek dam cut through Upper Ordovician bedrock and exposed one of the richest fossil beds in the eastern United States, packed with brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, horn corals, and the trilobite Isotelus, the animal Ohio adopted as its state invertebrate fossil.
- ConneautAshtabula County · CalciteConneaut sits at Ohio's northeast corner where the Lake Erie shore mixes glacial erratics, well-tumbled quartz and jasper pebbles, Devonian shale fossils, and the frosted beach glass the eastern lakeshore is known for.
- Coshocton CountyCoshocton County · Dark Gray Flint, Black FlintCoshocton County is the home of Upper Mercer flint, the glossy blue-black, white-flecked chert that flint knappers prize above almost any other Ohio material and still gather at the annual Coshocton Flint Festival and Knap-In.
- Flint RidgeLicking County · Agate, Amethyst, CarnelianFlint Ridge is the source of Ohio flint, the state's official gemstone since 1965, a Vanport chert that runs in vivid reds, pinks, blues, and greens found almost nowhere else at this quality.
- Hueston Woods State ParkPreble County · Fossils, Trilobites, BrachiopodsHueston Woods is one of the few Ohio state parks that permits fossil collecting, and it is regarded as one of the best places in the world to find Upper Ordovician fossils.
- Lawrence CountyLawrence County · Flint NodulesAt Ohio's southern tip the Ohio River rolls up gravel bars carrying flint nodules, chert, jasper, and quartz eroded and reworked from the Appalachian bedrock upstream.
- Medusa Quarry in SylvaniaLucas County · FossilsThis five-acre former Medusa cement quarry, now the Olander Park District's Fossil Park, is set into the Middle Devonian Silica Formation, a shale famous worldwide for beautifully preserved trilobites and more than 200 species of marine invertebrates about 375 million years old.
- Oakes Quarry ParkGreene County · Fossils, Crinoids, BrachiopodsOakes Quarry Park exposes the Silurian Brassfield Formation, roughly 440 million years old, and preserves two ancient patch reefs that have yielded 29 species of crinoids, some among the largest ever described.
- Trammel Fossil ParkHamilton County · Fossils, Trilobites, BrachiopodsA graded hillside at Trammel Fossil Park lays bare several formations of Upper Ordovician Cincinnatian limestone and shale, over 440 million years old, in a suburb of the city that gives the Cincinnatian Series its name.
- Tuscarawas River near ZoarTuscarawas County · FlintThe Tuscarawas River near the historic village of Zoar carries flint and chert cobbles, including Upper Mercer material, worked down from the surrounding Pennsylvanian bedrock and glacial deposits into workable gravel bars.
Oklahoma
All Oklahoma spots →- AlvaWoods County · Banded Agate, Moss Agate, ChalcedonyThe gypsum hills and stream gravels of Woods County around Alva yield banded agate, moss agate, chalcedony, and jasper reworked from western Oklahoma formations.
- AtokaAtoka County · Novaculite, ChertAtoka County sits along the western Ouachita foldbelt, where the Arkansas Novaculite forms ridges of dense, fine-grained silica rock long prized for whetstones.
- Carrizozo CreekCimarron County · Rose Agate, Agatized Algae, Agatized Cyad WoodThe Black Mesa country at the far tip of the Oklahoma panhandle produces the state's most distinctive agate, including rose-colored agate, agatized algae, and agatized wood eroded from Tertiary gravels.
- Gloss Mountain State ParkMajor County · Selenite, GypsumThe Gloss Mountains, also spelled Glass Mountains, are flat-topped mesas capped by beds of selenite gypsum that catch the light and give the range its sparkle.
- Great Salt PlainsAlfalfa County · Selenite, HaliteThe Salt Plains are the only place on Earth where selenite crystals grow with a natural hourglass of reddish-brown sand sealed inside them, and selenite is Oklahoma's state crystal.
- Lake Stanley DraperCleveland County · Barite, Rose RocksRose rocks, clusters of barite crystals shaped like a blooming rose, are Oklahoma's state rock, and they weather out of the red Garber Sandstone across the Oklahoma City area.
- MangumGreer County · Agatized WoodGreer County in southwestern Oklahoma, around Mangum, produces agatized and petrified wood along with alabaster and selenite from the region's Permian gypsum and red beds.
- NobleCleveland County · Barite, Rose RocksNoble calls itself the Rose Rock Capital of the World, a title the Oklahoma Legislature recognized in 1983, and the barite roses in the surrounding Garber Sandstone are the reference locality for the state rock.
- Ouachita National ForestLe Flore County · Quartz, Novaculite, ChalcedonyThe Ouachita Mountains carry a belt of clear and milky quartz crystals that runs west from the famous Arkansas crystal district into southeastern Oklahoma.
- Seiling & TalogaDewey County · Agate, Jasper, Petrified WoodWest-central Oklahoma along the Canadian and North Canadian river systems, around Seiling and Taloga in Dewey County, is known for agate, jasper, and petrified wood weathered from red-bed and gravel deposits.
Oregon
All Oregon spots →- Agate BeachLincoln County · Agate, Moonstone, JasperAgate Beach is named for the agates found along the Newport and Yaquina Head shoreline, and Oregon Sea Grant notes that winter storms expose the gravel beds that supply beach agates.
- Beach Area YachatsLincoln County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperThe Yachats beach area sits on Oregon's central coast, where storm-reworked gravel can expose agate, chalcedony, jasper, and related beach material.
- Glass Butte Recreational Rockhound AreaLake County · ObsidianGlass Buttes is a rhyolite and obsidian complex with an unusually broad suite of gem-quality obsidian, including mahogany, rainbow, gold sheen, silver sheen, midnight lace, and other varieties documented by Oregon State University.
- Hampton ButteDeschutes County · Petrified Wood, Jasper, AgateHampton Butte, north of Brothers in central Oregon, is the classic source of green petrified wood, where Eocene wood was replaced by jasper and chalcedony and tinted by copper and iron minerals.
- Opal ButteMorrow County · Hyalite OpalOpal Butte is noted for hyalite and several gem opal varieties, including rainbow, contra luz, hydrophane, crystal, fire, and blue opal.
- Quartzville Recreational Mining CorridorLinn County · Gold, Agate, JasperQuartzville Creek runs through a designated recreational mining corridor on BLM public land east of Sweet Home, where a stretch of the Wild and Scenic River is withdrawn from mineral entry but left open to casual prospecting.
- Succor Creek General AreaMalheur County · Agate, Chalcedony, ChertSuccor Creek is a remote canyon locality where Oregon State Parks identifies a haven for rock hounds and DOGAMI lists agate, jasper, and related chalcedony-family material from the area.
- Warm Springs ReservoirHarney County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperThe high desert around Warm Springs Reservoir, on the Malheur River southeast of Burns, exposes weathered volcanic ground that yields agate, jasper, and petrified wood across public BLM land.
- Whistler SpringCrook County · ThundereggsWhistler Spring is one of central Oregon's classic free National Forest thunderegg sites, listed by DOGAMI alongside White Fir in the Madras-Prineville rockhounding belt.
- White Fir SpringCrook County · ThundereggsWhite Fir Spring is a public Ochoco National Forest thunderegg locality, with DOGAMI and Mindat records tying the site to agate- and jasper-filled nodules.
Pennsylvania
All Pennsylvania spots →- Area Around Caledonia State ParkFranklin County · Agate, JasperThe ridges of Michaux country around Caledonia in Franklin County shed agate and jasper into local streams and float, a byproduct of the region's iron-rich Blue Ridge geology.
- Brookdale MineChester County · Quartz, Pyromorphite, AzuriteThe Brookdale Mine lies in the Phoenixville / Wheatley lead district, source of some of the finest pyromorphite specimens ever found in the United States.
- CarlisleCumberland County · Banded Agate, Quartz, JasperThe Carlisle area of Cumberland County is known for banded agate, jasper, amethyst and quartz weathering out of the local carbonate and diabase terrain.
- Cecil CountyLancaster County · Kammererite, Serpentine, SoapstoneThis Fulton Township locality sits in the State Line serpentine district and is famed for williamsite, the translucent green gem serpentine prized by Pennsylvania collectors, together with kammererite, chromite, brucite and soapstone.
- Chester CreekDelaware County · Amethyst, Smoky QuartzChester Creek cuts through the same amethyst- and quartz-bearing Piedmont crystalline belt, and its gravels carry amethyst and smoky quartz weathered out of local veins and pegmatites.
- CornwallLebanon County · Actinolite, Andradite, CalciteCornwall is one of the most famous iron deposits in eastern North America, a magnetite skarn worked for over two centuries.
- Crum CreekDelaware County · Golden Beryl, Amethyst, GarnetCrum Creek drains the pegmatite-rich crystalline rocks of the Delaware County Piedmont, and its gravels concentrate golden beryl, amethyst, garnet and quartz eroded from those bodies.
- Morrison CoveBedford County · Quartz, Amethyst, CalciteMorrison Cove in Bedford County is a carbonate valley known for pockets of amethyst, clear and smoky quartz, and calcite in the surrounding folded Appalachian ridges.
- Nottingham ParkChester County · Serpentine, Garnet, FeldsparNottingham County Park sits on the State Line serpentine barrens, one of the classic ultramafic exposures of the Pennsylvania Piedmont.
- ReadingBerks County · JasperThe Reading area of Berks County is the heart of Pennsylvania's historic jasper country, where prehistoric quarries supplied toolstone for thousands of years.
Rhode Island
All Rhode Island spots →- BristolBristol County · JasperThe Bristol shoreline, including the public waterfront at Colt State Park and the town beaches, yields red and brown jasper pebbles along with occasional agate and quartz from the Narragansett Basin conglomerates.
- Diamond Hill Park, CumberlandProvidence County · Amethyst, Quartz, Smoky QuartzDiamond Hill is a massive white quartz outcrop with a 350-foot vertical face, historically Rhode Island's most famous locality for milky and smoky quartz and the amethyst that gave the hill its name.
- Jamestown BridgeNewport County · StauroliteThe metamorphic rocks near the Jamestown bridge landing on Conanicut Island carry staurolite, the cross-shaped iron-aluminum silicate prized by collectors, along with serpentine tied to the same belt that produces the state's bowenite.
- JohnstonProvidence County · AmethystThe rock cuts and volcanic outcrops in Johnston, near the Route 6 and Interstate 295 corridor, have produced amethyst and clear to smoky quartz from vugs in the underlying felsic bedrock.
- Mt. Hope BayBristol County · Red Agate, Amethyst, CarnelianThe beach gravels rimming Mt. Hope Bay hold Rhode Island's fullest spread of chalcedony, including red and green agate, carnelian, jasper, and thin plates of hematite eroded from the Narragansett Basin.
- NarragansettSouth County · Beryl, QuartzThe pegmatite outcrops along the Bonnet Shores coast in Narragansett carry beryl and quartz in coarse granitic pods, a rare chance to see gem-family minerals in place on a public Rhode Island shore.
- North ProvidenceProvidence County · Bowenite, Quartz, SerpentineThe serpentine belt running through northern Rhode Island is the home of bowenite, the state mineral, a hard translucent green serpentine close enough to jade to be cut as a gemstone.
- PawtuxetProvidence County · Agate, Carnelian, AmethystThe Narragansett Bay beach gravels at Pawtuxet Village turn up agate, carnelian, amethyst, and jasper pebbles, the same chalcedony suite that washes out of the region's volcanic and glacial deposits.
- WarwickKent County · CarnelianWarwick's Narragansett Bay beaches, including the public shore around Conimicut Point and City Park, are a long-known source of water-worn carnelian and agate pebbles.
- WesterlySouth County · BerylWesterly is famous for its fine-grained granite, and the pegmatite dikes cutting that granite have yielded smoky quartz crystals up to six inches and occasional beryl.
South Carolina
All South Carolina spots →- Bowens River and tributariesCherokee County · Corundum, Garnet, SapphireThe Bowen River drainage in northern Cherokee County is South Carolina's most mineral-diverse gem stream, reported to carry corundum in ruby and sapphire colors along with garnet, zircon, topaz, and rutile eroded from the upper Piedmont metamorphic rocks.
- Diamond Hill MineAbbeville County · Amethyst, Smoky Quartz, BerylDiamond Hill is the most dependable place in South Carolina to dig the state's official gemstone, amethyst, along with clear and smoky quartz scepters and crystal-lined pockets in the quartz veins.
- Dorn MineMcCormick County · GoldThe Dorn Mine was one of the richest gold veins in South Carolina, worked from the 1850s, and it now lies within the Long Cane Ranger District of Sumter National Forest.
- Edisto BeachColleton County · Megalodon TeethEdisto Beach is one of the most reliable places in South Carolina to find fossil shark teeth, including megalodon, along with Ice Age mammal bone eroding out of the offshore Pleistocene beds.
- Florence CountyFlorence County · Petrified WoodThe Pee Dee region is South Carolina's petrified wood country, and Florence County's river gravels along the Great Pee Dee and lower Lynches rivers are a classic source of silicified wood weathered out of the Coastal Plain sediments.
- Folly BeachCharleston County · Megalodon TeethFolly Beach is the best walk-up, no-boat shark-tooth beach near Charleston, with fossil teeth washing in from the same phosphate-rich Pleistocene deposits that feed nearby Morris Island.
- Hunting Island State ParkBeaufort County · Fossil Shark Teeth, Megalodon TeethHunting Island is the most accessible fossil beach in the southern Lowcountry, with fossil shark teeth turning up in the shell beds near the historic lighthouse and along the park's eroding north end.
- Morris IslandCharleston County · Megalodon TeethMorris Island holds the richest surface concentration of fossil shark teeth near Charleston, including megalodon, because tidal currents strip the phosphate gravel and pile teeth along the north end.
- Myrtle BeachHorry County · Agate, Chalcedony, QuartzMyrtle Beach anchors the Grand Strand as the go-to public shark-tooth stretch on South Carolina's northern coast, where small dark fossil teeth wash in along miles of open beach.
- Oconee CountyOconee County · Gold, Graphite, PyriteOconee County covers South Carolina's Blue Ridge corner, where the Andrew Pickens Ranger District of Sumter National Forest opens up mountain streams for legal recreational collecting.
South Dakota
All South Dakota spots →- ArdmoreFall River County · Fairburn Agate, Agatized Wood, JasperThe badlands and surface gravels east and southeast of the near-ghost town of Ardmore are a well-documented Fairburn agate locality, producing Fairburn agate, agatized wood, jasper, chalcedony, and rose quartz.
- Camp CrookHarding County · Moss Agate, ChalcedonyThe far northwestern corner of South Dakota around Camp Crook produces prairie moss agate and chalcedony in the river gravels of the Little Missouri system, material comparable in style to the well-known Montana moss agate.
- Cheyenne RiverCuster County · Fairburn AgateThis locality along the Cheyenne River drainage sits within the core Fairburn agate belt just south of the main Fairburn beds, and the river gravels and surrounding badlands carry the same prized state-gem fortification agate.
- FairburnCuster County · Fairburn Agate, Agatized Wood, Yellow JasperThese are the classic Fairburn agate beds, the type locality for South Dakota's official state gem, sitting in the eroded badlands and surface gravels just east of the village of Fairburn.
- MobridgeWalworth County · Opalized Wood, Agatized WoodThe Missouri River banks and gravels around Mobridge are one of the few South Dakota localities that produce opalized wood, a blend of petrified wood and silica or precious opal, along with agatized wood.
- Mound CityCampbell County · Petrified Wood, OpalThe country around Mound City, west toward the Missouri River, is a documented source of petrified and agatized wood, with occasional opal, weathering out of the banks and gravels of the river and its tributaries.
- OelrichsFall River County · Fairburn Agate, Jasper, CalciteThe grassland south and east of Oelrichs is a long-recognized Fairburn agate area, also producing jasper, cone-in-cone calcite, and agatized wood.
- Spearfish CanyonLawrence County · Amethyst, Geode, ChalcedonyLawrence County in the northern Black Hills is the best part of South Dakota for geodes, and the gravels in and around Spearfish Canyon yield baseball-sized geodes lined with amethyst, quartz, and chalcedony, plus silicified wood.
- Tepee CanyonCuster County · Agate, Beryl, Almandine GarnetTepee Canyon is the home of the distinctive Tepee Canyon banded agate, a fortification agate of purples, reds, and oranges encased in a chocolate-brown limestone host.
- Whitewood CreekLawrence County · Amethyst, Geode, ChalcedonyThe gravels of Whitewood Creek in the northern Black Hills are a reliable source of geodes lined with amethyst and chalcedony, along with silicified wood.
Tennessee
All Tennessee spots →- Ben Lomond MountainWarren County · Calcite, Celestite, DolomiteBen Lomond Mountain lies in the Middle Tennessee geode belt along the Highland Rim, where quartz geodes are lined with calcite, celestite, dolomite, marcasite, and pyrite.
- Big CreekCocke County · Green QuartzBig Creek, in the Smoky Mountain foothills near Bluffton, is one of the few Tennessee streams known for green quartz, with some water-worn crystals reaching gem quality.
- DucktownPolk County · Azurite, Chalcopyrite, GarnetDucktown sits on the Copper Basin, a Precambrian massive-sulfide deposit that made it one of the most important copper districts in the Southeast.
- Horse MountainBedford County · Horse Mountain AgateHorse Mountain is the source of Horse Mountain agate, a tightly banded chalcedony from the Ordovician Hermitage Formation that is prized by lapidaries and flintknappers alike, with the thinnest cuts showing true iris color.
- Roan MountainCarter County · UnakiteRoan Mountain anchors the Unaka Range that gives unakite its name, and the pink-and-green epidote granite occurs as cobbles in the stream gravels and roadside cuts along the TN 143 corridor.
- SweetwaterMonroe County · Barite, Fluorite, SphaleriteThe Sweetwater district is a Mississippi Valley-type system in the Ordovician Knox Group that was mined for residual barite and carries fluorite, sphalerite, galena, and pyrite at depth.
- Tennessee River & StreamsDecatur County · PearlsThe Tennessee River is the home of the Tennessee River pearl, the official state gem, a natural freshwater pearl formed in the river's native mussels.
- Unaka MountainsUnicoi County · Epidote, Quartz, UnakiteThe Unaka Range is the type locality for unakite, the pink-and-green ornamental rock named after these mountains, an intergrowth of pink orthoclase, green epidote, and quartz weathered from the Precambrian basement.
- Wayne CountyWayne County · Chert, Agatized Fossils, FlintWayne County's Fort Payne and Mississippian limestones weather to release agatized fossils, gem-grade chert, and flint, and the Buffalo River gravel bars concentrate the harder Buffalo River chert long prized by knappers.
- WoodburyCannon County · GeodeCannon County is one of Middle Tennessee's defining geode counties, and the ground around Woodbury has produced large quartz geodes, including a roughly 20-inch specimen reported near the McMinnville road.
Texas
All Texas spots →- Brazos River at Brazos Park EastMcLennan County · Petrified Wood, Agatized Wood, AgateThe Brazos is a navigable Texas river, so its bed is state-owned and open to public use where reached from a public access point.
- Colorado River at SmithvilleBastrop County · Petrified Palm Wood, Petrified Wood, AgateThe Colorado River at Smithville is a navigable Texas river, so its bed is state-owned public land, and the City of Smithville maintains free river access at Vernon L. Richards Riverbend Park beneath the Highway 71 bridges.
- Davy Crockett National Forest (Ratcliff Lake)Houston County · Petrified Wood, Agatized Wood, JasperThe Davy Crockett National Forest sits in the petrified-wood belt of East Texas, where silicified and agatized wood weathers out of Catahoula and Manning Formation gravels alongside jasper and agate.
- Ladonia Fossil ParkFannin County · Fossilized Shark Teeth, Ammonites, Mosasaur TeethThe North Sulphur River channel at Ladonia cuts into Late Cretaceous marine beds that yield shark teeth, mosasaur teeth and bone, ammonites, and Exogyra oysters.
- Llanite Roadcut on Highway 16Llano County · Llanite, Blue QuartzThe roadcut on Texas Highway 16 about nine miles north of Llano slices through the only known outcrop of llanite, a 1.1-billion-year-old rhyolite porphyry flecked with blue quartz crystals found essentially nowhere else on Earth.
- Llano River at Grenwelge ParkLlano County · Blue Quartz, Quartz, Almandine GarnetThe Llano River cuts through the Precambrian Llano Uplift, so its gravels carry granite, gneiss, schist, garnet, and quartz, including the blue quartz that defines local llanite.
- Lyndon B. Johnson National Grassland (Black Creek Lake)Wise County · Fossilized Oysters, Agate, Petrified WoodThe Lyndon B. Johnson National Grassland exposes Cretaceous limestone full of fossil oysters along its ridges, plus agate, chert, and petrified wood in its sandy soils.
- Mineral Wells Fossil ParkPalo Pinto County · Crinoid Stems, Brachiopods, EchinoidsMineral Wells Fossil Park exposes Pennsylvanian marine shale roughly 300 million years old, where eroded slopes yield abundant crinoid stems, brachiopods, sea urchins, and bivalves.
- Sam Houston National Forest (Double Lake)San Jacinto County · Petrified Palm Wood, Petrified Wood, AgateSam Houston National Forest carries petrified palm wood, the official Texas state stone since 1969, along with agate, jasper, and chalcedony weathered from young Gulf Coastal Plain gravels.
- Whiskey Bridge (Brazos River)Burleson County · Fossil Snails, Fossilized Shells, CoralWhiskey Bridge exposes the Stone City beds of the Eocene Crockett Formation, widely regarded as the most fossiliferous marine outcrop in Texas, with well over 200 identified species.
Utah
All Utah spots →- Black RockMillard County · Snowflake ObsidianBlack Rock is Utah's standout obsidian stop, with black, reddish-brown, and snowflake obsidian weathering from young rhyolitic volcanic rocks in the Black Rock Desert.
- Dugway RangeJuab County · Beryl, Chalcedony, FluoriteThe Dugway Geode Beds are one of Utah's clearest geology-to-specimen localities: Miocene rhyolite cavities were eroded by Lake Bonneville and redeposited as diggable geodes in lake sediments.
- FriscoBeaver County · Azurite, Barite, CalamineFrisco combines a major historic silver-lead camp with a long mineral list that includes copper carbonates, galena, sphalerite, pyrite, opal, and wulfenite.
- Gold HillTooele County · Azurite, Cerussite, ChalcopyriteGold Hill is one of Utah's most mineralogically varied old districts, with arsenic, gold, copper, lead, silver, tungsten, and zinc production tied to skarn, vein, and replacement deposits.
- Great Salt LakeTooele County · Aragonite, Bloedite, GypsumThe Tooele side of Great Salt Lake offers an unusual sediment specimen rather than a hard-rock target: oolitic sand made of calcium-carbonate coats around tiny nuclei in shallow, wave-agitated brine.
- HanksvilleWayne County · Agate, Jasper, Petrified WoodThe Hanksville and Caineville stretch of Wayne County is a strong public-land agate and petrified-wood area because weathering has released chalcedony, chert, jasper, and silicified wood from Mesozoic sedimentary rocks.
- MarysvillePiute County · Cinnabar, Alunite, AlbiteMarysvale earns a top spot for small but well-formed crystals in rhyolite cavities, especially bixbyite, amethyst, and reported rutile or pseudobrookite.
- San Rafael SwellEmery County · Agatized Wood, Amethyst, CarnotiteThe San Rafael Swell is a broad exposed anticline where Morrison, Curtis, and Cedar Mountain strata carry local agate, jasper, chalcedony, petrified wood, and dinosaur-bone material.
- Spor MountainJuab County · Fluorite, Bertrandite, CarnotiteSpor Mountain stands out because its topaz-rhyolite-related deposits made it the world's premier beryllium district and Utah's largest fluorite producer.
- Topaz Dome QuarryJuab County · Beryl, Calcite, BixbyiteTopaz Mountain is Utah's defining gem locality, where amber topaz crystals formed in cavities of the Topaz Mountain Rhyolite and commonly bleach colorless in sunlight.
Vermont
All Vermont spots →- Adams BrookWindham County · Serpentine, Quartz, Red AgateAdams Brook in the far southeast corner of Vermont tumbles varicolored serpentine boulders with red, orange, and green agate and clear quartz, a distinctive mix for the state.
- BenningtonBennington County · Blue Quartz, Garnet, FeldsparA Precambrian road-cut on Route 9 east of Bennington yields cabochon-grade blue quartz along with garnet, feldspar, biotite, and hornblende, set in the Green Mountains along the Molly Stark Trail.
- Camp Plymouth State ParkWindsor County · GoldCamp Plymouth State Park sits on Buffalo Brook and Echo Lake in Vermont's 1850s gold-rush country, where the old Rooks Mine once worked placer gold.
- Devil's DenRutland County · Smoky Quartz, Quartz, PyriteDevil's Den, high on Mount Tabor inside the Green Mountain National Forest, is one of the finest alpine quartz-crystal sites in the northeastern United States, producing smoky quartz and occasional amethyst in pockets in schist.
- GassettsWindsor County · Quartz, Garnet, TourmalineThe Route 103 road-cuts at Gassetts slice through silvery garnet-mica schist, one of Vermont's classic metamorphic mineral localities.
- Lake WilloughbyOrleans County · Muscovite, Beryl, GarnetThe Route 5A road-cuts along the east shore of Lake Willoughby expose granite pegmatite carrying beryl, garnet, vesuvianite, and books of plumose muscovite, set beneath the fjord-like cliffs of Mount Pisgah and Mount Hor.
- Little RiverLamoille County · GoldLittle River, which drops from the hills above Stowe into the Waterbury Reservoir, is an aptly named Vermont gold stream with fine flour gold in its gravels.
- LudlowWindsor County · Tourmaline, Pyrite, TalcA Route 103 road-cut just east of Ludlow village exposes black schorl tourmaline with diopside, calcite, talc, and pyrite in the metamorphic rock of the Black River valley.
- Mad RiverWashington County · GoldThe Mad River in the Mad River Valley carries fine placer gold in its gravels, part of the same gold belt that runs through central Vermont.
- White RiverOrange County · GoldThe White River around Bethel and Stockbridge is Vermont's best-documented placer gold reach, with USGS-mapped gold in the gravel bars and access through the Green Mountain National Forest at Peavine Park.
Virginia
All Virginia spots →- Amelia Court HouseAmelia County · Amazonite, Amethyst, FeldsparThe Amelia pegmatite district is one of the most productive rare-mineral areas on the East Coast, long famous for gem amazonite, blue-green beryl, topaz, and cleavelandite.
- Buck Mountain CreekAlbemarle County · AgateBuck Mountain Creek is a documented Albemarle County agate locality where chalcedony and banded agate weather into the stream gravels of the western Piedmont.
- Byrd CreekFluvanna County · Gold, QuartzByrd Creek lies in the Virginia gold-pyrite belt, the Piedmont trend that produced the state's historic lode and placer gold, and its gravels still yield fine placer gold to panners.
- Fairy Stone State ParkHenry County · StauroliteFairy Stone State Park is Virginia's most famous staurolite locality, source of the twinned iron-aluminum silicate crosses that give the park its name.
- Fancy HillAmherst County · Amethyst, QuartzThe Fancy Hill area of Amherst County is a well-known Blue Ridge amethyst and quartz locality, where purple crystals and quartz veins occur in the crystalline basement.
- Irish CreekRockbridge County · Blue Moonstone, CassiteriteIrish Creek is Virginia's classic tin locality, a greisen and pegmatite system in the George Washington National Forest that produced the state's best cassiterite along with blue moonstone feldspar.
- Kidd's StoreFluvanna County · RhodoniteThe Kidd's Store area of Fluvanna County is one of Virginia's few documented rhodonite localities, where the pink manganese silicate occurs in the Piedmont metamorphic rocks.
- Loudon CountyLoudoun County · Calcite, Datolite, EpidoteThe Triassic diabase and basalt of the Culpeper Basin in Loudoun County host a classic Virginia zeolite suite, with prehnite, stilbite, natrolite, and datolite lining vugs and fractures.
- StuartPatrick County · Almandine Garnet, Staurolite, CorundumThe mica schists around Stuart carry a rich metamorphic suite, with almandine garnet, staurolite fairy stones, corundum, and kyanite all documented in the Blue Ridge basement rocks by Mindat and Virginia geologic survey mapping.
- TroutdaleGrayson County · Epidote, Red Jasper, UnakiteThe Troutdale area sits on the Blue Ridge basement where unakite, the pink-and-green epidote-feldspar granite that is one of Virginia's signature lapidary stones, weathers out along creeks and cuts alongside epidote and red jasper.
Washington
All Washington spots →- Columbia RiverKittitas County · Opalized Wood, Petrified WoodThe Saddle Mountains expose a petrified forest preserved between Wanapum Basalt flows roughly 14 to 15 million years old, and the area is one of the few places where collectors can legally gather Washington's state gem on public land.
- Crescent BeachClallam County · Agate, Chert, JasperAgates were once plentiful enough at Agate Bay, just west of Crescent Bay on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to give the beach its name, and agate still weathers from the local basalt alongside variously colored chert and jasper.
- LibertyKittitas County · GoldThe Liberty and Swauk district produced some of the finest crystalline and wire gold specimens in the United States, formed in epithermal quartz veins above town and recovered as coarse nuggets in Swauk and Williams creeks.
- MoclipsGrays Harbor County · Agate, JasperThe beach at Moclips lies within Washington's Seashore Conservation Area, documented in rockhounding guides for the agate and jasper that wash in along the tideline and stream gravels.
- Pe EllLewis County · Agate, Carnelian, ChalcedonyThe Washington Geological Survey's gemstone report records that hundreds of pounds of agate have been taken between Adna and Pe Ell, in the heart of Lewis County's carnelian-agate country.
- Red Top Mt. and Teanaway RidgeKittitas County · Blue Agate GeodeRed Top Mountain sits on the Eocene Teanaway Basalt, the rock unit Washington geologists identify as the source of the area's chalcedony, agate, and quartz-lined geodes.
- RingoldFranklin County · AgateIron-stained gravels at the base of the White Bluffs, on the east side of the Columbia River from Byers Landing to Ringold, hold frequent agate and jasper, the agate chiefly gray and buff chalcedony with some red hues.
- Tunk CreekOkanogan County · Quartz, Blue Corundum, Pink CorundumTunk Creek is one of Washington's few documented thulite localities, where rose-pink thulite, a variety of zoisite, occurs in lenses up to three feet across within hornblende schist.
- WashougalClark County · Moss Agate, AmethystGravel bars along the Washougal River yield moss agate, carnelian, jasper, and petrified wood weathered from the surrounding volcanic terrain.
- Willapa HillsPacific County · Agatized Fossil ShellsThe Washington Geological Survey documents light-gray to yellowish-gray chalcedony casts of fossil clams in the Willapa Hills, some holding trapped water that shifts when the specimen is turned, a feature collectors call enhydros.
West Virginia
All West Virginia spots →- Berkeley SpringsMorgan County · Calcite, Jasper, Pyrite CubesBerkeley Springs anchors the eastern panhandle, where the Devonian Oriskany (Ridgeley) Sandstone is worked for exceptionally pure glass sand and its vuggy zones produce clear and smoky quartz crystals, some in large clusters.
- Fort SpringGreenbrier County · Calcite, Celestite, DolomiteFort Spring lies on the Greenbrier River in southern Greenbrier County, in the Mississippian carbonate belt that gives the county its celestite, calcite, and dolomite.
- HarmanRandolph County · Calcite, Dolomite, QuartzHarman lies in the high country of eastern Randolph County near the Dry Fork of the Cheat River and the edge of the Monongahela National Forest, where folded Devonian and Mississippian carbonates weather out quartz, calcite, and dolomite.
- HillsboroPocahontas County · Blue Silicified CoralThe Hillsboro area produces West Virginia's official state gem: the Mississippian colonial coral Lithostrotionella, silicified and replaced by chalcedony in the Hillsdale Limestone.
- Knobly MountainMineral County · Chalcedony, Calcite, DolomiteKnobly Mountain is a classic 19th-century West Virginia mineral locality, a railroad cut on the mountain's west flank that exposed limestone yielding exceptional celestite crystals before 1890.
- Moss MountainMonroe County · Chert Nodules, Iron, ManganeseMoss Mountain in southern Monroe County is a documented manganese locality, where the weathered carbonate section carries psilomelane and pyrolusite along with chert nodules, dolomite, and glauconite.
- PetersburgGrant County · Calcite, Dolomite, QuartzPetersburg sits on the South Branch Potomac River just downstream of Smoke Hole Canyon, where the river drops onto a broad valley and drops its bed load of quartz, calcite, and dolomite eroded from the Silurian and Devonian ridges upstream.
- Smoke HolePendleton County · Geode, Gypsum, PyriteSmoke Hole Canyon is a 20 mile gorge cut by the South Branch Potomac River through the Cave Mountain anticline, exposing a full Silurian to Devonian section of limestones, sandstones, and shales inside the Monongahela National Forest.
- Sugar Grove road cutPendleton County · ChabaziteThe Sugar Grove Basalt is one of the few zeolite localities in the central Appalachians, an Eocene amygdaloidal basalt dike-sill about 45 million years old that intrudes the Devonian Millboro Shale south of Sugar Grove.
- WilliamsburgGreenbrier County · Silicified Coral, QuartzWilliamsburg sits in the northern Greenbrier County belt of the Hillsdale Limestone, the same formation that yields West Virginia's state gem silicified coral in neighboring Pocahontas County.
Wisconsin
All Wisconsin spots →- Bayfield CountyBayfield County · Agate, JasperThe Lake Superior shoreline of Bayfield County, along the State Highway 13 corridor between Port Wing and Cornucopia, is a classic stretch of public agate beach.
- Big Bay Town ParkAshland County · Lake Superior Agate, Jasper, ThomsoniteBig Bay Town Park on Madeline Island gives collectors a Lake Superior beach reachable by the Bayfield ferry.
- Jackson Co. Iron Mine dumpsJackson County · Actinolite, Almandine, AndalusiteThe reclaimed Jackson County iron mine, now the free Wazee Lake Recreation Area east of Black River Falls, is one of Wisconsin's premier metamorphic mineral localities.
- Lime Kiln ParkOzaukee County · Fossils, Coral, CrinoidsLime Kiln Park near Grafton preserves two small Silurian reefs in the walls of a former limestone quarry along the Milwaukee River.
- MuscodaIowa County · AgateThe Wisconsin River gravel bars near Muscoda carry Lake Superior agates and quartz transported south by glacial outwash, giving the Driftless Area a rare source of free public collecting.
- Near Saxon FallsIron County · Calcite, Chlorite, EpidoteThe Montreal River gorge below Saxon Falls exposes Keweenawan basalt whose gas cavities are lined with zeolite minerals.
- Powell KyaniteIron County · Kyanite, Staurolite, AlmandineThe schist exposures near Powell, on the Manitowish Range, form one of Wisconsin's few good kyanite and staurolite localities.
- RacineRacine County · Fossils, Calcite, MarcasiteQuarry Lake Park in Racine exposes the Silurian Racine Formation dolomite, part of the reef complex recognized as among the first fossil coral reefs described in North America.
- Saxon Harbor County ParkIron County · Lake Superior Agate, Jasper, CopperSaxon Harbor is Wisconsin's only county park on Lake Superior, set on Oronto Bay near the Michigan border.
- Wisconsin PointDouglas County · Lake Superior Agate, Jasper, CopperWisconsin Point, a three-mile public sand and gravel spit at the mouth of Superior Bay, is the state's most accessible Lake Superior agate beach.
Wyoming
All Wyoming spots →- Atlantic CityFremont County · Agate, Chalcedony, GoldAtlantic City sits in the South Pass country, where Wyoming's gold-mining history overlaps with the central Wyoming jade and agate belt.
- Eden ValleySweetwater County · Silicified WoodEden Valley is the Wyoming benchmark for silicified and agatized wood, with Mindat records tying petrified wood to Eden Valley and the Blue Forest area.
- HartvillePlatte County · Agate, Moss Agate, ChalcedonyHartville is the southeastern Wyoming choice for Guernsey Limestone chalcedony, including moss agate, dendritic agate, stalactitic agate, and youngite noted by WSGS.
- KemmererLincoln County · Turritella Agate, Chalcedony, ChertKemmerer anchors the western Green River Formation belt, where public-land outcrops and gravels can yield chert, chalcedony, jasper, silicified wood, and fossiliferous lapidary stone.
- Kirwin MinePark County · Azurite, Barite, ChalcopyriteKirwin is the strongest metallic-mineral contrast to Wyoming's agate and wood localities, with USGS work documenting the district's copper, gold, lead, zinc, molybdenum, and silver mineralization.
- Laramie MountainsAlbany County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperThe Laramie Mountains add a southeastern public-land agate, chalcedony, and jasper stop to a Wyoming list otherwise dominated by Sweetwater and Green River Basin material.
- Seminoe ReservoirCarbon County · JadeSeminoe Reservoir represents the Seminoe Mountains side of Wyoming's jade and lapidary-rock story, with WSGS noting silicified banded iron formation from the Seminoe Mountains alongside the state's better-known jade resources.
- Sweetwater RiverFremont County · AgateSweetwater agate is Wyoming's signature agate, and the Sweetwater River drainage is the classic field area tied to the Granite Mountains source terrain.
- WamsutterSweetwater County · Turritella AgateWamsutter is the practical Wyoming stop for dark fossiliferous lapidary material sold as Turritella agate, more accurately tied to silicified Green River Formation gastropods.
- Warm SpringsFremont County · Agate, Chalcedony, JasperWarm Springs is a strong Granite Mountains-area pick because it combines Wyoming jade targets with agate, jasper, chalcedony, quartz, and silicified wood in one public-land collecting corridor.
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